looking into making my own chip soon... i have a hypertec now and seen NO diff. at all except a lighter wallet. in a stock 5.0 tpi with just ram air and hiflo cat magnaflow system.will the preformance be that noticable? what gains should i expect? the car runs very well now fow what it is and i know it will never be a 350 but what the heck i might as well impove what i have.

this winter i was looking into a crate 350 zz4 or better but still keep the tpi setup so i was wanting to practice on the 5.0 first awhile.

 

It's impossible to answer how much you'll notice by doing your own chips.

In my truck I went from a little over 9 MPG to almost 14 MPG. Plus, it drives a lot better.

For some folks, it's about drivibility, and in that reguard, it can be a day and night difference. After you get a chip just the way you want it the stocl cal may seem just totally lame, but then again some folks are perfectly happy with the stock drivibility.

But, once you make a serious engine change, then there is just no way to get a chip optimised for that, without either doing it yourself, or spending a BUNCH of money. The chip folks are in it to make a profit, so unless you do it yourself all your doing is lining their wallets, as you've already noticed.

 

thanks for the reply...

i guess it is a trial and error thing huh?
the stock drivealility is ok no real problems at all just feels like there is more potential to be unlocked with just tuning .

 

For some people, and to a certain degree, yes. But, with good note taking, accurate testing, and good analise of data gathered it can be ALOT more then that.

While my truck runs good, and is just a stocker, my car has manners that are not to be believed, and it runs really well

 

Speaking as someone who has recently gotten into tuning, some things start out as trial and error (or maybe experimentation might be a better word), but once you get the hang of it, it begins to really take off. Definately take notes though, and one thing that has helped me is to keep like a revision system for the actual files (everytime I make a change, I document it and save it as version 4.2.1 instead of 4.2.0, etc) so I can back up and compare at any time..

 

Even if you are not interested in real performance gains, just the ability to change converter lock/unlock points, fan on/off temps etc is worth the time and will make the car better for your driving style.

 

well i have been doing a lot of reading on the "how to" type stuff
and there is a lot to it it seems. (but not for you guys) you make is sound simple and when i read the post it might has well been in japaneese lol... other than the sights listed in the sticky notes is there any other places i can go to buy equipment? that you all have had good luck with?

 

If you were to all of a sudden find yourself in Japan it would be confusing. But, if you had to learn Japanese to eat, you'd in short order figure out that much. Looking in from the side lines, yep, there's alot to learn, only because there is alot to learn.
Now if you found yourself in Japan with a group of other Americans, then the transistion would be more comfortable, this list the *group*.

The places mentioned in the stickies are those what *we've* dealt with and know. They've deminstrated the ability to answer guestions, and provide tech support. yes, there are others but these are the known good guys.