Today we are looking at the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0. The manufacturer of this chip is a company named Great Lakes Auto Corp.
Their website/eBay store, www.ebay.com/str/Great-Lakes-Auto-Corp, offers this model and several other models of their OBD unit and other performance chips for many car makes and models. To search their full inventory us the direct product search page here:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/greatlakesauto/m.html
Cost
The cost of this module, at the time of writing this review, is $71.44 for the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0, The company claims that their chip will provide greater power and engine performance in the form of higher horsepower and torque as well as a quicker throttle response and a faster acceleration time. The company also claims that the chip will possibly help with fuel economy and improve your MPG.
Cost is fairly reasonable, since so far it appears to be a real performance chip, not a blinking light scam chip or a resistor, which looks good so far. We purchased one from their eBay store so that we could test it out for ourselves.
Product Appearance
This performance chip comes in a red and white casing and since it connects directly to the vehicles OBD port it does not require any additional extension cables or wires.
Installation
The installation was pretty simple and came with a step by step card:
Step 1: Ensure that your vehicle is turned off.
Step 2: Locate your vehicles OBD port (commonly found under the dashboard).
Step 3: Plug your performance chip into the OBD port.
Step 4: Insert your key into the ignition and turn to the first position, do not start the vehicle. For push-button ignitions, press the start-button once without pressing the brake pedal.
Step 5: Please wait 5 seconds while the module communicates and establishes a connection with your vehicles ECU. When the connection is successful the OBD indicator light located on the module will begin flashing.
Step 6: Start the engine.
Hmm, these instructions are definately different from the bad chips we tested in the past, so this is starting to look promising.
Circuit Board Analysis
Once we looked inside the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 module we were happy to see a much more intelligent and complete circuit board. Compared to the other performance chips in the past this board definitely had more going for it and we also noticed how the electrical components on the circuit board were authentic and large enough to store the necessary data needed for ECU tuning.
What we also found on the circuit board surprised us, it was a testing button which is only accessible from the inside of the chip. What that means is that the button is used for programming purposes, and since each chip is programmed for one specific vehicle, this confirms that there is an actual set of programming code set to each chip individually and so things are starting to look very interesting here.
Now we’ll take a closer look at the integrated circuit chip, it looks to be a PIC16F59 chip set with a custom coded label of MC-GLAC-4.0 found on the front of the processor. What all that means is that the chip is manufactured specifically for Great Lakes Auto Corp (GLAC) and that it is the 4th edition of the chip, which would make sense since this is the 4.0 version of the performance module.
Then we performed the second most important test in this series, the lab tests. We sent the chip to a lab to have it thoroughly tested for maximum CPU clock speed, memory programming, maximum allowable memory size, CAN protocol capability. Once the results of the lab tests came back we were once again pretty surprised, the lab showed that the processor had an additional 64KB of programmable memory as well as the capability to support CAN protocol. We looked even deeper within the circuitry and found a 4 MHz resonator which shows us that this chip is able to process memory at quicker speeds then any of the other chips on the market.
Protocol Compatibility
So we have established that as of now this chip has shown us that it is at least capable of physically doing what the manufacturer clams. We looked a little deeper once again and checked the connections that were soldered and functioning from the circuit board to the OBD plug and we found that pins 16, 15, 14, 10, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2 were all connected successfully.
We looked at all of the various protocols that the OBD system is capable of and checked which connectors had to be functional for the protocol to be carried out successfully and what we found is this:
- The VPW Protocol needs pins 16,5,4 and 2 to function properly.
- The CAN protocol needs pins 16,14,6 and 4 to function properly.
- The ISO protocol needs pins 16,7,5 and 4 to function properly.
- The protocol PWN needs pins 16,10,5,4 and 2 to function properly.
So as we mentioned above, the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 has the pins 16, 15, 14, 10, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2 connected, which means that it can use the protocols VPW, CAN, ISO and PWN.
