I had my chip in nearly 2 years; one day the truck died. Turns out my duct tape job had dried out and the chip was not making a good connection. Mike says don't use duct tape, but I might be a redneck...

Anyway I gotta put this thing back on. On my ECU, the chip does not sit flush, and can rock quite a bit. This upsets my technical sensibilities (I'm an electrical engineer), so this time I am going to run a bead of RTV on each side of the opening to support the chip when it is taped on. I thought about gluing the chip on with the RTV (it dries like rubber and could be pulled back off, I think), but I think I will oil up the chip "flange" so the RTV wont stick to it, and after the RTV dries, use some clear packing tape to hold it on as usual.

Seems to me like some sort of support along the long edges of the chip is needed to prevent "rocking". I'll let y'all know how it goes.

 

Hi RW,

OK, sounds like the adhesive on your duct tape dried out and it's lost it's adhesion, that happens with duct tape after a period of time, but is much worse with black electrical tape.

I would *NOT* use any RTV like that, as RTV can crack & flake off (RTV doesn't do that a lot of course, but I've seen it happen once in awhile over time if it dries out enough) and migrate into the connection area where the Superchip makes to the ECU, causing a connection-related problem.

There is variance in the exact placement of the PCB inside the ECU's housing (case), +/- 1/8", and that can lead to as much as a 1/4" gap between the back of the Superchip and the case of the computer (ECU). Nothing much can be done about that, this is just where they located the mounting holes in the PCB to that case.

Duct tape actually used to be recommended by the manufacturer, and to this day a lot of people will still use it, so if you want to, you can do that, and that doens't make you a redneck. We don't due to it drying out & losing adhesion over time, but even more so because it leaves a nasty-looking sticky residue behind that is not easy to get off without a strong solvent, which we don't like having anywhere near any PCB, for obvioius reasons.

What I would suggest is head up to your local Megalow Mart, pharmacy, etc., and pick up some Dr. Scholls (sp?) "Mole Foam," which has adhesive on one side just like you need for this and cut it into appropriate sizes; put that Mole Foam padding on the back of the Superchip module to take up that gap, and that will eliminate that rocking when you have a poorly located PCB (to the case, that is) like that. Then just tape the module to the ECU and you're all set, that can never happen again. This would work much better than RTV, IMHO, but that's up to you of course.

Best of luck whatever you decide!