Is a chip worth it with just intake & exhaust?

Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives

I have a '99 SE and just installed an open air intake and plan on adding an SVT exhaust with the resonator replaced with a Magnaflow. That's the only mods I am planning for this car which has 105k miles.

After that, should I bother getting a chip or no?

I would get a chip or X-Cal 2, but make sure your getting it from a reputable company that knows what they are doing like brenspeed.com. If you can, put it on a dyno and get a tune. Thats the best way to do it.

Jim, you beat me to it

Don't chip the car. Tune it on a dyno. It would be like playing video games on an NES cartridge vs. downloading it

Just be absolutely sure that's all you're doing to your car, so you don't have to retune later and compensate for new mods..

Hey now I still play my Nintendo.

If you're planning to do that, then get on a dyno and get a guy to tune it well. Your total cost for all of this should be around $700 to $800 including dyno time

Originally posted by m4gician:
If you're planning to do that, then get on a dyno and get a guy to tune it well. Your total cost for all of this should be around $700 to $800 including dyno time .

It shouldnt be quite that expensive. With a naturally aspirated engine, it should only take about 5 pulls at the most and should go much quicker than a forced induction setup. My first dyno tune from SCT was a flat rate of $500 and $200 for each additional tune. That included dyno time.

On a similar note, didn't buckshot show a gain of ~15hp with an svt chip on a stock SE? Is there any way to get a chip with a similar tune to a stock svt chip so that you dont have to deal with all that PATS business?

Originally posted by hotdimmes:
On a similar note, didn't buckshot show a gain of ~15hp with an svt chip on a stock SE? Is there any way to get a chip with a similar tune to a stock svt chip so that you dont have to deal with all that PATS business?

That was cardoc over on FCO. It did gain something like 15 whp. However, the car was running downright awful with the stock programming. The graph looked nasty. The svt pcm did seem to clean things up but Im sure results will vary depending how the car is running to begin with. Id say if the car is running like it should with the stock pcm, then only about a few whp would be gained. Long story short, the stock svt pcm tune is far from perfect.

I have a 99se as well and have the open intake and catback with a small magnaflow res. I put a superchip and and I noticed a difference. I also noticed a difference after I put about 1k miles on it. It started to run rough and had trouble ideling. Take it off and runs good again. I can't keep it on for more then 600-1k miles at a time.

Originally posted by Troy00690:
I have a 99se as well and have the open intake and catback with a small magnaflow res. I put a superchip and and I noticed a difference. I also noticed a difference after I put about 1k miles on it. It started to run rough and had trouble ideling. Take it off and runs good again. I can't keep it on for more then 600-1k miles at a time.

That's pretty disconcerting.

Originally posted by beyondloadedSE:

Originally posted by m4gician:
If you're planning to do that, then get on a dyno and get a guy to tune it well. Your total cost for all of this should be around $700 to $800 including dyno time .

It shouldnt be quite that expensive. With a naturally aspirated engine, it should only take about 5 pulls at the most and should go much quicker than a forced induction setup. My first dyno tune from SCT was a flat rate of $500 and $200 for each additional tune. That included dyno time.

There's no way I'm paying that kinda money to dyno a car I bought for $3k that has 100k+ miles.

well, if you want it done right, then you gotta pay to play.

You can buy a generic superchip like Troy thats probably going to come with a piss poor tune or you can buy a X-Cal 2 from brenspeed for like $300 that has been dyno proven to give at least 10 whp gains.

Generic chips are a waste of money period.

Originally posted by beyondloadedSE:
well, if you want it done right, then you gotta pay to play.

You can buy a generic superchip like Troy thats probably going to come with a piss poor tune or you can buy a X-Cal 2 from brenspeed for like $300 that has been dyno proven to give at least 10 whp gains.

Generic chips are a waste of money period.

My last car was a professionally dyno tuned heads/cam/full exhaust LS1 Camaro convertible, so I know all about pay to play.

But this car is a $3000 V6 beater with 100k miles on it.
Only a fool would dump a ton of cash into the car.

Originally posted by BillyT:

Originally posted by beyondloadedSE:
well, if you want it done right, then you gotta pay to play.

You can buy a generic superchip like Troy thats probably going to come with a piss poor tune or you can buy a X-Cal 2 from brenspeed for like $300 that has been dyno proven to give at least 10 whp gains.

Generic chips are a waste of money period.

My last car was a professionally dyno tuned heads/cam/full exhaust LS1 Camaro convertible, so I know all about pay to play.

But this car is a $3000 V6 beater with 100k miles on it.
Only a fool would dump a ton of cash into the car.

Haha, then what are you doing here asking about chips for it?

Originally posted by BillyT:

Only a fool would dump a ton of cash into the car.

Then dont get a X-Cal 2/dyno tune.

Just leave the car alone.

Originally posted by posthuman63t:
Haha, then what are you doing here asking about chips for it?

Straight from the contour.org FAQ section:

Quote:

DiabloSport Chip
Availability: All vehicles
Approx Cost: $225
Description: From the CTA website:
The DiabloChip is a state-of-the art high performance tuning chip, which advances the timing, optimizes the air/fuel ratio and remaps the transmission shift points (in automatic transmissions). Unlike other "tuners", DiabloSport?s programming is performed in very small increments throughout the entire RPM range, for a smoother, wider and a more predictable power delivery.

Sources: CTA Motorsports
SP Motorsports

Quote:

Superchip Module
Availability: All vehicles
Approx Cost: $230
Description: Superchips are performance-tuned computer chips that plug into your EEC. It requires mid-grade or premium unleaded fuel. A program should change the following parameters:

Revised base timing

Set for 91 octane or better (n/a for SVT)

IMRC open 450 RPM earlier at WOT strategies

Decreased IMRC opening rate

Fuel maps altered for popular intake and exhaust mods

Fuel cut raised from 7000 to 7500 with 'soft' rev limiter

112mph speed limiter removed (n/a for SVT)

Feedback: Raised rev limiter seems to be hit-and-miss for some vehicles.
Misc: Other Info
Sources: CTA Motorsports
Kurtz Kustomz Motorsports (KKM)
SP Motorsports

$225 <> $500 or $700 or $800

What's X-Cal 2? A programmable chip or something?
I didn't see that anywhere in the contour.org FAQ.

$300 for a programmable chip promising 10whp sounds like a decent idea.

its a module that reflashes the pcm. I know it at least holds 3 different tunes and you can make some minor adjustments yourself. It also can datalog and pull OBD2 codes.

Btw, I checked out brenspeeds website and he lists it for $379. You might be able to get it cheaper than that still. Actually, we just did a group buy not to long ago. Not sure what people payed for it. The price had to be removed in the thread since the price was lower than advertised on his site.

Originally posted by beyondloadedSE:
its a module that reflashes the pcm. I know it at least holds 3 different tunes and you can make some minor adjustments yourself. It also can datalog and pull OBD2 codes.

Btw, I checked out brenspeeds website and he lists it for $379. You might be able to get it cheaper than that still. Actually, we just did a group buy not to long ago. Not sure what people payed for it. The price had to be removed in the thread since the price was lower than advertised on his site.

Hmm, that sounds like a good tool to have in general.

Is the X-Cal 2 a piggy back module that must stay connected to work or do you flash the PCM then disconnect it?

Flash it