96 chevy truck engine change

[df2x4]

Everyone says there isn't anyone that can program 96 and later to the 350 engine. Thought we had found a place that could write a new program for ecm but didn't work out

The '96 and '97 PCMs are a little bit harder to find tuners for than '98+, but there are absolutely people out there who will tune them. Black Bear Performance can do '96 and '97 PCMs for sure, they tuned my '97.

https://www.blackbearperformance.com/

The tune needs to be addressed, that engine is never going to run right with the stock 305 tune.

 

[Silverado1994]

The '96 and '97 PCMs are a little bit harder to find tuners for than '98+, but there are absolutely people out there who will tune them. Black Bear Performance can do '96 and '97 PCMs for sure, they tuned my '97.

https://www.blackbearperformance.com/

The tune needs to be addressed, that engine is never going to run right with the stock 305 tune.

Hadn't done the research yet but just knew that someone out there could do it. I'll be putting that in my info bank for later on.

 

[df2x4]

Hadn't done the research yet but just knew that someone out there could do it. I'll be putting that in my info bank for later on.

To expand a little further... These are the best options I'm aware of for actual tuning software that will communicate with the various years of PCMs.

'88-'95 - TunerPro RT

'96-'97 - JET Dynamic Spectrum Tuner

'98+ - HPTuners or EFILive

Black Bear Performance can do mail order tunes for '96+. I don't believe there's anyone out there doing mail order tunes for the '88-'94 trucks on a large scale other than Harris Performance/TBIChips, but I've read enough horror stories about them to recommend that people steer clear. I think there may be some people offering mail order tunes for the '88-'94s over on the Gearhead EFI Forums, but don't quote me on that.

 

[Silverado1994]

To expand a little further... These are the best options I'm aware of for actual tuning software that will communicate with the various years of PCMs.

'88-'95 - TunerPro RT

'96-'97 - JET Dynamic Spectrum Tuner

'98+ - HPTuners or EFILive

Black Bear Performance can do mail order tunes for '96+. I don't believe there's anyone out there doing mail order tunes for the '88-'94 trucks on a large scale other than Harris Performance/TBIChips, but I've read enough horror stories about them to recommend that people steer clear. I think there may be some people offering mail order tunes for the '88-'94s over on the Gearhead EFI Forums, but don't quote me on that.

I've dealt with TBI Chips with a promI used in my truck when I was running a larger TBI on my 383. I didn't have any trouble with the way the engine ran or idled. I was even able to go to around a .509" lift cam with a 110 degree LSA and it still idled and ran like a champ.....for a TBI set up. The main problem I had with their chip was the transmission shifting. Sucker just wouldn't down shift hardly at all. After a year or so I finally learned the vehicle speed/ rpm combination and I could get it to do so but once I went carbureted I just swapped out to a Quick 4 set up from US Shift.

I followed just about every ingredient that Harris said to use on my 383 and it ran as good as I could've expected for TBI. BUT.....there's only so much you can do with that induction system. A person miiiiight be able to squeeze 375hp out of a TBI 383 but that's stretching the limit.....alot. I never dyno'd it but I'm pretty sure I was around the 330hp range and not the 375 that these guys claimed it would be. IMO it ran good but it didn't pull like a 375hp engine should.

I know I wasn't the OP or anything but this is all good info and is appreciated.

 

[baxterday]

Someone mentioned PCM Performance for a ECM as well as Blackbear. I don't have experience with either, but will soon. I am going to send in my ECM to eliminate a few things. Probably going to use PCM as they include return shipping to the customer and are closer to GA. Unless I hear of a few horror stories on here. I will report back my experience with them.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

'96-'97 - JET Dynamic Spectrum Tuner

I've used JET's DST on my '98 and according to them it'll accommodate 1996 and much later.... 2016 or thereabouts.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

I think there may be some people offering mail order tunes for the '88-'94s over on the Gearhead EFI Forums, but don't quote me on that.

