I have heard about something called an EPROM ecu and was wondering how good they are and what benefits it may bring. If it helps I have a non-turbo model with the 420a engine.

The EPROM ECU is only on the Turbo model eclipse with the 4g63 motor. The 420a has a different ecu. But the eprom ecu's you can chip with a chip from like ecmlink.com and are able to tune and log.

would you happen to know of a good chip for the 420a ecu?

There's no actual good 'chips' for our ecu. What are your goals? What are you trying to do with it?

The 420A ECU cant be "Chipped", on the inside it is encased in epoxy to protect it from the heat of the engine bay. You can either tune with an SAFC for minimal gains, an AFX ECU from Howell (it will take a long time though) or a Megasquirt ECU.

is there a piggyback that would allow better tuning or is this completely a lost cause unless of course I pull together the cash for a megasquirt

Megasquirt is awesome! You can have MS control Fuel Only while the stock ecu controls everything else still, to make it a little easier for newbie tuners lol then later you can hook up Spark control.
Theres multiple piggyback systems you can hook up if you know what your doing but there's TONS of info readily available for megasquirt to already help you.

Well, sounds like I have a solid plan now

it also sounds like you have a lot of researching to do. Can you please elaborate on why you think you need this? Ie turbo build etc.. I hope you dont htink by doing this, your going to make mad gains on a stock, or semi stock setup..

It was partially because I came across the part and wanted was hoping to find out a little more about it. There is honestly a high chance I won't be needing this, but I've just been checking out chips and such trying to find something that would help tune my car once I have the basic tunning steps finished.

The Neon guys are working on a socketed ECU. Not sure how close or how far away they are from accomplishing this goal.

What exactly is a socketed ecu?

Originally posted by spikekautz
What exactly is a socketed ecu?

An ECU with a socket in it to to install and/or uninstall a chip witha a tune file. ie: ecmtuning.com

Gotta love those neon guys. On it like ants... Still ugly cars though.

Although I’m a MS guy, I’ve been following the .org thread for a some time now. Recently, ShelGameRob has been able to read data from the SBEC and SBECII within his custom program. Only a matter of time before he’s able to write custom tunes. :thumbsup

http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=386645&start=480

Originally posted by 96TurboGS
Although I’m a MS guy, I’ve been following the .org thread for a some time now. Recently, ShelGameRob has been able to read data from the SBEC and SBECII within his custom program. Only a matter of time before he’s able to write custom tunes. :thumbsup http://forums.neons.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=386645&start=480

Man, at least they are still at it. I followed that for quite a while, but it seemed to have a hard time moving. I honestly could understand very little of what was said. It was like I was reading it in some other language and they would intersperse english in there once in a while.

Ironic that a goofball like Gary Howell is able to change the code, but a whole community of brainic nerds is having that much trouble, lol (yeah, I know its Gary's buddy reflashing the ECU's)