Best Chip Upgrade for 996 3.4 (C4) Upsolute.......

Has anyone had any experience chipping thier car? Does this void warranty of vehicle? I've been looking at Upsolute, because that seems to be a favorite amongst the turbo users. Their site claims a gain of 22 horsepower, what does that equate to in acceleration? Any experience or opinons would be appreciated. Thanks in advance....

voids warranty and is not the favorite amongst turbo users. GIAC is. claim is about the same. I have heard very mixed things about upsolute. I would go for the fvd, giac or gemballa one and most probably will. I am told that in terms of best performance it's between gemballa and then giac. neither will give a dyno graph though!

Long discussions have been held on message boards here and elsewhere regarding chipping. I've found the claims of most companies supplying the chips to be dubious at best. They always claim that the OEM chips are de-tuned for inferior American fuel, blah,blah, blah. The answer to the unimpressive results by some chip advocates is that maybe the chip alone won't help--unless combined with an upgraded airbox, exhaust, etc. In other words, spend more money to get the theoretical benefit. Once all these components are thrown in, however, it makes it very hard to evaluate the independent contribution of the chip. When one can find INDEPENDENT testing (which is rare) the results are often extemely unimpressive. Personally, I wouldn't waste my money. A couple of exceptions: One,chipping can bump up the rev limiter slightly; this increases performance at the expense of engine longevity. Two, turbos are a different story--it's possible to get significant hp gains, again at the expense of probable engine longevity.

I agree with Andrew. Unless you are modifying the hardware of your vehicle, there is no need for a "chip upgrade" unless of course you have a Turbo. Don't waste your money. If you want a faster car, buy a faster one, otherwise you are really wasting your money.

common guys.... buying a faster car is not always a viable alternative.... you WILL feel an extra 30HP via chip, exhaust and intake... cheers Peter

From what I have read elsewhere, you won't get an extra 30hp from a chip upgrade on a non-turbo 996. Even if you add chip, headers, fabspeed and airbox the best you can expect on a non-turbo 996 is about 20hp and that's at best. More realistic is maybe 10 to 15bhp. That's not much for a serious ammount of mulla. I went for the fabspeed and airbox simply for the sound not the power gain. When I had them fitted I didn't feel any extra hp but the sound sure does make you feel like teher is more hp there :-)

well giac is pretty reputable these days and they say 23hp on a 99 with no other mods. I however really wish these people would give a dyno graph. At least fvd does and all of their stuff is legit in numbers, anyone who says otherwise is jealous. They are pretty conservative. They do ecu header kit like techarts. - no afiliation. they state about the same numbers also albeit a bit more I believe. Who is to say? I do agree that someone needs to get a ginnea pig and put them on a dyno with each stock baseline then with headers with each, then with headers and mufflers, etc. that will be the only way. At least the s4 people got their act together and someone did this.

Also I think it would make one hellova article for any magazine!

gemballa quotes 28 hp with chip exhaust and exhaust manifold.... let's say 8% average gain for a normally aspirated... they are in the ballpark... some NA motors get 10% more which would bring you to 330hp... I realize the 996 is highly tuned already but people I've spoken to with a chip say you can feel the difference... as for fabspeed's cold airbox... there was somebody on the board who verified a .4 second difference in acceleration.... that is significant. Scouser, I am curious... how much did your 996 slow down with teh 19" rims... you must have noticed some lethargy with those massive rims no? cheers Pete

While I got a '02 996 I can only verify that the Upsolute( no relation) Chipping worked nicely on my '91 N/A C2 Track car. They burnt a new chip(got my stock one back) on the dyno. With the exhaust mods below I got 22HP on the 3rd pull(hottest engine etc). and that was the low. The second pull was 25.5HP. Have all the graphs as well. And No rev increase. The best part was...since I had my Tech bring it in when I 1st bought it, it was completly stock,& Dyno'd, then again w/ a set of B&B's thru Fab dual Exhaust(no cats),19HP, and then the Dyno shop offered me a deal to Upsolute it on the dyno for just $50 a pull for letting them use me as a reference since they had a complete baseline! The numbers may be a tad high but it definitly goes faster. As far as my street 996 goes..I wouldn't do it. My .02 cents Cheers Bill

Neat. I guess upsolute is pretty legit then? How did it work with the mods though, is there different versions say for stock, headers, headers + mufflers + cats? etc. ?

i dunno about the doubts about hp's with bolt ons, but i've said this before, I had 32hp's after putting TRG chip, 96 octane, headers, intake, exhaust. I had the dynochart to prove it and watched the car on the floor spinners while he cranked it up to 100 in 3rd gear. Lastly, I pulled my friend's 996 from 100mph to 145 3 car lengths avg 2 times. You tell me that the chip is useless and doesn't add horses. I did remove the chip because although it is adding a good amount of performance, i always found myself trying to show people its faster than the avg. 996.

