I have an 89 TBI T/A that will be getting some minor mods in the spring. What's the best way to tune the ECM? I do not have the means to do it myself.

 

Some stores on ebay sell tuned ECM's you send yours in and they ship you the tuned ECM. Or you could go with a jet chip or power tuner but usually the tuned ECM will be the cheepest.

 

If you are changing the air flow through the engine, you would need to change the fueling tables in your ECM (chip). While purchasing an aftermarket guess-what-I-do chip is easy and convenient, it does not fit your car at all, it would be just a coincidence if the car ran good with it.

The only way to make the car run right with modifications is to tune it properly. You just need a laptop (any old laptop will do), cable and software (most can be downloaded for free). Once you learn how to do it, it's not that hard.

Another option is to find a friend in your area who knows how to tune.

Hope this helps.
Lou

 

So the ECM can be flashed? I thought they were a removable chip...I learned something!

Were can I get the cable & software?

 

yea where can he get that? i wanna know too

 

No, all thirdgens have removeable chips. You can replace them with flashable chips, though.

See the DIY Prom board, and the Introduction to PROM Burning tech article for more info.

 

Not all thirdgens have removable chips. The TPI chips (from a 730 ECM) have to be desoldered and replaced with a socket.

As Kevin already pointed out, the DIY PROM board is a good place to start. Lots of good info there, good advice for beginners too.

You can either program your own chips (with a programmer) or you can buy one of those flashable adapters and tune the engine from the laptop directly. It depends on how much money you want to invest in it.

Lou

 

Ok, when I said removeable chips I meant the whole thing, the memcal.

You are right in that the actual prom chip itself (on both the 86-89 MAF and 90-92 MAP) is soldered into the memcal and not easily removeable.

The 85 MAF and 88-92 TBI have chips that are easily removed from the computer.