Over the years I've read a lot about people swapping out the chips in their 951s to gain horsepower. A couple of my car buddies are going to do the same with their 968s and install the ProMax chip everyone is talking about in the 968 forum.

So, can someone please give me the low down on chip upgrades? What are the consequences? I'm inclined to believe that "you pay to play," and that the stock configuration tends to be the most reliable. Don't you cross that line when you go for a chip upgrade?

I realize that the 951 came "detuned" to some degree from the factory so as not to overshadow its more glamorous 911 brother, but I've always kept my cars stock and wonder if my pals will really be getting a "free lunch" with these chips.

Your comments are appreciated.

 

hello
if you wnat some realy good S2 or 968 Chips sent me an email
The 968 chips made the car at least 10 sec at Nurburgring
The S2 chips made the car much more "agressive"
all of them tested for years at the German Autobahn and not a sigle failure till now

Konstantin

 

From what i have seen New performance chips make a very nice improvment. Some chips set up your motor with high boost (if your car is a turbo) others add more fuel ext ext. Some chips for the 951 (guru and Vitesse) are able to up your boost up to 18+ psi (which is a bit over the stock .8-1.0 bar) Those chips bring your RWHP with stock every thing else up to about 260-280 hp?, if you don't have a turbo s. Other chips can be found that bring your boost up to 14-15 psi which in my opinion is a safe area for your boost to be because it is just over stock. Those put about 240-260 hp at the wheels.

All in all chips normaly make a very nice improvement and with the more upgrades you do the more likly your chips will make a bigger differnt

-Ian

 

HP is harder to find in the NA versions over the 951, so dont try and compare the two. Chips mostly add more aggresive timing and trim the fuel, and increases the RPM limit, it means to run closer to the edge in terms of engine performance, so it depends on how much fat is built into the chips to start with... which I dont know. I expect a chip mod in an NA does not dramatically reduce engine life, however its next to impossible to tell.

 

The chips dont increase the boost... I think you know that, but it kinda sounds otherwise in your comment.

 

Chips are a good upgrade to start with and can make a nice difference. Vitesse and GURU are the ones to get for 951s. I have Autothority Stage 2 chips in my car, been in since 2000. Vitesse and GURU are apparently way better, however I cant really compare them since I have only driven my car... Never even driven a 100% stock 951. Vitesse and GURU have much better power off idle I hear.

 

I always thought thats how the power was upgraded, i see people running "18 psi vitesse chips" Meh listen to them they know more than I :P

 

Yes the increase in power is mostly attributed to the increased boost, but the chips only ENBALE the higher boost to be run more safely becuase of the fuel and timing values. The chips themselves do not determine the boost level.

 

The stock KLR chip control the boost level but due to the crude control in the KLR, the varying quality of stock wastegates and a general lack of knowledge of the KLR, many tuners bypass it and go for other boost control methods.

Tomas

 

It's basicaly more boost= more HP, chips add more fueil, add timming or reduce timming, what turbo you are running will require appropriate chips for that turbo.

 

Luis, you seem to be eluding to failures directly related to chipping a car. I'm not so sure that the fact a car is chipped has that much to do with a motor failure.
As NZ said, a chip will enable you to gain more power from your car by modifying the timing and fuel and in some cases raising the redline. The added fuel will allow you to run more boost, thereby making more power.

I think the majority of the failures you are probably talking about come down to someone running more boost or timing than their chips are mapped for. A situation like this causes the car to run lean, which will obviously lead to premature failure.
A chip, ESPECIALLY in your case (you want the car to remain as stock as possible) is a great way to add power to your car, and is easily reverted to stock.
YMMV

 

Luis - trust me, please, go and get a set of 15psi chips from Vitesse for your 951cab. If they are anything like Danno's guru chips, they will TRANSFORM your car. Not only smoother power delivery, but more power, and believe it or not, BETTER fuel economy! You cannot get a better improvement for these cars for so a low price.

The chips have to match your turbo and boost. This is because the chips control the timing and fuel, and thus need to know how much air is being forced into the engine, so it can supply the correct amount of timing and fuel. The beautiful thing is tuners like Guru and Vitesse have packages that are ready to go for otherwise stock cars. This means you have the correct fuel mapping and timing for the turbo and boost you have, and it ensures the engine does not start to miss timing or run too rich or too lean!

Compared to stock, my 86 starts to spool up way faster. it makes full boost earlier. and it makes way more power. it also pulls much stronger for quite a bit longer near the redline, where the stock cars run out of steam.

My 87 feels like this when I floor it: Lag lag lag lag lag BOOOOOOooooooossstttttt.........~160mph
My 86 feels like this when I floor it: Lag bbbbOOOOOSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTtt...~170mph

Luis, I understand your hesitation to upgrading a beatifully stock car! But don't worry about it, the upgrade is invisible to the untrained eye. I look at everything in life as risk vs reward. when I fly, when I drive... the consequences are always weighed against the rewards. When it comes to Chipping and slightly turning up the boost in a 951, the choice is clear. You gotta get some chips and a boost controller. You won't regret it!!!!

 

i dunno, i always feel that a chip upgrade by itself would only give marginal gains at best, unless the car was tuned like crap from the factory - which is by no means unheard of, but i don't think porsche would do that. in a turbo car the gains come from upping the boost, and the chip is a necessary step to achieve that. on an n/a, i feel the difference would be pretty marginal. but i don't have any real-world experience with chipping n/a porsches, so i can't say for sure.

 

I will second the above, the chip upgrade is more than worth it, and I consider it to be very safe, especially if you get a reputable tuner's chips, and do not run more than suggested boost or use lower octane gas. I've logged more than 60k miles on a chipped 944 turbo, and I'm far from the only owner of a chipped 944 turbo. I've owned and modified other turbocharged cars as well. Making 50% more power is not increasing the stress on the engine as much as you may think. High RPM operation is far harder on an engine than a few pounds more boost, or a bit more peak cylinder pressure. A set of chips will not even scratch the surface of the structural integrity of the engine, provided that there's no detonation. As I've said, if you don't run excessive boost (I'd say 16.5 or so is a good fairly conservative amount of boost), and do not put low octane gas in the tank, you are good to go. You are likely to need a couple of boost hoses if everything is stock at some point, if you drive hard. The results are more than well worth it. Do yourself a favor, and give it a shot.

I would however like to point out that I've seen even normally aspirated engines burn pistons with incorrect mapping, however from my experience europroducs, guru, autothrority, hypertech, vitesse all provide great chips for 944 turbos. The best from my experience is the latest version of guru and vitesse as well.
Ahmet

PS: I don't think anybody has a chipset out that claims above 270rwhp, expect closer to 240ish hp and 280 or so ft-lbs at the wheels.

 

People do realise he is talking about chips for a 968 right?