Chipping a engine BS...

camrycev6

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MS3 - sport
This kind of thing irks me when I hear it....

I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day and we got onto cars (guys do that). He was telling me about his slightly older VR6, and that if he "wanted too", he could just pick up a chip and drop it in and it adds 200 HP. I told him that was bulls***, but he swears and I just need to "check it online." This is not the first time I have heard of this nonsense. I have been hearing the same thing about the 135 / 335 BMWs. Just buy this chip, put it in and that's it --- you are making 400+ HP. Now, do I believe you can remap an ECU and get more power out of a car, absolutely. Do I believe you can drop one in and get 25%+ more without doing anything else, or risking serious damage to the car? No way. If the designing engineers missed that much power that could be solved with a simply ECU tune / map, something is seriously wrong.

I appreciate that it may not be the 100% best it could be because emissions issues or fuel consumption concerns, but you just don't get something for nothing. Or... you just blow your car up.
 
He is not the only one... I have seen posts on here about "miracle" chips. It seems to be a big VW / BMW / German car thing from my experiences -- not so much Japanese cars.
 
This kind of thing irks me when I hear it....

I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day and we got onto cars (guys do that). He was telling me about his slightly older VR6, and that if he "wanted too", he could just pick up a chip and drop it in and it adds 200 HP. I told him that was bulls***, but he swears and I just need to "check it online." This is not the first time I have heard of this nonsense. I have been hearing the same thing about the 135 / 335 BMWs. Just buy this chip, put it in and that's it --- you are making 400+ HP. Now, do I believe you can remap an ECU and get more power out of a car, absolutely. Do I believe you can drop one in and get 25%+ more without doing anything else, or risking serious damage to the car? No way. If the designing engineers missed that much power that could be solved with a simply ECU tune / map, something is seriously wrong.

I appreciate that it may not be the 100% best it could be because emissions issues or fuel consumption concerns, but you just don't get something for nothing. Or... you just blow your car up.

You can't compared re-flashing a naturally aspirated car to a turbo car.

the turbo 6 BMW motors do indeed make huge gains with a reflash in the ballpark of 50+whp and 70ishwtq...turning up the boost abit sure makes a difference. Your right though that typically for a NA vehicle there are very little gains to be had with a reflash.
 
Yeah, to add ~120 horse to my stock tuned 5.0, I put a 5 pound blower on it, ported the intake and put headers and flows on it...guess I'm old school...still running the stock tune, though(drive2)

The MS3 is my daily driver; I wouldn't want to add 100 horse to this thing.
 
Only German cars have crazy chips like that. most of there cars are ran by mostly computer. so flashes n things like that give em great gains. My friend has a GtI. down pipe and Apr stage 2 and it moves.
 
Only German cars have crazy chips like that. most of there cars are ran by mostly computer. so flashes n things like that give em great gains. My friend has a GtI. down pipe and Apr stage 2 and it moves.

Euro cars are no more ECU controlled than any other manufacturer anymore, the reason is mostly because people can't seem to manage to develop(nor is there possibly enough market) a fully editable tuning solution for them like for Subaru's, Mazda, Honda, Nissan, etc.

Take the mkV VW's for example, while APR has a reflash they have said themself they have only been able to 'crack' a small portion of the ECU's tables and cannot perform full 'proper' tuning like on the MS3 with a AP.
 
Only German cars have crazy chips like that. most of there cars are ran by mostly computer. so flashes n things like that give em great gains. My friend has a GtI. down pipe and Apr stage 2 and it moves.

Yes...but that is with a down pipe and other mods. You show me a GTI chip that takes a stock motor from 200 HP to 300 HP with just a chip and I will show you a bridge for sale. (Or if it does.... I would be shocked it that car lasts very long.)
 
Yes...but that is with a down pipe and other mods. You show me a GTI chip that takes a stock motor from 200 HP to 300 HP with just a chip and I will show you a bridge for sale. (Or if it does.... I would be shocked it that car lasts very long.)

That sucker already owns the bridge. Concentrate on selling him insurance for it.
 
Chipping a turbo diesel truck can produce some incredible gains (for short periods of time until the engine grenades). Give a diesel turbo more boost and it will just keep building power until it explodes. Because those engines tend to be big, heavy and strong, that level may be pretty high, especially if the intake and exhaust are large diameters.

But beyond the turbo diesel truck scene and their multi stage adjustable power chips, I think the OP's friend is in some other dimension of time and space from the rest of us all.
 
Yes...but that is with a down pipe and other mods. You show me a GTI chip that takes a stock motor from 200 HP to 300 HP with just a chip and I will show you a bridge for sale. (Or if it does.... I would be shocked it that car lasts very long.)


A stock 1.8T with a APR chip will give it about 20+ HP..
 
Euro cars are no more ECU controlled than any other manufacturer anymore, the reason is mostly because people can't seem to manage to develop(nor is there possibly enough market) a fully editable tuning solution for them like for Subaru's, Mazda, Honda, Nissan, etc.

Take the mkV VW's for example, while APR has a reflash they have said themself they have only been able to 'crack' a small portion of the ECU's tables and cannot perform full 'proper' tuning like on the MS3 with a AP.

ugh, I dont know where you get your info from (spank)...many people on Vortex use there re-mapped ECU and big turbo their cars and make around 500whp out of there 1.8T..your info is a little misleading..


Have you ever driven a chipped GTi...Its insane..
 
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some of the Cobalt SS guys are getting 60+hp from a tune on the LNF motor. its not uncommon for a SS to dyno over 300whp with just a tune.
 
Yes...but that is with a down pipe and other mods. You show me a GTI chip that takes a stock motor from 200 HP to 300 HP with just a chip and I will show you a bridge for sale. (Or if it does.... I would be shocked it that car lasts very long.)
actually there is a chip(APR) that does legitly bring the car up about 50 hp and 90 tq but by no mean will it go to 300. as well as one for the bi-turbo s4 from 250 too 320 or so but it does wear on the turbos and all the other componets
 
Vishnu Engineering has a "piggy-back" for the 135-335 BMW TT's that adds 90 hp. They have it for other vehicles also, not an MS3 at this time.
 
ugh, I dont know where you get your info from (spank)...many people on Vortex use there re-mapped ECU and big turbo their cars and make around 500whp out of there 1.8T..your info is a little misleading..


Have you ever driven a chipped GTi...Its insane..

Misleading maybe yes...never said you couldn't get the cars to make power, I'm well aware of people running big power VWs. I had a VR6 & 1.8T both modded, tuning was def. a little more in its infancy for the 1.8 when I had it.
 
yes, clearly the built motor, full exhaust, bigger turbo, FMIC and other mods have nothing to do with it... it was all the chip...before tuning.

Exactly! Folks... maybe I wasn't clear. I am not talking about adding a bigger turbo, FMIC, down pipe... blah... I am talking about a straight up chip drop with zero other mods.
 

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