15 bhp gain with superchip?

Hi all, company in the Uk is offering the following, seems a big gain?, what do you think?

As with any such thing like this you need to get something in writing about what they actually guarantee, then put your car on the dyno before and after and see what the maps look like, if you aren't happy then you should be able to get 100% of your money back. If they won't give you that kind of guarantee then I wouldn't bother...

Super chips offers chips for a bunch of different cars. Don't believe everything you read. Like Kman says, get the dyno chart before and after.

cheers guys does sound a big gain for little money? can they advertise false results?, is there not some sort of legal protection against this?

It could be that on "some" car "somewhere" one time they produced those results. That doesn't mean they will produce them on yours. For example GIAC has a 30 day money back guarantee, if you aren't happy with their ECU tuning results you can get your money back. If this company won't do the same then I'd steer clear!

Scott Slauson's Take On This If you are a PCA member and spend any time reading the Tech Q&A area, you can't help but notice that 986/987 tech expert Scott Slauson doesn't believe that you can gain any significant horsepower from these types of modifications. I don't want to quote him here without permission, but he is very adamant about it. He is also not convinced by dyno runs suggesting that there are too many variables that can be used to suggest gains. (Go to PCA Tech Q&A and search 'Cayman Engine Modification') What do you think K-Man S? Isn't Scott a member here too? Maybe we can get his take on this? Reading the experiences here is very contradictory to Scott's views. Many folks here claim significant gains from desnorking, re-programming and exhaust mods.

Scott is a member here under the name PCA-TECH. I didn't read his column (which issue/page?) but I think he may be saying don't expect big gains on a naturally aspirated engine from ECU tuning, not that you won't get "some" gains. Gains on the Cayman seem to be 7-10HP max, which he might not consider significant.

Yeah, Scott seems to be a pretty firm believer that you will get little to no gain off of most of these mods. I can certainly see where he's coming from when so many manufacturers claim that you can slip their little device onto your car and gain 20, 30 even 50 horsepower. I don't believe it. On the other hand, I am a believer that the noise regulations that need to be met sometimes force a manufacturer like Porsche to sacrifice horsepower for legal compliance. I'm not so sure I believe the Evo air filter will do much. Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I'm seeing the factory filter has more surface area than the Evo filter, which would mean that the Evo filter would need to have much higher flow characteristics to make a difference. I'd love to see a back to back dyno run between the Porsche filter and no filter at all. I bet there would be very little if any difference.

Actually Imagine Auto did this with my car on the dyno. EVO filter in, stock filter in, no filter in, stock back in, Evo back in, back to back runs and the best was with the EVO unit installed followed by stock and the worst of all was no filter element at all.

I rung up Superchip main office in Buckinghamshire 3-4weeks ago. The sales person cannot promise me that the superchip programme will not be erased during a routine service but will down-load the tuned programme again for free if one found out the tuned programme was erased. I was genuinely interested so I emailed them 2 weeks ago to put that promise in writing, so far I heard nothing!!! I will suggest REVO Technik for their SPS device. Even if the dealer erased your tuned programme, you can reprogramme your ecu via their SPS device!! However, there is a huge price difference between the 2: Superchip £298 Revo Software £699, SPS device £199+VAT. Almost a grand!!!

I am not at all familiar with Superchip? Are they reputable?? GIAC, Revo, APR are all great, but Superchip...

Its a Brit/Euro thing

Now that's pretty interesting, and convincing too. I can only assume that the Evo intake changes the air flow in some way that promotes faster air movement. How much power did you gain with the Evo filter over the stock? And at what state of tune was the rest of the car at the time? Also, could you hear a difference? Does it make the car gasp more deeply when under WOT? Thanks for the info. Very interesting.

Remapping your AFRs most certainly will yield gains in HP and torque. The issue is the gas you have available to burn. Every mod I have seen depends upon only running the highest octane fule available (on the street) and puts you at risk of engine damage if you decide to run 87 for a couple of tanks. Car manufacturers can't roll a car onto the street that will roll over and die on 87 octane. They tune to take into account the possibility. As far as "no gains" or "specious claims" are concerned, you now open a whole can of worms. I submit for your consideration the following real world test. The only test that matters. A dyno? No. Dynos are the pens tuners sign their lies with. LOL. Here is an AMG55...stock 469 HP racing a stock M6 at 505. But the AMG has been tuned by Kleeman. 640 HP. Measured on the dyno. How much would you pay for the improvement in performance? $30k? $40k? $50k? You get a lot of excuses for that much money. http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=83416

yeah but the AMG55 is forced induction. Of course they make huge gains with re-tuning. we are talking normally aspirated motors regarding the CS. You will see gains if the new maps are done right, and especially when done in conjunction with other mods like intale and exhaust, but they will not be the mind blowing numbers you get from remapping a turbo or supercharged car. as to: "Scott Slauson doesn't believe that you can gain any significant horsepower from these types of modifications. I don't want to quote him here without permission, but he is very adamant about it." I personnally find it very interesteing that he has made such statements for so long with such conviction, and then turns around and is instrumental in assisting PCA develope and implement a policing program in tech inspections for modified ECU programs. If they are so useless and provide no gain, why have any rule against them (except for turbos perhaps) and why spend so much time and money enforcing them?? dw

Did you watch the video? My point was that it didn't look like a "near 200HP" improvement to me. First the Kleeman guy jumped the gun, then stayed even, then got passed at about 120 -130mph.

Superchips are well known on the E46 M3 boards. I have never tried it but many of the BMW guys swear by it (much more so than the Conforti stuff). I have run software on all my BMW 's except for the E46 M3 . All of the software made a noticeable difference, especially on my 95 M3 where software+CAI gave me about 25 HP at the crank ( I have the dyno sheet to prove it ) Before we start talking about the mods to a NA engine it is important to note that not all NA engines are created equal. The 3.2 liter engine in an E46 M3 is putting out over 100 hp/liter. This engine did not have any specific marketing requirements other than not to severely embarrass the M5. Therefore the engineers were able to get as much power as possible (while maintaining reliability) from the given displacement. With the Cayman motor, there was a marketing requirement to slot it between the old Boxster S and the base Carrera . Therefore there was PROBABLY more left on the table in terms of engine tuning, exhaust and intake to safely meet the marketing goals. One of the frustrations with the E46 M3 was there was really nothing you could get with intake and exhaust mods unless you started replacing the headers. I know when I did those modifications, the car sounded better but it didn't go any faster. Personally, I can't wait to start modding the Cayman . It will be much more fun than the E46 and I won't feel like I am spending money just to make the car louder.

My thoughts and experience are the same as yours. Veteran of several BMWs. One an E36 M3 that I had worked over by Dinan.