Well as promised, I went to my local track on April 6th for a test and tune. However this was a bad night to go. I believe every Honda in the county was there. I was told there is some big event going this weekend at MIR and they were all practicing for it. In addition to this, some kid in a newer Mustang got about halfway down the track, spun out and slid sideways into the guardrail. Busted up his steering so they had to get a rollback out on the track to haul it off. Long story short, I was only able to get 4 runs in, but as promised here are the results in the order I ran them.
PCMFORLESS Dyno tune 7.97 at 86.55 mph
PCMFORLESS mail order 8.001 at 86.67 mph
FASTCHIP Generic chip 8.064 at 86.15 mph
Jesse Azzato custom chip 8.071 at 84.15 mph
Let me be first to say that more track runs need to be made to validate any creditable findings for the following reasons. 1. I was only able to get 4 runs total. I feel I need 3 on each chip and then average them to get an accurate comparison. 2. The weather was hot at first. Sun was out and the temperature was in the mid 80’s which quickly dropped as the evening went on.
I am going to try to go to a private rental at Richmond on april 22nd to do further testing. Ideally I want to make a pass with each chip, 5 total, including stock. Turn around and do this 2 more times, and then average my findings. That way the weather will be normalized in my comparisons.
I am concerned that my times and mph are down from last year. The only change to the car is the removal of the resonator and installing 2 bullet cats in place of it. If I determine this is the cause of the power loss then I will be taking them off and just put them on for inspection.
Again, I realize the track results are inconclusive with the limited information given, but the idle and part throttle charistics of the car are as different as day and night with the PCMFORLESS chips as compared to the others. Also, keep in mind that the Fastchip (Ed Wright) is a generic Stage 2 chip for a STOCK 93 corvette with a 160 t-stat added. The other 3 are custom tuned for my combo of Ported heads, hot cam, long tube headers, 3000 stall, and 4.09 gears.
I’ll be back with more results when I get them.

 

93,
What were your coolant temps before each run? Thanks for taking the time to do this test.

 

Glen, I would get them down to 160, to 163 before leaving the staging area. I have manual fan switches, and an electric pump that I run with the motor off. Cools quick.

 

Great post! Alvin has been great to work with, it seems fitting his chips came in where they did...

 

Thanks guys.

I appreicate you testing my mail order chip as well. It makes the test fair.

 

If you are going to run all these tests you should do a random blind test where the driver and person changing the chips does not know what chip is being tested.

 

Dave, I am going to Richmond on 4-22 with a group for a private rental. I am going to try and use Datamaster to record my runs. With that you will be able to see that I dont lift during the run. I am going to try and video the runs as well. I kinda have a problem letting someone else drive my car 15 times down the track so I will be the one driving.
It was suggested in a earlier post that I possibably modified one of the chips, which I did not. I offered to have a neutral party bring a copy sent directly to them, from the tuner, to install in my car for the testing. The tuner declined.
My objectives here are to try and give as accurate of a comparsion between chips as I can reasonably give. In all honesty, I dont expect much of a difference at WOT between the chips. (3 to 4 tenths maybe)
The myth that tuning, is a must with the hotcam, does not apply to full throttle. It mainly applys to part throttle and idle. If the fuel tables (VE tables) are not adjusted then its going to run rich.

 

A comarison like this is pretty useless if there is no weather data to put with it. All the tunes ran within .1sec of one another. And the MPH is within 2 of each other. My car through a days time can change over .1sec and MPH can greatly vary with off the line spin.

I am NOT saying this cause my tune is one being compared, but its just the fact that there are too many things that can effect them to draw any conclusion with a slip so close. In this case above, the only thing I can definately say, is that your pretty good with all them.

People should not misconstrew this as I am going back on my comments in the past about track testing, instead of dynos. With the examples I am telling people to take it to the track and test, are examples like corkys 434 making only 399rwhp, but being able to run 10.2s on the strip. Common sense tells you that he is making GOBS more than 399rwhp. But without the track to verify it, he would be very disappointed.

