Increase HP and Gas Milage

[JMRAZZ]

Does anyone know about the G Force Performance Chips . claims this will give 30-35 HP and 3-4 MPG.

GF Chips Help Improve Performance and Fuel Economy Guaranteed

[road dogs]

Snake oil continues to be sold. There is no magic fuel mileage improvement fix. There are a few people who can genuinely "tune" a diesel motor for optimum performance which *may* result in 1/2-1 mpg improvement but adding a chip seldom results in anything more than disappointment at best and a damaged motor at worst. Do a little clicking and save your money. There are a number of ripoff reports on this, and many other devices like it. No free ride....

Ripoff Report | Gforce Performance Chips Complaint Review Irvine, California: 794770

[RWeigant]

You have to remember, companies spend massive amounts of R&D to keep up with federal CAFE standards so if something as simple as a chip, or any of those el cheapo add ons like magnets and the "Tornado" could substantially improve fuel economy, it would be in your car stock. After all, there is a race from the companies to get every bit of power and mileage out of their cars. Another thing, you may need to go to a higher grade of gas to get this improvement. I see these chips cost about $70. Some of the ones I've seen cost up toy $1k. Think this cheep one will really work? Waist your money at the gas station.

[Selah]

As earlier posted, companies spend a lot on R&D and the engineers usually try and find a balance between performance and economy. From there you can either tune for better economy or tune for better performance but you can't do both.

[gruelens]

Originally Posted by JMRAZZ

Does anyone know about the G Force Performance Chips . claims this will give 30-35 HP and 3-4 MPG.

GF Chips Help Improve Performance and Fuel Economy Guaranteed

3-4 mpg increase in what application?

If you get an honest average 3-4 mpg increase, with a MH that previously averaged 7-8 mpg (my MH and many others), that is something other forum members and myself are very interested in. Please report back with your results.

[Virago-Rider]

How are these different from the 5 star tune up? Isn't it just a reprogram also?

[AdvntureCats]

"Chip" means more than just the namesake nowadays. Used to be in early gas engine management "black boxes," you could change out the factory "chip" directly with a performance replacement and get good results. The factory settings were there to meet EPA pollution regulations easily while still giving good performance. The aftermarket chips often were an improvement.

Times changed -- once we got to OBD-II standards, you can't reprogram the onboard module with a chip swap. So these units now are additional controllers that connect in-line with the existing controller, and they read the incoming sensor data and output modified data to affect what the factory controller sees and does. Generally, they will have a faster computer processor and a programming setup that accounts for more/finer data monitoring points, and are available with fuel mapping profiles that can be biased to performance and/or fuel milage. They have the capability to be an improvement, depending on where the engine manufacturer set their sights for price vs. performance on the engine management computer. Some OEM setups are designed to meet EPA specs out the door for the lowest cost possible. Others are designed with higher standards. So you'll get more out of one of these setups if you're compensating for an inadequate OEM system to begin with. A high-quality OEM engine management system is less likely to show any improvement unless it just wasn't set up with a fuel map that includes the conditions of RV use.

And there are likely to be differences with gas vs diesel. Gas engines and their engine management systems are more likely to be set up with one general-purpose fuel map. So you might benefit some from an advanced controller that can be loaded with a profile for running against a full payload nearly all the time.

Diesels are a whole different story. They're designed by engine manufacturers, not general automotive manufacturers. All their R&D spending goes into designing engines, not passenger vehicles. There's a lot more focused expertise there. In general, a diesel engine is a high-performance machine specced by accountants. It's designed to give the highest performance with a full load 100% of the time at the lowest possible fuel and maintenance cost, for a specific application. Trucking and equipment builders and operators spec engines based on what the accountants demand for the bottom line. The engine manufacturers design with that in mind to win bids. In the end, a diesel designed for a given load range should deliver maximum performance for its intended application "out of the box." Diesels' engine controllers typically leave the factory programmed by the engine manufacturer for the intended application, including motorhome use, so they're usually "fine-tuned" for performance and fuel milage as-built. If improvements can be made, the service departments typically get notified in TSB's (technical service bulletins) and have access to programming updates that can be applied during scheduled maintenance.

If you want to go and modify a diesel engine with a bigger turbo/modified wastegate/modified fuel pump system/etc that changes its designed operating characteristics then sure, an aftermarket controller setup will be the best thing to take advantage of the modifications. At that point you're spending a lot of money to take a stock engine beyond its design specs. It's a fun as a hobby but not what most RVers want to do with a DP. For most folks, a stock diesel offers the best performance as-is. If your DP has poor performance and fuel milage, then the coach designer under-specced the engine for the coach weight to begin with, or you got a coach set up for flatland and moderate hill driving, not lots of mountain driving.

In short, for gassers, maybe -- depends on the OEM engine controller's quality and how well its programming applies to RV use. For diesels, not so likely.

[wanderso]

The prior owner of my rig had the 5 star tune installed. Rig also has performance exhaust. For me it resulted in shift points where it stayed too long in high gears on hills to the point of lugging. I returned the rig to stock and saw 1 mpg improvement. 5 star wanted me to pay the fee again if I wanted to correct the shift point to correct the tune to possibly be superior to stock. Naw...