Okay I know this has been covered a million times but this one is a bit different, I am in the middle of trying to decide between the Commander 950 and the 730 GM ECU. Okay heres where this post is different.

I can buy the C950 for $479 from Salle Chevrolet and repin my stock harness and away I go.

Or I can get the Auto Prom from Craig for $325 plus $55 for the ZIF adapter and $100 for Tuner cat RT and $20 for a BIN and $50 for a junkyard 730 ECM, so a rough estimate of about $550.

Okay I know I could do the stock ECU stuff cheaper but I feel that these two setups are comparable. Both can tune in real time, both can datalog, both will use stock harness with re-pining etc., Tuner Cat compares to the holley software as far as 3D graphs and user freindly-ness goes.

So heres where I'm at,
either way I go I am going to use the Innovative Motorsports LM1 wideband O2,

so should I go with the holley, which can use the wideband signal directly,

or use the 730 with more parameters and better technology but not being able to use the wideband directly and a greater lerning curve.

I guess I am just thinking out loud here but, I any wants to comment or add anything it would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Clint

 

Street car or race car?.
If a street car, then what do you do in case of a failure?, with a stock ecm most any parts house or junk yard will have one readily available.

You'll note with each new generation of aftermarket ecm then add more and more features to approach the oem levels of tunibility.

And what kind of pool size of expertise do the aftermarkets offer compared to say the DIY PROM board here?.

 

Something else to consider IMHO is if you go the DIY route, and ever need to tune a second car, you already have all the tools.

 

Grumpy makes a real good point in his first statement. Automotive electronics are prone to failure because of the vibration and temperature extremes they are subjected to. A replacement 730 will run, as you say, about $50 at a junkyard. Cheap enough to keep a spare. If the 950 goes out, you're looking at $479 plus shipping all over again, and downtime waiting for it to arrive.


Also you don't HAVE to spend $100 on TunerCat. I've never used it, so I can't say if it's worth the money, but Mark's program TunerPro is shareware, and is slap-full of bin changing beauty, 3D graphs and all. And the RT version lets you tune in real-time.


As far as I can tell, the ultra-steep learning curve is the only downfall. If you're willing to spend lots of time reading things you don't understand, and then reading them again because something at the very end made you think you might be able to figure out something you read in the middle, then the GM stuff is for you.

 

Have you researched Mega Squirt yet? Ultra Mega Squirt and MSII will be coming out soon. It will in my opinion raise the bar for all other ecms for price, ability, you name it.

 

While at one time that was very true, but with some of the ecms having been cracked, and the source code Public Domained, it's all blurred from the GM oems to the Mega.....