Just purchased a silver '09 HHR SS (<10kmiles) with Brembo brakes, 5-speed, - The engine would completely fade out to no power, back fire, stutter, and no idiot lights...took to the Chevy dealer, no problem found...but whatever they did during the troubleshoot seemed to correct the problem?? Two weeks and no repeat...at the same time I was going to install the Turbo upgrade kit. But low and behold it was already installed...which leads me to the Gforce chip that supposedly adds 60 horsepower by fine tuning the ECM.

Any experience with the chip or the company that makes them...for less than $70 and a 60hp improvement seems too good to be true.

Bonie

 

The consensus seems to be that they are nothing more than snake oil, and not worth the time or effort. Here's a thread from a while back.....

https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/show...hlight=G-force

PS.... to the forum rbonie, and congrats on your new ride!

 

Snake Oil!

This is certainly not standard, but overall, your gonna spend around $100 per 8-10 HP gain.

GMTU 30-50 HP(auto50) for around 5-$600

exhaust 20-30 HP 3-$700(HAHN 700)

CAI(custom) 10-15HP $300+

2nd TUNE - Varies around 3-$400 20-30HP gain.

ALL in all with all the parts available, dollar for dollar, tune and exhaust will give you your most substantial gains for under a grand, after that its tweaking, and being able to effectively apply that power to the road.
Tires, motor mounts, etc play into this. Believe it or not people will spend thousands just to shave off a few hundreths of a second. thats when it starts to get crazy.
Point in fact, first time I went to the track, it was me and the car. Now its me, the car, the family pit crew, the extra batteries, cooling fans, CO2(for IC), car ramps, etc. Damn, I'm gonna need a trailer soon