[wookwook]

Agree with ZTS. In my bluetooth app with an elm adapter, I could see an audit trail of various sensor disconnects. Also today my maf sensor alerted via on-star that it came loose. it did. I dropped the orange lock tab while cutting in the new harness and forgot to get it off the driveway. Sure enough the sensor worked it self loose. Got an email from on-star that I got a service engine code. Which I knew and cleared. While installing the triple tree chip harness i managed to break bits on 2 of the car's sensor clips. The plastic under the hood seems cheap and thin. An easy tell tale that some tinkering has been goin on.



To Chip Owners, I suggest practicing on the harness loops they have the same connectors as you will shunt.

Anyways, my story. Installed the RS and the XLR. BLUF- it works great. To backtrack - I also have a 5star ECU tune on my f150 2.7 eco boost. - it works great too.

What Ive noticed - and this is not a dig on Racechip or the product.

The literature is a little over "promising". what I mean is for our car, if you require 91 Octane US on setting 5 then it should be clearly stated. I started with 89, trying to not overthink the whole process by knowing what I know, tunes require 91 to 93.

Got some ping pulling hard in 3rd only from 3k to 5k rpm. Wrote support expecting what I expected, "need to use at least 91oct" ok no prob. Big improvement, but the sweet spot in climbing gear still knocks a little. Will re-evaluate with pure 93 in another 300 miles next fill up. Would prefer to not be locked into 93 for the life of the car on the setting I prefer

The XLR makes a big difference. somewhere around sport +. The car's own console tour and sport mode are more distinct now. Also I noticed today that cruise control will not engage with the XLR. That fact should have been more obviously stated. If its an unknown, then I guess I found a bug.

This engine is very "peaky". Using this product will increase your sports car satisfaction level. That said ALL of the tuning options seem to produce the same result. its an upside down V powerband. This gets into whether you are straight line power or curve track oriented. The car will always have this sudden pull at 3K its not something that can be smoothed out.

I assume most of the chip critics are the drag crowd. almost universally it is a 0-60 discussion. The other crowd would be the seat of your pants crowd. In the sense of- is the car enjoyable to drive and control cruising the circuit downtown or along the beach blvd. Do you get that sports car vibe when you want it, but good manners and fuel efficiency other wise?


My personal goal is to try and adapt the car and my driving style to work well together. Mostly, that is negotiating the power curve without second clutching for "control". The Race Chip seems to help with bringing the power band closer to the start line so it "feels" flatter. The result is the feeling of more torque off the line. More like a traditional cruiser. It really improves the likability of the car, and now, i don't feel like I want to continue "testing" the response of the engine in stock mode.



With the RS and XLR, The power is now there with a tap of the pedal. Press it to high mph, and there is not as much a huge difference. This is also evident in the many 0-60 posts. the car is quick, but you wont really know the difference of .2 of a second improvement, even if it is there. That is the rule of diminishing returns. You get a better sensation of the car being much quicker because there is more low end response, and the pedal adapter just gets you to that power band quickly and smoothly.




I wish that people would be more reflective of what the audience is here. I am not a grease monkey. But on the other hand I am also professionally part of a major org that as a whole- is a giant grease monkey. We have cranes and sand blasting sheds the size of aircraft hangers, where I work. That is all i will say about that. We also take our "profession" seriously. But it never devolves into a big pissing contest like I see here.



Ecu vs chip, tune vs no tune. Its all trivial really. In the grand scheme of things its a low end sports coupe with the LTG. I traded a bmw for the deal on my 18 LS hold over. There is a reason it sat for a year. They are low end engines. Why all the fuss? Live and let live already. To the Trolls - Contribute positively or please find another forum.



Coming up next, I am going to test out he zztop throttle body.



Cheers.
wooks dad.

[protovack]

They are "low end engines" ? What does that mean?

[wookwook]

Simply that it is the entry level model. no disparagement intended. I do own one, and am really enjoying it. Sorry for the ambiguity. I am sure it is a quality engine. They have been developing it for years. CARB has caused many a fun driver to be anemic. So glad to have a street legal option for performance boost. Now for that warranty... hope I never have to test that.

[subzero05]

happy with my racechip units as well. I heard Phastek will be selling the product also.

[wookwook]

I installed ZZP throttle body today. It is ever so slightly bigger. Also had the unpleasant POP!, I didn't torque the connector tight enough to the throttle body and the silicone elbow slipped off. You have to lay in to the heavy duty camps supplied.

I wasn't expecting really anything noticable with the new TB, but rather thought that the theory of more flow there would be a good building block to what comes next maybe a down pipe, but more likely a drop in KN Filter.

My Race chip "journey" has been interesting. I had been reminded by RC support that the car requires 91/93 octane. I was a little doubtful, then I actually read the manual, and it clearly states the factory recommended fuel is indeed 93. I wonder how many would respond with what they actually use.

So short story short, I have been throwing MAF code P0102 since I blended 89 with 93 during my second day of testing on setting 5/6. Interestingly on a higher setting 6/6 (highest on RS) I am not coding the MAF while still running 91 oct.

