jserio

Everyone must be seated for this stupid *** question. Which is the LH Brain. The outside box or the inside box. And while I'm at it, Must high octane always be used with Autothority chips?

Sorry but I did make a feable attempt to find the answer in the WSM.

Garth S

If you are doing the chip thing, you need to get inside both brains IIRC - so pull out the entire bracket as an assembly: the EZK is to the consol side, the LH to the passenger fender. Not to worry, they are well marked ( but only visible once removed), and only bolt in one way.
To do the chips, be up on anti-static precautions: at the very least, a damp towel beside the operation to occasionally 'ground' your finger tips.
Most chips advance the ignition curves to the max., necessitating high octane juice: that's for when your foot goes into it - if one only does 2500rpm 'cruizin, not a problem - but then, one doesn't need the chips ....

jserio

Understood Garth and yes I'm doing the chip thing. If a chip is not will it do anything to the brains?

SteveG

If a chip is not what?

jserio

Sorry, working properly was supposed to be there. If a chip is NOT working properly will it hurt the brain or only not run properly?

dr bob

Joe--

The part no's on the brain boxes clearly tell you which is which.

I HIGHLY recommend that you mark the old chips with LH and EZK designators before you remove them, and make darn sure you can see the key notch in the chip, again before you remove them.

The eproms are static-sensitive, so in that perfect workshop world you'd have the brains apart while sitting in your grounded chair, on a static-safe mat, with the wrist strap on and grounded. Realistically, you can do this while it's raining today with minimal static risk, ao long as you aren't wearing that poly ski jacket. Stick with the cotton sweatshirt and you'll be fine.

If you have brand-new chips to go in, the pins will not line up perfectly with the sockets. They are a little too far apart side-to-side, so the easy solution is to press the pin side of the chip on something hard, bending all the pins on that side in just a little. Do the same on both sides, a tiny bit at a time, until the pins line up well with the sockets. If you 'miss', there's a risk of having a pin bent over without getting into the socket, so check carefully.

Don't forget to install that cute little chip retainer spring goodie on the eproms once they are seated correctly.

----

When I had the first set those chips installed, the car was very sensitive to fuel quality, especially on warm days. With SoCal pump premium, the car would still ping hard at low- to mid-revs in slow traffic while the AC was on. I used a few bottle of octane booster in each tank to kill the audible stuff, but there was the issue of the inaudible detonation possible at higher speeds. So the chips came out.

DR was kind enough to broker a swap of those chips back to Autothority for a set of GT chips. the GT chips are slightly less aggressive I'm guessing, since they are working on an engine that's already got bigger cams and maybe a hoter advance curve right out of the box. Anyway, those new chips pretty much solved the detonation issues on my car. However, they were removed when I was having a problem passing smog check here for high NOx a few years ago, and they are sitting in their little box, inside a bigger box that has all the spares, and also all replaced parts from the car. For those reading along at home, that box isn't very big...

I plan to have the injectors cleaned sometime this spring, in concert with a TB/WP job and an intake/cam cover refinish project. With clean injectors, the NOx problem should diminish enough to allow the hot-rod chips to go back in.


Is that more answer than you needed?

jserio

Bob, Personally I love your imput. I always come out with a better understanding of what is talked about. Since you mentioned injectors then I will wait until I get my #19 Fords cleaned and then put in the car. I will put in new plugs at the same time also. What would be the best plug to use in conjunction with the chips?

Drewster67

How much of a power increase is expected to be gain from chipping .....lets say an 88?

Are they worth it?. What would be the negatives to chipping a shark ....

Bored minds at work would like to know.

!

SharkSkin

FYI... BTDT with the static prevention(used to work in PCB assembly, programming & maintaining the robots). You can unroll a sheet of aluminum foil on the workbench, and run an alligator clip from one corner to a water pipe, or if you are ABSOLUTELY positive the socket is wired properly, you can connect to the ground lead on a power socket. Disregard that last sentence if you have ANY doubt. Then, just make sure that you always touch the foil before you touch the electronic parts. Also, if the new chips probably come in anti-static packaging that you can re-use... but aluminum foil makes an excellent substitute for that as well. The only exception is, if you have a computer motherboard with a battery on it, you should either remove the battery or get the correct anti-static packaging.

John Speake

I've swapped the EPROMS in the LH and EZK many times without any problems, but it is wise to take sensible precautions as advised above.

Basically, try not to touch the pins any more than you have to.

The notches, designating the pin 1 end of the chip, always face to the outer edge of the PCB, for both ECUs.

I can supply any of the LH and EZK chips.

worf928

I've seen two chipped 928s on the dyno. Both GTs. Neither 928's chart showed any gains that I considered statistically meaningful. Both pinged like they had marbles in tin cans under the hood. One, after getting its injectors cleaned stopped pinging. But, I haven't seen a chart from that one subsequently.

I'd love to see a before-chip and after-chip dyno chart where the only difference is the chips.

Chips may work. They may not. But, with the timing advance from the chips you need good clean injectors and good high octane fuel or you'll see a knock sensor curve on the dyno chart.

IMHO, any LH-equipped 928 that hasn't had the injectors cleaned in - say - the last 10 years needs them cleaned. My '91 was not pinging when I pulled the injectors to get the intake off. With them out I thought - what the heck and had them cleaned. The difference in my '91 was seat-of-the-pants noticeable. I didn't do a before-cleaning dyno, but after cleaning the '91 pulled 295 rwhp. The GTS pingged its head off before I got the injectors cleaned. Now, with clean injectors, it doesn't.

jserio

On 928 Specialist site it show a nice improvement on pre S4 cars and somewhat minimal gains on the S4 cars but I am interested in the lower rpm arch in the hp and tq. 928 Specialist has the charts.

worf928

Joe, I looked at those charts. I hadn't seen them before.

Those charts do show a nice gain from the chips.

One note though: those charts are for pre-89s. For other folks, I would not assume that similar gains would be made in GTs. But, of course, you have an 87 (and an '85).

In any case, keep injector health in mind.

dr bob

In the time I had the chips in the car, I noticed a bit of extra low- and mid-range oomph. I don't normally disturb the cobwebs in the tach above about 4000 RPMs, so I can't talk to changes up there. However, my first drive with the new chips seemd to be pretty brutal up there. I did a 55 MPH merge from one freeway to another, and let her rip. From gentle to brutal in a fraction of a second, including a tire-chirping downshift to second(!) in the auto box. Hadn't even tried that before...

Anyway, they were not cheap at >$600 at the time, but there was enough improvement to make me keep them for later use. Exhaust note was a little raspier even with my all-stock system.

Joe: Use the stock plugs. There isn't enough difference to make experimenting with different plugs worthwhile.


Is Cruzin Performnace still a vendor-of-choice for injector cleaning?

jserio

Okay stock plugs it will be. Yup, Rich at Cruzin already expect my injectors as soon as I come up with some funds. Gotta love these cars