Don't know what else to call it.

After reading so many posts on this Forum from others who had Alvin at Chips@PCMFORLESS re-program their chips, I figured I'd give one a try just to see. So I had Alvin burn a chip for me, even though I've been running a modified PROM for a few years now.

I had been thinking the modified PROM I was running was about as good as it gets and I was good-to-go. MAN WAS I EVER WRONG!

Now, I expected a little improvement over the customized 89 bin, etc., I've been running, but the results from his programming were over the top. I mean, it felt like an entirely different engine under the hood.

Engine starts immediately and idles like a dream. Throttle response is so much more crisp and instantaneous it was hard for me to believe that proper programming could give such positive results.

I just returned from my first "test drive" on the Interstate and all I can say is WOW!!!! The engine pulls so hard and throttle response is so immediate I had to re-learn my accelerator pedal foot pressure just to keep from blasting down the road like 'Speed Racer'.

I don't race my Vette (can't afford to break anything since it's my daily driver) so I don't have any numbers for comparison purposes. But I know how the car use to accelerate when I pulled out to pass, but now it's a whole different ball-game.

Talk about a Happy Camper. Only wish I'd made a move to his programming a LOT sooner.

Well done, Alvin.

Jake

Just another testimonial to be added to all the others.

 

Sounds exciting! Did you post him the chip or go there with your car?
What other mod's have been done to your motor for you to need re-programming?

 

What was altered on your other chip? Did you burn it yourself (the old one) or have a "pro" do it?

 

Thats great news Jake, its its no surprise to me in the slightest

Alvin is really great. After a major debacle the 1rst time around with a ruined engine (different chip tuner, really BAD idea), I was ten-fold paranoid and quite anguished while facing a 2nd engine rebuild because of it.........luckily, I went to Alvin and he did me so right I've been smiles ever since. Unbelievably patient, professional, knows his stuff.........I now have a safe and strong running engine. MAP-sensored too, being a '90.

Here's one to Alvin and PCMFORLESS!

 

sounds like fun

 

ALvin is no doubt a great guy will go extra mile for nothing extra $$$ he did dyno tuned my TPi car just finished SR install and yet to fire tomorrow and plus dyno run too with wide open A/F ratio.

My mechanic called me and saying car fired quick but yet to set TPS voltage stuff. Another happy camper here.

He is young too with lots of exp on table and potential to learn more in future. Thanks Alvin.

 

That's good to hear, Ive been contemplating doing that myself. Is it worth doing on an internally stock motor with minor mods?
How good is a stock tune generally ?

 

 

Alvin will make a believer out of you. If you need proof, I can load the original bin back in my 86 and then you'll see the difference.

Consider this, How can one tune work on every engine? Each engine is a little different. And GM didn't give us all that they could. Alvin can!

 

Hey Jake,
Glad to hear it made a world of a difference! Btw does anyknow if Alvin can burn proms for other GM cars?Wether some mods or not?
I would like to know.

 

You have sold me for sure!

Thanks for your story........Im going to order one!

 

one surprise and one no surprise. hot rod you were right in you pm that our set up and looks are twins. very very strange. did you have to do alot of cutting on the valve covers to make them fit? they look like the same ones i have. another link is i had my eeprom worked on by alvin too. what a trip. look at your pic and my avtar. anyhow yea pcmforless are real honest people and i would recomend them as well. after i got my rom installed and started it up for the first time i could instantly smell the diff as well the fans were coming on at 160 too. my engine was running rich plus i did not like the factory 200 plus temp setting on the fans. alvin and his team solved all that. fixing to have some more eeprom work done since iv added some more mods.

 

Jake, glad to hear your success story. I too, have nothing but praise to say about Alvin. After a bad experience with a different mail order tuner I turned to www.pcmforless.com . I figured that a mailorder tune was not going to work so I made an appointment to go for a group dynotune in Pa. that pcmforless was holding. When Alvin found out I had a chip burner he sent me his base hotcam tune by email so I could drive the car to Pa. for the dyno tune. Well I loaded the base tune and I couldnt believe how well the car idled. The driving manners of the car was TONS better then before. Anyways a month latter I went to the dynotune and found his base tune was very close to perfect so I only got minor improvements over his mailorder tune. I have since had to have an emissions inspection which passed with no problems. Now I know everything has gone up in the past 2 years since I got my tune but the icing on the cake for me was, Alvins services for the base bin. e-mailed to me, his time doing the dyno tune, (1hr, 15 min.) and the dyno use charge only came to $250.00 That is $100.00 less then I paid for my previous mailorder tune. Talking about value for your dollar he cant be beat.

