Currently looking at the EBL P4 Flash, I've read a lot of positive comments about this ECM. For a complete novice is this the best route for more of a plug and play engine management system? The cost seems more obtainable than some of the newer Holly equipment, I don't need touch screens I need effective. What other systems are out there that are viable candidates?

It’s by far the easiest system to install. I’ve really enjoyed my years with the EBL. It doesn’t have things like sequential injection and closed loop WOT, but it’s easy enough to get around those in most cases. The resources here are easy to search, and almost every topic has been covered. The creator of the EBL is a frequent contributor here. It’s super easy to add wideband O2 functionality, fuel pressure transducer, data is easy to export with the WUD and view in excel, the system uses 98% of the stock sensors and wiring, hardware capable of supporting mild to wild applications, I can keep going on. I’m a big fan. After 7+ years it has been worth every penny, and continues to deliver every time I turn the key.

EBL is great with OEM type durability and capability. It certainly has limits to what it can do, but as an example I ended up taking out a Holley HP ECM system in one of my thirdgens due to a software upgrade that Holley made that basically caused random misfires in HEI type systems. Even though I sent in detailed info on the issue they didn't correct it for over a year. EBL builds on a platform of stability. If I was just using a car for the dragstrip / autocross I would consider Holley for some of its features. For a dependable driver it is far from ideal for many reasons including the ability to lose programming if you shut the system down in the wrong way

Frankly for a 30 year old ECM (the 7730 with 8D), it's actually fairly impressive how much fidelity it has on fuel and spark tuning. Pretty much any operating condition has parameters to tune.

I don't have an EBL, but from what I hear it is really good too.

Aside from the 7730 not having closed loop on power enrichment and not using a WB O2 as an input into the fueling, or self-learning to update the VE tables, there is actually a lot you can play with to get everything dialed in. And with VE tuning tools using Tunerpro datalogs, even that's been extremely simplified.

I've decided to go the chip burning route, I've enlisted the help from Tuned Performance who is highly recommended here on TGO. Maybe after I've got the car back on the road awhile I'll try out the EBL.