Putting A Chip In A TBI Truck

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Bighead38

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What are performance chips and how do they work?
Performance chips are essentially a memory chip that contains a set of instructions that tells your computer (and your truck engine) how to respond to incoming sensor data. Some of the companies I know of that sell chips are: Jet Performance, Wester’s Garage, Wait4Me, TBI Chips, (Ed Wright) Fast Chips, etc. They can vary in price from under $100 to over $500. Burning your own chips can save you some money or at least allow you to fine tune your engine as you continue to upgrade your engine.

Personally I went with the Jet 6 Pack chip. I think it works pretty decent. I like the economy mode for long trips and the security mode for when I wont be around. I usually just cruise around in stage one.

Installation is easy.

1. Disconnect your battery.
2. Open the glove box and remove the liner. You should now see this:
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3. You need to take the computer out.Unplug the harness to start then move on to the clips. It is held in by the two clips on the side which you can see here:
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4. Now unscrew the cover:
You should go from this:
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to this:
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5. Now you simply remove the chip and put in the new one. The chip will only fit one way but be careful not to bend any of the prongs.
Chip out:
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Note: If you bought just a chip skip to step 8. If you have a jet 6 Pack or something comparable then continue.
6. Jet 6 Pack chip replaces the old chip and cover plate:
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7. You need to run the wire up to the control box. I simply drilled a small hole to run the wire through the liner. I chose to mount the box in the corner for a variety of reasons but you can mount it however you would like.
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8. Put it all back together and enjoy.
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Hopefully this will help people out. If you have any questions feel free to post in the thread or pm me.

If I think any posts in here are helpful I will add them to the first post.
 

Crunk

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i have the hypertech chip in my truck right now but i really don't remember if it actually did anything or not haha, did you notice a difference with that jet chip and how much did you pay?
 

Chris

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I had a chip fail on me coming back from Kentucky Monday and caused all sorts of hell. The pre-94 ones can be prone to chip creep at times as well.
 

1996 yukon

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any info as far as how to burn a chip by yourself? i understand that you would have to get the tune from somebody else (unless you have the software and skills) but what else is involved?
 

chevy_man

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I would also like to know what kind of performance increase this had. I was looking at that 6 pack one the other night but I remember reading that they really didn't do anything. And I didn't want to shell out the $200 to find out it was a joke.
 

Chris

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I would also like to know what kind of performance increase this had. I was looking at that 6 pack one the other night but I remember reading that they really didn't do anything. And I didn't want to shell out the $200 to find out it was a joke.

Not much honestly. Even with an aftermarket cam and custom tune I haven't noticed THAT big of a difference over stock. The driveability seems to be better and that's pretty much it.

i just want one to get a little better mpg out of my 4.3

It may help some. I'm tuned for 93 octane with the cam and still only see 18.5-19.0mpg on my two or three weekly fillups. That's all highway too.
 

1996 yukon

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hmm, since i only drive ol blue to school and back (before the fuel pump went out) it was most highway, and at ~75 i got 17, then at ~65 i got 18-19. ill look up on how to burn the chips and everything and post up on here if i can.
 

fragdemon

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bighead thanks for the post. are there any other advantages with the 6-pack over the stage 1 or stage 2 other than the ability to switch between multiple settings? did you still need to change out your thermostat?
 
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