IAT mod saftey, strut bar quality, etc.

[DjOffender]

My friend showed me these single chip modifications that report a constant signal to your ECU from the IAT, they claim 20+HP increase and it doesn't have any negative effects to it. Does anyone have experience with this? Does it rape your gas miliage or what? Also, I have seen a wide variety of strut bars, is it like CAI as far as for the most part having the piece of material there will help and different thicknesses/quality of materials will only make a minor difference? I'm getting my car ready for a Class C rally in mid-July and I'd like to have as much of the small stuff done to it as I am allowed to. (No Turbo/super, OEM TB/valve train, and then a pick and choose list between suspension and HP/engine performance gains)

[WGR4Pussies]

The chip is stupid, don't use it, its not even a chip, just a resistor, haha, and don't waste your money on brand names, just buy whatever bar that appears to be qood quality.

[DjOffender]

Originally posted by WGR4Pussies
The chip is stupid, don't use it, its not even a chip, just a resistor, haha, and don't waste your money on brand names, just buy whatever bar that appears to be qood quality.

Yeah, I looked at them a little more and it is just like a 70ohm resistor. How the hell is that supposed to increase HP? I trust you when you say they are stupid but I am still intrigued that there are a shit ton of them selling on EBay and they haven't been pulled for false advertisement. About the bars, I've seen a couple that are freaking huge (so they can handle more stress maybe??) and others that look like the high performance ones that are smaller with a "V" piece of metal around them. I'm trying to find a good medium of power increase and better handling for the race but I have to have email the list of mods to the race organizer before the 10th to make sure I don't have to remove anything before I race. I'd like to keep the total under $500. Any suggestions are appriciated.

[ZMan2k2]

Well, the chips aren't really false advertising, and you will notice a bit of horsepower. What they do is convince your IAT sensor that the air coming into the engine is colder than it is. To compensate, the injectors dump more fuel into the cylinder. This has a dual effect. One, yes, it rapes your mileage. Two, it will eventually foul your plugs, causing you to lose the HP gain you so desperately sought, and build up some nasty carbon deposits from all the unburnt fuel, making future tuning and gains even harder to acheive.

As for strut bars, a bar is a bar. The name on it doesn't make one any better than the other.