i was curious if the chips from them were worth buying? i know that hypertech and all that stuff is bogus but i was wondering do they make a noticeable difference? i havent emailed the guy with my mods and stuff but i just wanted some feedback before i went ahead and made the effort. will the stage 1 help me if i have open element, TBI mods, muffler, gutted cat, and a posi w/ 373 gears? any idea how much ill gain or any info will be great

 

Download data from your car and have him do a custom chip. I am running one right now and have no complaints. I am continuing to send Brian datalogs so we can dial it in.

So far mine has done well. Hoping to get better and better.

 

All you need for that is simply a computer with ALDL and the cord to plug into the car's computer right? Then you simply send him the file right?

I was lookin' to do the same thing after the engine swap.

 

His chips are at best a stab in the dark. It has nothing to do with his expertise as a burner. You really need to data log over and over and continualy burn chipcs to dail in your combo. You cannot really acheive this through the mail unless you want to send you bins back to him 50 times. He can provide a good starting chip to get your car to run while you take the time to get into chip burning. Doing so will get you all the power out of your combo.

 

is the stage 1 just a generic chip with basic bolt ons or how does the whole system work cuz he sells "stage 1" chips but can also burn a custom one? also on a side note, i might have the opportunity this summer to purchase a 350 out of my friends dads truck its a 91 1500 and it says EFI so its probably TBI too right and if i do that i can use the caprice cop car chip waht else would need to be done for the swap? motor mounts?

 

Stage 1 chip = More timing, a bit more fuel
Stage 2 Chip = More timing and more fuel over stage one and cooling changes are made.
Custom = Uses datalogs that you provide to change the parameters in the chip that need to be changed. You can see that stage one and two are stabs in the dark and they are very close to stock chips. Even a ctustom one by mail order will only be a rough geuss based a few series of data logs. It takes numerous burns to accuratley dial in your combo.

You can get away with a cop car chip if you do not mod that 350 TBI out of that truck. You will need a 350 knock sensor, ECS module and new chip.

 

alright... some people don't want to learn to burn their own chip. I, for one, have little interest and am willing to pay somebody for their expertise. I have the time to wait, and i have the money to pay. If somebody asks about a chip tuner, dont always responds DIY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont want to do it myself... i want someone else to do it. Sorry, just my two cents.

 

I am running a chip tuned by Brian, and it's working quite well.

 

That is absolutely fine. We only sugeest DIY because you get the best results that way in the long run. Now having an experoenced burner have a weekend with your car would be the ideal situation.

 

Well, one problem is the tuner doesnt have access to your car, which means alot of stuff wont get corrected.The data logs themselves are of only limited value. Alot of the information comes from actually driving the car itself. The way the car behaves will tell you alot about what needs to be done. Things such as startup and drivability cant be done through a data log. Only the person who has access to the car (You) can change those things. There is also the fact that what the engine needs changes a bit when it gets cold durning the winter and then hot again in the summer. The stock tune is very middle of the road but usually a custom chip will be set up for the best performance when it was done and its nice to be able to tweak things a bit when the weather changes. Its also nice to know that if a problem is noticed, you can correct it w/o having to pay more money to try and get it corrected. In many ways, with a chip from someone else, your throwing your money away since he cant make alot of the necessary changes. Not tuning your efi is like not properly jetting your holley or setting your vac. advance up right. Having someone else do your tuning is like sending that carb in the mail to be tuned by someone else who you dont even really know who really doesnt know much at all about your car. Granted tuning isnt the most exciting thing in the world, but with an EFI system it really comes with the territory that you have to tune it yourself. Now, there isnt anything wrong if you dont want to tune it, but to some extent, youll be throwing your money away by asking someone else to do it for you.

 

If I wanted to start to burm my own chips what would I need and how would I do it..?

 

did you purposely copy my avatar? :nono:

 

exactly. :hail:

 

The easy answer then is just leave your car stock. What good is doing anything to it, if you're not going to tune it when your done?. Just hanging parts on it, without tuning is just gambling/hoping it'll run better when your done.

 

wrong, just because you dont want to tune your very own chips doesnt mean you cant mod your car. mod it up all you want, but you are going to need a custom chip from somebody that has access to your car. i suggest dyno tuning and then getting the tuner to spend some time just driving your car around and getting good driveability down...

