Hi, I'm new to the game of ecm's and chips and such. I've got a stock 88Iroc and a buddy has a wrecked 88vette. He's offered me the ecm and memcal(?) to try in my car. Question is does this work? Is the vette ecm and chip compatible to my car and are there any benefits? thanks, Joe

 

Is your car an auto trans? Is his? I don't see any benefit in changing the two? Another question does the vette have vats? They should interchange but I don't think you gain much or anything. However, if the vette is a manual trans without vats I would be interested in buying the ecm and memcal. Check it out and get other opinions but I think I'm right. Just so you know I'm putting a stock 350 vette motor in my 88 TA and need a memcal for it but it has to be for a manual trans Thanks Rosco

 

Rosco, thanks for the reply, I don't know what tranny is in it. He had wrecked it long before we became friends and it's been stored in a corner of his warehouse a long time. I'll ring him up and see what I can find out. I just thought that maybe the vettes programming would be set for a bit more roowwwr! maybe not...my car does not have vats, I'll have to ask about that too. Send me a pm with a e-mail contact so I can get back to you, Joe

 

my e-mail is rosco385@msn.com Is your car an automatic? I do know that you would need to have an auto memcal for it to work right. Thanks Joe

 

yeah it's the 350 auto. I just got it and am starting to mess with it a little. Just can't leave "well enough" alone. No heat in the garage so as soon as it warms a bit some GMPP 1.6 roller rockers and the hooker emission headers. It's only got 25k on it and smokes a bit on a cold start so I'll probably do the guide seals too when I do the rockers. As soon as I get a return call I'll let you know about the vette stuff.

 

Ok Joe sounds good. Good luck on the warm weather its cold here too and the wind is terrible.. Have fun Rosco

 

If the 88 Vet has aluminum heads (?...and I think that it does) I suspect that the timing curves will be very different than for the Iron head 88 IROC. I think that you'd have too much timining advance in the Memcal for it to work well. Of course you could put some Aluminum heads on the IROC and probably be good to go!

 

mnorton, it seems like i've got a bit of investigating to do! Depending on what he's gonna do w/ the car maybe I can get the entire motor and harness...I'll have to see. Mine is only 25k miles and runs great so I'm not really up to pulling it all apart just for a few more hp. I was hoping that just a brain swap might liven it up a bit more. Why would the timing curves be so different on an aluminum head vs. the cast heads? thx, Joe

 

im pretty sure they both use the same ECM, so there is nothing to be gained there unless your ECM has problems.

if the vette does have aluminum heads, the timing map brings the timing in faster & i believe the total timing is higher. it has to do with aluminum dissipating heat much quicker than iron. a timing map for aluminum heads used on an iron headed motor will ping & detonate it self to death.

also, if im not mistaken, lighter cars bring timing in faster. again too much timing coming in too fast will only hurt performance & may well kill the motor.

 

thanks for the info, Joe