Hey all, I'd really love to hear everyone'* experience regarding power chip upgrades. You know, what brand, where did you buy, what was the installation like, are you satisfied?

My hope is to add one of these, mainly to eliminate the speed limiter and unlock some of the power potential. Eventually, I'd like to add a smaller pulley, and wondered what order these mods should be made in.

ALso, are there any magazines or other material which would be a good source of info? I subscribe to High Performance Pontiac, as I used to own an old GP, but most of the stuff in there is about V8'* and very little is offered in the way of tech info or even advertisements for V6 cars.

I don't know if anyone is running a chip on a newer bonnie yet. Your best bet is to contact Hector and see what he knows or can find out. Your chip should be your LAST mod. You need to at least do the thermostat, intake, and exhaust before a pulley or a chip.

My Jet Stage 2 is a real performer. I'm very pleased with it.

Thanks WillWren. I am still in the fantasy phase of owning this car, dreaming of what she'll do when finished, and trying to find as much info as possible before I start making a series of bad or uninformed mod purchases.

Hector? You out there? Let me know what you've seen, ok?

Try ase superchips for a 2000 ssei,They claim the pcm cant be flashed or reprogrammed by dealer.Also not sure if the dhp boys can help !

You have a few options for you car. You can do a Jet chip. You can do ASE Chips. Or DHP. Jet gives you the advanatge to just plug in and go and you can sell the chip later if you don't like it (I doubt that) or if you sell your car. ASE Chips I don't think is that great. The reason I say this is they offer chips for Grand Prix'* and because its the same engine, they do it for Bonneville'* too but the exhaust is a little different. Small difference but its a important difference. If you want custom stuff, go with DHP because they deal with ZZP and Intense so they know their way around the L36/L67 chips and can do to whatever specs you want. A Jet chip for you would be $230 shipped. DHP chip I am unsure, at least $300. Hope that helps.

Way cool bro. Thanks a TON. I am not intending to get deep into the motor. I'd rather rely on the stock crank, rods, pistons, cam, etc., as I hear they are good to start with. My plan is to start with an exhaust, then cold air kit, then thermostat, ignition, pulley, and chip. After that, maybe an intake and throttle body.

I read someplace on this board that a true dual exhaust would rob me of torque. Is that true? How so? I'd figured that the more freely breathing this is, the better. Guess I have to adjust my thinking from the old 455 way of life...

ALmost forgot: Is the intake really necessary? And, has anyone got a picture to share of a Bonneville (00-03) with the ram air hood?

I would say personally that the intake is necessary. If you've seen my heavily modded airbox on my website, you'll understand that I'm really saying something here. The ADTR intake is tuned for performance believe it or not. It'* not just a simple tube. I'll be able to tell you the difference between my modded airbox and the ADTR soon.

I dont believe anyone has the ram air hood yet for Bonneville'*. I am going to custom make one for myself out of carbon fiber one of these days. You do not have to go deep into the motor since it is all already forged (pistons/rods/crank).

As for the dual exhaust, it doesn't work the same as V8'* (I know, I know its hard to accept). Let me put it this way. I call it the Supra principle. There are 600-1000RWHP Supra'* roaming the streets. Now, to get the exhaust out of their engines, they have two options, either have a dual 3" exhaust, or a singe 4". Well it turns out it does not matter. Either way you do it, the powerband looks the same as well as the power output. So what I am trying to get across that a single 3" will do the same as say a dual 2". Plus its less piping to do. :P

I am not sure I remember the science of this correctly, but I think the size of the pipes suffer from diminishing returns after a certain point. What I recall is something like, when the gases get to a certain point in the pipes, it is cooled considerably and has less volume. Based on this, I had designed an exhaust system for my old GP where the pipe from the headers to the cats was 3", and after that there was a balance tube, and behind that the mufflers and tailpipes were 2". Any larger would have been a wast of money. I still can't figure out why the dual on the V6 would be a drawback though. The physics are the same, right? I mean, you can't change the laws of nature. Does the increased flow somehow reduce the scavenging? Call me confused, I guess.

Hey, I also read something about the cooler thermostats causing the computer to read the temp incorrectly and therefore force more fuel into the mix. Supposedly, this wastes gas, and isn't good for the motor? Can Anyone shed light on this?