Anyways, The investment seems to be worth while. With the XLR, the car is just now "sporty" to me. I am comparing with my experience with German cars, so I am a little bias towards class, style and driveability. It has pep and good power when asked.

I did voice my experience in greater detail with Race Chip support. I am supposing that the market for these add-ons gain maturity as the car generation starts to roll over. Just judging by what is out there for gen5. Maybe some options for revised tunes (brains) would come at discount to early adopters, as improvements come along.

Maybe this is better in the build forum, but just thought I would offer my thoughts on Race Chip so far.

[Evil-Bee-NH]

Cool, your in NH not many of us around anymore on the forums. So i read a few of your posts and you said you were experimenting with different gasoline types on this platform i do hate breaking it to you but if you want to avoid timing and knock you are going to hafta use 91/93 gas on this platform. I'm not saying you can't use 87 but you shouldn't even 100% stock without mods or a racechip or any other tune. The modern camaros say a lot of things about using regular fuel but it's been logged over and over that 91/93 is what you should be using period across the engine levels to avoid knock and timing issues on even the stock tunes. This goes all the way back to the 5th Gen models.

A bigger throttle body on this platform will get you nothing in real seat of pants or actual power we tested going from the stock 59mm to a 72mm it was .5 to 2whp max difference at best across the band. It's simply not going to do anything for the car the way GM set it up. It's a nice theory mod though and getting rid of the ugly stock charge pipe is nice. I'd save money and get rid of the real eyesore under the hood though...

[wookwook]

Thanks for the advise. I am coming to terms with how much I still don't know. I appreciate it. Race ship support is being very patient with me because I am still on the second tank of gas. They seem to have a decent follow up. I find I am basically self-inflicting my own issues. Learning by doing, I think I blew up my MAF when the clip came off. It codes on cold start and i see no signal (ma or volts not sure) on the elm reader. Ordered a replacement. I am not ruling out more aggressive things after I am less dangerous and have more time to devote. For now its bolt ons and training wheels.



I would like to know what the other eye sore is, if I caught that right. lol.

[Evil-Bee-NH]

Originally Posted by wookwook

Thanks for the advise. I am coming to terms with how much I still don't know. I appreciate it. Race ship support is being very patient with me because I am still on the second tank of gas. They seem to have a decent follow up. I find I am basically self-inflicting my own issues. Learning by doing, I think I blew up my MAF when the clip came off. It codes on cold start and i see no signal (ma or volts not sure) on the elm reader. Ordered a replacement. I am not ruling out more aggressive things after I am less dangerous and have more time to devote. For now its bolt ons and training wheels.



I would like to know what the other eye sore is, if I caught that right. lol.

Lawl the ugly pink coolant overflow tank.

[wookwook]

[zts1986]

Originally Posted by wookwook

Thanks for the advise. I am coming to terms with how much I still don't know.

That's the beauty of this car...there are so many available mods that you cant help but constantly learn new things. I'm loving it!

[wookwook]

I replaced the MAF I blew up and finally got my tank full o/ 93. All is well. Very pleased so far.



As an FYI, My last convo with Race chip support is that they are preparing a software update due out soon with CAI support.



Paraphrasing, but just thought I would pass it along.

[zts1986]

Originally Posted by wookwook

I replaced the MAF I blew up and finally got my tank full o/ 93. All is well. Very pleased so far.



As an FYI, My last convo with Race chip support is that they are preparing a software update due out soon with CAI support.



Paraphrasing, but just thought I would pass it along.

My conversations with RaceChip have been similar. They have a 2019 Camaro on-site now and are performing some testing revolving around the issues that I've had. They expect to have a new software package together in a couple weeks.

[wookwook]

Just wanted to follow up. My cruise control is now working as expected. I am thinking possibly, for lack of other explanation, the ECU saw the failed MAF (my doing) and disabled the cruise control. I do not think its out of the realm of possibility. Weird, but its working now.



In fairness to RC, the product is exceeding expectations, considering how tightly the ECU works to keep the engine systems happy. I know its making a ton of boost, because I can hear it through the stock air box with a drop in K&N, now that weather is permitting the window down while driving. And no cels or codes at all.

[zts1986]

Originally Posted by wookwook

Just wanted to follow up. My cruise control is now working as expected. I am thinking possibly, for lack of other explanation, the ECU saw the failed MAF (my doing) and disabled the cruise control. I do not think its out of the realm of possibility. Weird, but its working now.



In fairness to RC, the product is exceeding expectations, considering how tightly the ECU works to keep the engine systems happy. I know its making a ton of boost, because I can hear it through the stock air box with a drop in K&N, now that weather is permitting the window down while driving. And no cels or codes at all.

To your second point: when my RaceChip GTS functioned properly it was fantastic. I cant wait for them to fix the issue (sounds like a firmware issue) and get the unit back to me.

In the meantime, I am finally going to install the JacFab BOL this week.