has anyone got one of their pre-burnt chips? i was thinking about getting one for my mostly stock 92 rs. figured it would give me a few extra ponies and save some gas. just wanted to know of some of ur experiences with them./

 

Search the forum. They're crap. The rarely make the car run any better, and often make it run worse than the stock chip.

If you want to increase performance of your vehicle, save your money, and put it toward tuning equipment, and do the tuning yourself. Once you're done, you can even sell the equipment, and make back most of your money.

You will be throwing your money down the toilet, if you buy a chip from somebody like TBI chips.com.

 

Lol is someone mad. Are we talking about the same TBI Chips? Harris performance? If I can recall they have a good rep and there is countless threads on here about them and most if not all are positive.

Example: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tbi/...xperience.html


URai: Are you sure you sent in the right information to him for the chip? I am suspecting you probably did not and hence why it ran like crap. Even then, you should of sent it back and get it re-done. Why do people insist of giving bad reviews without making sure thats the final product they are gonna receive.


In the end, If you do not desire to learn or mess with tuning the TBI, They seem like a good investment. I plan to be a customer soon.

 

If you're getting a custom-tuned chip, by data logging, and sending it in and having it tuned from there, it wouldn't be bad.

But what it appeared the OP was planning on doing was just going on TBIchips.com's ebay store, and picking a chip that's just got a generic bin on it.

Big difference from a custom tune.

If you're talking about data-logging, sending in information, getting a chip, data logging, and getting another chip sent out that's been fine-tuned, that's another matter entirely.

But just buying an off-the-shelf 'one size fits all' chip with yield less-than-desirable results, and can often harm performance, more than it helps it.

 

In the end, isnt that what his chips on the ebay store is advertising? This was and is not a thread on the op asking for a custom top of the line tune, just something to help it out. Which most will say Harris does his job well.


Also from what I can tell, he does his job very well and according to his ebay page:

NO HASSLE REFUND: If the chip does not perform the way I claim in your vehicle, I will either offer to make you a new chip or refund your money in full including shipping charges.

Howis that bad? Did you buy one off the ebay page and not fully read what the pages state? Since its very clear.

 

right all i was it just a little more than stock. i dont have many engine mods really just a lower thermo and filter. thats it. so i dont need some crazy awesome tune. just yet. im still in college and dont really have the money for anythnig major. im saving up to swap in a 350 whenever the 305 dies.

 

just my quick two cents....I orderred my chip from harris tbi on ebay after spending thousands of dollars on trying to fix a rapid flashing SES and ironically it was the ONLY thing wrong with my car, his chip FIXED my problem and my car has ran better than i can ever imagine. just tell him what you have in your car and he will tune the chip to what you have....for example, i asked him to remove the speed and rev limiter. Main thing he wants to know is your engine, transmission, and exhaust or rear end mods.

 

You probably won't listen, but seriously, save your money, until you can do a real tune. There are plenty of people who've been on this forum far longer than I (10+ years, some of them) who will tell you the same.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tpi/...-also-tps.html

I've read before that a lot of those chip sellers basically just take the cop car caprice .bin (ANLU) and burn it to the chip, and sell it as a "performance chip". That .bin is programmed for a 350, which, on a 305, will throw your BPW off by quite a bit, and cause you to run either rich or lean (I don't know what the standard BPW is on the 305s, since I've only got 350s).

If you want, I can burn you a chip with whatever .BIN you want on it, for the cost of the chip and the postage. There are plenty of .BINs out there that will be as suited, or better, to your engine, as an off-the-shelf chip. You can modify your stock chip holder to fit it, or install a standard socket in your ECM...

At any rate, you will be worlds ahead by simply waiting until you're ready to do a complete tune.

If you really want to just put something in it, you can get the same result by just having somebody throw your choice of .bin on a chip, and going with that, until you're ready for a real tune.

ETA: Based on the math I did, the stock base pulse width of a 305 should be about 148, so that cop bin, programmed for 65lb injectors, is going to be running a BPW of 128, which will make you run considerably leaner, if you keep your stock injectors. It'd be a little closer if you upgraded to 55lb injectors though...

 

Rapidly flashing MIL light means that your chip was hosed. ANY chip would have fixed it. I can't imagine what in God's name you spent thousands of dollars on, by throwing parts at it, rather than diagnosing it, but that's neither here nor there.

You could have yanked a prom from a salvage yard for $3, and been off and running...

Snake oil salesmen, it seems, will always have a steady supply of customers though.

 

I would follow Ura advice, Skip it for now. I still think Harris is a good guy and does good work but I would not spend or buy it unless you seriously do not want to do it yourself and its the last thing you do. I would get the car its tune up. Make sure it has good threads, hell maybe even some suspension upgrades before going into buying this.

 

My RS came with one when I got it. From what the PO told me, it wasnt really a performance chip, he had it made so it wouldnt throw codes after he got rid of the EGR/AIR/CAT and it also had lean cruise mode enabled... the car got great mileage for me. 18-19mpg city driving isnt bad at all, IMO.

I have a narrowband AFR gauge and you could clearly see it hitting lean cruise all the time, cool stuff. I cant remember, maybe there was a speed limiter that was removed too? But I dunno I never went faster than 70 in it.

I'd be willing to sell it for next to nothing if you want it, I've got a carbed 350 now.

