Hi,

I got my hands on a copy of a Factory Firehawk chip not too long ago and decided to try it out tonight. Removed my DME, swapped the chips and was ready to go! Turn the ignition, starts no problem, not sure but idle seems a tad smoother (maybe just the placebo effect). Pull out of my driveway and head to my favorite strip of open road. I have to say for those expecting a long review, it pretty much stops here... The chip seems to make acceleration a little more linear and a tad more agressive in the top end. I tried driving around in higher gears to see if I somehow had more torque available a low rpm only to be disappointed. This behavior did something to the car cause it just suddenly started misfiring like crazy! I would push the accelerator and the power would just totally die off at 3k rpm. I proceeded to turn the engine off and wait 1 min before restarting. Turn the key; releif everything back to normal. I'm not sure the chip caused that since the car is in serious need of a tune-up after having sat for 4 months and neglected by the PO. I'll start by changing the Vac lines, swap the old chip back in, then the Firehawk chip and see what I get. Thanks for everyone's time.

-Nick

 

When you say "factory firehawk", do you know where the chip came from?
S2s were running in the Firehawk series since '89, but the factory only built the 7 Club Sports in '91. So the early firehawk cars ran custom mapped software - and were not necessarily upgraded to the Factory Club Sport chips after '91.

Several years ago, Kelly Moss sold off a left over unraced/like new 944S2 Club Sport to a private guy in MN that ran it in PCA Club Racing. KMR had told him that this car had the only unaltered/factory S2 Club Sport chip that was still in existance. I dont know how true that statement was. I do know that a few copies of this chip were made, but not sure how widespread the distribution of the bootleg copies has grown.

The ignition mapping on any of these chips is pretty aggressive. What octane are you using? The guys I know that race Firehawk and Club Sports are using anywhere from a mix of premium pump with 100 oct. all the way to running 100 oct. straight.

In addition to the vacumm system, check the dist. cap and rotor, and the plugs and wires.

 

I think my chip is a factory copy. The guy that made mine was copying that one I think. It was the only chip I could find for a 1991 car at the time too. Now there are a few on the market.

Just for comparison, what were your deceleration characteristics?? Mine is a lot more aggressive now. Let off the gas and it really comes down quick. I didn't expect that to happen with a chip. Timing is advanced and it made the engine sound a bit more aggressive. The car does feel smoother under power. I haven't paid attention to any difference in mileage yet, and I will dyno my car sometime this spring. I have had no problems though, and the car feels great.

 

If it was really Firehawk code wouldn't you need race gas? Otherwise I suspect the knock sensors would pull out all the spark advance.

-Joel.

 

The guy who copied the chip said he paid $600 for his and I read a ton of his previous posts with satisfied customers; he also had a couple of dyno sheets I think. I'm not running race fuel, just regular high octane fuel; 91 octane... Not sure about deceleration, the car pretty much feels the same except for the top end. I wish I had access to a dyno; maybe in the future though. Plugs and wires are new. I'm going to start my maintenance and let you guys know what happens afterwards.

 

I dont want to burst your bubble but I talked to Mark Stone a couple of years ago (owner of Kelly Moss) who's shop ran cars in the firehawk series and he told me that he had a bag of S2 firehawk chips and they were all pretty much worthless. They were tuned to the engine and a swap into a street car were going to yeild very little(if any) results in engine performance gains. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... I think the only way to get the chip to work with the car would be for a race shop with exp. to work the timing/air flow/and other tweaks to take advantage of the chip's map.

 

I will be dynoing this spring at our next PCA Charity dyno event. We'll find out if I actually show anything i guess!

 

I forgot to mention I was running on 4 month old 91 octane fuel. I ran it dry and filled up today with 93 octane and notice a bit more eagerness to rev. and a tad more kick in the pants when accelerating from low rpm hehe...

 

Ive run on 4 month old 93 octane with no issues pulling the car out of winter storage. Interesting.

 

I may be dreaming then, only way to really know anything is dyno stock run vs. firehawk run on same car. Now if I could find a dyno...

 

For those who haven't seen it yet. Here is a 944S2 chip comparison.

944S2 Chips

 

Nick:
If your car feels good, you're happy, and it doesn't blow up, great. I suspect you're pretty much feeling a placebo effect, MAYBE a bit stronger at high RPM. In my opinion, the biggest difference you'll notice is the higher rev. limit, which comes in handy occasionally at the track to help avoid an additional up and down shift.

While the factory knock sensor will PROBABLY protect you, I would try to run better than 91 gas. I'm unfortunately very familiar with detonation using this chip.

Eric, you probably spoke to Dave or Jeff Stone. I don't think there's a Mark. Their "bag of Firehawk chips" was most likely a bunch of chips that they burned themselves for use in the race cars.

The web page with dyno charts shows different cars, on different dynos. I don't think any conclusions at all could be drawn from it.

Joe

 

Could be grounds! Check if you disturbed any.

 

Hey JR, nice car! There is a twin living here in Chicago (Greg Turek). It was Jeff Stone (I dont know where I got mark from...) Jeff probaly did burn copies but when I asked to buy one, he said save your money (Jeff not wanting to sell something, I got to believe that the chip is not going to do anything)

 

"Jeff not wanting to sell something, I got to believe that the chip is not going to do anything"

Haha I guess that sucks for me since I'm running that chip!