Chip Tutorial/Help Needed

[Eden]

Okay, sorry to ask such a rookie question, but who can give me a basic tutorial, or point me to the best (informative and non-biased) sites regarding chips? I want to keep my '87 Turbo-T stock, so no new injectors or anything else. In my other performance cars, mail-order chips were worth NOTHING when dyno tested (or at the track). Are turbo Regal chips different, and if so which ones are the best? Many thanks.

 

[ijames]

With stock injectors and stock turbo, an aftermarket chip is worth some because in a street chip the boost is turned up some and the timing turned down, and the fan on/off matched to a 160 thermostat. With the gasoline available at the pump these days, TR's just seem to make more power with lower timing and more boost. A race chip turns the boost up more and cranks the timing up, but now you need 100-116 octane. At a guess, on a cool fall evening, a really bone stock TR with traction could run 14.0-14.5 or so. Replace the stock airbox with a K&N cone filter, replace the cat with a test pipe, and put in a street chip, and you should get 13.5-14. Race gas, slicks, race chip, lots of tuning, and a few guys have run low 12's and lots have run 12.5-12.8. Once the bug bites you and you step up in injector size and turbo size, you will need new chips to match.

 

[Eden]

Chip

Thanks. FYI, this weekend the car, with only mod being a K+N filter I just installed, ran a 13.9 at 98 mph (2.0 short time...).

Okay, now I am getting the chip picture. However, if I go with a street chip, 1) must I change the thermostat, and 2) WHICH street chip is considered a good value?

Thanks.

 

[ijames]

All the standard street chips assume a 160 thermostat and if you keep the stock one the fan will run all the time which is a big waste of alternator output and wear on the fan. Cooling the heads and intake manifold from ~200 down to ~160 so the incoming air is not heated so hot is equivalent to about one extra octane number, so it makes 93 look like 94 octane, which you can use as either extra detonation margin, to add more boost, or to add more timing .

There are a lot of chipmakers with good reputations who should be able to make a nice chip for stock injectors. In no particular order and not a complete list, there's Jay Carter, Jim Testa, Eric at Turbotweak, Joe Lubrant through PTE, Bob Bailey through Ramchargers and FullThrottleSpeed&Style, Red Armstrong at QuadAir, and Tom Chou's Thrasher from Scott Simpson (many consider this the best bang for the buck since it's the cheapest; it's a long story and in the archives here and at gnttype.org if you are really curious). If I left anyone out it was carelessness, not malice .