off topic-car speed chips

[eddief]

I drive a 13 year old V6 Camry in nice condition. Great basic car. I was surfing ebay and noticed auctions for speed enhancement plug in things for about $20. Claims are up to 20 more HP without screwing things up. Granted the old Camry is an old fart's car, but this old fart might appreciate a little more giddyup.

Anyone know if these things work and any risk? Should I just go into the bathroom, take out a twenty dollar bill and flush it down?

[bfd]

PRO - What a "performance chip" basically does is advance the timing and adjust the fuel mixture to maximize performance of using premium gasoline. In the old days of carburators (anyone remember those things?), you could do these things yourself. However, with today's emission controls and electronic computer controls, that's not possible. So a chip does these things by telling the computer what to do. End result, usually more power, maybe even better gas mileage.

CON - you have to run Super/Premium gasoline. Most chips are designed to maxmize the efficiency of the car to use 91+ octane.

Performance chips work well on older cars that use OBD I programming, e.g., pre-1994 and some early OBD II, 1995-2000 or so. For example, I'm familiar with BMWs. On older BMWs from say 1986-1994, chips were the best way to improve performance. BMW tuned those cars very conservatively for that "little old lady who used regular, lived out in the middle of nowhere where premium gas was not available and never drove above 60mph". Swapping out a chip on those did bring sometimes enormous performance gains.

Later BMWs, e.g., 1995-2000 or so, which now used OBD II, had an electronic brain that didn't allow the substitution of a chip, so the electronic brain had to be removed to be "programmed".

However, today's newer BMWs are basically programmed from the factory to use premium fuel and the cars are now maximized from the factory to be as efficient as possible. End result, a chip for one of these newer cars gets very little gain and not worth it.

Do your homework, if it looks feasible, go for it!

[CarlosContreros]

eddie...I think it's money well spent!
In your case....you've got a normally aspirated 6 cylinder
so you shouldn't run into any problems.
Keep in mind...it's a good idea to consider upgrading your intake
as well as your restrictive factory exhaust.
These two other upgrades will complement the chip with
increased performance as well as fuel mileage efficiency!

Consider in the future upgrading your fuel system..let's get that fuel
to the engine and Gooooooo!!
I've got a turbo GTI which I chipped....of course my gains were
around 40HP and with my upgraded intake, exhaust, and also other
"pipe-parts" upgrade to my turbo I saw BIG HP increase!! :banana:

BUT....when chipping a turbo you've got a lot of concerns you don't
face with a naturally aspirated engine like yours.

I think chips are good....engines from the factory are for the most
part "de-tuned"....and chips help to get back some of that "tuning"!