 

It sounds like alvin and his crew are the way to go. The thought that keeps popping up here( to me) is with a completly stock 86 is this something i want to do? No i'm not going to the strip, i just run the twisties around here. Everybody wants more power, thats just the human spirit in us. So will there be a noticeable differance with a bone stock 72,000 car? ....thanks...joe

 

[QUOTE=CorvAdel]Sounds exciting! Did you post him the chip or go there with your car?
............
QUOTE]
Same question here..
-Beppe-

 

[QUOTE=conv90]I emailed him the info on my engine; mods, etc. I didn't make the trip there. A dyno tune may give me a little bit more, but, MAN, how much better can it get!?

Thinking on this, there are several things that I believe contribute to the success I had.

First, Alvin wanted to know DETAILS, so I sent him a separate email containing every mod to my engine with the exception of the Broadcast Code which was missing. That code had been on my original ECM and when it had to be replaced some years, back the code went with it. I should have transferred it to the new ECM, but, at the time, didn't think it was of any importance

It's sort of like working with computers, Garbage in Garbage out. When I emailed Alvin to tell him I'd made a mistake and indicated I was running shortie headers instead of the TPIS long tube headers I'm running, Alvin's response was "YIKES, . . .". Luckily the Post Office hadn't picked up the chip for delivery to me, so Alvin pulled it out of the "out bin" and modified it to make that change.

Alvin also wants me to log some data and send it to him so he can take a look to see if anything needs "tweaking". That's what I call Service.

See what I mean? It can be the little things, or a combination of little things like that which make all the difference between a top-shelf tune and a so-so burn. Generic burns will get you down the road, but you won't have as much fun doing it.

As soon as the engine immediately fired for the first time, the difference was instantly noticable; really uncanny!

Alvin wanted to know the camshaft grind number; the specs on the cam; compression ratio, intake mods, exhaust mods, head flow numbers, thermostat, on and on and on and on . . . The guy who burned my previous PROM, a Professional, didn't ask even a small fraction of the questions Alvin wanted to know answers to. I believe it's all in the details you provide AND the quality of the man doing the tune.

My PROM had been re-burned when I moved to the 415 I'm now running - up from the 355 CID, and although the car ran well, it didn't respond anywhere close to how it does now. I find myself searching for words to accurately describe how much improvement there is. If you ever buy one of Alvin's burns, you'll know what I mean.

In fact, on my drive on the Interstate, I found myself wondering about how my rear end parts would hold up; you know, U-joints, half-shafts, etc. The engine performance was THAT MUCH IMPROVED.

I know lots of your guys like numbers and I wish I had done Before and After testing just to quantify what I've been saying. Sorry 'bout that; best I can do is SOP.

From the B&A dyno tests I've seen, I'm convinced that even a totally stock setup will gain significant power with a PCMFORLESS burn over the factory compromise tuning.

Last points. I ended up with this 415 engine after the previous owner had tried two high-dollar PROM burns only to have the engine knock and go flat when accelerated. He has a 86 Vette. like mine, and I drove it on the same Interstate some years back when he had the 415 installed. Even though he had Air Flow Research 2xx heads, it was a DOG compared to what I experienced last night.

He'd tried all sorts of mods to improve the performance - bigger injectors, mini-ram, TPS tweaks, timing, relocated air temp sensor, etc., etc. and as it turned out it was all in the burn.

He became so frustrated he gave me the short block and went with a much more high-dollar 434 that I built for him. If he'd have only known.

Jake

 

I sent Alvin all my mods by email.

When I changed engines from a 355 to the 415, I sent the PROM off to be re-burned by a "PRO"! So making that big of a change in CID called for a re-burn.

Jake

 

I had a 'PRO" burn the old one. Since I don't know burning terms, I'll have to resort to lay stuff. He, the 'PRO', started with an 89 bin file, then altered the CID, injector sizes, fuel and ignition timing maps, disabled EGR, Knock sensor range, changed the idle speed, cold start injector delete accomodation, fan turn on and turn off temps and some other things I can't recall right now.

If you're want to know about Alvin's burn it was fuel and timing tables, EGR, VATS, AIR disabled, probably Cold Start mapping (since I've removed the 9th CS injector that 86's have), Knock Sensor de-sensitized. I maintained the same idle speed and main fan turn on temp.

There are probably other things, like timers, that may be proprietary. I didn't even ask about those I relied on his REP.

Jake

 

He just did mine on my 88. I have a 327 with a twist in it and it runs great! I had alot of people tell me it would not work. Alvin is very good and will do buiseness with him again! Alvin let me know when a dyno day is available.

Sal

 

Another happy Pcmforless customer here