 

Mine has worked fine for years with alot of mods

 

Care to share a datalog on how "Fine" it's performing?

I don't doubt that your car still runs "Okay" or "Fine". Your car would run "Okay" or "Fine" with the stock chip in it too. The question is whether or not the chips are any good. And the simple answer is not really.

They're usually no better (and sometimes worse) than a stock chip. That's the simple truth. You can throw just about any v-8 bin on a chip, and the engine will probably run "Fine". But it won't run "Good" or "Great", until you actually tune your chip to your engine. Bottom line.

 

Agreed 100%. Its like mail order surgery. The Dr. needs to have you in his hands to fix you. When you tune a set-up, no matter how "common" it may seem, you will make burn after burn after burn to dial it in. No tuner in the world can take a set of parameters on paper and dial in a tune. As mentioned, they may get it to idle and seem fine but you are no where near optimal. Its not feasable to constantly send bins to a tuner for them to mail you a new chip. Especially if they do not have any WB02 data. Before the days of EBL, experienced tuners would make 100+ burns (with a WB02) before they were confident that their tune was spot on. TBIchips is a waste of your money. Spend it on EBL and DIY. Thats the only way to mod these cars.

 

All I can tell you is that I am happy with the mans product...My LO3 is my only car, and has taken me to work everyday for the past 7 years, runs in the 14's,will hit 140, gets good mileage, and starts everyday...Would it run better with Data Logging???? YES IT WOULD....Would a Custom Burnt Chip Help??? YES, IT WOULD...Is it worth it to me???? Well I keep saying I'm going to Data Log, and Burn my own, BUT I haven't done it yet...Brian told me right off the bat, if I was not happy with my Chip, he would redo it, or refund my money...That was about 5 years ago...I have swapped back, and forth between the 2 chips, and the TBI Chip does perform better...Perhaps I just got lucky...I know there are a few horses left to be found, and Data Logging is the way to go, but for a good percentage of people, that extra couple percent is not worth the time, or expense...I am sure someday, when I get other issues with my car taken care of, I will Data Log, and burn...Just my 2 cents guys...Tommy

 

I have a Harris Chip in my car ind it runs "fine" as well. No the power isn't as high as it could be if I spent the time and money to learn to burn my own chips however, considering I have dynoed at several different stages I have been able to see the improvements as I have gone along. I don't believe I am leaving much on the table. Throwing his chips in with the likes of the true Generic stuff out there isn't any more fair than comparing self tuned chips to Hyperchip/Jet either. On Ebay he offers three different levels if chips. I wouldn't worry much about the stage one but the stage two and especially the stage three are decent chips. I have a stage 2 in my car.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tpi/...-tpi-dyno.html

In case I didn't mention it in this thread, that car has more than 300,000 on the 305.
I don't doubt that with a lot of data logging and reading/studying I could get a few more HP/TQ out of the ancient 305. It just doesnt seem worth it to me.

 

I know a guy who spent $4,500 on a whole house "Water Ionizer".

Despite water ionizing being complete junk science, the man SWEARS it has made him healthier and that he can "Feel the change". He will not admit, no matter how much proof he receives, that he was taken; a victim of a snake oil salesman. He's so hell-bent on being satisfied with his purchase, that nobody will EVER convince him that "water ionization" is a scam. I guess it's probably easier on the ego that way.

Show me some empirical evidence (a data log, time slips comparing runs with both chips, dyno results, etc.) And we'll talk. Your "Butt Dyno" doesn't count.

Removing the speed limiter is simply a matter of changing a field in the .BIN, and as I've said before, I'll burn the OP any .BIN file he supplies, for my cost of the chip ($2.50) and postage. I'll even offer to keep re-burning it until he's happy, as many times as he wants to mail it back, with a postage pre-paid envelope (takes about 20 seconds to burn a chip). So, this is the same offer that TBIChips.com makes, for $105 cheaper.

In 15-20 min. of searching, he can find a .BIN file that will perform just as well, or better than the $110 off-the-shelf chip that he could buy off ebay. There's no way I'd make this offer if I didn't know that what I'm telling him is true.

I'm a firm believer in "Puting your money where your mouth is". Put up, or shut up. Lets see some paper.

Until then, you have bought yourself a $110 "water-ionizer", as far as I'm concerned.

 

Frankly, if you want be rude dude with 54 post on this site, that is your business....Did you not read my post??? The only paper I can show you would be little time slips from the track....If you would have read my post you would see that I did say the way to go was to burn your own...You do what you want with your ride, but you do not have to be disrespectful to people on the forum......Tom Shaw

 

In essence your telling him to know his role lol

 

I don't mean to be rude, but I do tend to be blunt. Especially when I see people encouraging others to waste their money.

I apologize if you feel that I was attacking you personally. That wasn't my intent.

 

Its ok, I might have just taken it wrong...I was just speaking for myself, and my Car...Might not work out well for others, I can't say...Perhaps, I just got lucky, and the chip "fit" my car....

 

I would pass...Perhaps he has gotten better over the years, but I have seen the tables that were programmed in the old days and they were not pretty. Basically tossed in alot of additional timing and some extra PE fuel. These cars already run RICH from the factory at WOT and usually respond to only slight advances in timing and a leaner PE air/fuel ratio.