Information on G Force Chip

[okie556]

Recently purchased 2004 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab with 5.7 Hemi. Truck has 95,000 miles and is in fantastic condition, interior and exterior. Around town it only gets 10-11 MPG and 16 highway. Pulled our travel trailer for the first time last week to Hot Springs, AR and back. Trailer is heavy, 7200 lbs dry weight. Averaged 7 MPG pulling trailer. I saw an ad for a G Force Chip (looks more like module than chip) that advertised up to 60 HP gain, 4-7 MPG gain and 30 lbs of torque. It's on sale for $69.00 and suppose to be super easy to install. Has anyone had any experience with G Force Products? Any other suggestions to tweak out a little more mileage with losing performance? One note......when I first start the truck it doesn't start at idle speed. Engine races then settles down. Smells a little rich as well when first started.

DODGE RAM 1500 GF Peformance Chip

 

[M. Sage]

They're leaning the truck out even more (the Hemi is already ultra lean) and/or advancing the spark curve. Be careful with chips like this, your MPG gains might come at the expense of a premium fuel requirement. Also be careful because leaner mixture/more advance means more heat in the engine. I'm sure they're also playing around with shift points and timing, and converter clutch behavior, but none of those will actually gain you HP.

IMO 7200 dry weight is awful heavy for a half ton truck to be pulling (how much more weight inside the trailer?). Your regular driving mileage numbers are right what I'd expect to see out of a truck like that, though.

In my experience, anybody claiming a 60 hp gain on a stock engine with just some software tweaking is smoking crack, especially when the tune isn't being done on a dyno.

ETA: Just followed the link to their site. Avoid. They're straight-up scammers (And I say that knowing that if it's untrue they could sue me. I'd LOVE for a company like this to try it, because they'd get owned.). That is not a chip, nor a module. It's a box with a resistor in it (if you're lucky.) The description says it has only two wires that hook into your intake air temperature sensor connector (no doubt bypassing it so it can send a false signal to the ECM).

Their claim that a module can be reprogrammed this way is a flat-out lie. Want to know what this shiny box does?

Changes your IAT signal to something that probably doesn't change. The false signal is going to affect a lot of things in complicated ways, none of which should give you good reliability or performance. Odds of it turning on your check engine light are high (if the signal doesn't ever change, and if it disagrees with coolant temp signal on cold starts). An incorrect air temp signal is going to screw up the way the computer measures the air coming into the engine, because interpreting the mass airflow sensor (MAF) signal requires an accurate reading of the temperature of the air flowing through it.

If that box contains what I'm sure it contains, you could get the same effect for $5 and a trip to Radio Shack.

Like I said, straight up scammers out to rip people off. Avoid. If you ever meet the losers hawking this shit, kick them in the nuts once for me.

ETA2: http://www.gfchips.com/dyno-proven.aspx

Dear God, Dynojet numbers? Bet it's one of the old inertial machines. I used to work at a shop that had one of those, it's real easy to show modest HP gains on them. First run was ALWAYS a few horsepower lower than the third one. Every. Single. Time. I don't know what exact factors were at work, probably several - the lube in the bearings on the rollers heating up and flowing easier, the gear oil in the car doing the same, the tires heating up and working more efficiently, the car's computer system learning to its environment to deliver more power... Just the car "settling in" and pointing a little straighter can make a difference.

Unscrupulous companies have been using that effect for decades. Every time you see a bolt-on product with a 5-15ish HP gain claim, that's the effect they used to support that number.

Now, after seeing the dyno chart for the CL63, I can't say the "mod" does nothing. The "after" run on the CL63? See how the lines are all "squiggly"? That's the beginning of a lean or spark knock. That shit destroys engines.

The VW has it on both runs; I'd bet the MAF is dirty or bad (common issue on those cars). It's also more pronounced, and I'd bet you can hear it under load if you listened carefully.

I especially like how they list the VW as a 2000 Passat with a "2.0T". No such (factory) VW engine existed until 2006.

 

[M. Sage]

LOL, thanks for the link. I'm actually having fun reading some of these testimonials:

"The Ranger's Vacuum increased 1.5 inches at cruising. That means the engine isn't working as hard, hence, more power."

More vacuum at cruise isn't good for fuel economy. True LOL moment for me.

 

[okie556]

LOL, thanks for the link. I'm actually having fun reading some of these testimonials:

"The Ranger's Vacuum increased 1.5 inches at cruising. That means the engine isn't working as hard, hence, more power."

More vacuum at cruise isn't good for fuel economy. True LOL moment for me.

Thanks M.Sage for the info. One of those......if it sounds to good to be true....it probably is just that! Guess I'll go with my original plan which is take it to a shop I trust and have them do a good tune -up and check oxygen fuel sensors.

 

[M. Sage]

Thanks M.Sage for the info. One of those......if it sounds to good to be true....it probably is just that! Guess I'll go with my original plan which is take it to a shop I trust and have them do a good tune -up and check oxygen fuel sensors.

If the check engine light isn't on, the AFR sensors are fine. The engine control module is very good at testing and monitoring them. Tune-ups don't help you out unless the parts are actually nearly worn out. In fact, calling it a "tune-up" isn't accurate at this point, since there's no "tuning" going on. You're just doing scheduled maintenance and swapping parts out. So unless you've got maintenance due, don't waste your money there, either. Contrary to Vatozone's commercials, you don't gain power or mileage by putting new spark plugs in unless your old ones are actually worn out enough to cause misfires.

I posted about it before, but you don't gain mileage with a new air filter, either. Especially avoid K&N. Their claims are suspect at best (their mileage claims are flat-out lies), and their filters actually let a lot of dirt through.

 

[okie556]

If the check engine light isn't on, the AFR sensors are fine. The engine control module is very good at testing and monitoring them. Tune-ups don't help you out unless the parts are actually nearly worn out. In fact, calling it a "tune-up" isn't accurate at this point, since there's no "tuning" going on. You're just doing scheduled maintenance and swapping parts out. So unless you've got maintenance due, don't waste your money there, either. Contrary to Vatozone's commercials, you don't gain power or mileage by putting new spark plugs in unless your old ones are actually worn out enough to cause misfires.

I posted about it before, but you don't gain mileage with a new air filter, either. Especially avoid K&N. Their claims are suspect at best (their mileage claims are flat-out lies), and their filters actually let a lot of dirt through.

Thanks again M.Sage. Since truck runs like a new one I'll just save money I was going to spend on a so called tune-up for gas money. Good news is I only pull trailer about 2-3 times a year on 200-300 mile trips.