What is the best chip for driveability and performance. My '86 is constantly trying to up-shift. This is a pain during city driving.

 

A chip will not solve that problem. Most likely if you want to hold a gear longer, or cruise in that gear, then you should put the shifter in that gear and let it there. :cheers:


[Modified by ski_dwn_it, 11:50 AM 12/24/2002]

 

Ski...aren't there a few here that have changed the shift points via re-programming the chip? 4th drives me nuts and I would like as well to raise it from 42Mph to about 45-48 Mph. I thought you can do it with re-programming the chip?????

 

It not actually the *shift* (gear change points) it the speed at which the TC locks up, that can be changed. If that is what your talking about then yes it can be changed. On my car at ~48 MPH the TC locks and you would swear it was a gear change, but it just the TC locking.

 

Thanks for the info and good point. Once in 4th and going slower than 42Mph, I find I have to kick her down myself by punching her a little or she bogs down and rumbles at me sometimes.

Is this normal?

Thanks!

 

:yesnod:

 

A chip makes no difference in performance or gas mileage on an unmodded engine. Mine was made by Craig Marcho on the forum, and it really only controls when the fans come on.

The computer only controls TC lockup in 4th gear anyway. So a chip cant change your shift points. Only adjusting the TV cable can do that.

If you are having to upshift, you need to keep it in 3rd gear (D). Only shift it to OD when youre gonna be driving over ~45mph.

 

:iagree:

I never shift into 4th until I hit open highway and will sustain highway speed. :seeya

 

:iagree:

Adjust your TV cable

 

Vader,

First let me say this is not a flame, but that statement is not all that true.

And I am not saying this because I do chips either. But I have done several cars, including my own that saw nice gains in performance and MPG at a stock configuration.

Triple Black 88s car was primarily stock and if you would have driven that car before and after your opinion would be different. His car was a good solid running car before the tune, but afterwards he could burn the tires off like never before. And throttle response is a direct function of the tune being on. The better the overall tune is the better the response will be. He took the car to Etown with us and quickly realized that he definately needed some slicks. Whereas before he was fine when it came to traction.

In addition, I am yet to scan a stock car even with timing at 6* that does not get any knock counts, which is probably the single biggest killer of performance, in an otherwise good running car.

While I was doing Steve's car he came up with a very good analogy after he experienced the results of the tune:

Its like you calling up your eye doctor and telling him you need glasses, and him prescibing you a set. Well that is pretty much what the general does. He prescribes a chip that will suite the general population of the engines being produced, but you know as well as I do, each engine's needs are different.

And gas milage is as easy as changing the highway mode AFR to a slightly leaner condition than 14.7, which at cruise will not hurt a thing, but will yeild a better MPG.

And the TCC lockups can be controled in gears other than 4th. Perhaps the definintion file you have is outdated, but there are values in the ECM constant table that are setup for (not 4th gear) lockup speeds, and also a table TCC lock %TPS vs speed (not 4th gear)

Again this is not meant to be a personal attack, in any way. I am just offering a different point of view. And if your definition files are outdated, you may be just basing the TCC discussion of old info, in which case you should update your files. :cheers:

Have a Merry Christmas! :cheers:




[Modified by ski_dwn_it, 8:18 AM 12/25/2002]