what does a chipped ecu really help with when turboing a car j/w and does it help alot ?

 

yes it helps alot. w/o it ur car runs like crap and u could blow ur motor.

 

it allows you to tune

 

it allows you to adjust your spark and A/F ratio and various other things. With a turbo, you're forcing ALOT of air into the engine, and there has to be a perfect ratio between you're air and fuel coming into your engine. Since you have more air, if you leave the ECU stock, its not supplying enough fuel to match the air, this is called "running lean". This will cause your engine to blow very quikcly. Running with too much fuel is called "running rich" and although you won't blow your engine, you are wasting gas and losing power. Chipping an ECU allows you to adjust the amount of gas your car is putting into your engine, which allows you to keep the A/F (air/fuel) ratio correct.

It's basically impossible to run a boosted car with a bone stock ECU. Well i guess it's not impossible, but you will probably blow your engine.

Also, if you have a 96 or newer Civic, you have an OBD2 ECU. These ECUs are not chippable. OBD1 (up to 1995) ECU's are chippable. You can buy one of these ECUs and get a conversion harness and hten have that chipped. That is the only way you can chip a 96-newer Civic. You can get a piggyback ECU system (Emanage, AEM EMS, etc.), but its not the same. More expensive, and not as convenient (i beleive)