I have three questions: Dollar for Dollar is a chip as good an investment as any? How much can I expect, reasonably, to pay someone to install rearend gears? Speaking of gears, 3.55's or 3.73's? Thanks for all the help guys!
I would wait on a chip. You will see little hp gains off of this. Wait till you get a lot of mods for this. The gears most people usually charge about 250-300 for gears to be installed but this doesn't include the cost of the gears.
Yep, I'd wait on a chip til you have enough mods to warrant one. I was talked into one and made the mistake of listening(!), but, with my mods, I should have just gone with a speedcal. With the money saved get a timing adjuster and bump up to 14 degrees. (stock is 10) You'll need to run premium fuel with the additional advance, but this will get you near what a chip would do for an other basically stock GT...about 3-4 HP.
I paid $420 for the gears, install kit, (Royal Purple) gear oil, labor...everything.
Gear selection seems to come down to 3.73 or 4.10. 3.73 make a big difference, 4.10 make a huge difference. Insist on FRPP gears. If you have an automatic, definately get 4.10s.
Speaking of automatics, if this is what you have, you'll need a chip or handheld programmer (like a Diablo Predator or SCT MAX MicroTuner) rather than the speedcal because you'll need the shift points changed because of the new gears. The handheld programmers will also be able to correct the speedometer.
for me-it was an awesome investment. mind you, a stock tune wouldnt have changed anything. infact, id tried a SCT chip with a stock tune and it didnt increase horsepower in the least bit. The only advantage youd get from it assuming your car was running in the right a/f(not running too rich or lean), would be calibrating the speedo for gears, turning off the traction control permantly, and bumping up the timing.
dont buy a chip til youve got quite a bit of mods, then stick it on a dyno with wideband so you can see what you a/f is at. In my case, i was running real rich for some reason. I paid 500 for a dyno tune, and we only managed to pick up a few horsepower. Then i took it to another shop(strictly performance), and we did a baseline with the chip(234 peak hp) and without (234). Then we made some changes, got the a/f where the car liked it the best, and the peak picked up to 247rwhp in 99 degree heat-with lots of humidity. But-the best part was around 3800rpm-the car picked up almost 40lbs of torque. After advancing the timing quite a bit, we even took out a couple degrees, because the 2 degrees we added didnt make hardly any difference. Once i get pullies, and my Fipk-hopefully ill be in the 250+ range.
gears, cat back, midpipe, long tube headers, shifter, plenum & TB, upper and lower control arms, lower springs, shocks, struts, C/C plates, sub frame connectors...OK, are we out of money yet?!?! ;-)
LOL Yeah, way out of money! What is TB and C/C plates? Does the intake spacer live up to its billing? I think I will look into gears and underdrive pulleys next...then the chip.
As already stated, wait on the chip. But, a programmer is not a bad idea due to the flexibility they have to grow with your car.
Programmer Cost - $400 (give or take)
Speed Cal - $100
Timing Adjuster - $150
Total - $250
So, you have to ask yourself, is it worth it to spend $150 to have a tool that can give you diagnostic codes and has flexibility to grow with you?
Timing Adjusters are really great if you plan on drag racing (legal type) type a lot because you can adjust your timing as much or as little as you want and even for racing fuel.
Other than that, if I could do it all over again, these are the mods I would do and in this order starting out. Note, not all are for performance:
1 - Shifter (< $200)
2 - Gears ($500 - $600 total) (feels like 40 hp with 4.10's)
3 - Rims! ($400 - $800 for most sets)
4 - Exhaust (catback and mid pipe) (about $800) (10 - 20 hp)
5 - Pullies ($150 + $50 to install) (5 - 8 hp)
6 - TB and Plenum combo (around $400) (10 hp)