Smooothie119

Anyone here have any experience with Fastchips computer chips? I have an '87 IROC with the LB9 305 TPI motor, 5spd tranny, 3.45:1 posi rear, K&N air filters with gutted airbox, 3" from the cat-back into a Flowmaster 80 series muffler with 2-1/2" outlets. Other than that she's stock. Just thought maybe I could conjure a little more power out of her w/o dumpin a ton of $$ into her.

babyIroc87

Hey, I've got the same thing a 87 5.0 TPI and a 5spd. Besides what you've done some things you can do that I've heard add some good gains, are porting your plenum, new runners, and new headers. I'll let someone else answer the question on chips but from what I've heard is that they're a waste the only good thing to do for chips is to burn your own. Question? Do you know your axel package for the 87 that you have. I've been trying to figure out weither or not mine is 3:42 gearing or 3:23. I know I have positraction with limited slip differential but I'm not sure on the gearing. The package that the guy bought was RPO - G80 not G92.

RedIrocZ-28

Lemme tell ya a little story. I recently built my motor a bit. The specs are in the sig. Anyway, I was running factory programming on that motor so it wasn't running to full potential to say the least. Yesterday I went to the race track and posted these numbers:

60': 1.878 (New best)
330': 5.665 (New best)
1/8: 8.785 (New best)
mph: 79.08 (New best)
1000': 11.467 (New best)
1/4: 13.732 (New best)
mph: 99.30 (New best)

What did I do to jump from a 14.4 @ 96 a couple weeks ago to a 13.7 @ 99 this week? I burned a chip myself without modifying anything in the calibrations. It was the factory '89 ARAP.bin that was used for the magazine testings. Its pretty aggressive. and gained me some pretty respectible numbers. You can get the setup for roughly $200 to burn and erase chips. The programs are free and you can get them off the net. Wanna read more about it? go to www.thirdgen.org and go to the DIY PROM forum and read TRAXION's Intro Article on top.



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-Brad C?
355ci '89 Iroc-Z Red, T-tops, power everything, A4,New 10 bolt w/ 3.73's
Trans-Go shift kit Corvette Servo,Accel 8.8mm wires,Flowmaster 80 series ,K&N's, !MAF Screens, Hollowed out airboxes,homemade Subframes. Kieth Black pistons 10.3:1, Comp Cams 270H (.495/.502 218*/224* 110*LSA) & valve springs, SLP 1 3/4" headers, TCI 2400 stall, Dual Roller timing chain, 2 3/4" I-pipe.
Full street trim best run:14.799/mph:93/60': 2.02 (last year) New Times to come.
New times: 14.423 @ 96.11 mph with a 2.08 60' (On stock programming)

Pics of the Iroc

aklim

Burning chips yourself is a waste of time IMO. I have only needed 3 burns in the last 10 years. First time was when I had intakes and headers. Next time was when I switched to a 383 with 30 pph injectors. Next time was when I dropped to a 24 pph set of injectors because a few of the 30 pph ones had problems.

So you spend the $200 on the burning stuff, how much more on the data logging stuff and a laptop if you don't have one. Now you are around $500 after all is said and done. Do you have the books on the whole program whereby you KNOW, not guess what changing this will affect in the long run? Are you claiming to be as good as someone who does it professionally like www.lingenfelter.com, www.hitechmotorsports.com or www.fasterproms.com all day long? How long before you are that good assuming you don't burn up your motor in the process or have many furstrating hours during which?

I sent my car to LPE and it came back a new creature with proper idle, startup, WOT, etc after I changed intakes and added headers. There was no idle issue cold or hot, WOT was better without hesitations, etc. My only issue with them was that I did not want to have t drive there and leave the car there and bring it back a couple of weeks later.

I went with fasterproms because after an initial buy in of $500, the upgrades were around $150. I would get the diacom stuff and a roughly burnt chip, get a reading off my car then send it to them via email and they send me another chip. Get another set of readings and they will have it on the money by then. Send them back the old chips and the diacom and a check and it is all done.

