SuperChips Product Review – Chevy Small Block

 

Ever since the early 70’s, we’ve heard Captain Kirk yell to Scotty “More power!” and Scotty has always come through. And since the early 50’s and probably even before that, we’ve heard countless drivers yell the same to their car or truck. Since the advent of computer chips in automobiles, Superchips has been the “Scotty” for all of us. With over 16 years of experience, they have been making top-notch aftermarket replacement computer chips to quell the thirst we all have for “More Power”.

As you are probably aware by now, we took some last year to visit the SEMA show held in Las Vegas. We wandered through the vastness of aftermarket vendors and manufacturers and stumbled upon the Superchips booth. We talked with the folks there for a while and came home with an urge to try one of these chips out to see if it was really worth it. You’ve probably also seen the ’87 Chevy Blazer that we work on quite a bit, and the latest groove that we’ve been in for it, is to try and get as many ponies out of the stock mill as possible. We’ve added aftermarket ignition systems, K&N air filters, heavy-duty sparkplug wires and the list goes on and on.

The chip we ordered is a direct replacement of the factory unit, designed to reprogram the fuel curve and shift points, basically adding “More Power.” Immediately after we installed the chip, we took it for a test drive. At first we didn’t notice any difference in power and over the next few days, our fuel mileage even dropped a bit too. After about 3 days or so, the blazer was starting to come back to life, and with vengeance. The increase in low-end grunt and fuel mileage increase was the first things we noticed and after a few more days, the horsepower and shifting seemed to get better too. After about a week and a half, the Blazer was eating asphalt and asking for seconds. We talked with a few folks that deal with computer chips regularly and we found that some vehicles take a while to respond to the new settings. It seems as if the computer has to learn the engine.

We are really impressed with the power and fuel mileage increase, but are astounded by the difference in shifting from our 700R4 slush box. The shifting is much more precise, longer and harder. Overall, we are really impressed with the performance of the Superchip and what it did for our Blazer.

Installation

First step is to disconnect the negative battery cable. After this is accomplished, we then removed the glove compartment box to access the ECU.(see photo) Once the glove box is out of the way, there is a single ½ inch bolt holding the ECU in with a strap that attaches to the bottom of the dash. With this out of the way, the ECU comes right out and there are two multi-pin connectors that need to be removed from the side of the control unit. Once the connectors are un-done, we then moved onto the workbench.

We decided to lay the ECU onto a towel to install the chip. (See photo) Be sure to ground yourself well by touching something like the screw that retains the cover plate for a light switch or electrical plug. This will keep you from introducing stray voltage (which can exceed 10,000 volts!) into the computer chip and damage it. First step is to remove the inspection cover, which is held into place with two 7/16-inch hex headed machine screws. Once the cover is removed, the stock chip can be accessed. Care needs to be taken here to gently remove the stock chip. We found it easiest to use two small pocket screwdrivers to apply equal pressure when lifting out the OEM chip.

Once the stock chip is removed, we then carefully lined up our new Superchip into the holder in the ECU and carefully applied equal pressure with two hands to push in the new chip and to also listen for a distinct “click” which told us that the chip is properly seated. (See photo) The last step was to re-install the inspection cover and to re-attach the two multi-pin connectors into the side of the control unit and install it back under the dash with its mounting strap. Finally, hook up the negative battery cable and start the truck and make sure that the “check engine” light is not on. With this all accomplished, go out and enjoy the new performance upgrade you have just installed in your rig. We found that the new Superchip increased dramatically the low-end torque and acceleration that the truck had before the chip upgrade. One final note to remember, with the installation of this chip, it is now necessary to run 92 octane fuel which I feel is a small price to pay for this kind of performance gain

Description	Notes	Rating
Ease of Install	Install was a snap and only took about 1/2 an hour.
Ease of Use	N/A	N/A
Performance	WOW! Our quarter mile times were cut by nearly 1/2 a second and the increase in torque and horsepower is really welcome.
Durability	N/A	N/A
Appearance	N/A	N/A
Driveability	The increase in fuel mileage was a real bonus.
Comfort	N/A	N/A
Price in comparison to related products	A bit cheaper than their competitors
Was it worth it?	Definately a worth-while investment in our quest to get “More Power Scotty!”.
Tools Required	Nut driver or small ratchet with a 3/8″ socket
Editors Notes	The install took less than 1/2 an hour, but the chip took over a week to really start making the changes to he rig…RW