ECU Chips and resistors for extra hoursepower, any info on them?

[Tacoma99]

I have a Jet Black Toyota Tacoma, 1999, 4cyl. 4x4. I am always trying to find more power. On ebay (where I bought the tacoma) I was looking at the ECU's and these resistors that can fool your computer that it's getting more air than it actually is and you gain horse power and fuel mileage. I don't know much about them and the price is pretty low which makes me sceptic about it actually doing anything. I wanted to know if anyone knew what resistor they use or if they have any experience with one and which brand would be the best. Thanks

Ps. To view the ECU's on ebay type in "Tacoma chip" and you'll see what I'm talking about.


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[astro73]

This is from a post from SolaraGuy.com, but the guy works on Toyota trucks and is very knowledgable. Check out his site. This was about the JET chip but it should help you out, figuring the ones on EBAY are even worse.

"I really think JET is flat ripping people off and here is why I feel this way.

A long time ago I obtained a spare ECU for my 4Runner and sent it to JET. I got it back with stickers on it. I popped that puppy in and there was no difference as far as I could tell, well except for the stickers.

I drove if for a week or so and then put my original stock ECU back in. Again no difference. This is when I became curious and started to look into this whole thing.

I learned that Toyota can not even reprogram a Toyota ECU. There is no way to do it because they use the write once only chips in it.

A few years back the EPA was unhappy about something to do with the emmission control system on lots of Toyota vehicles. Toyota basically thumbed their nose at the EPA in typical Toyota fashion and the EPA gave them a correction order to fix this problem. It was a software glitch in the vapor pressure recovery system. Toyota could not fix this since they can not reprogram their own ECUs. They changed their tune and worked out a settlement with the EPA so they would not have to replace every single ECU in every single Toyota in the US.

The good thing that came out of this is Toyota realized that they need the ability to "update" the ECUs in the future in the case that something like this would happen in the future. They decided to switch to reprogramable ECUs. This is a good thing for the aftermarket, but currently it is limited to the cars that they build in cooperation with GM right now. But, anyway, ,

This event clearly shows that the ECUs can not be reprogramed.

There is a company called Techtom. They are in the business to "modify" Toyota and other Japanese ECUs so that they can be "reprogramed". You may know of one company in the US that does this, E L Prototypes.

The way this is done is that the main chip is removed from the ECU and replaced with a ROM board that along with other things holds a socket for a replacable EPROM. This new chip can be reprogrammed and replaced as needed. I have pictures of this on my fuel delivery page. It however can not be done on any ECUs newer then 1998.

So, to accomplish this the chip has to be removed and replaced. So the ECU is physically modified. JET does not do any such thing. They simply put stickers on it and claim you got reprogrammed.

There have been several people in the truck community that have not listened to me and my mistake dealing with JET and have sent there ECUs off to them for "sticker tuning" and every single one has started that there was no difference in MPG, acceleration, drivabiltiy, power, NOTHING. One guy even did before and after dyno test and there was NO DIFFERENCE.

So, based on my own experiences, what I have learned, what I have been told by other ECU tuners like Techtom, I feel that JET is full of crap and are ripping us Toyota folks off.

Of course this is just my opinion..."

Gadget
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[doperunner]

I read somewhere that the chips only make a difference if your engine is modified to the point that your CPU can't recongize anything. so if you just add a cam, headers, filter then you are not going to notice a difference. but if you race and your enigine is setup for racing (everything is advanced, race components, whatever racers do) then a chip does help

[Sunday BBQ]

Think about it: How can adding more fuel without really adding more air gain any horsepower? If that was the case, then everyone would just be buying those chips or installing bigger fuel injectors and not doing any other modifications. Does that make any sense? No. So why would getting a chip that simply adds more fuel help?

[redfox435cat]

usally alls an ecu mod does is increase the fuel flow and the rpm limit, u cant even do that with these ecus. If u increase the fuel without increases in air then your just screwing up the mixture, the ecu can only advance the timing so far and let so much air in to compinsate. The stock air intake is tuned for the power output so again changing the fuel delivery screws up the tunned intake so any gain the mod did is adversly affecting other parts of the equation. 3-4HP is not noticable and I don't know many people that are irresponsable enouf to redline their vehical everywhere they go since this is the only part of the power curve affected Bottom line. Its a sham. There charging what 30 bucks for a couple 10cent resistors I think u even have to go get them.