does that mean I can't tune my 89 crx Si unless I get a 90-91 ECU?

 

correct. your 89 is not chippable.

 

well daaamn that sucks a fat one.

 

Actually.. let me change that.
They can be done, but it's not worth it at all.
I believe PGMFI did recode the microcontroller to make it 'reprogrammable' but it's not a chip thing.

The 90/91 has an external ROM chip so you can just remove that and put on a socket and plug in a chip with a program on it.
I have read that some 89s have the external ROM chip, but I'm not sure how much truth there is to it. Worth opening up your ECU and comparing rather than running to spend the money for another ECU.

 

hey hey! I will open her up tonight its just sitting on my nightstand lol. thank man that was really helpful. kinda lost hope on not spending another 90 bucks lol. theres like 14 at my local junkyard but they want ****in 90 bucks a pop for em. to me thats rape I got my PM7 crx ZC ECU for 60 bucks. and I dont even use that thing anymore

 

if the manufacture code is like november or december it should be chippable

 

How do I check that?

 

on the side it will have a blue stamp it will say.
Or open it up and take a pic so we can see
like this example here

 

Here is a picture and some info on what to look for to distinguish if you can chip it or not... http://mycomputerninja.com/~jon/www.pgmfi.org/twiki/bin/view/Library/IntroductionToECUChipping.html#OBD0_ECU_Chipping


needless to say, it is some more work to chip the older ones, but you can do the same thing using this as a guide for the 88-89 ecu. http://mycomputerninja.com/~jon/www.pgmfi.org/twiki/bin/view/Library/ChippingAn88-89ECU.html

 

I have a PM6 ECU thats already chipped from Xenocron that I'd sell to you for $55 shipped and it comes with an extra chip

 

^^ nice!

 

So I haven't quite got to the tuning part of this , but whats the difference in chips?> I assumed if I bought hondata for example it was plug n play into the ecu from your laptop , is it not? do I need a chip? anyone want to explain and maybe I can learn something today lol

 

Different chips carry different "roms" assuming they have different tunes on them.

Roms=Fuel Mapping, Ignition Mapping, Sensors tweaking, Launch Control ect.

So they tune the chip based off what modifications you have to the car, to make it run better, or of course increase the horsepower/torque.

Yes you do need a chip, because when you chip an ECU you are essentially removing the stock Chip and replacing it with a socket, so how would your ECU know what the hell to do if it had no rom?

Yaa Meeeeen?

These are also Chippable, PS9 ECU from an Automatic 90-91 Sedan EX they are hard to come by, but worth it you can run 1-wire vtec with these if you have a mini-me swap.