4# Pulley and no chip?????
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 11,153
Likes: 0
From: Selden NY
Being a Chip kinda guy,
I will play the, "you'll get optimal performance with a Chip" card.
I've been around long enough to see many Chipless L's and yes it does appear to be ok, and they do seem to NOT blow up anymore then Chipped L's. But you buy a chip for more things
than A/F, and lets not forget once you go WOT, there is no computer adjusting A/F, at WOT it goes to a predetermed table,
this is where the adjustments need to be done from a good tuner.
And most important, there is much performance to be gained with higher timing.
Real life test and tuning proved over and over for me, that on the identical setup, I go from a 13.0 / 13.1 with no chip, straight to a 12.8 / 12.7 with a Chip, NO OTHER CHANGES, same day, same everything, filter chip 4lb+16 degree Chip program (no juice of course) I've tested this theory at diff tracks, diff days, always the same results. Now a days I actually run 18 degrees of timing, no ALL GAS Et's on that yet, too much fun racing with Juice
But the things that make your Lightning a truly differant truck
with a chip are things like Torque reduction being turned off, the factory shift points moved to a more optimal performance range,
the rev limiter/fuel cut off being moved to a higher RPM, tip in, and even sometimes some "slight" transmission tweaks. It's not always transmission pressure either, the MS between shift,
(the amount of time it takes to complete a shift) is one of the most important tranny tweaks you can make.
So to answer Nightrider's question, Ya you can do it,
and yes it APPEARS to be safe enough FOR SOME,
but like people are saying, no two Lightning's will take to a tune the same way, and no two L's will react the same to the same Mod's.
My opinion, A Chip is a wonderful thang, I absolutely HATED MY LIGHTNING when it was unchipped. Here's how it went, you got on it, the tires spun, it hit the limiter, shut the fuel, died down and farted (Torq Red) shifting second, then once the RPM dropped and the fuel came back on, it would take off again, downshift back into first, fart again going to second, and then finally take off. NO THANK YOU, I FRIGGING HATED THAT
For me, a Chip is the most important Mod on my truck, even if
I was 100% stock, I'd have one to address Shift Points, MS,
Torque reduction, and Rev Limiter.
I will play the, "you'll get optimal performance with a Chip" card.
I've been around long enough to see many Chipless L's and yes it does appear to be ok, and they do seem to NOT blow up anymore then Chipped L's. But you buy a chip for more things
than A/F, and lets not forget once you go WOT, there is no computer adjusting A/F, at WOT it goes to a predetermed table,
this is where the adjustments need to be done from a good tuner.
And most important, there is much performance to be gained with higher timing.
Real life test and tuning proved over and over for me, that on the identical setup, I go from a 13.0 / 13.1 with no chip, straight to a 12.8 / 12.7 with a Chip, NO OTHER CHANGES, same day, same everything, filter chip 4lb+16 degree Chip program (no juice of course) I've tested this theory at diff tracks, diff days, always the same results. Now a days I actually run 18 degrees of timing, no ALL GAS Et's on that yet, too much fun racing with Juice
But the things that make your Lightning a truly differant truck
with a chip are things like Torque reduction being turned off, the factory shift points moved to a more optimal performance range,
the rev limiter/fuel cut off being moved to a higher RPM, tip in, and even sometimes some "slight" transmission tweaks. It's not always transmission pressure either, the MS between shift,
(the amount of time it takes to complete a shift) is one of the most important tranny tweaks you can make.
So to answer Nightrider's question, Ya you can do it,
and yes it APPEARS to be safe enough FOR SOME,
but like people are saying, no two Lightning's will take to a tune the same way, and no two L's will react the same to the same Mod's.
My opinion, A Chip is a wonderful thang, I absolutely HATED MY LIGHTNING when it was unchipped. Here's how it went, you got on it, the tires spun, it hit the limiter, shut the fuel, died down and farted (Torq Red) shifting second, then once the RPM dropped and the fuel came back on, it would take off again, downshift back into first, fart again going to second, and then finally take off. NO THANK YOU, I FRIGGING HATED THAT
For me, a Chip is the most important Mod on my truck, even if
I was 100% stock, I'd have one to address Shift Points, MS,
Torque reduction, and Rev Limiter.
