I have no clue how it works, aside from it pretty well runs the engine... how much fuel to give and so on. What's the advantage to changing the chip? And if changed, is there a way to have two chips? one for city and one for performance? Just trying to understand why it should be changed?

Thanks,
Jay

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'91 RS 305 5.0L V8
Bowtie Grill & Lamps, K&N Air Filter, Centerforce Clutch, and of coarse kickass stereo
www.primetimetime-pc.com/Jay/index.html

 

GM designed the ECM/chip to optimize emissions and mileage, not performance or longevity.

Every car is different; especially one with miles on it. Tuning your chip to your car will "dial in" all your various components so that they will perform best under *your* conditions, not just what GM thinks your average conditions should be.

You can have as many chips as you want; one for performance, one for mileage, etc. Just pop the new one in. Many choose to install a ZIF socket and just change chips; others buy the complete new MemCal and just reprogram and replace that. (I do both!)

[This message has been edited by Sarkee (edited September 21, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Sarkee (edited September 21, 2001).]

 

Actually, you can have performance and fuel economy on the same eprom. When you are cruising down the highway at light part throttle, the ecm will sense the condition and you can invoke highway mode. The highway mode is designed to disengage on a "user defined" load setting. Once you cross the threshold, it disengages.

WOT is another condition, and you can specifically optimize the eprom to yield best performance once you engage PE. The net result is your the ecm detects how your are driving based on the load on your engine and will select Highway Mode or Power Enrichment based on your predefined settings.

You can have your cake and eat it too.

 

Whups! I didn't notice he had a 7730! (I have a 7165).

Thanks for pointing that out!

 

The 7165 ECM has Highway mode too!!

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Karl Hunter
Hunter Motorsports
Vancouver, B.C. CANADA

 

Karl is correct. The same principals work on MAF and SD.

 

...Hmmmm...My car is an '86 Vette; where would I look to find the Highway Mode? How would I recognize it on the road? (SOTP)

 

I am not sure if the Highway mode is in the older code. The 89 MAF cars use a different code (6E) but you could always upgrade to that code if you want the advantages of highway mode. The computers (ECM) are the same. Just different PROM code.

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Karl Hunter
Hunter Motorsports
Vancouver, B.C. CANADA

 

??? I could burn a chip with the 89 code, say for an L98 man trans, and it would run? In my '86 7165? (Hmmm, isn't the ARAP just an 89 Vette BIN???)

 

Yes, you could just burn up a chip for that application. An 89 Vette chip (AYPM, I think) would work, provided a couple of changes are made: disable VATS, and disable the cold start injector on the engine. It may also require some minor tweaking, I think the camshafts are different, but the MAF system is very versitile, so it would run fine even right out of the box.

ARAP is a Camaro bin. It is for an auto car, 350 - but with iron heads, not aluminum.

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Karl Hunter
Hunter Motorsports
Vancouver, B.C. CANADA

 

Karl -

Can you explain (in layman's terms, please!) just what the difference in code is between the $6E and the $32???

Why is the $6E so desirable???

(And would I need another definition file for TunerCat???) (Edit: Answered that one myself - Yes I would).

[This message has been edited by Sarkee (edited September 23, 2001).]

 

I have never seen the $32 code, so I cannot tell you what all the differences are, but I do know that the $6E is more desirable. Why? I do not have all the details, but I understand that the $6E is more comprehensive. Perhaps someone with experiance with $32 would be able to explain the major differences??

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Karl Hunter
Hunter Motorsports
Vancouver, B.C. CANADA

 

The 6E was GM's most up todate MAF software at the time. GM was trying to overcome some limitations with the older MAF code and the 6E was the answer.

Also, the 6E is more known and fully hac'd. Mainly because people invested the time to figure it out, as it works better. Because of this, TunerCat and other "BIN Editor programs" have move constants and tables defined, allowing you to modify more.

An advantage of the ARAP, is that the MAF Scalar tables are setup better. If you look at a stock bin for an 1989 F-body and then the ARAP BIN, you will notice subtle differences in the ARAP code which makes it more precise for fuel metering.