Just bought a nice box-stock 85.

I want to install a P chip,but I would like to know the opinion of others on who makes the best chip and why.

I appreciate the help.

\dbaker

 

ebay one - it's cheaper and you won't be as dissappointed as if you paid full price for one. Those chips don't traditionally do much more than change some torque converter lock-up functions and *maybe* fuel changes. For the several hundreds of dollars they cost, you could get a chip burning / datalogging setup like the ostrich from moates.net and do it yourself (once you visit the Scan and tune section, and do a lot of reading!).

Just an opinion though - I think I'd save my money for bolt-on's and/or gas... and just drive the car for now.

 

Save your money

 

 

Neither, waste of money.

 

All chips will add 5-10 HP. What is freaky is that after adding 5-10 hp from exhaust, 3-5 hp for K&N filter, 3-5 hp from cold air intake, 3-10 hp from throttle body, and 5-10 hp from chip STILL ADDS UP TO ~5-20HP. There are several restriction in every motor and just because you lose one doesn't mean the other aren't there.

Chips on tune towards whats there. Best use of money (Hp wise) is catback exhaust, intake (base on TPIs), and then headers. REAL gains come from Heads, cam, and displace (in that order)

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/HOT-S...03322885QQrdZ1 This guy is a forum member also.I hope he will chime in here because as you can see people around here are not very fond of of the shelf chips.Maybe if TBI chips would go into a little more detail about what they are altering and why people would be more open to the possibility that there is a better than stock tune out there.

 

I just swapped out a Hypertech chip [junk] in my 85 for a tpichips Stage 2 chip and am very happy with his work. He can also raise the idle which is WAY too low at 500 stock.

 

I thought you needed a hotter cam than stock to use Stage 2 chip?

 

Save your money.

 

The Car, What differences did you notice between the Hypertech and the new TBI chip?Did you have the Hypertech streetrunner or thermomaster?

 

My engine is fresh with all stock internals, with only external mods.I had the thermomaster chip & the 160 thermistat which I thought was good but it never ran quite right. The hypertech chip was very similar to stock. always idled too low, hesitated, convertor locked up way too early,etc.When I ordered the new Tpichip I gave him a list of what was done to TheCar and he said he would program a chip for what was best. reset idle to 650 in D, advance timing, raise the convertor lockup speed, etc. The Tpichip runs MUCH better. According to my G-tech performance meter I dropped my 1/8 time about a tenth, compared to my G-tech times with the hypertech chip. Of course actual drag strip times would be different But I also changed to a 3.75 rear gear on saturday so my old dragstrip times really wouldn't compare. Hoping to get back to the track before the season ends.

 

Biggest scam out there..

 

Not if hes doing a good job at them.

I'm proud of my chips.. Where else can you buy 10-15rwhp for 150-175 bucks.. not to mention adjust fan speeds, take care of diagnostic codes, remove cags, re-arc timing (not just adding x degrees here), adjust fueling, take in account dynosheets etc..

The gains/results are even better with more modified setups.

 

My first chip was by Fastchip. It was called stage 2 version. On a bone stock motor it ran about a 10th better in the qtr. They do lower the operating temp. of the car, can raise the torque converter lockup speed, lean it out a little and tweak the timing curves. I never dynoed the car with it when it was stock, however after the heads, cam and headers I made 343 hp on a stock tune, 342 on a so called custom tune, but I made 356 hp on the Fastchip.
Long story short I ended up getting Alvin at www.pcmforless.com to tune it for me, and now it idles great, no more running so rich at part throttle and makes 362hp.
I know this is a little off base but I am telling you my experience with 3 different chips.
IMO your best deal is to have Alvin , burn a custom chip for your car. He can tweak the areas that he has found to help, set rev limiters higher, tc lockup, whatever you and him decide is best for your situation. Then if you want you can even get a copy of Datamaster, a laptop, and a cable, make a few runs logging data and send it to him for Alvin to further customize your chip. His rates are very reasonable, as a matter of fact they are cheaper then anyone else I have used. He offers excellent feedback and works with you after the sell.

 

I echo 93ragtop, oh boy do I ever Alvin from pcmforless.com
did a stellar job on my chip. I'm a worrywart, and after experiencing a major failure from another tuner at a cost I don't even care to mention, I was a basketcase and came to Alvin for help. After the engine rebuild/mods were complete, Alvin developed a base tune that was very safe, and I worked with him (using datamaster recordings) afterwards while he fine tuned it to the point its just about spot-on. Keep in mind I've got speed density engine management (see this article for SD vs. MAF: http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/24549/ )AND it was all done via mail order! If that isn't impressive, I don't know what is.
Oh, his customer service is outstanding - I kept asking a million questions prior to, during and well after the chip was tuned....and he answered every one in short order

To Alvin and pcmforless

 

I, too, am in the process of purchasing a custom chip for my '86 form Alvin @ PCMforless.com. He ALWAYS responds to my questions via Email very quickly. I hear nothing but good news about him and his prices are the lowest I've seen so far. Highly recommended.

 

I have to agree with just about everyone... off the shelf chips are JUNK!!! and a custom chip should be of some benefit. But, if your car is bone-stock - why mess with it? You think if you put a P chip in it you're going to be able to race a Z06??? You probably won't notice much of a difference driving it. If you had lots of modifications... well then a chip might help. I agree with everyone else - SAVE YOUR MONEY!

 

This thread was started with a question about an 85. I would have gladly used one of Alvin's chips but according to their website,
PCMsforless doesn't do 85's. Those of us with an 85 have to take what we can get, sure its a compromise but but its tough getting a dyno tune on an 85, theres not too many people who will make you a new chip. It might not be 100% but its a hell of lot better than it used to be. those of you with a newer car have tuning alternatives 85's don't have. I can't program a chip myself and tpichips can and did.TheCar is drivable now and it pulls hard right up till it floats the valves.
Way better than the stock or Hypertech chip.

 

Actually we do 85 chips also.

we do 85-05 vettes currently. And anything for a 85-93 gets a new prom or a memory adapter. No exchange