From these connections, the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 module does have the capability to interface with any of these protocols. According to the product information, the company claims it is custom programmed for use with only one generation of vehicle. For use on another vehicle, it must be reprogrammed.
Operation
So now it was time for the most important test in our review, the actual operation and result from installing the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0. The vehicle we were testing the chip with would be our 2011 Ford F-150 with a 3.5L V6 engine.
We followed the steps on the instruction card that came with the chip from Great Lakes Auto Corp and it was surprisingly simple and straightforward, all in all it took us 3 minutes to go through all of the steps and start using the chip.
We began driving our truck like we normally would, just like what the instructions said. After about 200 miles give or take, we started to notice a definite increase in power, it was like there was something that suddenly gave the engine some extra grunt. We noticed that the truck would react quicker when we pressed the gas pedal, instead of the split second delay that the truck normally had when we pressed the gas pedal, there was no more delay, just press and go.
We also noticed that the engine would be a lot smoother when it was idling, it felt similar to what it felt like when we first bought the truck, very tight and working effortlessly. We also kept an eye on gas mileage while we were on an 700 mile road trip just to see if that would change and we saw that the miles per gallon improved by a reasonable 3.5 miles.
Circuit Board Analysis
Once we looked inside the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 module we were happy to see a much more intelligent and complete circuit board. Compared to the other performance chips in the past this board definitely had more going for it and we also noticed how the electrical components on the circuit board were authentic and large enough to store the necessary data needed for ECU tuning.
What we also found on the circuit board surprised us, it was a testing button which is only accessible from the inside of the chip. What that means is that the button is used for programming purposes, and since each chip is programmed for one specific vehicle, this confirms that there is an actual set of programming code set to each chip individually and so things are starting to look very interesting here.
Now we’ll take a closer look at the integrated circuit chip, it looks to be a PIC16F59 chip set with a custom coded label of MC-GLAC-4.0 found on the front of the processor. What all that means is that the chip is manufactured specifically for Great Lakes Auto Corp (GLAC) and that it is the 4th edition of the chip, which would make sense since this is the 4.0 version of the performance module.
Then we performed the second most important test in this series, the lab tests. We sent the chip to a lab to have it thoroughly tested for maximum CPU clock speed, memory programming, maximum allowable memory size, CAN protocol capability. Once the results of the lab tests came back we were once again pretty surprised, the lab showed that the processor had an additional 64KB of programmable memory as well as the capability to support CAN protocol. We looked even deeper within the circuitry and found a 4 MHz resonator which shows us that this chip is able to process memory at quicker speeds then any of the other chips on the market.
Protocol Compatibility
So we have established that as of now this chip has shown us that it is at least capable of physically doing what the manufacturer clams. We looked a little deeper once again and checked the connections that were soldered and functioning from the circuit board to the OBD plug and we found that pins 16, 15, 14, 10, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2 were all connected successfully.
We looked at all of the various protocols that the OBD system is capable of and checked which connectors had to be functional for the protocol to be carried out successfully and what we found is this:
- The VPW Protocol needs pins 16,5,4 and 2 to function properly.
- The CAN protocol needs pins 16,14,6 and 4 to function properly.
- The ISO protocol needs pins 16,7,5 and 4 to function properly.
- The protocol PWN needs pins 16,10,5,4 and 2 to function properly.
So as we mentioned above, the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 has the pins 16, 15, 14, 10, 7, 6, 5, 4 and 2 connected, which means that it can use the protocols VPW, CAN, ISO and PWN.
From these connections, the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 module does have the capability to interface with any of these protocols. According to the product information, the company claims it is custom programmed for use with only one generation of vehicle. For use on another vehicle, it must be reprogrammed.
Operation
So now it was time for the most important test in our review, the actual operation and result from installing the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0. The vehicle we were testing the chip with would be our 2011 Ford F-150 with a 3.5L V6 engine.
We followed the steps on the instruction card that came with the chip from Great Lakes Auto Corp and it was surprisingly simple and straightforward, all in all it took us 3 minutes to go through all of the steps and start using the chip.