 

i agree with grumpy, chip tuning is something i would much rather just pay someone else to do becuz i would trust them more than myself. i mean sure itd be cool for some people who can just experiment and play around and not have to worry about the affects but in my case this is my daily driver and leaving it undriveable for an extended period of time just for chip tuning is something i cannot do. One last question does anyone have an LT1 cam and the stage 2 upgrade from the website, because its suggested for cars with a cam and exhaust? i just wanted to know about the compatibility with that particular cam and chip.

 

seriously just forget about off-the-shelve chips

 

Oh i know superchips, hypertech, jet and etc. are all a crock but TBIchips.com are tuned by a guy who knows what hes doing. My point is (along with some other people) is that not everyone has the resources, time, or desire to learn that skill. Yes it may get u the best gains, but id rather spend 50 bucks or a little bit more to have someone who has the experience and skill to do it the right way for me. This isnt turning into an argument, i just know this is a large topic when it comes to TBI especially because chip tuning is crucial. I just think that I speak for a lot of guys out there whod rather take another route. Im glad there are people who have got their car tuned to its full potential by doing it themselves. I respect that but the reason i started this thread was to talk about the other guys and the other ways of doing this. I appreciate all of the help, that is my 2 cents on the entire issue. I just want #s if there are some of guys who have the LT1 cam setup and TBIchips.com chip because that is the setup i want to go with. Please help me. Any guys feel the same way I do about this whole deal?

 

Experience doesnt tell you what to put on the chip the first timet to make it run good, it tells you which way to go to get to the point where its running good. Chip tuning is iterative and you have to change things up a bit to find out what needs to be done. Granted, knowing what your doing will help in that you can get a good starting point, but without being able to have access to the car to get the whole picture, its still just that, a good starting point. It sucks if you jsut want to make the car faster w/o having to get involved with the ecms tune, but its a necessity to be able to tune the car yourself since a WAG or some datalogs through the slow *** ALDL alone wont tell the story of how the car is responding to the changes made.

 

i agree with jdizzle. i have seen some of the info on burning your own chips and so on and it looks like you need to have a really good knowledge or background in computer programming. a++ certification or something. some people are good at electronics and some are good at mechanics. but there really has to be an easier way to get a quality chip without doing it youself. and as for datalogging dont you need a laptop and the cable to hookup to your car. if so i for one dont have a laptop.

 

What i think he is getting at is it is pointless to mod your car if you dont want to take on the task of tuning it properly. Stab in the dark chips may work to some degree but it is going to cost you time and the same amount of money to buy chips and ship them back and forth, as it would to just buy the bloody hardware, software and your own chips and learn how to read the ancient ECM.

 

people you are missing the point its not that hard, there are some good programming tools out there that dont require an associates/masters degree in science to operate.

 

cough cough spend the $$$$ and have a knowledgeable person work with you and your car (hint: he has to be there) or get a carb. i dont think there is anything wrong with not wanting to tune your own chips. i dont care how easy it is i didnt want to do it. i went and got a carb and for $10 i can have somebody tune my carb and dissy timing and let me drive the car around to make sure its up to par.

my last post in this thread will say this:
if you are going to mod your EFI car then have somebody do custom work with IN person. if you want to avoid this do it yourself or get a carb

 

I think your right on this one. As far as keeping it tbi I think it's like saying I want to build a big block killer out of my 305. Can it be done, probably, is it feasable, no. If you want performance then bon't be afraid to go carb if you don't want to learn how to tune the chip or just keep calling brian at tbichips and sending him your money untill he gets it right. If you have a performance shop in your area that has a dyno and is capable of tuning chips too then this would also be an option as well as exspensive.

Steve

 

You dont need any knowledge of electronics or programming to tune a chip. I didnt have any knowlege of electronics or any programming experience. Jsut about all of it can be picked up by looking around and reading stuff. Hell, even the same thing can be said for source coding, although a strong background in electronics/computers would help in understanding how the hardware works, not to mention that the learning curve is alot steeper. As for chip tuning, all the software is just point and click. The only hard part is what to put in it to get a good tune. As for laptops. Just about any old cheap POS one that still works will do. The software isnt very intensive so an old pentium or pentium II will work ok. Dont want it to be real nice anyway since youll be toting it around in the car.