i thought i read somewhere that you can use the ecu out of a dodge caravan and just yank the chip out of your neon and put in the one from the van, it changes shift pattern.. or something and gets ya a little more pwer. is this true? what model/year?

 

I have never heard of this. I don't think its possible, you would need a PCM from a 2.0L engine.

 

The "chip" is encased in a resin inside a sealed case, there's no yanking it. The connectors are not compatible, for one. So just swapping out controllers won't work. Even if you were to cut and splice the connectors to fit, I think you'd have a number of extra/missing wires (Caravan's PCM sends mph to the cluster, IIRC).

The smallest engine in the Caravan was the 2.4L (unless you go back to the original 1984-1987ish 2.2L's). The fuel and spark maps were designed specifically for it and wouldn't gain anything for the 2.0L. Probably lose power - my guess is running richer and more timing retard. I know the 31TH was used with the 2.4L for a short while, then the 4-speed 41TE became standard. I'm positive the 41TE had its own seperate TCM (Transmission Control Module), and I'm pretty sure the 31TH did as well, which means the PCM wouldn't control squat on the tranny if you put it in the Neon.

There are plenty of people that yank the engine (2.4L) out of the Caravan and put it in their Neon. Uses the Neon PCM to run it.