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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shifty Powers" data-source="post: 1162449" data-attributes="member: 9020">Chips, Handheld Tuners, and Professional ECU TuningIn the past, computer tuning was misunderstood and almost "taboo" on mild cars, but today, with advances in software and more understanding and experience, computer tuning has become "the latest craze." For good reason too. The gains from a good tune are multi-faceted. Your car will idle better, have better drivability, get better gas mileage, run safer, and of course, yield more power. The factory LLX-(1,2,3 or 4)ECU is programmed with 3 main goals: safety, emissions, and drivability (with STOCK parts of course). The factory sets timing incredibly conservative, in fact, the stock ECU stops adding timing at only 4800 RPM, at a pathetic 18 degrees total timing. Additionally, the factory commands a 10.8:1 air-fuel ratio, which is less than optimal for performance, to say the least. Also, the factory bases their timing around the opening of the IMRC plates (see the Common Issues sticky), which many people delete upon installation of low gears, superchargers, etc. So, moving on, which type of ECU modification is best for you?Basic Mail-order "Chips": This is the simplest form of ECU recalibration. Basically, it's a small unit, maybe a little smaller than your cell-phone, that plugs into a port on the factory computer. These "chips" use a very vague combination of timing increases and recalibrated A/F ratios to increase power and gas-mileage. While they will give a small improvement over stock, the cost is not justifiable due to the relatively recent plethora of tuning options that have become available. Units from Jet Performance, Hypertech, etc are available, but use technology that is well...obsolete.Handheld Programmers: These are a great option that have become very popular in the last couple years. SCT (formerly commonly known as Superchips Tuning) has really grabbed the market lately. Additionally, Hypertech, Diablosport, and Sniper Tuning haved gained popularity. These handheld tuners allow for mild user-friendly changes in fuel, timing, gear-ratios (on newer cars, to correct the speedometer), etc. They can also be used to turn off rear 02's (like mentioned earlier), and have other convenient features. The beauty of handhelds is that you can often buy them with as many as 3 pre-programmed tunes for your car, and then make little changes yourself, such as retarding a few degrees of timing when you want to run nitrous, etc. Additionally, a professional tuner can use this handheld in conjunction with his more advanced software to burn you a custom tune(s) while monitoring the ECU's actvities as well as A/F ratio. This is your best option, but requires additional expense.Professional Tuning: One of the best ways to recalibrate your ECU is to have a professional do it "manually" with his own software. Often times they will use your own handheld in conjuction, as mentioned, but can also simply burn you a "chip" or multi-tune "switch-chip," which can hold tunes for gas-mileage, N/A performance, nitrous, race-gas, etc. With this method, the tuner "datalogs" your ECU's activity on his computer, as well as the A/F ratio via a special sensor inserted into your exhaust. Datalogging is when you make baseline runs and a computer (often a laptop for convenience) stores all the ECU's activity for that period so that the tuner can make finite adjustments accordingly. The beauty of this method is that the tuner can make very detailed changes which will milk every last horsepower or MPG out of your car, and increase your drivability and engine's safety as well. This is usually done on a chassis-dyno, but can also be done on the street, which is preferred by some tuners.Caster/Camber PlatesLet's face it, if you didn't have to buy them, you probably wouldn't. While they offer better adjustability for race applications, most people just need them because they don't have enough adjustment after they lower the car. C/C plates let you extend the range of adjustment on the front suspension's alignment. If you want to know more on the tech side of this, search the internet, the info is out there. Anyway, Maximum Motorsports and other companies offer quality plates that will suit you just fine. In more extreme handling/race applications, the more expensive options are typically better because of the increased stresses they can stand, whereas cheaper plates can crack. Don't worry about this on a streetcar really. That's as far as I'll go with these parts as they're pretty boring and they piss you off because you MUST buy them often times even though you probably won't use them to increase performance.Upper and Lower Control ArmsIf you don't know what these are, take a look under your Mustang and find those four "bars" connected to the rearend. Yeah, those things suck, read on. The factory LCA/UCA's are stamped flimsy units that buckle under load and have bushings made for comfort and not performance. One of the first mods stangers do to put power to the ground is a good set of LCA's. Solid aftermarket units with polyurethane-bushings take most of the flex out of the system and allow more positive launches and increased traction, in layman's terms. Be careful who you buy from though, because many of the cheaper ones lack good bushings, which kind of defeats the whole purpose. Upper control arms are not quite as necessary right away, but still help. The same principles with bushings apply here too. Adjustable uppers are great for changing pinion angle as well on lowered cars. When it comes to bushings, you typically want polyurethane units instead of solid bushings (which will be clunky and rough), but if you are gonna just a solid bushing, only put them on the rearend side of the arms unless it's a true racecar. Like I said, I'm not gonna get too specific with these, but they also increase handling by keeping the rearend centered better, etc, etc.I think I covered most of the basics and much of the more in-depth aspects of performance. If you wanna get REALLY serious, the internet is filled with great tech stuff about pistons, heads, cams, yadda-yadda-yadda, and other uber-specific techy stuff. What the internet does lack is databases of specific information for the average late-model stanger, which is what I'm trying to build here. Feel free to add your input, I strongly encourage it. I'll be making some more installments in the near future, so stay tuned.</blockquote>