I have a 318 under the hood and I found performance chips on Ebay that are only like 20-30 dollars. Are these just a bunch of hype or do they really work. Because I have never heard of performance chips in a gas engine but I have in a Diesel. I also know that some of them are illegal because of emissions. Anyone ever try these?

 

They are snake oil. All it is, is a simple resistor in a complex package (IC chip). It fools the PCM into thinking the intake air charge is cooler than it really is, so it adds some gas, giving you a bit more power, until, of course, the PCM re-learns, at which point, the chip does absolutely nothing. It's a waste of time, money, and effort, and quite frankly, with the claims some of them are making, it should be a criminal act to sell them.

 

OK I am glad that I posted this thread before I bought one. Because I was so close to getting one.

 

Those chips, along with other things, like throttle body spacers.... have been discussed number of times here. Not lately though.

 

If you want to do somehting that is NOT snake oil, a SCT tuner from hemifever will givve it some pep. Do a search here for SCT and you will see what others have experienced with this.

Also check you plenum (see the plenum sticky at the top).

 

Are the sct tuners worth it, I've heard (and this is from good ole boys so it's not neccesarily correct) that it's not nearly worth putting into as a diesel

 

Check the dyno thread in the general discussion section. Member there got a couple horseys, and about 20 lbs/ft with an SCT, and that was with canned tunes, on a basically stock motor. Not many other mods with that kind of return on the dollar.

 

You're not going to get massive gains like you will in a diesel but it is a noticeable improvement in power and I got a little better MPG to boot

 

I am not sure how well something like this will work in a diesel....but if I was considering it, I would contact Sean at hemifever. If anyone knows, he would.