There are Dave w (OldSchoolEFI) among others can. He helped me after I started with a chip from TBIChips (Harris) and wasn't happy with it. Dave soldered a ZIF socket in my 7747 ECM so I can use SST 27SF512 flash chips. I'd drive around and data log with TunerPro RT, email the log to him, he'd tune it and send it back to me, I flashed a new .bin, rinse and repeat until it was as good as it will get. This is the best way to go unless you tune your own, not a typical "mail order" tune. With Dave, I gained 3 seconds on 0-60 and 1/4 mile over the TBIChips tune. Then I went to the EBL Flash-II, because the 7747 was too slow (160 baud compared to 8192 IIRC), with a WBO2 and gained even more!

Old School EFi

Old School EFi is located in Vancouver Washington. I custom program performance TBI / TPI chips for Chevy V6 & V8 engines 4.3, 5.0, 5.7, 7.4, 305, 350, 383, 400, & 454 1987 - 1995. I use my laptop computer to read data information from your vehicles computer while being driven, and custom...

www.gearhead-efi.com

 

[df2x4]

I've used JET's DST on my '98 and according to them it'll accommodate 1996 and much later.... 2016 or thereabouts.

More and more reasons keep piling up for me to buy JET DST and learn to use it. I like the fact that it's compatible with my '97s and several of my family members' vehicles as well. I'm curious about it's features and interface vs other popular options like HPTuners and EFILive, but it's the only software I'm aware of that will communicate with my '97 PCMs so I don't have much of a choice. Unless I LS swap them both I guess...

There are Dave w (OldSchoolEFI) among others can. He helped me after I started with a chip from TBIChips (Harris) and wasn't happy with it. Dave soldered a ZIF socket in my 7747 ECM so I can use SST 27SF512 flash chips. I'd drive around and data log with TunerPro RT, email the log to him, he'd tune it and send it back to me, I flashed a new .bin, rinse and repeat until it was as good as it will get. This is the best way to go unless you tune your own, not a typical "mail order" tune. With Dave, I gained 3 seconds on 0-60 and 1/4 mile over the TBIChips tune. Then I went to the EBL Flash-II, because the 7747 was too slow (160 baud compared to 8192 IIRC), with a WBO2 and gained even more!

Old School EFi

Old School EFi is located in Vancouver Washington. I custom program performance TBI / TPI chips for Chevy V6 & V8 engines 4.3, 5.0, 5.7, 7.4, 305, 350, 383, 400, & 454 1987 - 1995. I use my laptop computer to read data information from your vehicles computer while being driven, and custom...

www.gearhead-efi.com

I was hoping you'd chime in.

 

[1998_K1500_Sub]

More and more reasons keep piling up for me to buy JET DST and learn to use it.

Perhaps like other "tunerware", JET's DST is a two-part solution, each independent of the other.

The first is the interface to the ECU (a physically in-between, ALDI and USB-connected device) in concert with the SW (on laptop) that allows one to read or write all or part of the ECU to / from an external file.

The second is the user interface which, if you've used TunerCat... well, it's TunerCat's GUI, and it operates on the files created by the above.

But I suspect that, once the ECU's been read and the file created, other GUIs might operate on the file as well (HPTuners or EFILive). It's something I've never tried, and perhaps others here can comment.

 

[Fixitup]

To expand a little further... These are the best options I'm aware of for actual tuning software that will communicate with the various years of PCMs.

'88-'95 - TunerPro RT

'96-'97 - JET Dynamic Spectrum Tuner

'98+ - HPTuners or EFILive

Black Bear Performance can do mail order tunes for '96+. I don't believe there's anyone out there doing mail order tunes for the '88-'94 trucks on a large scale other than Harris Performance/TBIChips, but I've read enough horror stories about them to recommend that people steer clear. I think there may be some people offering mail order tunes for the '88-'94s over on the Gearhead EFI Forums, but don't quote me on that.

Sounds good, I will have the vehicle in my possession mid week. He did say it idles but won't get over 60mph on the road