I have a 1986 TPI car. We are building a 355 with AFR heads, long tubes, and xtreme cam. We burnt the computer chasing some eleectronic gremlins. Should I just get a stock computer for this model year or is there an advantage to going with another year computer(can not afford aftermarket computer) I read in one of these posts that someone was switching to a 1989 ECM. They are still MAF, so any advantages? I want to keep the MAF for now also.(AFR heads are expenssive :-))

Thanks for any and all help

Chris

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1986 305 TPI
8.0 @88 in the 1/8
**Soon to be 355

 

hrm, welp, i'm not too familiar with your year, but i believe you have the cold-start injector and the 89's don't. So there would be one advantage. Other than that, i'm not sure.

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89 IROC-Z 350 TPI

-Flowmaster Catback
-Performance Resource Chip
-700R4 (Rebuilt) Too much done to actually list
-K&N Airfilters
-Ported Plenum
-2.77 Gears (not much to brag about but eh, its there)
-MSD 8.5 mm plug wires
-Problems every other day with the car (probably not a mod, but to me it sure makes a difference)

 

There is no difference between the '88 and '89 ECMs. They are the same part number. The difference is in the PROM. '88 PROMs ($32B) were designed to use the cold start injector. '89 PROMS ($6E) were designed NOT to use the cold start injector. '89 was also the year that GM updated the microcode in the backhalf of the PROM bin. However, I don't have details as to what they changed and why.

So - long story short - it doesn't matter if you go with an '88 or an '89 ECM because they are the same. I would recommend, however, that you use an '89 bin as the base image for your tuning.

Tim

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TRAXION's 1990 IROC-Z
Best Time = 12.244 @ 112.51mph (1.778 60' / 7.819@88.32mph in the 1/8)
All Natural. No Force. No Drugs. Stock Bottom End. Stock Body Panels.
Gunning for NA 11's with bigger cam, bigger stall, and bigger exhaust.
-=ICON Motorsports=-
Moderator: PROM board at thirdgen.org

 

Since I am new to this, a bin is what I program into the chip, sort of like a starting point? Where do you get blank proms?? How much are they?


Thanks

Chris

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1986 305 TPI
8.0 @88 in the 1/8
**Soon to be 355

 

oh yea and what is $32B and $6E

Thanks again

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1986 305 TPI
8.0 @88 in the 1/8
**Soon to be 355

 

I don't mean to turn this into a "for sale" ad, but if you don't have a replacement ECM already, and you don't have easy (cheap) access to one, let me know. I have a few of them. Scored one last weekend out of a '91 S-10. The '91 Tech-4 S-pickups are a good "unknown" source of '165 ECMs, by the way.

Anyway if you need one, e-mail me.

 

NufNuff,

Read the PROM burning article ....
https://www.thirdgen.org/newdesign/tech/promintro.shtml

Then, read it again. It answers the questions you asked.

Tim

------------------
TRAXION's 1990 IROC-Z
Best Time = 12.244 @ 112.51mph (1.778 60' / 7.819@88.32mph in the 1/8)
All Natural. No Force. No Drugs. Stock Bottom End. Stock Body Panels.
Gunning for NA 11's with bigger cam, bigger stall, and bigger exhaust.
-=ICON Motorsports=-
Moderator: PROM board at thirdgen.org