My ecm is suppose to be a 1987. The ecm number is 7-7165 and when looked in side it has a jet performance chip 18812. The car is not running right and tracking down possible causes. Problems are rough running and uneven idle. My question is when I research this it only works on a 1988 ecm.

 

1227165 ecm's were used on all tpi engines from 86-89. The prom changed for numerous reasons from engine size to vehicle type. It's not the ecm that's different, it's the calibration in the prom itself for whatever it was intended to run. All proms for that ecm will fit in every year ecm of that same number. But since the calibrations changed you typically don't want to just swap chips without knowing what's changed. Example, don't use an 88 chip in an 89 car since 89's have no cold start injector and the 88's require it.

 

OK so this weekend I replaced ths spark plugs. not an easy job with headers on it............one of the plugs had the porcelain insulator sliding freely...probably covered up the electrode..........some of the other plugs were kinda fouled as well. turned the key using the junkyard ECU and chip and it started up quick and ran perfectly! The plugs were probably 10 years old, but the car hasn't gone anywhere...maybe 2000 miles............I shoulda checked them sooner......now im wondering if my old ECU fouled them....my plan is to put the old ECU back in to see if it still runs good....if it does then i have a spare ECU. I did notice that the junkyard ECU with it's custom chip runs my cooling fans at 150.........Im hoping the tuning program will let me adjust that............