Hello all, today my wife sent me a link to a place called "Superchip" that sells upgraded chips for our 2003 Ram 5.9. One of her clients told her how great these things work and how we should get one asap. The one on the site sells for $340. They claim it gives 22 nore HP and 34 more lbs of torque along with improved fuel consumtion.


So is this all just BS or is it really worth the $340 for those claimed improvments??

thanks
Stu

I don't know the one you specifically talk about, but the only thing those chips or tuners can do to boost fuel mileage is bump up ignition timing. It's up to you if you want to spend 300 bucks on something like that. A tuner would be good if you did some mods like a cam, headers, etc. But I highly doubt it would ever pay itself off in terms of fuel mileage.

also heard some about these. 69 bucks.
http://www.gforcechips.com
at 3+ bucks a gallon it don't take many gallons saved to save the 70 bucks that this one costs.

Thanks for the link!

I have a Superchips on my Wrangler, but I would not recommend it from a "fuel mileage" perspective. I do have some better throttle response, can hold a gear better before needing to downshift, but it also has a bunch of other options I use it for. Idle up for winching, read/clear faults, clear the TPMS light (sensors removed), calibrate the speedo for tires/regear, etc, etc

to be honest the only off the shelf chips that really help are those for turbo cars or diesel trucks.. Turning up the boost makes hp.. N/A motors is just a timing tool and maybe shift points.


A cold air intake cooler t stat and better exhaust will do just about everything a chip would..

As far as codes.. You can stop at advance auto and they will pull the codes for you and print them out...

tuff to spend 340 on chip for a n/a motor..

Thanks guys for the help and advice!!

Stu

I dropped $250 back in 95 for my 95 dakota w/ a 5.2 The computer really woke up the 5.2, but you do have to run good gas. I hit my magnum w/ the diablo and the performance gain was pretty big. Knocked a full second of my et.

MidPen don't buy that cheap thing. Get the real deal. My truck went from 14.68 to 14.03 (hard to get it too hook) I added headers, intake and exhaust after that and it didn't pick up anymore.

I bought Kayse a DiabloSport Predator tuner for her 06 Charger Daytona. Shipped to my door it was $310.
We haven't installed it yet to see how much difference it will make.

I bought it from Maryland Speed, they had the best price that I found.
A link to the one that should be for your truck.
http://marylandspeed.com/dodge-ram-20022008-computer-ecm-c-1054_1066.html

I bought a used Superchips programmer for my 01 Cummins Ram. (Paid $200 used, they're $350 new).
When I was talking to a diesel mechanic that modifies and races Cummins diesels he said at least for the Cummins that the Superchips was the programmer that did the least to help with performance.
Basically he was saying it was a waste of money.
He recommended an Edge programmer (for the Cummins).

Just curious, you said your truck is an 03 with a 5.9 in it?
I thought the 03's were 5.7 Hemis....

I have a superchips tuner for my 09 pontiac G8. Like good said, for raw HP or gas mileage, I don't know if it's the answer. while it may not be the same since you have a completely different vehicle, my superchips tuner can do many things. It has 3 levels of "stock" tunes (no mods to vehicle) 87, 91, 93 octane. That's what I use and I feel it did wake the car up a bit with a 93 octane performance tune. Mainly what I got it for was to calibrate the lousy factory tranny shifting. A huge improvement in firmness and you can taylor several of the shift rpms. Also, like he said, you can remove/move speed limiters, rev limiters , adjust for wheels/tires, etc, do some code reading and clearing. On a vehicle like mine, you can also turn off the AFM (active fuel management that shuts down 4 cylinders. when it's active, it creates a slight annoying vibration, widely reported on by pretty much everyone who has this model)

Once thing that the G8 superchips has that's really nice is that you can buy tunes for 2 bucks each for many brands of cold air intakes and cat back exhausts. So while off the shelf on an otherwise stock vehicle, you won't get a huge kick in the pants,when you combine it with one of these other mods, you can squeeze some decent HP out of it.

It is a "canned" tune though so it's limited to whatever brands of cold air intakes and cat backs that superchips saw fit to dyno and create tune for...but on a car like mine that they only made for 2 years, it's a pretty big list. For something like your truck, i'd imagine you probably have an even bigger selection of tunes. But you can't create your own fuel/spark maps.

It's usb connect to your PC so you can get the updates for free. If you want different tunes other than the 3 stock tunes for different octanes, they cost about 2 bucks each.

overall, I think it was well worth it. It takes about 10 minutes to change the tune and you can put it back to stock if you need to take it to the dealer for repair and don't want to "hear it" abou t tuning your car.

..That 22hp claim by that other guy could be in the ballpark. Definitely possible if you combine the tuner with either a CAI or cat back.

another vote for the diablosport predator. they are much more adjustable than the superchips, you can tailor it to your needs. my '06 magnum went 14.55 @ 95 stock, after a 180deg thermostat, predator tuner, & homemade high flow air filter (cai) it now has ran a best of 13.84 @ 101 with a lot of spinning.
these guys have about the best price your gonna find + free shipping!
http://www.truckcustomizers.com/products/diablosport-predator-tuner-u7137-dodge-jeep-hemi.html

here's another option http://www.hypertech.com/products-results.aspx

let me know which one you interseted in and see if I can get you better price, I can get all the brands