superchips and other upgrades?

Any of you fellas have a superchip on your truck or SUV? I have a 2000 Chevy Silverado 1500. I put on a Gibson dual-exhaust cat-back system and a K&N Air Raid system. I also put on a 99' Jet superchip. Overall i definately got more horses, but not as much as i expected, maybe a true 20-30, not the 50+ i expected. I was wondering what the newer superchips for gas engines were like and how the performance has changed, towing and/or not towing. they say about 10% HP increase on today's chips, but i want some feedback beyond what i have researched. thanks. Also, what about Flowmaster vs. Magnaflow? Any takes?

What a manufacturer claims for HP gains is what I call magazine horsepower. If you want more power you are going to have to replace your cat also. On my last truck with a 454 I used a Thrush cat with a Magnaflow muffler. Flowmasters are loud and my personal taste leans more to silence is golden. The Magnaflow's are much quiter and are a better quality muffler also. Just feel the weight difference alone and you can get an idea.

Part of the power package also needs to be a new camshaft. With living in Cali we have to be careful just how far we go because of smog. There are a lot of tricks beyond that including larger injectors, throttle body, porting, headers, etc.

For now my Burb is stock and I am not happy with how little power the 496 makes, but it is under waranty and I do not want to risk damage that would not be covered. Of course just when the warranty runs out it is paid off, which means time for a new one.

i had a superchip on my 01 f150 screw and it did seem to help when climbing and shifting. my butt dyno didn't really feel much powerwise...

Wes

I happen to have the same truck, with similar mods. I have the Gibson single (3") exhaust, and have used the K&N FIPK. I also have the Superchips tuner. I actually removed the K&N, as at the speeds we can tow around here (65) and the hills, the droning got pretty loud and very annoying. After removing it I felt the truck actually towed better, and it seemed like the low-end torque was better. As far as the Superchips goes, mine is the older style that only had one tune (for 92-octane gas), and I removed it when the price of gas jumped so much last year. Superchips does have a newer model that has three tunes (87, 92, and towing), but I haven't used it. I felt the Superchips definately helped, but it wasn't anything drastic. Definately not 10%.

As far as the flowmaster vs. magnaflow, you might want to check out www.fullsizechevy.com or www.ls1tech.com. They both have a performance forum that would have more information for you. You may want to check out www.pvmufflers.com. Supposedly these are awesome for towing, but I have not personally tried one.

for GM PCM tuning, you can't beat Bryan Herter at www.pcmforless.com. he tunes several GM models on a dyno, and you can tell him exactly what mods you have & want to do (shift points, shift firmness, octane, ported MAF, headers, ......) i have his programming on my 95 Impala SS, and the improvements were amazing even at 87 octane. i did the $75 unlimited email updates program. he emails you a new program and you upload it into the PCM with an RS232-to-ALDL cable from www.akmcables.com.

i don't think his site shows it yet, but he can tune LS1-based pickups now too. my 99 Z71 is getting done when i have some spare cash.

On the exhaust issue, I have a LS1 Camaro and researched heavily and found that Magnaflow outflows about everything but Dynomax. The LS1 guys had dynoed some cars with Flowmasters and they actually lost HP over the stock system. Magnaflow is nice and deep and flows aorund 1100 cfm, Flowmaster flowed considerably less (somewhere around 350-400 cfm, but don't quote me).

one more thing, i don't think emailed programs is an option for OBDII vehicles; you have to swap chips. Bryan will burn your VIN, mileage, etc into a new chip, and send it out. you send in your old chip for core credit.

I chipped my 03 duramax and what a differance! completely stock with chip only and runs so much better than stock, better throttle responce and overall power. the one thing it does do though is lay down some black smoke when you stand on it. Trailers the boat at any speed you want to go- well within reason.

Alan,

watch your exhaust gas temps closely. You don't want to over heat your top end on that motor our you could have some serious problems.

