96 Cobra unknown history

[Pedrothecobra]

Need some help from someone with experience in chips and hand held tuners.

I have no history on the car, that being said I’m running very rich on the drivers bank, car breaks up under WOT. I can roll into the pedal and the car kinda performs but it’s not right.

I found this chip is plugged into my ECU I believe this is for the PATS since the vehicle won’t start when it’s removed.( I can remove the chip after it’s started and it will stay running)

I have road tested the car with the chip in and the chip out. Car reacts the same no matter what. My question is could I be dealing with a flash in my ECU? Could someone not knowing what they were doing loaded in some kind of custom tune that’s causing my issue? I’m trying to familiarize myself with handheld tuners like SCT but im not on how they work. I also don’t want to purchase a new ECU if I could possibly buy a handheld and reflags the ECU myself. TIA

 

[ttocs]

that is where the tune for your car is stored. They probably got a bama tune and they are known to suck. The best option would be to find a local dyno tuner that does sct and have them do a proper tune.

 

[Pedrothecobra]

So When you purchase a programmer it comes with one of these chips? Your not actually flashing the ECU?

 

[Pedrothecobra]

that is where the tune for your car is stored. They probably got a bama tune and they are known to suck. The best option would be to find a local dyno tuner that does sct and have them do a proper tune.

So when I purchase a programmer it comes with a chip that plugs into the ecu?

 

[lwarrior1016]

So when I purchase a programmer it comes with a chip that plugs into the ecu?

The older technology was to use one of these chips. The newer stuff will flash the ecu with a handheld device. Have you tried to pull codes from the ecu or monitor oxygen sensor states and see what each bank is doing?

 

[Pedrothecobra]

The older technology was to use one of these chips. The newer stuff will flash the ecu with a handheld device. Have you tried to pull codes from the ecu or monitor oxygen sensor states and see what each bank is doing?

So there are no codes, I’ve watched the O2s from some data I captured. They are switching, when I put them on the graph the 2 banks are pretty close together when they spike or drop

 

[Pedrothecobra]

So there are no codes, I’ve watched the O2s from some data I captured. They are switching, when I put them on the graph the 2 banks are pretty close together when they spike or drop

So there are no codes, I’ve watched the O2s from some data I captured. They are switching, when I put them on the graph the 2 banks are pretty close together when they spike or drop

Also I’m wondering if someone flashed this ecu in conjunction with this chip. The car has been thru 12 owners and I got no history, guy I got it from spoke no English

 

[lwarrior1016]

Also I’m wondering if someone flashed this ecu in conjunction with this chip. The car has been thru 12 owners and I got no history, guy I got it from spoke no English

I know this is not what you want to hear, but the best thing you can do is start over. Like ttocs said, find a dyno tuner and start over. It’s really difficult to pick up behind someone else’s work if you have no information.

 

[Pedrothecobra]

I know this is not what you want to hear, but the best thing you can do is start over. Like ttocs said, find a dyno tuner and start over. It’s really difficult to pick up behind someone else’s work if you have no information.

Yea I had it at a shop who has a dyno and he suggested a stand-alone to bypass the issue altogether. I haven’t ruled that road out yet, but I want to try and fix the issue. These are not that complicated

 

[lwarrior1016]

Yea I had it at a shop who has a dyno and he suggested a stand-alone to bypass the issue altogether. I haven’t ruled that road out yet, but I want to try and fix the issue. These are not that complicated

He recommended a stand alone ecu to fix this? I’d find a different shop then. The stock ecu should be able to get retuned and fix this issue, if it’s a tune related issue.

 

[ttocs]

There is no reason to go stand alone unless you have much bigger plans. The only reason they say that is that either they do not do sct, or they want to sell you more stuff. I would even look at getting a off board AFR And doing remote tuning prior to going stand alone if you can't find a place that can do sct

 

[Makoto]

when i rebuilt my car i had it retuned just for peace of mind. they can flash the ECU without even touching it. don't over think the problem.

 

[Pedrothecobra]

when i rebuilt my car i had it retuned just for peace of mind. they can flash the ECU without even touching it. don't over think the problem.

Who’s they? A tuner?

 

[Riles]

I’ve read this post. I’m a friend of his helping him out with this car. What is entailed with getting this back to factory oem specs? Would this explain the one bank being rich? I’m assuming since we noticed a issue with the pats system that would be another hurdle. We’re being told the pats can be fixed with two keys and my computer guy hooking up and programming keys with pats/ecu. I’m under the impression this definitely needs to be done if we pull that chip and put it back to stock. Or am I not understanding this correctly? Do we start there and see if it fixed the one bank? Or try and diagnose the rich issue now or are we chasing our tails with that rn?

 

[J_lope82]

Verify that the car is running rich first. Pull you spark plugs a post pictures

 

[ttocs]

is the security light flashing when it will not start? Is it cranking/turning the starter motor when it does this?

 

[Pedrothecobra]

There is no reason to go stand alone unless you have much bigger plans. The only reason they say that is that either they do not do sct, or they want to sell you more stuff. I would even look at getting a off board AFR And doing remote tuning prior to going stand alone if you can't find a place that can do sct

when i rebuilt my car i had it retuned just for peace of mind. they can flash the ECU without even touching it. don't over think the problem.

is the security light flashing when it will not start? Is it cranking/turning the starter motor when it does this?

Car starts. Theft light flashes fast when car is running

 

[96blak54]

A known mustang Dyno tuner session can reveal alot about the engines vitality. 1st the tuner can return the comp to stock. Reveal any piggyback chips and will discover any abnormalities with any of the sensors.

The 96-98 B heads had an inherent problem with the secondary port sludging up due to no fuel passing through it. The sludge also caused the butterflies to stick or restrict movement. Stuck open or closed causing the engine to perform poor. The fix is removing the intake and using elbow grease cleaning it all up.

I vote a tune session......not really getting a tune, but getting the comp back to stock.

 

[Pedrothecobra]

Verify that the car is running rich first. Pull you spark plugs a post pictures

I’ll post some pics later tonight if I get a chance

 

[Pedrothecobra]

A known mustang Dyno tuner session can reveal alot about the engines vitality. 1st the tuner can return the comp to stock. Reveal any piggyback chips and will discover any abnormalities with any of the sensors.

The 96-98 B heads had an inherent problem with the secondary port sludging up due to no fuel passing through it. The sludge also caused the butterflies to stick or restrict movement. Stuck open or closed causing the engine to perform poor. The fix is removing the intake and using elbow grease cleaning it all up.

I vote a tune session......not really getting a tune, but getting the comp back to stock.

Are you referring to the IMRCs? When you talk about the butterflies, I have already deleted them thinking that was the original issue when I first got this car. I’ve fixed most of the smoking guns I could find, and have it narrowed down to the ECU i believe. I need to find a tuner who knows how to decipher all the data and can narrow down what my issue is.