you still have that unichip? Wanna sell it to me for a decent price? where did you get your gt3 seats also? How do you like the turbo calipers and rotors. I was told that it is between the 996 and the turbo in terms of performance as the conversion doesn't quite match the full setup as on the turbo because of the different abs and proportioning valves. As far as master cylinder diameter I dunno but cool none the less. Also why do you say turbo suspension if it is c2? I don't get it. Like Seinfeld says, What's up with that? hehe

Any of you chip advocates interested in a good stock pick? It's been claimed by many that the return will be greater than 10%! No real data available, though. Good luck with those chips and those nice pinging noises you get. Makes the engine sound like it's generating more HP. Loren Stock '88 3.2 w/o pinging or detonation & passes the smog tests

Well, you certainly can gain some horsepower via tuning for higher octane. If you are stuck with 91 octane in CA you can probably gain 5-10hp peak just by mixing race gas to get 93 octane. Ruey, were you running 96 and your control 91? Porsche changes heads, valves, cams, intake, exhaust, for only 20hp (3.4L) and a small gain in torque on pump gas. Hard to imagine gains on minor changes are relative to normal premium fuel.

I do the mix and I do notice the difference especially on the lower end it picks it up a bit.

Chip/Headers - try it, you'll like it. Fabspeed Piggyback computer added 16.5HP to my 99 996; their headers added another 10 for a total of 26.5. Torque added throughout the rev range with a peak of an additional 9 lbs. Peak HP was at 7000 rather than 6750. No change to RPM limiter. All figures before/after on the same dyno, same day. The mods have been on the car for 4 years with absolutely no difficulty. Car destroys all unmodified 996's (at least through '03's.) Car turned a 12.87 1/4 mile - I posted all results, dyno curves, 1/4 time slips to this site several years ago - may still be in the archives.

12.87 is quick, you nailed that one. Was that pump gas Mike? Trap speed?

Sure love those drag cars. Memories of the high school days. Porsche owners here in So CA take our cars to Willow Springs and test the total package, car perf/handling and driving capabilities. We don't waste a good Porsche burning rubber on the streets like in high school. How much octane booster did you say you run? Any holes in the pistons or cylinders? When was the last time you did a leak test on your engine? You know 30% leak down after running a chip is not good for 996s. They have enough problems as is. Bring the car to Willow next year for the Tribute Race and see how long you can last! Have Fun Dragging Loren '88 3.2

Loren, 1. Bring yours to Lime Rock. That's where a lot of us East Coast Porsche folk go... 2. Octane Booster? (Now THAT reminds me of High School!) Nope - Regular old premium gas. 3. Most recent leak-down test - March '03; max cyl leakdown - 3% 4. Most recent compression check - March '03; max deviation between hi and low cylinder - 4 lbs 5. Most recent Dyno test - April '03 (Mustang Dyno). HP change from 3 1/2 years ago (no changes to engine except 30,000 more miles) - up 3. 6. Are all Porsche owners in Ca so pretentious? Nick, 1. Pump gas - 93 Exxon 2. 12.87 ET had trap speed of 107.78 Again, I posted 10 runs with the time slips on this site about 3 1/2 years ago. The site is different now but if the old archives were transferred over, all the info should be there.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">6. Are all Porsche owners in Ca so pretentious?</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">No, we're not, although you're forgiven for thinking so based on this thread.

<a href="http://www.upsolute.com/eng/index.html" target="_blank">Upsolute BS?</a> I spoke with Garrett, a representative from Upsolute, he told me that, "You could expect anywhere from 21-34 HP gain from the software upgrade." He said he has dynoed results, and that it is invisible to the dealer. He later explained that each individual software file contains a serial number that if modified can be noticed by a dealer. So what they do is download and email each individual file to Austria, where each file is modified before it is sent back and uploaded into the factory CPU. It almost sounds too good to be true, and for one time payment of $500 the tech will come to your home and complete the update within a few hours...... What do you guys make of this.... BS????

Whatever makes you guys happy? Isn't that what it's all about, right? Good Luck Loren '88 3.2 no chip, no octane booster, no pinging, and passes smog tests, & no valve guide problems like on 996s

First, Straight line acceleration is one true measure of performance. Paying $ for these cars, one almost expects this (like I did). The motor on the 911 is already tooo tweaked if you want more straight line performance...I know first hand because I had one (2001) and had all the mods, and was still slow. If you want a very fast car on just straight-aways, 996 is not best choice, as cars half the $ will beat you on hjighways and around town.

Yes... but the cars that cost half as much have half the handling and "feel" of a porsche!

whoa talk about bringing a post back from the past

How does a two year old post come back to life????????

simle... someone gets curious on a topic, does a search and replies....