I'm building a mild all motor LS for my daily after my old LS spun a rod bearing. The motor is just going to be a all new fresh rebuild with ARP rod bolts and headstuds along with PR3 pistons. Head will be ported, valve job, Crower valvetrain and will have a 68mm throttle body with a XS Power intake manifold (old school FTW lol). I plan on putting adj. cam gears along with Crower 403's in it sometime after this coming winter. But will be riding with stock b18a1 cams for now.. Here's what I'd like to know...

(car has a Hytech rep long tube header, test pipe, and 2.5 exhaust BTW)

-Does it take a genius to chip a ECU and should I trust his work?.. He's done his car (built b16) and another car (boosted LS), prob others just don't know of them. He said it takes about 20min to do and put in a LS base map with Crome.

-I was reccomended to get a wideband set up and FPR/gauge to help with tuning. Opinions?

-Beings it's not getting camm'ed yet, tuning shouldn't be that complicated, just a tad more fuel/spark for the extra air flow?

Any help would be appreciated..

 

No it doesn't take a genius to solder an ECU. Do you have any pictures of his soldering work that you can post? Or have you seen any of his work? At that speed you should tell him that you only want to be charged for the 20 min labour and $15 for the parts.

20 minutes is a quick chip job for sure. I'm no pro but I've done my fair share. When done properly it takes me 20 minutes just to clean the OEM clear coat off the main board. Another 20 min to desolder all of the pin holes that are require. Then 10-15min to layout all of the new components on the board and 30 minutes to solder them. However, I take my time and I keep as much heat away from the board and it's components as possible. Chipping an ECU shouldn't be a race.

If you are being told to buy all of the hardware to tune. IMO you might as well try to do it yourself and not pay him to do it. How much is he charging you and what all is he providing as a service?

Honestly, I would suggest taking your car to a dyno to be tuned.

 

Appreciate the honest reply with some actual knowlage.

He could very well been just saying 20min meaning to say it doesn't take a long time to do. I've not seen his work myself. Of course I'd love to have it dyno tuned but with the minimal mod's being done I don't see it worth it?... The wideband and FPR/gauge were suggested to monitior/tune the AFR's beings that's what needs to be adjusted for the higher compression/more flow. He told me he would do it for $80 bucks.. for the chip and base map, probably more for the actual street tune..

 

$80, I should up my rates for chipping I guess.

Yes, in order to tune you need a WB O2, and the FP guage is 50/50 for your build list. You should try and see if you can find a WBO2 that you can borrow for tuning. Unless you don't mind paying $250-$300 for something that you only really need for a few hours. That being said, some of the newer software and WBO2's out there allow you to run the WB sensors as a closed loop O2 sensor.

 

Care to elaborate? I've heard of it but a noob as far as tuning goes..

WBo2's I've been looking at as well.. The AEM unit is only around $200, but I've heard mixed review's about it.