Every day I read these boards. I do not post but I am still here reading. I constantly see over and over again people say "burn proms yourself and buy the equipment if you want a prom". I have a few problems with that statement:

1. I know it is not that expensive for the equipment ($250 est. + a laptop) but some of us cant afford that. For example, I am a 22 yr. old college student who is graduating in a year. I have neither the TIME nor the extra cash to invest in this stuff. If I was out of college and had more free time I would do it in a heart beat. And if we cant afford to buy the equipment what makes you think that we can spend $350+ on an ok Ed Wright chip??

There are a lot of people in my situation. Basically I just dont have the time or extra cash to spend researching and playing around tuning my car.

My suggested solution to the problem is that SOMEONE on this board has to have the skills and time to help us out. Cant SOMEONE do this for people like me and burn Proms for a small fee ($100 maybe). I would buy one and then when I do have the time in the future to do my own I will gladly do it.

Everyone on here talks about helping fellow third genners out but this is where we need the most help. I for one am only with my car for 4 months of the year and just dont have the time to do this. Everyone also complains about not having access to quality parts for thirdgens but this case is the worse. Its either you do your own chip or fork out for the overblown $350 price tag for a Ed Wright chip.

What do you guys think, am I wrong here? Someone here has the time and skills to help us out, why wont you do it?

 

Like you I have read alot of these posts. But you apparently missed the ones explaining why this doesn't work. Basically the key to tuning it is TIME once you have the equipment. You have to do alot of trial and error runs. Sure, someone might be able to get you a "decent" chip based on what you can tell him/her, but if there was anything wrong, then you'd need a new one. From what I've been told/read most people burn 40+ chips for their car. Unless you happen to know a member that can do this in your local area, that's one thing. But for a nation wide deal, it'd be no better then a HyperTech/ADS/Jet/Ed Wright chip kind of situation.

 

I am not naieve, I obviously know that it takes alot of trial and error to get the combination perfect. Ed Wright sends you a decent chip with out trial and error. Why cant someone else duplicate that? My car is not a track car. I could care less if I run 13.8 with a chip someone made for me or 13.7 by doing my own. A couple of tenths is not what I am after. I just want it to work efficiently. For example, I am putting a T56 in my auto car and it would be nice to have a chip to tune it so the rpms are corrected when I push in the clutch.

What I am looking for is the cheaper (and I am sure it would be better) alternative to an Ed Wright chip. I want someone who will be able to give a chip compatible to the performance of an Ed Wright but for a hell of a lot cheaper. Thats what I mean by helping us out. It wouldnt take many of you guys very long to make a chip of this caliber.

 

its not that someone can't do it, or that they wouldn't be able to work with you.
the problem is that if they burn a chip and bump up the timing a little too much or maybe your injectors don't flow what they should and you run lean and melt a piston or break a rod or something major happens to your engine they don't want responsibility. ed wright has to take that responsibility and since he is a buisness he can do that. people here can't make one chip that will help everyone or even make a chip for your car that will perform awesome the first time. if they try for that then some people's cars will get messed up and break. ed wright tunes a chip for a completely stock car that will make it faster and not break anything, so that when you put it on a modified car there is no chance of it breaking anything.
thats why people tell you to invest the money in getting your own stuff to burn a chip with. if i were you i would get the stuff and burn a chip rather than doing the 6 spd swap. you'll be faster with the custom chip than with the 6 spd.
Andrew

 

Andrew I am not doing the T56 swap for performance purposes. If I was so concerned about performance I would have rebuilt my 700R4 and put in a Vigilante. I am doing the T56 swap because I prefer manual cars and not many people have a 91 Z28 with a 6 spd.

I do understand your point about liability though. However, Wright does make chips for modified cars without any problems that I know of.

 

It's not a case that people don't want to help but it is hard for people to burn a custom chip for someone who lives far away. I know there are members on here for a fact that will burn custom chips for people but they do it for people only in that area. I mean most of these people do it for a hobby and not business so they do not want to have a large customer pool. Try going to the regional boards and asking if there would be anyone willing to burn a PROM for you for a fee.

 

yes I'm sure someone "could" offer up a chip with similar generic changes as an Ed Wright, Jet, etc, the problem is it may or may not make your ride better. Your stating your not interested in overall speed but better driveability, and that young grasshopper takes time. Spend sometime reading the archives on the Prom board and Trax's intro article. You will get a better understanding of what really needs to take place in order to get it "Wright". cheers, Bob

 

Having enough cash and time to do a T56 swap kinda shoots holes in your whole "I don't have enough cash or time" reasoning for not doing your own software tuning.

 

Actually you are kinda right Kevin, with me its more about the time then the actual cost of getting the equipment. I go to school full time, work, and have a serious girlfriend. I just dont have the time to learn about burning and test and tune.
I just would rather pay a fellow thirdgenner to do my chip than pay $350 for an Ed Wright.

Guys I am not bashing anyone here and I dont want you to think that I am lazy. In about a year when I can spend more time with my car I think I am going to get the burning equipment. Now though I need a cheaper and more time efficient solution. I currently live in NJ but go to school in Florida. Kinda hard to work on your car when it is 1500 miles away.

I want to thank TRANS87 for his response. That was the kind of response that I was looking for. I know someone has to do this, I just wanted to be pointed in the right direction.

 

For a little help closer to home you might try www.nethirdgen.org

 

m23haz: if you plan a trip to Island Dragway (www.islanddragway.com) on Friday night TNT let me know. Bring a Craig Moates PROM adapter and I'll help you out.

Everyone else: same offer applies, but I can only do one person per evening and I'm not there every Friday. Get in touch w/ me via e-mail and show up with a Moates PROM adapter or ZIF-equipped MEMCAL.

I charge 1 birch beer + two hot dogs and assume no liability for any damage to your engine. Never happened, but if yours is the first I don't wanna hear about how I owe you an engine.

I'd offer at Englishtown, but you only get 2-3 runs there on average and it's not enough to tune with. I generally need 5+ runs worth of capture data, analyze data, adjust software, burn chip, <repeat> to get things dialed in.

 

You can get all the stuff you need plus a laptop off of ebay for under 400. Aftermarket chips can only do so much, acutally they do very little and the gains from doing it yourself will be 100x greater! I paid 210 for the kit and materials and 200 for an IBM thinkpad 233. Glad I did not purchase a chip from ED!

 

Kevin that is a very generous offer and I thank you. I wont be able to make it there this weekend but hopefully we can meet up some time this summer. I dont even have the T56 in yet. I will get the adapter though and then I will email you.
Thanks again,
Mike:hail: