[speedfreak340]

can any one give any info on performance chips do they work. more performance and gas mile? any info on this topic would be great ,it would be for a 1999 cirrus thanks.

 

[ImperialCrown]

The advertising can make some really grand claims for horsepower and fuel economy increases. I haven't found them to help either. Your car also has a pretty effective cold air intake from the factory. Is yours a 4 or 6 cyl?

 

[B10alia]

Be very careful with these- anything that plugs into your MAP sensor should be suspecet. Basically, you're paying a lot of money for a resistor in a box that makes the ECU think the air is colder and denser. This causes the ECU to give the engine more fuel which -surprise- results in more power. But this will kill your fuel economy. I've also seen ones that plug into your O2 sensors, presumably to make the ECU think the engine is running lean. This would result in more fuel being sprayed in and, again, a power increase. Again, this will do no good for your fuel economy. You can seriously damage your catalytic converter by running an engine too rich; cats aren't designed to handle unburnt fuel. I would stay away from these chips.
Also, I would avoid "100 octane" and things like that. A., you will not see any noticeable perfomance increase unless your engine was in an anti-knock protection mode and B., they make the engine exhaust hotter. Much hotter. You can (again) burn out your cat or worse. I know an idiot "tuner" who insisted on pouring this stuff in his stupid "Nismo" (sticker-engineering at its finest- the car had no performance parts whatsoever) and got a cracked exhaust manifold as a present. I put Marvel Mystery Oil in my '95 Spirit's gas because I think it gives me a bit of an edge in fuel economy, but even this is the subject of a lot of debate.

 

[AC TC]

Unless its a turbo there isnt much power to gain.
All the chip can do is add some ign lead.
Basically the chip uses the margin tha mother left
for bad fuel, lugging, towing, hot wheater etc.
If its a turbo... the sky is the limit (well almost, but large gains is possible)

 

[Marc E]

What about the Jet performance module chip for the second generation neon that you can find thru Howell Automotive, has anyone had any luck with those. And would they help if you"ve added intake headers echaust for your car, seing that there isn't too many companies making performance computer for the second gen Neon other than AFX which makes a race one which doent help if you have a streetable car.

 

[TWX]

In my experience, an actual reprogramming of an ECU is only useful when changing other things away from stock, and sometimes that reprogramming is there to prevent check engine lights and to make what would be a non-street-legal change into one that can pass the smog requirements of the car. As others have said, depending on the car, the ECU can change the spark timing relative to the crank, the spark duration, the fuel injection timing relative to the crank, and the fuel injection duration. Some more modern engines can control the valve timing relative to the crank, or can control the throttle plate electronically, but that's really the limit of a chip. For real gains, you're going to need cams, exhaust flow, intake flow, compression, and timing changes.

Oh, and I wouldn't trust most "cold air intake" kits, especially when they stink air from under the hood instead of from outside like the factory intake systems do. That's more of a hot air intake than a cold one.

 

[ImperialCrown]

I agree that there was a lot more racing and rally support behind the 1st generation than the 2nd generation. Mopar offered a performance PCM for 1st gen stick shifts, adjustable ACR suspension struts and a DOHC 2.0L.
The 2nd gen had the SRT-4 and these can be cloned if you have time, money and a donor 2.4L car. Even without the turbo, the 2.4L had some more grunt. But it has to be a labor of love and you have to ask yourself if it is worth it. You really need a shop, tools and skill for this kind of work.
There is a hi-performance 2.0L SOHC, but they are rare and not worth the amount of work for the small increase in horsepower. I drove one and didn't notice much difference over the stock 2.0L SOHC.
Converting a stock 2.0L/automatic over to stick shift made a big improvement in perceived power, highway fuel economy and for me, fun to drive. A donor car (for pedals, cables, misc, etc) and PCM ( to keep the 'ck eng' light out and pass emissions) for manual transaxle is recommended. The engine can stay in the car.

 

[BlueMax]

Well I'm glad I read these posting's about these Super Duper Power Chips.
They all promised the moon in their advertising.I just about blew a 100 bucks for nothing,and who know's what possible
damage they could have done.But while I have your attention,maybe you could give me your thoughts about these spark plugs
I've been looking in to.The Company is called E3 out of Florida.They use a diamond fire technology v.s a single flange tip.I think
the web site was (e3sparkplugs.com)or something like that.Maybe if anyone has any experience with this product could let me
know what they think of them.
And thanks again.
P.S.
did anyone take a look at the 2013 jeep,I think they should rename it the 2013 Creep! ha ha ha

 

[valiant67]

Save your money on the gimmicky spark plugs.

 

[Bob Lincoln]

Right. Any spark of decent strength (which any brand plug will give) is all that's necessary to ignite the fuel. From there, how fast and how completely it burns is predominantly dependent on the combustion chamber design. Just use OEM brand plugs.

 

[Gregory7637]

Hello,
I have the 96 5.2L Vb and have put the thrpottle body space in, havent noticed any appreciable gain in economy or power any thoughts. I am considering a different cam and the modified air intake ( actually adding another hose to the air cleaner housing from the driver side) any thoughs on this as well?
Thanks Gary

 

[Bob Lincoln]

A spacer really doesn't buy you anything with a fuel-injected engine. The throttle body is not where the fuel is injected, it's introduced below in the intake manifold. For ideal performance, you want laminar (smooth, straight) airflow before the fuel is introduced, then you want turbulent (swirling, tumbling) airflow after it's introduced, to mix the fuel and air more uniformly. A spacer will only add length to the laminar portion of the air path, and since it will add some resistance, can only slightly hurt performance.

As far as another snorkel, I scavenged an old junk air cleaner and added a 2nd snorkel to my air cleaner. I fabricated a heat stove with pre-heater hose and ran a cold air intake hose out to the grill. This gives pre-heated air for warmups. I still need to do this to the other side, so that both sides get pre-heated air instead of one side warm and one cold. What I've experienced by adding this is very slightly smoother cold idle and power, but no improvement in fuel economy. I was hoping for both. Adding more volume at the air cleaner does nothing if you don't do modifications to the engine.