I don't Know if you have talked about this but this is what happend to me and A friend of My'n
This is the down side to putting a chip on you Ford. My firend and I both had Ford Lightning's,
We added chips to our truck's, My friend ended up blowing his motor up. He threw a rod due to a lean condition at top speed. His truck had 10,000 miles on it It was still under factory war, This is what he did He removed all high performance parts from his truck and put it back to stock including removing the chip. He had it towed to the dealer and they looed at it and discoverd it had a chip installed on it. They said Sorry Buddy your going to have to pay for the motor out of your pocket.

Grant, that sucks. However, now i'm concerned because in my research on newer chips I looked at "Superchips Inc." on superchips.com. They specifically say under "FAQS" on thier website under "Frequently asked questions" that their chips do not void the factory warranty and that it is illegal for a dealer to void the warranty because of such an aftermarket installation.

Joe, don't believe what an aftermarket supplier will tell you. They want to sell you a chip and they are using the Magnuson-Moss act to defend themselves.

The M-M act was created to prevent car makers from voiding your warranty if you used non-factory parts such as oil/air filters, spark plugs, etc. to maintain your vehicle. In that law it says that a manufacturer can not void your warranty for adding an aftermarket part if the aftermarket part did not cause the malfunction. While that in essence protects you it is up to you to prove the part did not cause the problem.

Take for instance you install a chip to increase power and your stereo breaks while under warranty. Some dealers will void your warranty for having the chip even though it's obvious the chip didn't cause your stereo to fail. Now take the same type of scenario but say your transmission breaks. Common sense would tell you that while the tranny may have broken on it's own, the fact that you have increase engine output beyond what the factory intended, the very well could have contributed to the failure and you should not expect the dealer to warrant the repair.

In fact, in Ford's vehicle owner's manual for Powerstroke trucks they specifically state that the addition of an aftermarket chip will void all of your warranty. It's stated in bold letters. They have gotten a great deal of warranty claims for broken drivetrain parts from PSD owners that installed high powered chips and then broke parts.

Grants friend is a prime example. The factory programming is designed to protect the engine and not allow the fuel mixture to run too lean. The specifically tune their supercharged engines to run rich at full throttle to protect them. Aftermarket chips often lean out the mixture to increase power. Ford should not be responsible for a blown motor due to a lean condition that was almost assuredly caused by the programming in the chip. I know it sux, but his friend knowingly modified his truck and took his chances.

While I don't entirely agree that a manufacturer can void your warranty without proof, all of them do it because they are protecting their profit margins for their shareholders.

On a naturally aspirated motor your chances of blowing an engine or transmission is pretty slim. The n/a chips don't add much power. Their biggest improvement is in shift improvement which, ironically, can lengthen the lifespan of the tranny.

The dealers are much smarter than you think. The ford dealers when working on a Lightning will first thing look at the Computer unit and see if the Epoxy coating has been removed and the termanials scratched where you slide the chip on. If they can see you have added a chip and taken it off your done. The way FORD was discovering what people were doing was they were looking at the web site chat fourms Like SVTPERFORMANCE.com a website like Wakeworld but with Ford info and tips. Some of the people there include there Build #'s or Vin as a part of there signature, So in some extreme cases the dealers would make note of some people mods and void there warranty based off what they said they had done to there car from the website.(wow) All cars have Vin #'s the dealer can enter your Vin # in there data base and black list your Car/truck and then your screwed, This happend to my brother and his 99 Cobra. They got black listed. They can never take the car to the dealer for factory warranty stuff even thought the car has 0nly 20 thousand miles on it, When I did the add on's to my Lightning it was a 100 Hp Kit that included Chip Lower Pully and Air cleaner and Mass Air flow, it made a big differance, But did it make enough of a differance that it was worth voiding my factory warranty, I would say no, Most chips don't offer more than 50 hp so IMO I would stay away from chips or mod's tha can be detected. Im all for hopping up you rig but there has got to be a safer way.

One last thing My brother has a Lightning and he has the 100 HP kit on his truck after he got his Kit instaled he had his truck Dyno'd and re-tuned, This was a good thing because the Kit caused his truck to run very lean, after it was tuned he has had no problem's and run's 12's. So if you add a chip I would suguest that you get it check to make sure everything is Ok.