Of course, this does not work if you are constantly changing heads, cams, injectors, etc on your car every day.

Ask me for a story about this guy with ACCEL DFI (programmable computer) that I helped take his engine out 6 months after he got it running great.

IMO, it is kinda like me going to the Tech College to learn engine rebuilding and buying the equipment (little more expensive tho). For the number of engines I will rebuild, it is more cost effective to have someone who does it daily, do it for me. Changing intakes and heads are easy and require very minimal tools. The most expensive being a good torque wrench and time.

[This message has been edited by aklim (edited August 04, 2002).]

PonyEtrZ28

yes chips do make a difference. but usually, you will see gains in a modded computer controled vehicle.. such as heads and cam.
to get the most out of what you have. get a chip. if you have the money to burn on it.
mine was a wopping 375!. so it all depends on what you wanna do. i guess if you dont have that many mods then you would be ok.
later
shaun

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1987 IROC-Z
355ci, Dart 2.02x1.60, compete forged bottom end, SLP siamesed runners, fully ported Edelbrock manifold and plenum, 58mm TB, Accel 26lb Injectors, Edelbrock headers & y-pipe, Flowmaster 3" cat-back, Rebuilt 700r4, B&M Megashifter, Holley 255lph fuel pump, triple guage pod, !A/C & Heat, !Smog pump, bypassed TB, MJS Ram air, custom PROM, Lakewood control lower control arms, Lakewood adjustable pan hard, Sub-Frames, Hotchkis Strut tower brace, Adjustable Torque Arm, 150hp NOS
IROC Pix

RedIrocZ-28

Ok, ya just don't understand then. Do I claim to be as good as lingenfelter? No but he doesn't have my car. And I know for DAMN sure that he will get the car to run great BUT he isn't gonna get the BLM's to 128 all across the board nor will they go as aggressive as I would on a chip. Why would they burn a chip that will be right on the edge of motor destruction? It would be their problem if they burned a chip that burned up your motor.


So in summary. They do good work, but I have my car and datalogging equipment. I can do better. Go to thirdgen.org and go to the DIY PROM board and ask them exactly how they feel about these tuners. They'll explain in detail.

aklim, I guarantee you .3-.5 faster tuning it yourself.

aklim

I'm sure that when LPE goes to a show or is being written up while on the dyno he does tune it to the ragged edge. Can they burn a chip that is right on the edge of detonating a motor? Yes. Will they if you assumed all responsibilites? Yes. While doing a diacom reading on my runs we noticed that during the summer, some runs on WOT had pinging. They gave me the option of taking a degree or two out or leaving it and chancing it. I opted for taking timing out because I didn't want to grenade a motor. Specifically, MY motor. They work for you and will do what you ask them to do. If you go beyond their recommendations and it breaks, it would be your problem. I just prefer to be safer than sorry. Sure I could run the way it was ad it might be a little faster but pinging is bad and could damage a motor in the long run so I had timing taken out just to be safe. Since I prefer to make more runs safely than a few "Beer Drinking numbers" and chance it, I went with having a tuner do it. OTOH, if I were just doing it for racing purposes, you bet I would run it as far out as I could get away with and more.

Another reason I didn't recommend it was that if you don't make radical changes every so often that you need a reburn, you would own the equipment and it would sit. Tuning properly is not something where you can the book to read when you go potty and after you are done, know everything there is to know about the subject. It again takes learning and many trials and errors. If someone is doing it once every 4 or 5 years, I can't see it as a viable option, money and time wise to spend learning a process. Of course, if you are doing it for racing purposes or testing purposes or if you change a camshaft every year, I would say, learn to DIY.

I know I could get at least 0.2 sec of my times if I DIY the chip myself. However, I also know what it felt like doing a motor swap in the middle of winter in a garage without good heat. I had a kerosene heater to heat up the garage so it was either be cold or have fumes. I also know that my wife does not like having to go to her car in the elements because I am using the 2 car garage for engine work.