"Chipping" a 911 ... would you ?

[anguspatterson]

Have an 89 3.2 carrera. Am thinking of getting it chipped to put more through the mid range basically to let me a bit more challenging on track days (getting the shits that someone in an mazda .... yes a mazda ... can stay with me). Any thoughts on the pros and cons of doing this given the car is a wee bit older ? Have upgraded the muffler already and that works and sounds perfect (tubi).

[clubsport]

I had the old AMD look at my previously owned '89 CS came away with a handful of bhp, a slightly different torque curve,hardly noticeable really. Personally I think there is more room for improvement by upgrading the suspension and brakes on a 3.2 for trackwork.....boxsta brakes fit on the front for not much £££ and make a worthwhile difference.

[thegoose]

Wayne at Chip Wizard does a very worthwhile upgrade. Regularly gets 250bhp or just over. Spoke to a guy who's car he'd done (who does lots of trackdays with it) and he said it was utterly transformed.

The other thing that will make you quicker though (in any car) is improving your technique. There's always something to learn....

[rlw]

Presumably, improving your driving technique is implied in the above, not "technique" as I first read it which usually involves going slower and concentrating more on her (or him)...

[graeme36s]

thegoose said:

Wayne at Chip Wizard does a very worthwhile upgrade. Regularly gets 250bhp or just over. Spoke to a guy who's car he'd done (who does lots of trackdays with it) and he said it was utterly transformed.

The other thing that will make you quicker though (in any car) is improving your technique. There's always something to learn....

Chipping well worth while as long as it is done on a proper rolling road and mapped into the car. 3.2's never made the 231bhp that they were supposed to so to achieve even that on an old engine would be a good achievement let alone 250 plus. No slight on you goose but I think wayne is being a little optimistic with his figures.

[thegoose]

graeme36s said:

thegoose said:

Wayne at Chip Wizard does a very worthwhile upgrade. Regularly gets 250bhp or just over. Spoke to a guy who's car he'd done (who does lots of trackdays with it) and he said it was utterly transformed.

The other thing that will make you quicker though (in any car) is improving your technique. There's always something to learn....

Chipping well worth while as long as it is done on a proper rolling road and mapped into the car. 3.2's never made the 231bhp that they were supposed to so to achieve even that on an old engine would be a good achievement let alone 250 plus. No slight on you goose but I think wayne is being a little optimistic with his figures.

The 3.2s that race have to run as standard (ECUs can be taken for testing as well as the car tested on the rolling road) and there is a margin of 5% above standard allowed - i.e. 241bhp. This is the output the competitive cars have when taken for power testing so it wouldn't seem unreasonable to modify the car and find 10bhp (i.e. under 5%). It does seem common for Porsches to produce at least as much power as the spec says. My old SC makes very close to the standard 204bhp + 5%, but has previously been tested at a little higher.

[SP_CS]

anguspatterson said:

Have an 89 3.2 carrera. Am thinking of getting it chipped to put more through the mid range basically to let me a bit more challenging on track days (getting the shits that someone in an mazda .... yes a mazda ... can stay with me). Any thoughts on the pros and cons of doing this given the car is a wee bit older ? Have upgraded the muffler already and that works and sounds perfect (tubi).

Hi Angus, welcome along.

My old 3.2 Clubsport dyno'd at 232 at the now defunct Weltmeister facility, which was generally accepted to be one of the more accurate in the country - this was with one of the earlier generation of steve wong chips - totally standard apart from the chip.

My current 3.2 orignally dyno'd at 233.7 - with steve wong chip, straight thru scart pre-silencer and dp motorsport main silencer it re-dynoed at 242 - both times on the Weltmeister dyno. Car feels loads better through the mid range and it cuts out the lurching at low speeds which afflicts the 3.2. The car does run marginally hotter, but i'm told thats normal with the advanced timing the chip introduces. The AFRs are still a bit out, so there's maybe a bit left to gain. Not too fussed about ultimate bhp, the torque (~220 ftlb) of much more relevance to me.

Re Wayne Schofield's work, i know of 2 3.2s he's worked on developing 250 +/- 3-5 bhp, so 250 is definitely achievable - again this was on the Weltmeister dyno, so a pretty good indicator. Then again, there some Steve Wong'd cars running high 240's too, and one 256, with H&S pre/main silencer.

Interested to hear about your Tubi - didnt know they did one for the 3.2?

Cheers for now
Shirish

PS - more info at impactbumpers.com

[anguspatterson]

Thanks for the comments all - seems to be worthwhile - assume from the figures that some are quoting that its worth somewhere between 5% and 10%" torque improvement?

[SP_CS]

anguspatterson said:

Thanks for the comments all - seems to be worthwhile - assume from the figures that some are quoting that its worth somewhere between 5% and 10%" torque improvement?

i'd say that's fair - the Steve Wong chip is not a night/day difference on the RoW engined cars; more so on the tamer US spec engine with 217bhp standard. You will feel the difference though.

[burriana]

I was going to chip my '89 3.2, but it seems somebody beat me to it ... and some!

After going head to head with many cars, and checking top ends on GPS, we reckon it was chucking out certainly north of 250. It was just so quick and would red line in top (that's 162 with the standard gearing).

I have no idea what had been done to it in the past but I miss it like hell. Car No2 that I should never have sold