Programming chips

[Tomas Del Maar]

I have a customized chip which is my original factory stock chip that has been put on a burner or whatchyamacallit and altered by a local race shop that works on late model GM performance cars.

NOTE: This was back in May...The car ran awesome for 2 weeks...great throttle response, it felt like a different car and 15 psi boost with ZERO knock (room to go to 17psi)
However 2 weeks later the original MAF died....

Could it be possible that during the time of having the chip altered, that the MAF was bad OR going bad THUS AFFECTING the proper calibration of the chip?

Because I've tried rebuilt MAFs and GOOD used ones and it's never been the same since.
Running rich....slow to boost...sluggish....

I'm replacing my cat to a performance cat, and going to double check for exhaust leaks that MAY be causing the richness.
42 FP ---> 38 FP still gives me 850's mv and BLMs at a 145 peak while accelerating.
My boost is sllloowww to spool and instead of the set 15psi boost, it only hits 9 psi now...which is where I got my 914 millivolt reading with NO kNock (duh!) and 38 FP.



I'm trying to get my chip back to original stock factory specs. Whenever I get a hold of the guy who did it (local race shop).

I do have a chip coming from RONs CUSTOM AUTO in the mail...hopefully this week...he didn't say which he was sending but said he deals with Jay Carter and Red's.

So to sum it up...I have to get original chip set to factory specs, replace original cat with perf. cat and check for exhaust leaks.

Otherwise I've had it

 

[JayC]

Big edit here because I hastily read the post the first time around. I seriously doubt the MAF was failing when the chip was done. I've never seen a MAF that "sort of" worked. They work or they don't usually. Now what could be a possibility is that the MAF that was on the car was some whacked out reman that someone did a chip for and you put on a new MAF that was remaned correctly and that's causing you problems. I doubt that's the case though because I haven't met anyone outside a handful of hardcore Buick hackers who could calibrate a chip to a screwy MAF so I doubt some Joe Blow "One Stop Tuning Shop" would spend the time or have the knowledge to accomplish this.

Your best bet at this point is to wait and see how the chip Ron sends you works out. If the car runs okay, then you can blame it on whoever redid your stock chip. If it doesn't, then I would take a hard look at anything that might have changed and would probably stick another ECM in there just for fun. Sometimes ECMs can go bad without any other symptoms other than something screwy happening that you can't quite put your finger on. I've seen them go bad and cause cars to run rich, lean, have misses, etc and otherwise be fine.

On another note, Ron Joseph IS NOT a dealer for me and if he's selling you a chip claiming it's mine, it didn't come from me. More than likely he is sending you an Armstrong chip. His stuff is okay and should work okay for you.

Good luck!

 

[Mr URL]

Yep, Ron sells Red Armstrong chips.

 

[Tomas Del Maar]

Hmmm.

Jay,

I thought I heard him say "Jay Carter". Or that he mentioned that Jay Carter were good chips.

The MAF that died was original...no reman on this one.
When Pete (race shop) was playing with the calibration he did say he had a tough time getting consistent values, and I do remember it took 3- 4 tries before everything fell into place.

Could it be his programming skills or just bad luck....b/c, like I said the car ran awesome, except for the fuel mileage drop...Then when I told him the MAF died, he said "That's why it (the car) was giving me trouble."

My rebuilt (?) MAF is calibrated rather poorly because my AF counts ONLY go 165 @ WOT....the "good" used original GM MAF I got in there now can hit 195 @ WOT....better, but not much.

I never took note of the AF counts before my original MAF died.

 

[JayC]

That's pretty low for MAF numbers and probably where part of your problem is. I would suggest getting a chip that locks that MAF to 255 at WOT, that should really help your problem.

Also, look around to make sure you dont have a bad seal on one of your hoses or something. I would suspect something is amiss because of the low MAF numbers.

 

[Tomas Del Maar]

Big D-oh!

The chip I have "supposedely" coming is a "Jay Carter" and it is coming from COTTON's Performance.

I called today for order status and there still is a back order.

What's up with that?

But yeah, a chip change is in order and Pete is sending an original factory spec chip....just for baselining the values.

As for the MAF....it pretty weird, and I'd feel really stupid for spending $600.00 for a translator and LT1 Maf and have it NOT improve my car.

 

[JayC]

Jack should be getting his chips shortly. Finding blanks can be a chore sometimes and Jack caught me when I was out.

 

[Schlodes]

wait a minute here...

Tomas,
you had said that the one working GM MAF yo had on the car is only seeing 195 at WOT.. With you only running 9 PSI of boost thats not far off of what it will read. turn your boost up to 15-16 PSI and I bet that same MAF will read higher.. Its measuring airflow going through it.. and 9 PSI boost is less than what the GNs ran when stock... That MAF (the one seeing 195) is prolly AOK, just not a lot of airflow going thorugh it at 9 PSI boost... thus the low reading. Those MAF #s are according to airflow going thorugh the MAF and how much boost you are running has a BIG impact on those #s.