My car it completely stock right now (305 TPI, 5 spd) and I'm just curious how good the stock programming is and if I'd get much more power by reprogramming on a stock car? How much room for improvement would there be if I did full exhaust (1 3/4" SLP's, 3" cat., catback)?
I would like to practice on this motor because there shouldn't be much that needs changing to get a little more power, thus it should help me learn about programming. I'm working on a stroker motor for the future and would like to program that myself but I don't want that to be the first time I program a computer.

On a side note, I saw in the intro. to programming article that there are different adapters that you can plug into the computer, and from which you can plug in different chips without wearing on the actual computer socket itself and still retain the limp home mode option. What kind of adapters are you guys using?

I hope all of this is clear. Thanks.

 

Until you've modified the car, dont' bother reprogramming the chip.

If I'm not mistaken a chip bumps up your timing, can play with the shift points a little, for an example, which won't help much at all on a stock car.

 

Visit the DIY PROM board on this site. There's an entire forum devoted exclusively to this aspect of these cars, and it has lots of info on it.

 

Not true. There's always room for improvement. GM programmed the chips to blanket a wide range of conditions making sacrifices and tradeoffs in one area to help cover another; like extreme cold starts but still runs ok in scorching desert heat. Tayloring your chip to the conditions you'll be using the car under will allow you to squeeze out all the extra power you can get. Another example would be lots of extra timing because you use race fuel.

Programming your own chips is one of the most worthwhile "mod"s you can do, stock or otherwise.

It's also pretty wise of you to desire to get your feet wet on your motor before programming something wilder.

 

Wouldn't race fuel on a low compression motor make it slower?

 

Yes...if you didn't modify the tuning via the PROM in the ECM.

If you run race fuel in a STOCK engine, with no tuning, I doubt you'd go slower, but there would be no real benefit to the extra octane with no tuning performed.

You could program your chip to have MORE timing advance with race fuel ( at the track ) and thus have more power, without having to worry about detonation ( like on normal pump gas ).

AND YES, modifying the stock chip on a "stock" engine is worth it. If you read thru the DIY PROM board, you'll notice on of the "bins" everyone uses for the MAF cars is the ARAP bin. This NEVER came in a car from the factory...BUT it was used in cars that were given to magazine / press pools for new vehicle performance testing etc. So wouldn't you think it's alot better if GM used it so their "stock" test cars would go faster?


Not to mention enabling "highway mode" in the PROM. Some people report INSANELY good MPG on the highway with this programmed...like 30+ MPG On a 350!!!

Read thru all the DIY PROM board posts you can, start from the VERY beginning, and you'll be VERY SURPRISED and what you can easily do to tune your car without spending much at all.


HTH

 

Does anyone have any dyno or 1/4 mile time proof? just wondering.

 

For the most part (at least on the ECMs thirdgenners typically deal with), there's no control over shift points. That's all through the governer and throttle valve.

There's a couple people around who've posted their track times showing improvements through tuning alone, on a bone stock motor. They were just shy of unbelievable (flamewars ensued).

 

really? not on this site.