i been wondering is it worth chipping a car or not... I'm only gonna change a couple things until i change motors right now it has a CAI .. i am going to change the exh system soon but still reading up on what to go with flow mag or play with mix match setup for best results... what would be best for what i have now... i really don't know much please bare with me on this what chip should i get and what else do i need to change to get best results aside from what i plan on ... as far as motor change i have a 358 flat top vortec motor that i want to keep the tpi setup with going to either have a stock one ported out and all the goodies or just buy one aftermarket with an edlebrock vortec intake of course... any questions on setup needed to help with the recommendations please ask

 

Buying one of the over-the-counter "performance" chips..... is a waste of money. Very few things are changed, and you can get a hell of lot more bang for your buck just about anywhere else. If you are going to drop a custom engine in there, a generic chip just isn't going to cut it. You will either need to take it someplace, to get a custom chip made for YOUR car, or, get the stuff, and learn how to do it yourself.

I am a big advocate of doing your own tuning. The equipment to do so costs about the same as getting ONE custom chip burned, and enables you to fine tune things to suit your specific engine, and if you make any changes to said engine, it is a reasonably simple matter to accommodate those changes IF you can burn your own chips. Otherwise, you get to throw another pile of money at someone else. Again.

There is a whole forum dedicated to customer burning chips here, (DIY PROM forum) with a large population of extremely knowledgeable people, that are only too happy to help. Read some of the stickied threads there, and see what ya think.

 

How right can one man be

 

For what you have now you can just run the stock chip.

 

I disagree with a lot of people on this topic. Burning your own chip requires about a $400 upfront cost and a large learning curve to get it right. It's good to make that investment once you put in a built motor but.......

If you have a car with just bolt on's and simply want a little more performance an aftermarket off the shelf chip will help in the quarter mile times and general performance if you select the right one. I like the JET offroad stage 2 chip and Edwright Fastchip. The Fastchip appears to have the most aggressive programming for bolt on cars. I got a 2 tenths in the quarter with my JET chip proven at the dragstrip on several tests I did and I would not really expect anymore then that with any off the shelf chip.

Most of them just advance the timing curve a little and add a slightly richer mixture. You can get a off the shelf chip from $150 to $200 and see some performance from it.

http://www.fastchip.com/

 

Go here and learn https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/diy-...uide-book.html

 

I will grant that the market has improved somewhat. At least, it did for a while. I don't know if folks are still doing any development for the third-gens any more, as I haven't had the need to look.

That said, sure, you gained two tenths in the quarter, but, did you ever dial in your own chip on that motor? How much potential was lost, simply because you used an off the shelf chip?

Yes, the learning curve is a bit extreme in the beginning, but, in my opinion, the rewards from such a curve, is well worth it.

 

I have an 89 Firebird GTA. I would like to get all I can out of it. I hear alot of you guys saying to increase the timing. Can some one explain to me how to do this on my car? Thanks for your help.

 

I am sure a little more could be squezzed out of my bolt on 305 car but I honestly don't think it is an appropriate recommendation for most of the users on this board to tell them to go buy $400 in chip burning equiqment and to just go for it and that off the shelf chips are all snake oil. They are not all snake oil.

For most of the people asking about this topic they are new to TPI cars and new to modifying cars in general and just looking for some easy stuff to do to there cars that will give some extra performance. The off the shelf chip fits that need for an affordable price. However, if you tell them to burn there own they will probably never do it or buy all that equiqment and simply fail at it.

Would you recommend to Jack's89GTA to start burning his own chips and blow $400 bucks on prom equipment? The guys got one post and does not even know how to move his dizzy to advance his timing. A perfect example of what I am referring to.

Jack just go buy an off the shelf chip and go a couple of tenths faster and enjoy your car. If you still have the car in a couple of years we will talk to you about prom burning.

On relatively stock cars the off the shelf chip is still the best option for 90% of the users asking about this topic.

 

Sir, You are right. I am new to these engines. I would just turn my distributor in my other car. Can I do that with L98 motor in the 89 GTA. I was told that the computer would adjust and it would not do me any good. Some one else said it may make it more responsive but no more power.

 

I am still going to disagree with you here. We evidently have different philosophies, and that's fine. I would invite you to read This thread though. Maybe you will see at least where I am coming from.

 

Great reading, hope he reads it and learns

 

Guys, I am not aganist chip burning on your own and I have read that tech article many times before. I already do my own data scans but it still does not change my opinion that the majority of users asking about chips are still no where near able to understand burning or get it right to make there cars faster.

It is not that simple of a process for most to understand and the majority simply do not want to deal with it. Regardless of how many articles are written on it.

I still believe the over the counter chip belongs in most owners cars as they will never try to take on that process and might as well get some addiitional performance out of there cars even if it is limited.

 

Well we tried, I give up

 

for the message you sent me.

 

If I could just chime in here.....

I think Burnout and Ploegi are actually both right....and both wrong. Well, it's actually a lot of opinion, but you get what I'm saying. I agree with burnout in that quite frankly a lot of don't have the time or desire to really learn how to properly tune our own chips. I have so many other things going on in my life outside of my car, and I know a lot of people feel that way too. That being said, while you may pick up a tenth or two with an off the shelf chip, it is NOT going to do anything for the QUALITY of your tune. It doesn't take too many mods before the quality of your tune goes south. Forget performance, the car just won't RUN properly. That's when an of the shelf chip won't help, and I'd say a LOT of us here on TGO are in that boat.

Ya gotta remember that you can also have a custom mail-order tune, or a custom dyno, or as some people say, a "real time" tune. Mail order is basically just filling a sheet showing what mods you've made, and a professional tuner makes a very educated guess to get you up and running.

Next would be the dyno tune, where a professional is still doing the tuning, but he's actually got your car present and he fine tunes your tuning more than he could via mail order.

I think most of us can probably agree that there are pros and cons to every option, regardless of what YOUR opinion may be. I'm in the process of rebuilding my T5, by myself, in my garage. I'm mechanically inclined, and it's therapuetic to me. How many of you DIY tuners have, or would do that? I'm sure some of you have, some haven't. ...but my hat goes off to you guys because I have NO desire to learn how to tune. My brain doesn't work well. with stuff I can't SEE!!!! LOL

I think the important thing is that when people (like the OP) ask our advice, we educate them with the facts, the opinions, and all the in between. There's no RIGHT answer, but someone does need to be educated before they can decide for themselves.

 

Well said Abubaca!!! I think you summed up both of our points view into a good overall perspective.

 

I tend to agree with burnout... Don't ask the computer geeks in the prom burning section too many questions they will get all butt hurt and just won't answer you. They seem to live in their own little world. I've tried to learn this but ran into to many dead ends thanks to the boys there and once you buy all the equipment you need you will end up selling it for a big loss. I think it would be better to take it to a garage that tunes these cars and spend your money with them, probably cost you around 500.00 to get it close to right. Good luck, either way you go.