First off, I love this forum - it's loaded with lots of useful information for Honda, therefore I would like to contribute to it by posting a horrible experience, for the "rookies" out there like myself.
Ever seen those performance chips on EBay for $20? In reality, it's just a resistor that loops the signal on the IAT sensor - it's supposed to make the IAT sensor think it's always sucking in cold air. Well, I was one of the suckers that went for it and bought it. It claimed a safe 20hp gain. Well, it did gain some power, BUT - it might have created pressure on the intake, and then led to more pressure everywhere, affecting the radiator then the head gasket. It cost me $1400.00 to get everything back up, and more repairs are on the way.
Maybe it's the mileage of 153,000, or maybe it's just too old (1994). Whatever it is, I re-learned valuable lessons:
"you get what you pay for..."
"have a professional or someone with experience do the tuning..."

Modified by jvsucks at 12:40 PM 9/11/2007


Modified by jvsucks at 6:45 PM 9/11/2007


Modified by jvsucks at 6:48 PM 9/11/2007

 

hmmm....? i have no idea what you're talking about. i've haven't really had any problems with them chips. maybe your engine just had too much milelage and the more you floored the car the worser the wear and tear got.

but i can tell you that sometime you do get the wrong chip from them ebayers. like this one time i bought a SPOON program chip that said VTEC at 5800rpm but turned out that the vtec was kicking at 6200rpm and that is way too late. i'd end up losing my VTEC power band everytime i shift to second, and thats shifting at 8000rpm. i was pissed off.

other than that no problems with those chips from ebay.

 

Those chips are all bullshit.

Sorry to be blunt, but do you really think a magical chip is going to give you a 20% power gain?

Your engine probably died due to the new "tune".

Instead, have a tuner chip your ECU and tune it.

 

i dont trust those chips from ebay.thats why i have my ecu turned by a pro. it is tuned base on the mods i have in my car. and i dont think a chip will damage so much on your car with the blown headgasket.how many miles do u have on your engine ?

 

yeah, your civic was weak cause it was made in canada.

the logic of a person who bought a magical ebay superchip.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by spoon_concept_eg6 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">hmmm....? i have no idea what you're talking about. i've haven't really had any problems with them chips. maybe your engine just had too much milelage and the more you floored the car the worser the wear and tear got.

but i can tell you that sometime you do get the wrong chip from them ebayers. like this one time i bought a SPOON program chip that said VTEC at 5800rpm but turned out that the vtec was kicking at 6200rpm and that is way too late. i'd end up losing my VTEC power band everytime i shift to second, and thats shifting at 8000rpm. i was pissed off.

other than that no problems with those chips from ebay.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Please don't listen to what this guy is saying, if he believes is "Spoon" chips from ebay I wonder what kind of other advice he could give. the "worser" the wear and tear got?! If there was sarcasm there I didn't pick it up.<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jvsucks &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">First off, I love this forum - it's loaded with lots of useful information for Honda, therefore I would like to contribute to it by posting a horrible experience, for the "rookies" out there like myself.

BUT - it created pressure on the intake,</TD></TR></TABLE> like a turbo chip? I NEED ONE!!

 

Every aspect of the OP is wrong.

1) USDM Hondas of Canada are to the same spec as ones produced in the states.

2) Those chips DO lie, they didn't give you 20 more hp, they gave you 3 more hp by running you stupid rich at something like a 10:1AFR.

3) "It created pressure on the intake" - No it didn't. The vacuum pulls a motor, it pulls a vacuum of a negative few psi with or without your super spoon chip. You can't make it pull more, it pulls more as the RPM goes up, and ONLY as the RPM goes up. As you're not using a form of forced induction (ie. turbo or supercharger) you can never have positive pressure in your intake manifold, Even if you're doing 150 down the highway, you still have - pressure in a direct correlation with RPM as it's caused by piston draw on the intake stroke, a chip can't change that.

4) Your stock motor can't produce "more pressure everywhere" in terms of the coolant system unless your radiator gets clogged up (which sounds exactly like what happened, sounds like you overheated), which has absolutely nothing to do with the ECU. The water pump is spun as a function of the engine crank's RPM.

5) You didn't learn a valuable lesson, because you really have no idea what happened. No super pressure built up in your intake b/c of the extra 20hp because of your super ebay chip, that's all wrong. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you didn't repair it yourself.

Since I have no idea what was replaced (only that the radiator & headgasket was) I can't tell you what happened (sounds like a clogged radiator lead to overheating and blowing the headgasket), but I can tell you it's not what you think happened. And if the mechanic who you gave $1.5k to to fix your car told you all of that BULLSHIT then he bent you over a table and FUCKED you 'cause it's not true.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syndacate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Since I have no idea what was replaced (only that the radiator & headgasket was) I can't tell you what happened (sounds like a clogged radiator lead to overheating and blowing the headgasket), but I can tell you it's not what you think happened. And if the mechanic who you gave $1.5k to to fix your car told you all of that BULLSHIT then he bent you over a table and FUCKED you 'cause it's not true.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

Needless to say that a 94 civic is barely even worth more than what he payed in repairs ...sorry to hear that the op got fucked by not only the chip, but by the mechanic as well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syndacate &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">.

Since I have no idea what was replaced (only that the radiator & headgasket was) I can't tell you what happened (sounds like a clogged radiator lead to overheating and blowing the headgasket)</TD></TR></TABLE>

I was thinking that the "Super Spoon chip yo!" may have advanced timing by a **** load, making the engine pre-detonate and therefore leading to a blown headgasket. I just pulled that out of my *** so I could be wrong

 

well said. in your face kuja396. if you got info then say something if not then shut up and dont post anything at all. we're all trying to learn something.

my old ecu got stolen, so yeah, i had a tuner tune a ecu. yeah, i gave him all the info on my set up, he tuned it alright, but gave me a cheap p06 ecu as the base and my car was lagging and bogging all kinds. i had to buy a new ecu just to make things turn to normal.

 

Why would you bump this thread? In my e-face you mean? Come on man, first you say these ebay chips are good, then you use a word like "worser". If you would like to continue this conversation, please feel free to pm me so I can ignore you, just save everybody a little time so they don't have to read what you post on the internet.

 

^