We began driving our truck like we normally would, just like what the instructions said. After about 200 miles give or take, we started to notice a definite increase in power, it was like there was something that suddenly gave the engine some extra grunt. We noticed that the truck would react quicker when we pressed the gas pedal, instead of the split second delay that the truck normally had when we pressed the gas pedal, there was no more delay, just press and go.
We also noticed that the engine would be a lot smoother when it was idling, it felt similar to what it felt like when we first bought the truck, very tight and working effortlessly. We also kept an eye on gas mileage while we were on an 700 mile road trip just to see if that would change and we saw that the miles per gallon improved by a reasonable 3.5 miles.
Final Analysis
As much of a surprise as it is to us, we have come to the conclusion that the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 does pretty much everything it claims to do.
Company Reply To Our Email
As we do with all of our performance chip reviews, we decided to send an email to the company to ask a few questions and to see if and how they would reply to our inquiry. Please note that we sent this email out before we finished the review, this is the email we sent to the manufacturer:
—
Hi,
My company tests and reviews performance chips. We noticed your Performance Chip is popular on eBay and wanted to reach out to you and ask you a few questions.
Can you guarantee that your chip actually does what you claim? Also can you supply some sort of solid proof that shows that your chip is the real deal?
Looking forward to hearing back.
Thanks
—
We received a reply a few hours later from the manufacturer, here is a copy of that email:
—
Hello and thank you for contacting us,
We are aware of the various so-called performance chips on the market and how almost every one of them fails to deliver the performance that they promise. We understand that due to these other unscrupulous companies that you may be skeptical about our chip and what it is able to offer, so we will do our best to thoroughly and clearly prove that our chip is able to provide the numbers that we guarantee.
The purpose we begun developing performance chips over 10 years ago is because we fully understand that nearly every car buyer would like more power and better fuel economy without spending thousands of dollars in performance modifications or spending an additional $5,000 to $20,000 for a more powerful model at the dealership. That is why we developed a tuning chip which can be used to offer similar power gains for less then a fraction of the cost.
We have been manufacturing performance chips since 2008 because we understand that nearly every car buyer would like more power and better fuel economy without spending thousands of dollars in performance modifications or spending an additional $5,000 to $20,000 for a more powerful model at the dealership. That is why we developed a tuning chip which can be used to offer similar power gains for less then a fraction of the cost.
As you might have noticed, this is the fourth iteration of our award winning performance chip. We take pride in our work and are very proud of this latest version. With countless man hours spent researching and developing this module we feel that this is the best chip on the market and have the numbers and experience to prove it.
With every chip that we release we hand code each module for the specific vehicle it is used for, and once the coding is complete we rigorously test the chip with every model and year variation to ensure that it is fully cooperative and flawlessly interrogated with the ECU. What this does is ensure that the product you receive will tune your ECU and engine to its most optimal setting which will give you the best possible power and fuel economy.
Not only that but this model has been specifically developed with longevity in mind, so unlike other chips on the market, you can use this chip for as long as you would like and it will be fully safe with your vehicle and never wear it down.
We fully stand behind our product, that’s why during the past year we have begun offering a 30-day money back guarantee with each of our products.
We have tested our chip on nearly every vehicle model that has ever been manufactured and have tested our chip thousands of times throughout the process. We are happy to be able to offer such a great product and hep save our customers thousands of dollars each and every year.
We hope that fully answers your questions, if you have any additional question please feel free to contact us anytime, we are always here to help.
Thank You
The Great Lakes Auto Corp. Team
Conclusion
We were once again surprised by the informative email and it feels good to receive a response from a manufacturer without being cussed at and threatened. In conclusion, after all of the testing we conducted with this chip, we can say that this chip is the closest thing we have ever gotten to a real life tuning module that does what it claims to do. To our readers, if you are looking for a simple, cheap, yet effective way to add power and fuel economy to your car or truck then we would recommend you give the Supreme Performance Chip 4.0 a look at.
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