Introduction
Back in the day of the 5.0's infancy, one of the popular modifications was 'a chip'. These strange little boxes promised power increases by changing values in the car's electronic engine control (EEC) module. But they were mainly cookie cutter programs specific only to the car model and sometimes the year. The drawbacks to this is that what might work well in one car might not work in another. Not all cars are created equal, and with every modification done to a car it becomes more important to ensure the chip's program is applicable and beneficial to the combination of the vehicle it is being applied to. Auto enthusiasts realized that in order to reap the benefits of a chip, there had to be a way to customize the settings in the program to ensure improved performance.
Vehicles factory equipped with electric cooling fans and/or electronically controlled transmission could also benefit from chips. Shift points and firmness could be altered, and the vehicle could run cooler by turning the fans on earlier, at lower temperatures.
That being said, several companies emerged with more 'custom programming' and many tuners started utilizing their dynos to burn programs. Watching air fuel ratios and comparing hp gains and losses, they were able to dial in a vehicle's eec parameters to provide performance based on the person's specific wants and needs. This worked very well and produced very fast street cars, providing better driveability and more power throughout the powerband. It also produced mega power at the track, with many racers dipping into the 9 second zone with the factory EEC system.
I have been running a JMS programmed Autologic chip in my 1988 Vortech supercharged GT for about 3 years now, and it has provided a safe tune, very good driveability and proven track performance. Current best is 11.40@122.02 with a 1.72 60ft. Vehicle race weight is approximately 3500# with driver and car has all smog equipment and is emissions legal. Vehicle is driven to and from the track, sometimes as much as 4 hours, so a safe tune on pump gas is very much preferred.
In those 3 years, I have changed/upgraded my combo a few times and each time I had to send the EPROMs back to be reprogrammed for the combo changes. Whether you want changes in timing, injector size or fuel tables, there was little you could do by yourself. Those who are fortunate to have a chip burned during a dyno session could maximize the settings and check the results of each change. Those of us (me included) purchasing a chip mail order had to see if the chip worked by either seat of the pants, or a seperate dyno session. Nevertheless, a reburn was necessary when making an dramatic changes to the powerplant.
Enter the EEC Tuner. Essentially a reprogrammable chip, the EEC Tuner allows the user to modify the values within the stock EEC using either a DOS program or a more user friendly Windows version. Users are able to make changes almost instantly to their car's computer, eliminate the need for costly reburns. This article will detail the installation, configuration and results of the EEC Tuner.

What you get
The tuner arrives in a small appropriately labeled white box containing everything you need.

Comparatively, the EEC tuner itself is only slightly larger than the Autologic chip and harness I am replacing it with:

Installation
Those of you who have installed a chip in your Ford will find much of the eec tuner installation familiar. The tuner board itself plugs into the J3 test port of the EEC. Usually you will find an adhesive cover over it, remove if so equipped.
Board installation can be performed with the EEC in the car, but for first timers, I would recommend pulling the EEC out.
Begin by removing the passenger side kick panel. This is accomplished by removing the front most screw on the door sill plate and the plastic push pin on the lower part where the passenger's feet would rest.
Remove the plastic trim cover and you will see the EEC harness.

PC Requirements
Pretty much any pc or laptop can run the eec tuner software. There is both a DOS and windows version. I am running the 32 bit EEC Tuner software on an IBM 486-25 thinkpad 20MB RAM running Win98. The software is not memory intensive and thusfar has had zero problems.

   [EEC Tuner]
   PORT=COM1