I have a 86 Camaro IROC 5.0 TPI, and I was thinking about chipping it, any ideas on what chip is good. I've heard of Hyperchip, Jet, and Motorvation Electronics Corp. Which one is best? Are there anymore out there? Any recommendations?

 

Hypertech and Jet are worthless, and I've never heard of the other. Ed Wright at fastchip.com is one of the best off-the-shelf guys. But nothing compares to having someone sitting at your car with a scan tool and creating a custom chip set up specifically for your car.
That said, if your car is stock, you dont need one. Turn your distributor up to 10 degrees initial advance, and you'll be fine.
The stock computer and chip was designed to handle stock engines and minor bolt ons with no problem. Only if you put a bigger cam and better heads and a larger engine in it do you need a custom chip.

 

none of them. when they really do something to the chip, its wrong more than its right. and when they do change something, its at only at WOT.

for what an aftermarket chip costs, you can buy the stuff to burn your own & get a much better chip.
by doing it yourself you can have a car that runs better overall & really is custom tuned to your motor. on top of that, when you make a change to the motor, you can change the chip to match, you don't get that with a hypercrap, jet or any of the others.

*EDIT*
Kevin posted while i was typing & said it pretty well.

also, i didn't notice, your car has a MAF, it can handle small mods with little to no problems.
if you are planning to make some big changes, then look into burning your own.

 

For the record, speed density can handle small mods too. Its only when you put in a larger camshaft and/or bigger injectors that you run into problems with either computer type.

 

I am going to disagree with Kevin on "twisting the distributor" for a stock engine. That almost always will slow you down. These engines are quite prone to detonation, especially as they accumulate mileage. The way to verify this is by monitoring your engine with a scan tool.

Virtually every car where they increased spark (whether just by twisting the distributor or by adding spark to the eprom), there is increased detonation which causes the knock sensor to pull out more timing than you initally are adding.

In fact, I have found that you can obtain more performance by DECREASING the spark to a point where it is either not causing any detonation or better controlling the knock sensor. Once the knock sensor starts to pull spark, it causes wild fluctuations in the spark curve that limits the amount of spark advance your engine can tolerate.

I have obtain far greater HP (on dynos) by controlling the amount of retard the KS pulls out so the engine maintains a smooth spark curve WITHOUT incurring audible detonation.

Also, on bone stock 350 TPIs, I have routinely obtain over 30 RWHP gains just by tuning. That's better than most other SINGLE modification (just headers, just intakes or just cam) you do to a TPI. Obviously, if you do the intake, exhaust, cam & eprom all together, you can obtain some pretty impressive results.

Lastly, the BEST modification to start with is eprom burning IMO. The biggest mistake most guys make, is they start to modify their engine, but then discover they need an eprom to make their modifications to perform optimally. By starting eprom burning, you can learn without worrying that you are going to seriously disable the engine. Then, when you feel ready, you can start modifying the engine, knowing you'll be in fine shape to burn a good eprom for your new engine.

However, if you modify your engine, you may find the modifications are so dramatic that it's too difficult to start "learning to burn eproms" at that point.

 

Hrm... your experiences are different than mine, obviously. Stock timing in a 305 or 350 TPI is in the 26 degree range. Adding 4 degrees in the distributor will get you 30 degrees total timing, well short of the 34-36 that I've always seen SBC's make the most power. If 30 degrees total timing on a stock engine makes it ping and detonate, you have way too much carbon buildup in your cylinders and should start saving for a rebuild.

 

Again, I disagree. That must be those restrictive CA emission rated bins you guys must use.

I have LOTS of bins for a variety of cars and in P/E and over 4,000 rpm, the main spark table is occasionally very high 20s, but usually in the low 30s. And then you must add the P/E (though a few oddballs have NEGATIVE P/E for some reason). If there is a difference, the L98s MAY have a bit more spark than 305s and standard trannies MAY have a bit more than autos.

I am looking at the stock AUM bin (there does not appear to be CA or FED emissions rating for 1986s bins like later years). The AUM was for all 1986 LB9 auto F-body carw and would be the MOST conservative of all bins for TPI cars. I figure I may as well use a relevant bin for drivea as he has a 1986 TPI F-body.

At 4,800 rpm, the stock bin at an LV8 reading of 208 is 30.9* WITHOUT P/E. P/E adds another 2* at 4800 rpm, so the total spark advance is 32.9*. Not the 26* like you are claiming.

I can say with assurance that there is NO WAY the LB9 will run that WITHOUT pulling out spark advance with the stock 1987 AUM bin (if you monitored it with a scan tool). And, if you were to change the distributor to 10*, you may just start to hear detonation with the stock Knock Sensor settings and if the KS retard maxes out.

 

 

*shrug* Obviously you're better at this than I am. I know more about the 90-92 speed density chips anyway.