I am not a guru in this area so can some of you experts tell me about the hypertech chip. Pros and cons. I have a 96 convert and am considering putting one in my car.
Thanks :smash:

 

I wanted to lower my underhood temps, so I put a 160 Tstat in my '96LT4, and then reprogrammed with the Hypertech III. It let me reprogram the fans to click on and off with the lower Tstat. My engine never gets over 190 degrees. They say it also adjusts the timing and fuel to work with intake and exhausts mods. I noticed some performance gain...not sure exactly how much. My car is the manual tranny, so there was nothing there to reprogram. However on the automatic cars, I am pretty sure you can adjust shifts points.

 

Pros:
The car runs cooler. A custom chip will do little in the horsepower area.
They work best with modifed cars. GM went to great expense to wring as much power out of the LT-1 as possible.
The chip operates on the standard parameters untill 2500 rpm for emissions tests.
So unless your runing above 2500 rpm there is no change in performance.

Cons, they cost money and those who don't have them think they stink.
That is untill they realize the benifits of a cooler runing engine.
Corvettes are built to run just at the edge of melt down.
The tech area has some techno-geeks who really know this rocket science.
Look in there for the real story.

 

A 96 doesnt have a computer chip, it needs a Hypertech power programmer to hook up to (about the same price though).

it wont really do much for performance besides advancing timing, so unless you have other mods dont expect to get much from that, and even if you did, it wouldnt be much

All the hypertech PP is really good for is lowering your fan temps so the car doesnt run as hot.

 

Pros: Turns fans on sooner.

Cons: Way too much timing.

I don't think I've heard of anyone getting great gains with them.

 

No gains here. Mostly just a $300 fan switch!! Actually, I did use mine for the shift points and the firmness.(which is useless to you) But, as for performance...I'd have to question any gains.


[Modified by 95AquaC4, 1:54 PM 9/2/2002]

 

Hey -
Thanks for all your input. It sounds like it doesn't improve performance much at all. Maybe just the K&N filter. What do you think? :seeya

 

I'd assume you're looking for performance, and reprogramming is a great way to help. You can adjust air:fuel ratios (which is needed for optimum performance), lower underhood temps, change shift points, rev limiter, and top speed shutoff. I think that the most important thing it does it adjust the air:fuel ratios which could be the difference between 20 rwhp after lots of mods. :cheers:

A K&N filter should increase your air intake a bit but the real gain comes from cutting the air lid, porting/polishing your MAF, and bypassing your TB coolant. :cheers:

 

:confused: Huh?

I'd leave the MAF alone in a '96

I keep flip flopping between using the engine power tuning option and not using it on my Hypertech Programmer III for my '95. I've now got it back to stock tuning (need to update my sig...), but left the fan activation temp programmed in my 160 thermostat. That would be fans come on in FAN 1 setting (low rpm both fans) @ 185 F, and they will kick up to FAN 2 (High rpm both fans) if she gets up to 192 F. I don't know what speed Hypertech used to kick the fans off at, i.e. the fans typically kick off when the cars gets going a above a certain speed, say 30mph (?).

When using hypertech engine power tuning my '95 feels just slightly stronger on the upper half of the rpm range, but with slighty less low end grunt than w/ stock tuning. With stock tuning she feels stronger in the lower half of rpm range (low end grunt), but maybe slightly less pull in the upper ranges than with Hypertech tuning programmed. Go figure. Eventually I want to take the programmer and car to a dyno and some pulls each way for the real story.

Also, I think the Hypertech tuning may work better on 94, 95 LT1's. I think GM has the 96's completely optimized right out of the box throughout the rpm range. If you ever notice it always seems like '96 LT1's consistently run faster ET's in the 1/4 mile than 92 - 95 LT1's with the same drivetrain gears and transmissions. Or maybe the '96's are some pounds lighter than the earlier models?

Whatever the case, what I eventually want to do is buy an adapter cable from AKM (?), and buy LT1EDIT software, and use my laptop PC to do my own diddling around in the ECM :yesnod:


[Modified by Lone Ranger, 10:01 PM 9/2/2002]

 

What does cutting the air lid do and look like?

 

Couple on good pics on this thread http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=248898

 

I can't speak specifically about the Hypertech chip, but I just removed the Jet Stage 2 chip (which I assume isn't all that different than Hypertech) from my car and put the stocker back in and it bettered my 1/4 mile by .05 :yesnod:

 

Stay away from the power programmer. I lost allot of HP and TQ all the way across the power band. Check my web site for the Dyno results. I also posted the results here on the forum once a couple of weeks ago. Good luck with your car