Looking to add chip
Drifting
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 1,925
Likes: 610
From: Orange, CA
Hypertech is absolute crap. JET is probably just as crap. The only "chip" worth putting in is one you do yourself because all the cars are different and a dyno is how you do it properly. On a stock car a chip isn't going to do you any magic.
Ostrich is how to do real-time tuning on a '92, and you'll need a Moates G1 Memory Adapter to be able to plug chips and the Ostrich into the ECM. Good luck.
Ostrich is how to do real-time tuning on a '92, and you'll need a Moates G1 Memory Adapter to be able to plug chips and the Ostrich into the ECM. Good luck.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 7,706
Likes: 485
From: Everett WA
C4 of Year Finalist (appearance mods) 2019
Was wondering what you want the chip to accomplish?
Reason for asking is that with an automatic your best bang-for-the-buck is often just a change to the gear ratio in the rear-end.
Do you know what the gear ratio is in your rear diff currently?
Reason for asking is that with an automatic your best bang-for-the-buck is often just a change to the gear ratio in the rear-end.
Do you know what the gear ratio is in your rear diff currently?
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 3,288
From: Hartford WI
Those are cheap and easy items. Doesn't do more besides lightening your wallet and makes you think you did good. I'm told the placebo effect is decent. I would change all fluids and make sure everything is on top before buying those "up to X HP" things. We could dyno tune the car but for what you get, the ROI is going to be so low, you are going to kick yourself in the *** once you get more familiar with it. Make some changes like say fluffing intake and heads, headers and cam then get it dyno tuned to dial it in.
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2021
Posts: 169
Likes: 25
Pcmforless and other tuner "Chips" can help you pick up a couple tenths and a couple MPG, at least on stock 93 Fbodies. The factory tune for the LT1 (Y, F, or B-body) is pig rich. Gains to be had even on a stock car. Being speed density you'll have to order the tune and an adapter. But tunes are always worth it.
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 3,288
From: Hartford WI
Pcmforless and other tuner "Chips" can help you pick up a couple tenths and a couple MPG, at least on stock 93 Fbodies. The factory tune for the LT1 (Y, F, or B-body) is pig rich. Gains to be had even on a stock car. Being speed density you'll have to order the tune and an adapter. But tunes are always worth it.
Thread Starter
Navigator
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 9
Likes: 0
Like other GMs I've owned, this trans wants to get into lockup asap. This is the first auto Corvette I've owned and thought a chip would help in changing the shift points and lockup. The car runs strong for my needs but this bothers me.
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Team Owner
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 3,288
From: Hartford WI
Drifting
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 1,925
Likes: 610
From: Orange, CA
Pcmforless and other tuner "Chips" can help you pick up a couple tenths and a couple MPG, at least on stock 93 Fbodies. The factory tune for the LT1 (Y, F, or B-body) is pig rich. Gains to be had even on a stock car. Being speed density you'll have to order the tune and an adapter. But tunes are always worth it.
I'm all for tuning. I'm just not for magical chips that make silly claims for stock cars.
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2021
Posts: 169
Likes: 25
$400 for .2 / 20hp / +2mpg is worth it..ish?
Relative I suppose....
Catbacks offer no power no mpg, only tone? How much does a Corsa cost?
How much gain do headers give? Read LT1s make 10-15 with long tubes. Shorties aren't worth 5-7. How much do those cost? Heard installs are fun. So are tracing exhaust leaks and burnt wires. A tune is plug and play...5 minutes.
Just saying...
Relative I suppose....
Catbacks offer no power no mpg, only tone? How much does a Corsa cost?
How much gain do headers give? Read LT1s make 10-15 with long tubes. Shorties aren't worth 5-7. How much do those cost? Heard installs are fun. So are tracing exhaust leaks and burnt wires. A tune is plug and play...5 minutes.
Just saying...
Last edited by 93TALT4A4; Mar 30, 2021 at 11:01 PM.
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 3,288
From: Hartford WI
$400 for .2 / 20hp / +2mpg is worth it..ish?
Catbacks offer no power no mpg, only tone? How much does a Corsa cost?
How much gain do headers give? Read LT1s make 10-15 with long tubes. Shorties aren't worth 5-7. How much do those cost? Heard installs are fun. So are tracing exhaust leaks and burnt wires. A tune is plug and play...5 minutes.
Just saying...
Catbacks offer no power no mpg, only tone? How much does a Corsa cost?
How much gain do headers give? Read LT1s make 10-15 with long tubes. Shorties aren't worth 5-7. How much do those cost? Heard installs are fun. So are tracing exhaust leaks and burnt wires. A tune is plug and play...5 minutes.
Just saying...
My latest one said it is about $1500 but it quietens down the engine a lot, no drone. I had Borla Stingers and were they loud. I reinstalled a functioning cat just to make it drivable. A run to the grocery store is all it was good for otherwise. Drive for an hour and the noise beats you up. Now it is way better. Glad it got loose and hooked on something and ripped stuff off. Insurance covered it so I added some more and got a Corsa. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to justify $1500 for a car I didn't plan to keep forever.
Aren't the stock manifolds almost equivalent to shorties by themselves? For the headers to be worth it, maybe more should be done and a dyno tune or at least one where the guy datalogs and gets things dialed in? I don't know if anyone is good enough to get it all spot on. Maybe the WOT but the drivability might suffer if you guess a tune off the specs.
