Chevy & GMC Vans

I just installed a TBI vortec 350 using the GM vortec TBI intake. I need to have a chip burned for it. Anyone know of someone that does this and is good at it without the 400 dollar price tag?

tbichips.com
Brian does a good job, but the price gets up there for the more custom chips.
Reasonable price on chips that add a bit more performance to a basically stock setup.

I talked to him and he burned me a chip a few years back for a 305 but for some reason for a vortec with TBI he wants like 400+ for a chip. I think thats outrageous personally.Thanks for the info. Mark

markmitchinnh wrote:I talked to him and he burned me a chip a few years back for a 305 but for some reason for a vortec with TBI he wants like 400+ for a chip. I think thats outrageous personally.Thanks for the info. Mark

its because a TBI with Vortec heads is NOT a stock configuration, so he has to make one up special.
You could maybe get by with a stage 1 chip for a stock TBI 350.

There is a company that replaces the chip and has a self learned program board.If interested post,if not,I won't waste my time looking up the ref link.

I am moving to California so I don't know if that is legal or not there Igary. When I get there and learn the rules/laws then I will get back to you on that system. I spoke to a guy on a site called 3rd gen Camaro and he says he can burn me a chip for 50 bucks but I kinda believe in the saying "you get what you pay for"

http://lt1swap.com/all_lt1.htm
Mark....Email Brendon. Sounds to me like he knows how to do this.

Those chips cost about 30 cents says Mic Mueller, ( now on 3ed gen ) who did my L31 chip. The guy at Super Chips in Longwood, Fl. was going through them like they were free and throwing them away. I kept telling him the L31 was nothing like a reg 350 and when he FINALLY put a sniffer in one of the tail pipes he goes, "OMG this is way different". DUH. The hottest stock 350 chip allowed me to barely limp the thing to Bike Week and then over to Longwood. After I got home I sent it to Mic with a note of what it still needed to be right and he nailed it.

I believe you told this info before and I tried to find him and no one know him on that site. Maybe he moved on again?

V8astrocaptain is his handle. He is also on theturboforums.com/turbomustangs.com as v8astro I believe but he doens't post there much. I should really bother him some time. Here's some info.

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/member.php?u=8398

There's a very simple reason that the guy offered to do it for $50; It's simply that he has a tune that will be close enough to get everything working better than you've got it right now. In terms of tuning a stock Vortec 350 with an off the shelf intake is nothing really special; it's been done more than a few times. No offense meant by that, but at the same time it's a good thing as it means you may be able to find someone who's laid some foot steps for you to follow in getting your van going. You could easily be giving a person $50 for spending 20 minutes burning you a chip and tossing it in the mail for a total of $5 in expenses and having it be the tune that gets things working well.

Depending on the person I would easily take them up on that offer. If it's Fast305/Fast355 I would do it in a heart beat and thank him for helping you out. He's a van guy like us and hes done a ton of stuff with these boxes.

In regards to $400 for a chip, depending on what you get it MIGHT be a good deal; A lot of guys will cut you a chip to get things started, then they will have you send data logs back and cut a few more iterations of the chip that are progressively a better match of your combo. If that's the case, it's not a horrid deal at all. There's a lot of collaboration time that goes into it. If it's a canned chip where it's cash and carry spend your money elsewhere IMO.

If you're using ANYTHING meant for a stock TBI 350 chip wise, I would almost bet it's lean. It probably acts fairly decent cruising, but if you hammer the go pedal it almost acts like it's standing still. A tune is best but you can probably get rid of quite a bit of it with bigger injectors and/or an AFPR. It will at least get a lot "closer." you're talking about giving a 255hp stock engine the same amount of fuel as a 200hp engine stock. Any sort of mods (like an intake possibly) would tend to make that difference even greater.

A simple way to check is tap your O2 line and use a DVM. http://www.aa1car.com/library/o2sensor.htm Here's an explanation of how they work and how to read one. No assurance that you're not running lean due to the fact you can't read below 14.2:1 or so but if you are horridly lean this will tell. An LC-1 with a gauge is about $250 and money well spent IMO. 14point7.com sells kits as well that you can buy that may be a few bucks less and give you the same results.

I would really like to learn to read, and burn my own chips are there books on this subject to get me started?