i have a 91 z28 tpi and i am new to this but i would like to learn. what do i need to start burning my own chips.

 

You need tunercat...
www.tunercat.com
and the appropriate definition file for your year, which would be $8D.

$69.95 for Tunercat and $19.95 for the definition.

Then you need a programmer for chips. You can get one from www.xtronics.com. It's called The Pocket Programmer.
$149.95 + shipping I beleive.

Then, I'd highly recommend a piggyback adapter from www.moates.net. You can install your new chip on this adapter and bypass the stock memory chip instead of doing the programming on it.

Then you could get a flash chip from Tom Wong here on the board, or from Moates too. You want an Atmel 29C256 chip.
This will save you some money by not requiring an EEPROM (chip) eraser.

This is everything you need.

 

how would i go about reading all the vital signs of my car to know what it needs. i have a z28 and i need to get a chip burned for it to run that is the only thing i am waiting on. but i was talking to TPIS and they want 575 for their custom chip. is it realy that hard to tune your own chip. i mean i am not dumb when it comes to cars but i am no master Mechanic either. plus if i learn how to do this i can chang things in the future

 

You can use TTS Power Systems' Datamaster http://www.ttspowersystems.com

And get a cable from Andrew Mattei at
http://www.akmcables.com

Yes, $575 is a lot of cash for a chip....