96 SVT Cobra appears Superchip is bad opinions on my options please

[Spiney]

I bought a 96 SVT Cobra about a month ago. It had 39K miles and was a garage baby. The previous owner only drove it about 1.5K miles a year and seemed to spend more time polishing it than driving it. I trusted the seller totally. But he either forget to mention an issue or it went bad 5 minutes after I bought it. The mods are a new H pipe, no cats, Flowmaster mufflers, a K&N cold air kit, a SuperChip and B&M Short Shift kit. When idling for about 15 minutes it will rev up, then stall. When you restart it it runs rich out of only the drivers side pipe, blowing black smoke and runs real rough. That was the majority of the issues. Then the other night it started missing and sputtering. 98% of the time it runs great. I took it to my garage who I really trust and they are pretty sharp guys. They work with everything from my Volvo and Ranger to other peoples Ferrari's, Alfa Romeos, Porsche's, Race cars you name it. They got it to act up. They said it never threw any codes. They put it on some sort of analyzer that showed the computer was enriching the mixture when it would act up. Their opinion was it's an issue with the SuperChip. I called Superchip. They no longer make the flashed chips for a 96. Though they told me I could probably find one online somewhere.

So here are the options that were given to me. I'd like your opinion. I'll start out with I spent my money buying this car and didn't plan on putting another $500-1000 into it right away.

1) Take out the chip, see how it runs. It will throw a check engine light because there are no cats or oxygen sensors.

2) try to find a replacement chip if taking out the chip fixes the issue. The people at Superchip said while the chip may be the issue generally when a chip goes bad the car won't start. Could also be dirty contacts?

3) put the original cats and sensors back on. I have all of the original parts in excellent shape. How much power if any will I lose with the original cats?

4) Take out chip and take to local Mustang guru who will create a custom dyno tune for about $6-700.00 He tells me that he will find the problem.

5) put the original cats, or have hi-flo cats put on, then do the dyno tune.


I like the growl of the exhaust now, but If I don't lose too much putting on the original cats, I can live with that. I'm not looking for the fastest normally aspirated 96 Cobra, I'm more interested in decent performance and drive-ability. I've had more than my share of car headaches and want to just enjoy the car. So those of you with experience with these things I'd like to hear your opinions. Thanks, Spiney-Dave

[snakbitn]

Have it properly tuned.

[Spiney]

I think I fixed it! I finally was able to get the kick panel off and get to the ECM. After much coaxing I was able to get the ECM out. When I did I found the Superchip was not seated correctly on the ECM. Further investigation found there was corrosion on both the Chip's contacts and the edge connector on the ECM. I cleaned them up with some Radio Shack Contact Cleaner and a toothbrush. Once I was happy with that, I re-seated the chip and then held it in place firmly with Gorilla Tape. Put it back in, crossed my fingers and she started. Ever since then, about 2 weeks now, she has been running pretty good. I do plan on adding the Hi-Flow Cats and getting a proper tune next spring but for now I'm going to save my money. Thanks for all of your feedback and advice. Spiney-Dave