I have a 2001 Monte Carlo SS L36 and am looking for performance chips. I have a few questions:
1. Are they worth it?
2. What is the best brand to buy? (Jet, Hypertech, PCD, other)

I do not have a supercharged engine so I have no boost, which is a huge advantage to having a chip/programmer.

 

You don't want a performance chip, what you would want is a tuned PCM.

Get one from ZZP ~$100 + your stocker.

However it's good to mod first. Go to the intake section of the forum, and look for a sticky on how to build your 3800 motor. That has a great amount of information to read!

 

x2 about zzp or another wbody specific company

I wouldn't get the generic Jet, hypertech, etc- because they don't specialize in our engines. Not saying they wouldn't make more power than stock- in general, certain changes can make more power on any car- but they won't be able to address the specific problem areas in the tune as well as a company that has devoted years of research specifically to this one platform.

 

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy a Jet product of any type, they suck!

 

is zzp going to have stuff for the 3.5l engines for the monty carlo like they have for the 3.8?

 

I doubt it, because ZZP does not even specialize in the Monte Carlo to begin with, when your looking for Monte parts, you look under Grand Prix, and none of the Grand Prix's ever had the 3.5L

 

http://www.pfyc.com/pc/WB3013/MCUNDE...M+engines.html

anyone had experience with that before?

 

I wouldn't hold my breath- the 3.5 is based of the 3100/3400/etc engine, which is TOTALLY different from the 3800- virtually none of the parts are interchangeable. You need to be looking more towards vendors who speciailze in the 60* V6's.

It is a huge waste of money. If you want to go 100% throttle, then press the pedal to the floor. Who really races at 70% throttle? Also, if your pcm is set up so your 'power enrichment' is too high for your liking (usually 80% or so)- then have your pcm tuned. Canned PCM tunes run only $10 more and do far more than just this 1 change.

Here are things I found with that link:

Should or does? Why are they guessing about their product? It either helps acceleration or it doesn't- seems pretty simple. If you want to accelerate faster, floor the car to 100% throttle, and then this thing won't matter anyways.

If your TPS is broken, replace it. Used TPS sensors go for dirt cheap on clubgp and ebay.

They can't garauntee a horsepower gain or 1/4 mile gain because most people floor it at the dragstrip or dyno. Who races at 70% throttle anyways?

Why is your car detonating at full throttle? Increase the octane fuel you're using, or do more supporting mods, or internal engine cleaning. What you're going to do by doing this is drown the engine in fuel to get rid of knock, which is not the way to do it.

I will garauntee you won't be at your 'peak power', if your pcm is set up for a PE AFR of 12.5:1- what do you think is going to happen when you cut off 30% of the airflow? Your AFR is going to tank (I wouldn't be suprised if it went sub 10.0, but I've never tested it). Richer does not mean more power.


This is one of those gimmicky devices to part people from their money...

 

thanks bumpin, im looking to get my pcm sent in and tuned, who should i send it to and what should i have done to it? i dont want to send it in and get it done wrong

 

I just had a friend tune mine for shift points and fuel cutoff to the cylinders. Dont need much more then that on an otherwise stock 3800.