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Apten Chip Install

aldive

Elite In Memoriam
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Year, Model & Trim Level
1999 XLT
Well it finally arrived via US Mail.; my new Apten Chip, that is.

The install instructions were straightforward and rather simple. First the negative side of the battery was disconnected, then with a 10mm socket, the wiring harness was removed from the EEC, Next an 11 mm socket removed the two nuts holding the EEC into the firewall were removed. The EEC was removed and brought to the workbench. It took a flat blade screwdriver to pry out the access to the service port.

The contacts on the J3 connector were sprayed with Electrical Contact Cleaner and then “scrubbed” with the supplied Scotch bright pad followed by another spraying with the Electrical Contact Cleaner.

The Apten Chop was then inserted onto the J3 connector making sure the fit was tight. Since I wanted to test fire the motor, I reconnected the harness to the EEC and tightened it down, reconnected the negative battery cable and cranked the motor.

Fearing the worse ( a no crank situation ) but expecting the best, the truck cranked immediately with the first turn of the key.

Time to button it up. I disconnected the negative battery cable, and then I removed the wire harness from the EEC. Next, I took 2-inch wide tape and secured the Apten Chip to the back of the EEC. Then the EEC and its “gasket” were reinstalled, the wire harness attached and the battery hooked back up. The truck fired the first turn of the key

No time for a good road test, but I did manage to give her a spin. Initial impression is that the truck feels more powerful but the nicest ( so far ) part was the tranny shifts. Wow.

This afternoon there will be a good road test, stay turned for that report.

Brian, thank you for all you have done for us.
 



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Originally posted by aldive
...the truck cranked immediately with the first turn of the key...

Jerk :)
 






Congrats on the purchase! Please report back the mileage figures
 






what shift improvements do you mean. I can't tell if mine is shifting different.
 






Originally posted by psychotic
what shift improvements do you mean. I can't tell if mine is shifting different.

The shifts are much quicker and do not have the feeling of sliping they had prior to the Apten.

That alone is worth the price of the chip for me.
 






do they shift at a different RPM? mine still shifts at 5k
 






5000 RPM is enough .... how much higher to you want i to rev? Or how much higher were you expecting it to rev?
 






Took a 50 mile road trip to "see" how the truck raN.

The accdeleration from 65070 is very impressive as well as from a standing start.

2lkroad trip to the ranch is set for this weekend; mileage data then.
 






well i didn't know if i 'wanted' it to rev higher, just someone said it changed shifting points, and that the engine held in there longer, so i thought it'd shift a lil above 5k now... i was just wondering.
 






Originally posted by psychotic
well i didn't know if i 'wanted' it to rev higher, just someone said it changed shifting points, and that the engine held in there longer, so i thought it'd shift a lil above 5k now... i was just wondering.

Drop Brian an e mail and he will explain it to you.

Good luck.....
 






i had mine adjusted to shift at about 4900, after that, it seemed my powerband was going down, so i figured i would shift, I really like the difference. I got mine yesterday, had it in in 30 minutes, and took off. I first noticed the extra power. It isn't like night and day, but def. recognizable. Then, i hit a straigh-away and away i went.

I was really impressed. I have 275/55 tires on mine, quite a footprint, and when i floor it, i can now chirp the tires from the shift into second, something i could not do before. There is improved power all through the powerband, and is probably most noticeable in the 35-4500 range, although i can really feel it down low also.

I doubt i will save any gas, because i just give it more gas now that i have it.

End result from a two day trial. Worth the 200 bucks.
 






with all these talk about the apten chip, i gotta ask:

do you guys use premium gasoline now? if so, do you think the performance gain is worth the cost of using premium gasoline? i don't know much about the apten chips - whether it requires premium gasoline or not (too lazy to look it up) ...

i used the diablo chip for about 3-4 weeks. the performance was indeed, noticeable. however, i could not justify the increase in spending more money on gasoline. i tried to convince myself that fuel economy will more than take care of the higher cost of premium gasoline, but a 2 week evaluation of fuel economy proved that the gain wasn't much.

blah blah blah comes out of my mouth.
 






We normally program the apten chips for premium fuel, as most people want the max power gains. I have sent a few explorer chips out recently that have programming for 87 octane. There is still some performance gains, as well as the transmission programming and adaptive learning changes.

it is also notable that some EEC-V explorers have an octane pin. It's a small electronic pin by the MAF that we can program to retard timing when removed. This is on some 97, and some 98 explorers. I haven't seen any yet in the 99 programming. If you have one of these octane pins and an Apten chip, you can remove the octane pin and the computer will retard timing for regular gasoline.
 






Originally posted by 99Mounty
i used the diablo chip for about 3-4 weeks. the performance was indeed, noticeable. however, i could not justify the increase in spending more money on gasoline. i tried to convince myself that fuel economy will more than take care of the higher cost of premium gasoline, but a 2 week evaluation of fuel economy proved that the gain wasn't much.

I don't see how its possible to evaluate the fuel usage in a 2 week period. Please explain.
 






simple:

on a full tank of gas, i drove only in city until i ran out of gas.

on a full tank of gas, i drove only on highway until i ran out of gas.

paper and pencil were used to record before and after data.

thanks!
 






u really cant do that iwth just one tank.. it takes several tanks and then the avg. itz a bit more accurate that way. there can be many factors such as hills, wind, tire psi, etc..
 






Meaningfull data cannot be determined from a single tank, sorry.
 






Road trip fuel use date:

First of all, the chip performed flawlessly and the overall pep the truck now has is welcomed as well as the better shifting.

Sarasota to Atlanta ( 517 miles ) 27,9 MPG avg speed 72.9
Atlanta city driving ( 135 miles ) 28.4 MPG
Atlanta to SC to Atl ( 346 miles ) 27,6 MPG avg speed 61,3
Atlanta to Sarasota (519 miles ) 33.8 MPG avg speed 64.8

Fuel used was Amoco 93.

I am very happy.....
 






Does this chip improve preformance and milage? if so how?
 



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thats just insane al.. have u noticed gains from the chip? ur gettin double me :p
 






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