The one things you might want to add to the mix of information are the intervals of each slip. With this you can see what your traveling each interval with, it also neglects the wheel spin at the beginning.

Again these are just some helpful suggestions, that we always include with our testing of items like intakes and other stuff we tested. In each of their cases there was more of a difference however. With a split of less than .1 sec its going to be VERY tough to make any real accurate comparison.

Thanks for taking the time to test them thou. I know how much time it takes to do testing like above, and its not easy. I am actually happy to see that my tune came in within .1sec of a dyno performed tune.

 

your tune? Uhh, you made no changes to the main and wot fuel maps. You mean GM's tune!!!

 

IMHO
Four runs is hardly a comparison test. All this post will do is inspire yet another round of finger pointing and bad feelings. If your going to run a compairison test, lay out a plan and stick to it. Drag strip runs are not a method of objective testing. Subjective, Yes.

I suggest that you take your Vette to a dyno for a solid OBJECTIVE comparison and share DataMaster files (or whatever) run data with you conclusions.

Maybe we can all pitch in some bucks to help cover the costs. I'll pledge 30 bucks right now to get the ball rolling.

 

Hello Jesse,
I dont have any way to read the weather data. That is the reason I planned to run all 5 chips one time, run all 5 again, and once more. (3 runs total per chip)That way it will average out any weather changes during the day. Do you agree with this procedure? Also, I plan to have my wife video the runs, and I plan to use datamaster to record them.
IMHO I dont expect a huge difference in any of them since the car seems, at WOT to run reasonably ok with the stock chip. As I have stated earlier, the tuning seems to effect idle and part throttle much more. Mine was very rich with BLMS in the 108 range until Alvin tuned it.
The track I am going to on 4-22 is a 1/4 mile track. On the very limited test above I was at a 1/8 mile track. So hopefully I will be able to report back with more complete,and accurate data.
One thing that has me concerned about the car is this. As you can see my best time was barely under 8 seconds. Well last year it was running 7.70's consistantly with MPH of about 89-90. Needless to say power is way down across the board. The only change I made was I removed the resonator and had 2 Pyles bullet cats installed. (had to pass emissions test ) Anyways, I hope the cats are causing the power loss. I am purchasing a stock exhaust from a forum member today to install in place of my stock exhaust with the cats now welded in. So it will be exactly back to what I had last year.
Next years inspection will require me to reinstall the other exhaust, but what the heck, thats the price we have to pay for playing in VA.

 

Steve, I agree that 4 runs is not enough. Heck I didnt even get to run the stock chip! I only posted because in a previous post I stated that I would be going to the track on 4-6-05 and making 3 runs with each chip. However due to circumstances beyond my control I only got 4 total runs in. This was all stated in the opening of this post. I am going to Richmond on 4-22 for a more complete test.

I also agree that a dyno, along with AF readings tells a more accurate story, however there are some on this board that disagree. I plan on doing this as well. The only dyno in my area is ran by a co. called Excessive Motorsports. They are Ford people, but they were very professional, and polite when I had it tested last year. The charge was $75.00 for 3 pulls. I am going to talk to him about the 5 and see if he can cut me a break in price. I have a electric waterpump and manual fans so I can cool it down pretty quick between pulls.

 

A good starting point,At the Strip Concentrate ,on the mph, that is horsepower indicative.
Next step is to go to the Dyno,run each chip thru a cycle,repeat a second time,same day,same dyno,same engine temp,same fuel pressure reading(I suggest 43.5),same base timing,same MAF(if mass air).
Run with wide o2 sensor,record and print/chart the horsepower/torque /and Air Fuel Readings each run,then
The picture then emerge will emerge.
Use those charts to get any chip with lean or rich programming adjusted by the chipwriter. I did this last month ,It cost $150.00
for 14 runs.