Chips vs. Tuners
 

I'm currently in the market for a chip/tuner. I own a 3.8l auto stang and from what i've read they're basically the same concept. But my question is which would be a better purchase for an auto trans? I hear tuners can choose shift points which i am interested in but do chips do this as well? I was looking at a SCT Mustang 4-Bank Eliminator Chip from AmericanMuscle.com but i can't decide. thanks in advance for any help!

what year is your car??

tuners and chips do pretty much the same thing, except that with a hand held tuner, when you get a check engine light, you can plug it in and see what the problem is. also with a chip, you need to use the chip switch to change tunes, which i guess can be simpler, but a tuner is not a burden to change tunes. you can even go all out and get the live wire one and do complete data logging.

as far as i know, the only mustangs that can only use the chip are pre-96 models.

haha sorry, it's a 2000- i just want to get the item that i will get the most gain out of. the downfall of an automatic vs a 5spd. of course is that i cannot choose what rpms to shift at, which i read you can do with a tuner

hand held tuner is what you want... don't sweat the shift points. what do you have done to the car?

They both do the same thing tune wise. Only difference is that with a hand held tuner if they leave the option open you can go in and to some degree change the a/f ratio and timing. You can change the shift points, shift pressure, and other little things also after you get the tuner with preloaded tunes. Where as with the chip if you need different settings it has to be reburned with the new options. So make your choice off that. Also the chips are much cheaper.

SCT X-cal hand held FTW.

x2

its pretty stock, i just have an intake on it and a glasspack till i get flowmasters

ty this helped very much :)