Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance which chip to buy?

i have been looking into buying a chip for my VCT model zetec with ATX. Performance products is selling one for $312 and Superchips sells one for $229. Has anyone heard anything about these or other chips? I read that the superchip does the IAT mod by itself.

I would recommend the Superchip. Haven't had any problems and if you do customer service is great.

thanks a lot. thats all i can afford right now anyways,lol.

Make sure you check w/Kenne Bell. IMHO they ARE the leaders in Ford performance. You don't want to run a chip 24/7, they tend to carbon-up an engine because they boost fuel injection and they advance the timing. Besides you MUST run premium. Kenne Bell has a "Switch Chip" that allows you to run a stock/performance, a stock/racing (illegal for the street), a racing/performance, whatever. And it comes with a switch (hence the name) that will let you go from one program to another. I have a stock/towing program for my V-10 Triton and I love it. And they're usually a couple bucks less than SuperChips or Diablo chips. www.kennebell.net and click on the 'e-mail us' icon. Ken Christley there is the man, tell him I sent you from the Ford truck enthusiasts board. You'll be glad you did, Ken 99 SE Contour Zetec ATX, 98 E-350 XLT ClubWagon V-10

Superchips was the way to go for me.
I got a Flip Chip.
Its a dual program chip.
One program is for everyday driving and the other program is for running nitrous.
Sent in a dyno plot of my car and the everyday program was "custom" tuned for my ECU code.
They also tuned the everday driving program for colder plugs (because I'll be running nitrous and have to have the colder plugs) and 92 octane gas.
Total cost was a bit over $600.
Was worth every penny!

IT seems like if an engine and chip were tuned right, all the fuel would burn. Cars designed to run on 92 don't have excessive carbon, so why would an engine custom tuned have excessive carbon?

Probably because they get a little more performance by running rich?

Carbon up an engine huh :rolleyes:

>Redcon; IT seems like if an engine and chip were tuned right, all the fuel would burn. Cars designed to run on 92 don't have excessive carbon, so why would an engine custom tuned have excessive carbon?

Cause they're not tuned to run 92 octane, they're tuned for 87 octane. A chip advances your timing and increses the amount of fuel being fed the fuel injectors. The only reason you have to run 92 octane is cause with the advanced timing your engine would ping with reg, and that's bad. A chip basically 'fakes out' your engine management system but not enough that it will compensate for 87 octane. Hence the premium is required. Premium burns slower, but more completely and evenly than reg. Ken

on the subject of the chip i have been shopping, and found that more people like Diablo Chip than any other. I have many reviews, here are two reviews by people in CEG one on SUPER CHIP, one on diablo.

DIABLO:
Hey,
I have a 1998 2.0L Zetec GL ATX.
Takeoff? a little faster (not too noticible)
BHP? you can feel it but again nothing incredible noticible
Torque? can go up those hills better for sure... nothing supernatural though
MPG? i went about 100-150 KM more per tank
Shifting? this is where i noticed the most benefit. I have an automatic so
the shifting was pretty sluggish before. after putting the chip in, it
definately shifted at more appropreiate times.

-Adrian

SUPER CHIP:
It gave me about 10-12 hp and about 5 ft/lbs.
of torque. I did not notice any difference in MPG
though... Shifting is the same. Hope this helps.

-Brantley Davies

Hope this helps in your quest for a chip