Drifting
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 1,925
Likes: 610
From: Orange, CA
$400 for .2 / 20hp / +2mpg is worth it..ish?
Relative I suppose....
Catbacks offer no power no mpg, only tone? How much does a Corsa cost?
How much gain do headers give? Read LT1s make 10-15 with long tubes. Shorties aren't worth 5-7. How much do those cost? Heard installs are fun. So are tracing exhaust leaks and burnt wires. A tune is plug and play...5 minutes.
Just saying...
Relative I suppose....
Catbacks offer no power no mpg, only tone? How much does a Corsa cost?
How much gain do headers give? Read LT1s make 10-15 with long tubes. Shorties aren't worth 5-7. How much do those cost? Heard installs are fun. So are tracing exhaust leaks and burnt wires. A tune is plug and play...5 minutes.
Just saying...
A tune is not "plug and play 5 minutes" unless it's an off-the-shelf chip, and if it's an off-the-shelf chip it's crap. A real tune requires actual datalogging and trial-and-error work. And on a stock car, it's really not going to net you very much. It's just not worth the time or the money unless you have the equipment to do it yourself. I've got everything but the dyno so it's not an issue for me, but for OP it probably would be.
So hey, if you think it's worth it, more power to you. I just don't see the point on a stock car. There just isn't as much headroom as you think there is, and what headroom there may be doesn't justify the time and money a real tune would cost (that you'd have to spend again if and when you actually make mechanical changes down the road).
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2021
Posts: 169
Likes: 25
A tune is not "plug and play 5 minutes" unless it's an off-the-shelf chip, and if it's an off-the-shelf chip it's crap. A real tune requires actual datalogging and trial-and-error work. And on a stock car, it's really not going to net you very much. It's just not worth the time or the money unless you have the equipment to do it yourself. I've got everything but the dyno so it's not an issue for me. So hey, if you think it's worth it, more power to you. I just don't see the point on a stock car.
Drifting
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 1,925
Likes: 610
From: Orange, CA
I didn't know you were a were a tuner like Mad Tuner, Brian at PcMforless, and Ed Wright. Odd, those 3 companies and their customer base express the opposite of everything you say. You seem to know more than those guys so i'll take what they all say with a grain of salt. Tell me more about your car. I bet its really fast to give out invaluable advice like mail order tunes are crap.
Mail-order tunes are just fine--but generally they're ones where you go back and forth with the person while logging data from your car to make sure that it accounts for whatever variance there is in your specific setup. You get a base calibration, log data, send data to the tuner, tuner makes adjustments, repeat until happy. Totally cool. Don't think it's worth it to bother on a stock car, but hey, it's your time and money, do as you please.
My cars are pretty much stock mechanically. One is totally stock, the other just has an intake and an exhaust. Not enough to write home about. Nor would I pretend that "a tune" is going to magically make my car "really fast." I'm not sure what the perceived speed of my cars has to do with knowing what I'm talking about regarding messing about with the ECM/PCM though...
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 3,288
From: Hartford WI
Mail-order tunes are just fine--but generally they're ones where you go back and forth with the person while logging data from your car to make sure that it accounts for whatever variance there is in your specific setup. You get a base calibration, log data, send data to the tuner, tuner makes adjustments, repeat until happy.
Drifting
Joined: Apr 2020
Posts: 1,925
Likes: 610
From: Orange, CA
The mail-order tuning places I'm familiar with either tell you what you need to log data (on newer cars this is usually just the exact same cable you'd use to flash the tune) or send you a cable, give you the base calibration, have you log data, make minor revisions, send you the new tune, rinse and repeat. I'm sure there are places that'll just send you a "good enough" tune and that's it, and if that's "good enough" for you, so be it. Again, your money, your time, your car.
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 28,465
Likes: 3,288
From: Hartford WI
The mail-order tuning places I'm familiar with either tell you what you need to log data (on newer cars this is usually just the exact same cable you'd use to flash the tune) or send you a cable, give you the base calibration, have you log data, make minor revisions, send you the new tune, rinse and repeat. I'm sure there are places that'll just send you a "good enough" tune and that's it, and if that's "good enough" for you, so be it. Again, your money, your time, your car.
Instructor
Joined: Mar 2021
Posts: 169
Likes: 25
aklim, you are on the right track. And they are definitely worth it. Driveability is improved as well. Just feels noticeably gustier all over. Have you done a full tune up/syn oil yet, if not it'll feel much stronger everywhere as well. Post up what you get.
You have ZERO mods on your Corvettes and you are telling other people what is worth it. Thats why I asked what mods you had to your car to be a specialist in what mods are worth what. You have nothing to ad based on experience you don't have. FYI- a chip is correct of him to say. 92 and 93 were the last years memecal CHIPs were used. I'm not sure if you knew that. I'm done mucking up his thread. Peace
You have ZERO mods on your Corvettes and you are telling other people what is worth it. Thats why I asked what mods you had to your car to be a specialist in what mods are worth what. You have nothing to ad based on experience you don't have. FYI- a chip is correct of him to say. 92 and 93 were the last years memecal CHIPs were used. I'm not sure if you knew that. I'm done mucking up his thread. Peace