I have an 88 vette with few mods, Curious is there anyone on this site that does good mail order tunes?

 

Ed Wright over at Fastchips is a reputable tuner. Lots of guys at thirdgen.org running his mail order tunes.

You can find him at www.fastchip.com

Frat

 

very few people can tune without the car, chances are they have worked with similar combinations and will give you something close. i have yet to find anyone who can truly tune a stock ecm with heavy modifications. the computer just doesn't move fast enough.

 

Kandied is 100% correct. If you start running head/cam, supercharging....basically all the big stuff it would be a wise idea to switch to a programmable ECM. Remember, your ECM was state of the art in '88, but not now.

If you can swing taking the car to a reputable tuner with a wide band O2 and chasis dyno, thats the way to go. Make sure they can burn you a chip, though.

The off the shelf chips like Hypertech are junk in my opinion. They retain stock tuning at idle and part throttle driving. Then aggressivley advance timing and fuel at WOT.

Hey Kandied...the feedback you gave me late 2003 in the Vigilante concerter was spot on. Sorry its taken me so long to thank you......THANKS!!!

Saw you car in GMHTP. Your attention to detail is amazing and has definately paid off. If you dont mind can you PM on the price of your Air Ride suspension?

Frat

 

Hey Ricker, I'd phone you up and offer some advice, but you never answer your phone.

 

I am not sure of your mods but if your using the stock ecu I would just play with the timeing and fuel preasure, otherwise upgrade to an accel or something

 

Can you elaborate on what you mean by heavy modifications? Thats one of those things that has a different definition depending on who you ask. Sort of like saying a cam is "streetable".

Also, I don't understand what the problem with the computer's speed is.

The 1227730, 1227727, and 1227165 ECMS can all be tuned in real time with a $180 emulator. Thats much cheaper than an aftermarket $500 and up ecm, which lacks diagnostic features. Yes, our ecms were state of the art back in the late 80s. Despite 15 years having gone by, they are still state of the art in comparison with most aftermarket ecms. The aftermarket units are much simpler in design (with some exceptions), and don't have the same flexibility for the most part.

Most of the people that I have seen buying an aftermarket ecm do it for the same reason: I've modified the engine, why not go with an aftermarket computer? In reality, I feel like the factory unit is better suited than the aftermarket units I've seen. There was a guy on Thirdgen.org a while back that was running high 9s with the stock 1227165.

As to the original question, you can get a decent mail order tune that will run and drive fine. However, regardless of who you get it from, it will NEVER be what a DIY prom enthusiast calls "fine tuned". It seems that most people have a loose definition of "fine tuned".

 

In staying with the intent of your original question..........


Give fastchips a call for a mail order tune.

Frat

 

Thats a pretty bold thing to say.

I've got a 441 CID 520rwhp 12.5:1 compression car running off a factory 1227730 computer. It actually runs good enough for the guy's wife to drive it.

We do chips/programming for 86-05 GM's and if you have feedback like datalogging or dyno sheets we are always willing to keep working with you to get the tune that you want.

 

Holy Crap..........

Sorry Alvin. It did not even dawn on me to recommend you........a supporting vendor at that.....whooops. My bad.

Frat

 

I've read about what happened to you at TPIS with the tuning, and all I can say is you cant blame the ECM if the people tuning it don't do it right. There is no reason your setup shouldnt have been able to run properly, those guys just plain screwed up. I totally agree with what you said first, I dont think its possible to get a 100% perfect tune if the person doing the tuning dosnt have access to the car. At best they can get close, some closer than others. This is why I dont use off-the-shelf chips like Jet or Hypertech, or even the mail order chips by experienced tuners. To get the best tune you have to do it locally or somehow get the car to the tuner so they can datalog it and adjust the other parts of the car that aren't ECM adjustable (like the FPR for example). And if done right there should be no problem tuning the car right, regardless of the engine setup. Although the cam can make it difficult like some have said. There are plenty of guys running around with heavily modified engines and stock ECM's making lots of power and running great 1/4 mile times. The main downside of the stock ECM is that the tuning itself is daunting because its not user friendly at all. Another downside is that most stock ECM's are batch fire unlike the aftermarkets which have SFI and can fine tune the A/F ratio per cylinder to make up for uneven air distribution through the intake.

 

u must be dailing the wrong #, send me your number to my yahoo account

 

Tpis couldn't tune themselves out of a box. I've fixed their screw ups before with simple ve table adjustments.

You will need a scanner or some way of logging data to get it tuned right, using a mail order guy or yourself. The is the first thing you should buy when modding a computer controlled car.

 

gentleman what i said is my opinion and i stick with it to the end. i'm not going to go on here and personally quote and respond to every aspect as it would go no where. i have had 3 heavily modified engines in my car in the last 2 years. i have had well over 10 very recognizable companies try various mail order chips as well as 5 recognizable companies personally play with the car and while close none of them have come close to what a proper setup did.

my definition of heavily modified is basically nothing stock, everything completely changed and a compression so different from original that it takes some serious work with the tables. alvin i'm sure you were able to do such things, there are plenty of shops that claim the same thing but to pick one setup apart over another is senseless. my 388 almost made that without nearly the same compression nor cid on a stock 730 but the cam was very large and t went even better when i upgraded to dfi.

point is i didn't say it can't be done but i do stand by my words as saying it will be quite difficult and chances are it will never be spot on. my idea of truly tunning a car is so that there are no issues with it just as it would drive from the factory. is it possible with a factory ecm, sure it is but not with a heavily modified motor and to be honest if you can truly do such a thing with such a large cid, high compression motor assuming the cam is very large as well you should be working for gm because even their guys can't do it.

crazy i never said it can't be done and yes while tpis didn't know what they were doing there were many other companies that followed. unfortunately do to out of state laws and the rest nothing came about from it as it would have cost me more to serve them then i lost in the chip. reguadless the point of my statement wasn't that it can't be done. i drove my car everyday with high compression, large cam and alot of power but the stock ecm just didn't work as well as the dfi and neither combination worked as well as my lsx ecm setup can do. it just doesn't work as well... there are people who are going to disagree thats fine. i'm just one opinion, from someone who has been there and spent several thousands on various tunners and their claims. i've seen tunes that people claim it runs nice and they break up during power bands or run so rich gas shoots out the exhaust but the owners don't know any better. to each their own, as i said it's my opinion and i'm sticking with it until someone someday shows me differently.

however i will say something in praise of the unit and many people on these boards as there are quite a few who do it themselves that seem to know what they are doing enough to get the cars up and running decently. for me that was great inspiration and alot of help through my years of troubles. i found that 99% of the tunning really was dependent on how much you played with it and not if you worked for a company. there are a few guys here and over at thirdgen.org that their advice alone could help someone burn a chip as close or closer then most people who are charging you. now i can say honestly though i never had alvin or his company try anything with my car so i can't say wether or not their company has any competent knowledge. i can tell you this though if you are going to buy something out of state you have almost no legal action towards that company if something goes wrong. a chip is the vital essence to your motor, if something goes wrong and you don't realize it you will pay. just remember that and understand it for what it is as your praying that whomever you buy your chip from knows what they are doing and that they are honest.

good luck with it, you'll need it.