sport tuner chips?

Question

I heard that tuners such as diablo sport or predator were bad because they harm the vehicle. Is that true?

Answer 1

The basic idea behind any "chip" application is to remap the fuel use. When a manufacturer makes a car they are balancing many needs. When you approach the same car looking for just performance, you normally sacrafice these other areas to achieve it. So, when you make such a change, it is normally to advance the spark to obtain more power. You do so at the cost of things like fuel efficency and potentially reliability.

As to reliability, if the specifc car lacks protection like a knock sensor and the spark is advanced too much in relation to the grade of gas you are using, damage will result.

Also, realize too that there is not normally alot left on the table by manufacturers. They spend millions of dollars developing their engines and cars, and you are not going to see 10%+ improvements from this small of a change. What you are likely to get is a very small peak gain, and/or small improvements to the power curve. You will most likely need to use a premium fuel after such a change, and you may see a little worse average fuel economy.

Answer 2

Paul your way wronge about the car companies getting all or most out of a vehicle. They grossly under rate their engines and on top of that then there are other things that bring performance way down.
Sensors are one, Insufficient Air intakes and a verry inefficient air filter is another, and most of the time if you can change the air intake volume you will not only improve power but you will improve gas ecconomy. The engine won't have to work as had to draw in the air it needs. Anytime you improve air intake(i.e. cold air intake(CAI), high flow filter, Turbo or my fav Super Charger) you should improve exhaust flow also(i.e. headers and high flow exhaust system) that way your engine breaths better in and out. If you keep it natually aspirated (i.e. CAI) youll usually get better gas milage but if you go with forced induction (i.e. Turbo or Super charger) kiss the milage goodbye because that much more air is gonna need more fuel.
You can also go with upgrades as far as a Better valve job( i.e. more valve angles and sometimes bigger valves if room permits) and you can go with upgraded Heads and Cams also.
In my opinion a mod Chip by itself with everything else being stock is worthless, the chip is designed to work with other mods to dial in air and fuel flow.( because obviously a stock chip wont handle Mods and Mods with a stock chip wont work either)

The only chip I'd get without any other mods would be a speed chip, to get rid of that annoying speed govener chip they put in cars now days. But they are hard to find because they are illegal.
Honestly I can't stand it when a car that is plenty capable of doing 150 mph or more cuts out at a 110 mph!!

Oh and as far as if it will harm you engine, Yes, any mod that is made and not properly set up will. But if you dial the chip in correctly it will be fine.

Answer 3

tuner chips are nice if you purchase the right kind...for example...do not buy the cheap ones on ebay...they tend to work fine for the first few days...but the car's computer corrects what the chip does and now you have wasted your money...also...car companies do tune their engines best for the application, but this does not mean they are perfect and can not be made better. some high end chips can improve factory settings or alter them to benefit racers...more performance does not always mean more reliability or functionality...so be careful what you do to your car

Answer 4

nothing to add to Paul S .statement. .....pretty much ,that's it