saw a used rainier for sale. had the 5.3 V8 LS motor rated at 303hp. owner said it had a special chip or was tuned and had a cold air intake and was now producing 390 hp? anyone here buy that claim? i know its easy to put a new cam and nice ported heads and exhaust on corvettes and camaros and make lots more power but than i believe the motor actually flows more air and can really make more power on that version of the LS motor. but this guys claim to a 90hp gain on his rainier seems like a bunch of baloney. i suppose a chevy trailblazer SS which is the same setup might make more power. since chevy is higher performance than buick. hehe.
I’d stay away from any vehicle that had been modified like that. It’s certainly not a good selling point. Whether it’s true or not, (probably not) the car has obviously been tweaked and used hard by its owner.
Cold air intake might be good for a few (less than 10 I bet) hp, chip, no way. Unless there are serious engine mods like you describe (heads, cam, etc.) it’s pretty much stock, with stock hp.
depends on the chip they used. I’ve seen Bullydog tuners that’ll up the HP on diesels, but the tuners are a good $500.
The chip might also be one of those scams they have on ebay where it’s really a 5 cent resistor they sell for $50
Chips (actually a reprogrammer for the engine control computer) can work on turbo cars/trucks, like a diesel. But no on a 5.3 that has none of that. More likely a scam chip. And a while back we had the sad tale of a Ford diesel owner who blew up his engine with one of the best name in the business for aftermarket diesel parts.
I have no clue what parts or mods are available for the Chevy SS version. I do not go to any Chevy hipo sites. I think any claims of 50+ HP gains on NA motors is bogus. Maybe this sellers butt dyno is miscalibrated?