My 1991 Camaro RS TPI with an 89-350 Camaro engine needs a new ECM & PROM. Where to buy? What info needed? Original parts discontinued? . . . . Worried.

 

Why do you need a new ECM? (not saying "you don't"; only, the reason why, will shed some light on what you're REALLY trying to do)

If you REALLY do, why a "TPI" one? How about a 0411?

 

Pulling codes 51 & 52, with a burn mark on one corner of the PROM.

Engine is 350 TPI; don't understand about 0411.

Replacement is complicated; engine is from 1989 Camaro in 1991 body. Parts have been discontinued, so replacement numbers don't match. It's a puzzlement.

PS: Occam never applied his principle to his religious beliefs.
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Pulling Codes 51 & 52, with burn mark on PROM.

 

0411 = modern ECM, found in things like 99-up trucks.

Very easy to tune.

I suggest you READ William of Ockham's writings before posting about them. That's SPECIFICALLY what his "razor" was about... back in the day, the "scholastic" approach to religion, was to assign to every student (i.e. priest in training, since the ONLY teacher was the church, and the ONLY students it taught were those destined to its service), the task of proving the existing of G o d, using "logic". If you READ some of the proofs, they're pretty ridiculous. Even René Descartes, one of the greatest thinkers of the Renaissance, wrote one that looks laughable today; it's in his same book that contains the "I think, therefore I am" quote. Remember always of course, "logic" (deductive, that is) relies on the "assumptions" or "premises" that one makes before beginning the proof. which in those, contained some of the oddest distortions of all. His "razor" was directed at Peter Lombard's "proof" of the existence of the Divinity, which in a modern view, is almost hilarious. He made TOO MANY assumptions, TOO MANY of which are pretty hard to wrap one's head around nowadays... equivalent to concluding that the reason your car has some later-model feature (say, a 4th gen rear end, in a 3rd gen) is because you "assume" that the space aliens enjoy raiding vehicle assembly plants when there's no 3rd shift, and therefore they must have installed a "feature from the future" in just that one car, the one you happen to have. Or, you have some electrical problem, and it's because your alternator is "pushing" "too many amps" here or there and there's a "short" because of it, and that's why half your car doesn't work; as opposed to, a fusible link burned out. Occam's Razor is about an "explanation" or "proof" requiring too many assumptions; likelihood favors "explanations" that require fewer proofs. Which is not an absolute of course; sometimes a more complicated "explanation" is the right one; only, a less complicated one is more likely to be right. "Never multiply entities without necessity" is its literal translation.

Anyway, I digress... try to remember what your cell phone looked like in 1988, or what you were Facebooking on back then, compared to your iPhone or your desktop computer at work. The ECM that came in TPI cars is on that same level. The 0411 is MANY times faster, and has all manner of capabilities beyond those of the TPI one, including for example, the ability to be tuned without having to burn a PROM, to run electric fans, to work an electronically controlled transmission, sequential injection, and so forth. You could even install a coil-per-plug ignition like the LS motors have if you felt like it. Not that you have to do any of those things; only, the computing power and the connections are there to allow it.

 

Very interesting on Occam & 0411. Could I install a 0411 in my Camaro? What would it take? I have electric fans.

 

Might want to check the DFI/ECM forum. Lots of info on that sort of thing over there.

You'd need the ECM itself of course, and the harness for it. Should be real eeeezy to find it out of a truck at the boneyard. You'd need to re-pigtail at least some of the wires. You wouldn't need anywhere near all of them. Probably wouldn't hurt to get the fuse box out of the truck as well, it would be much eeeeeezier to chop that up to get the parts out of it that you need, than to build something or hack up your existing one. The 06 (I think...) up trucks had electric fans, although you could use just about any ECM from 03 up and get just the fan relay module thing out of a 06 or so. The stuff from 08 up gets increasingly different and probably isn't as good raw material for a swap; 06 I'd say is probably the best target year for the donor. I'm thinking it would be eeeeziest to use a 03-06 ECM & wiring, with DBW, MAF, etc., as-is. You'd need the gas pedal & TAC module to do that. But it would be probably the minimum amount of conversion, with the newest wiring harness. For more info on those trucks generally try https://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/ There's a great electric fan write-up in the Tech Write-ups area if you need that, but even if you don't, it's a great explanation of how the whole thing works. You can also look at EFI Connection and various other similar places for ideas, parts, supplies, etc.

In NO event would I attempt to recreate or revive the 30 yr old thing from the Paleolithic age.

 

Thank you.


My point on William of Occam was the difficulty of advocating simplicity & Christianity at the same time.

 

You were right, Sofa; it wasn't the ECM.