jetucker00

We have held on to this car since 1992 (second owners) We have had it shipped across the country during our moves, and it has taken up valuable garage space for several years. Well, I finally put my foot down and was allowed to put my years of research into action..(even though I am over budget so far by ..ooohhh say $4500+..oops)
Anyway, sorry I am dragging. We have an 89 IROC Convertible, I had a 383 stroker built by Dallas Exports with KB 10.3:1, 4 bolt mains, 5.7 I-beam 4340 forged Scat crank, AFR 190cc heads, ported and polished and port matched to a TPIS Mini-Ram with a TPIS 58mm throttle body, a Lunati Hydraulic roller with 219/227 at .050" with .471/.480 lift & 112 LS, comp cams roller rockers w/plate, fluid dampener, TPIS level V prom, MSD Billet Dist, MSD 6AL, Blaster 3 coil, Hooker supercomp long tubes 1 5/8, no cats, (non-cat back undecided yet) All emissions removed, Pro-Built TH700-R4 with Act 2800 RPM stall, BMR Strut tower brace, Energy suspension bushings throughout (all), Bilstein shocks and struts, stainless steel brake and cooling lines throughout, Eibach Pro-kit springs front and rear, BMR subframe connectors, BMR Panhard, BMR rear control arms/w relocator brackets, BMR Torque Pak, TPIS Carbon fiber driveshaft, 3.73 gears with TPIS Diff girdle, (this thing is going first!!)

Still to come:
Auto meter lunar gauges throughout
Recaro seats
4-point powder powder coated rollcage
Hurst Quarter-Stick-console shifter
Custom Billet Dash insert
Momo Steering wheel
5 Point Harness
Video-camera mount on rollgage
150 Shot NOS


Anyone have any mini-ram advice..do's or don't for me?
It is the first time I have even looked at one. Any ideas on Mufflex or somthing similar? Thanks for any replies or advice.

Jim Tucker

jetucker00

What? Did I say something wrong???

Joshua Leslie

I read your post and had an orgasm.

Guest

Quite honestly, this question would probably be answered better on the TPI board. Want it moved?

egmonster

I must say I like what you're doing . Sounds really similar to what i have planned
Although I must say that you should really tune it yourself... I mean with that much invested you want to trust your car to a TPIS off the shelf chip? heh that just my 2 cents

jetucker00

Are the TPIS proms off the shelf? I was assured different. I was originally going to go with superchip, but I heard too many negative comments about the product.
I actually posted the wrong TPIS level chip, it is actually a Level VI for the mini-ram and they had me do a ton of data gathering for it that superchip didn't bother to ask, such as cam duration, lobe separation, stall speed, shift points of my built tranny as well as performance parts built into the tranny, gear ratio and what exactly extra I had done to the AFR heads. It has not been burned yet since I have still not given them my exhaust setup because I have not chosen anything but the headers as of yet.
That didn't sound very "off the shelf"? Am I wrong?
I have read or researched very little on tuning my own chip, and just assummed it to be way out of my ability. I can turn a wrench, but have seen little published other than some postings on the Prom board. The level those guys are at seems pretty far away.
Thanks for the input.
Tucker

Guest

I think you'll find many people say prom burning is easy, but you have to feel comfortable with doing stuff like that if you want to consider it as 'easy'. Some people just wont mess with it.

As for TPIS proms, do a search on them. You'll find more than a few people who are less than impressed with them. For what you pay, I think that more work could have been invested in changes.

egmonster

I agree with Madmax on this one... TPIS will have your car running OK though (hopefully). Make sure you give them your altitude and let them know what kind of weather the car will be seeing too, as this all has a big effect on the parameters of your chip. Theoretically they should be able to do something decent with the data you give them, but in actuallity it never quite works out like that . I figure if you're willing to invest that much time/money into your engine you may as well learn how to tune the thing yourself. Just my 2 cents Certainly you will NEED a different ecu than your stock setup so if you don't really care that much about having all the performance you squeeze outta the thing than hopefully TPIS can burn u a realiable chip. I'll tell ya though, sometimes those chip companies screw up and end up destroying engines with chips that have a little too aggressive timing in all the wrong places. Read the Sticky: forum on the TPI board if you're at all interested... even if you're not you may be after you read it.

jetucker00

I have been reading the posts on the Prom board. I am assuming I could go with the TPIS or Fastchip prom and then utilize the same chip and burn my own fine tuning changes to it over a period of time. Do you really think I am going to need an upgraded ECU for this setup? What are the advantages/features of an non-stock ECU?
Thanks for the input
Tucker

Guest

It'll run on the stock chip, just not real well. The cam is a little milder than what I have run and that car was a little unhappy with the stock chip. The cam you have has 5 degrees less duration on the intake side, so it will be less unhappy. It'll probably run a bit rich at idle, rpm's might bounce up and down while idling depending on how bad the vacuum is. If it were me and I had a choice, I'd pick a fastchip first.

jetucker00

The cam was just changed..the lift was too mild for the mini-ram setup I was told. Am now going with a TPIS ZZ-409. 226/226@ .050 and .520/.520 with 1.5 rockers and 112 Lobe Sep.
I am also going to take the advice and lose the 1 5/8" longtubes for some 1 3/4"
Tucker

egmonster

I ment to say prom... the ecu should be able to run what you got. Ya you could use whatever prom they sent you as a basis but you may end up regretting that as you might see just how much money you wasted on that chip .