people who have chips in there car..... i know nothing about them, i have just heard some people say that they dident do anything for them and others say that they made a pretty noticable difference, but i was looking threw the next gen catalog, and saw the JET performace chips and begin to wonder, so now im thinking of getting one, i was looking at the JET stage 2 chip since i have a 160* thermostat and + headers and a cat-back, if a custom chip is the way to go how do i go about getting one? i planning on probably keeping the car mostly stock for now but later i plan on upgrading heads and cam.....so for now would a JET chip help me shave a 1/10th or 2..???

 

You would get more by advancing the distributer a few degrees
probably and running the car cool at the track as to avoid detonation.
As far as a custom chip - its the way to go,especially when you put in/on cam and heads the drivability more than pays for its self.
You could be doing your own proms for less than it takes to buy the hypertech and be so much happier.
Read this article and start now before you build.
https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/promintro.shtml

 

For not much more then the price of generic aftermarket prom, you could be doing your own.

Some cars don't make too much more HP then a stock chip, just a luck of the straw type thing. But, nothing drives as well as a correctly calibrated chip. Nothing.

Sides it's educational, and fun to learn.

 

I personally think that "learning to burn your own eprom" should be your FIRST modification that you make to your car.

I just recently installed a Miniram with mildly ported Aluminum L98 heads and because I 'honed' my eprom burning craft on a basically stock engine, I was quickly able to burn an eprom that drove very well with NO driveability problems. I am now in the process of optimizing it, after I eliminate a few bugs with the install itself.

But, when my engine was basically stock, I got significant gains in performance along with fantastic gas mileage. The savings in gas over the last couple of years actually has paid for all my equipment.

Once I optimize the Miniram/Aluminum L98 head combo AND I save up enough to upgrade my tranny/rear-end - I will then replace the camshaft. I decided to run the stock camshaft right now for a variety of reasons:

1) I wanted to see how a Miniram/Aluminum L98 heads worked with the stock cam because SO MANY people said I would loose bottom end torque. (Completely false btw, this setup has far more torque than my TPI did - don't listen to the nay sayers).

2) I wanted to see how far I could tune with just the intake/heads. I did some cleaning up of the combustion chamber to see if I could run more spark advance with the Aluminum L98 heads (normally, 25-28* is about all they'll take - but after I scoped out the stock combustion chamber, I can see why).

3) I wanted a "solid base" to work with so when I do the cam swap, I will ONLY be dealing with cam issues...nothing else.

4) As I said before, I need more money to upgrade my tranny/rear-end because once I add that cam, I doubt either will survive. And the wife is already pissed off enough at me for "fixing something that wasn't broken". She gets even madder when I break something that didn't have to get broken.

Save your money and burn your own.

 

Doh! Don't tell me that Glenn!!
Tim = Still running a never rebuilt tranny and still running a 7.5" rearend.

Seriously though - the rearend will hold up if you have an automatic. Mike Davis was pulling 1.5x 60ft times at the track with his 10-bolt. I pulled many 1.7's. The 10-bolt will hold up. The tranny, however, is a different story ... mine is just an anamoly - sort of. I think the main reason that mine has held up so well is from some BASIC modifications that really allow it to hold more torque ....

Auxiliary Remote Mount tranny filter
Auxiliary 24,000GVW SuperCooler
Derale Starfire Tranny pan
GM Corvette Servo
GM 0.500/0.296 TV Boost/Intermediate Boost Valve
Smaller - higher stall converter

Basically - keep the fluid COOL and CLEAN while running some higher pressures. I also have a crappy shift kit installed but installing a Trans-Go shift kit along with these mods would be the bomb for a stock tranny. The smaller torque converter softens the shift to reduce the internal shock. The stock tranny can take more abuse than people give it credit for. The truly bad rap comes from the earlier 700's along with transmission rebuilders who have no idea what they are doing.

Tim

 

Not to get off subject but i agree w/the stock rearend,I was running mid 11's with the stock 10 bolt in my 82 1.51 best 60ft
before it gave for yrs.
As for the 700 mine has been holding in my 87 it has 65,000
original miles and the last 10,000 has been a 12.8 et combo.
Just switched to 3000 stall yesterday,will find out today if any gains.

 

I am definitely going to look at an external tranny cooler and I lke the idea of an external filter.

I guess I am a little "tranny shy" because my original tranny died back in 1995-96 while the car was still on warranty (blew a seal and toasted the clutch plates). So GM gave me a new SRTA - which is a much better tranny. It's had a LOT MORE abuse than my original did (hell, I babied that thing). It even upshifts to 4th under WOT.

But I am seriously looking at an external tranny cooler especially since the temperature gets well over 100*F during the summer where I live.

BUt I am still amazed by the torque below 2,500 rpm. on my basically stock setup. Definitely more than my TPI. Anyone who says you loose bottom end torque with a Miniram never used one. About the only place where it feels a little softer is from 3,000 - 3,500 rpm. Barely noticeable in my opinion. Once I start optimizing the eprom, I expect to recover that too.

But all those "myths" about the Miniram loosing bottom end torque is not true. I wonder how all these rumors start?

 

Most probably start right here on thirdgen.org with the words "I heard..."

 

You have a stock cam with good midlift flow,of course you are going to have low end torque.
Lt1 have great torque,they up shift from 1st to 4th thats good low end torque.