Well, here's the thing: those 'static' chips make adjustments to your fuel and timing maps that supposedly give you power. The problem is that they are static meaning that they set these maps to a specific setting regardless of whether it will help you or not. 'Dynamic' chips (if that's what you want to call them) like Hondata or Uberdata are tunable systems that can be set and tuned to the settings that will actually help your car. This type of tuning is usually done on a dyno so that you can see where in your powerband you need to tweak the settings and also get distinct readings from the wideband O2 sensor that they usually use. These kinds of systems are overkill for mildly modded engines and would not be very useful for a car with just intake/header/exhaust.

The 'static' chips have no idea what you are currently using to increase horsepower or where in your powerband you will gain the most from changing fuel/timing maps so they (in my opinion) are virutally worthless.

You will never achieve the 'right time to install a chip' of the kind you mentioned unless you were to find out from the manufacturer what their recommended optimum performance mods for their chip are. They have designed the chip for the B18C1 with a certain type of header, intake, exhaust, cam, ignition, etc.

My recommendation, stay away from these kinds of chips. If you want a cheap mod that will increase horsepower, get nitrous (I can't believe I'm recommending nitrous).

hih