We chipped our 1996 9600 with 3500 eng hours this year. The combine was not chipped before. We put aprox 150-200 hours on it with 30% more power and had no problems yet.
If the engine is in good shape to start with and you have kept up on the maintance like the valve adjustment and have the nozzles checked for opening pressure and spray pattern and other areas like the radiator and cooling system is in good shape to take care of the extra heat i have not seen many more problems if you run it reasonable and not be taking all the extra HP out of it constanly. If it just their to get you trough the tough spots and goes back to near normal power the majority of the time you might even find that it is more efficent. But if your going to run it on the edge of maxium power get yourself a pyrometer and put it in the exhaust manifold before the turbo. Melting point of piston is around 1400 degrees and if it starts creeping up to around 1200 degrees pull the handle back some. I would also put a new vibration dampner on the front of the crank because 4500-5000 hours it about time and it could help the rod and main bearings with the higher load on them.
I've sold over 30 20% chips for all ages and hours of machines and not one has had any trouble. The two 9600s I had to do motors on in the last 2 years were non-chipped machines. Just get a 20% and you'll be fine.
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