2006 Crown Vic chip? ECM? Just want to know/understand some stuff about my car

So, I took my crown vic to the dmv to register it, and one of their guard/cops walked over and started admiring the car, and talking about how they typically have a "chip" installed to up performance.

I was curious, is that the thing that's about the size of a stephen king paper back on the left side beneath the steering wheel kind of by the hood release/parking brake? If not, where would I look to find this? Would the numbers/letters on the ECM disclose any info about how the car's programmed, or any of the perks that have been added?

Thanks everyone,
Zach

Yes

If you look under the brake master cylinder/vacuum assembly and see something that looks like a dictionary with wires coming from it, that's the PCM / ECU. It holds all the programs that control the engine, transmission, ABS, etc.

Since they came out with the OBD II very few if any cars were "chipped", because you could reprogram your car with a handheld programmer like from SCT. Since about 2002, all CV, GM, and TC had the same programs setup from the factory.

HOWEVER, Police Fleet vehicles had part of the program changed; increased and varied idle RPM's, higher top end on the vehicle, and lower shift points on the transmission. These were all controlled in the PCM.

Buying yourself a preloaded program in a handheld programmer like from SCT will really open up your vehicle. And you can also make adjustments as you modify the engine.

Go to www.crownvic.net to read about the MZT mods to the engines. Since you have a 2006, you could change the rear-end gears to 3.73, add a good cleanable air filter (or change over to a CAI), and maybe loose some weight in the car. Normal thing like wheels and tires, lowered springs, dechroming the exterior are all part of the fun.

Awesome, thanks for the info breakdown. In your experience, has the door sticker always been correct as far as gear ratio? Mine reads C6 (3.55 w/ Trac Lock) at the moment

Quote:

If you look under the brake master cylinder/vacuum assembly and see something that looks like a dictionary with wires coming from it, that's the PCM / ECU. It holds all the programs that control the engine, transmission, ABS, etc. Go to www.crownvic.net to read about the MZT mods to the engines. Since you have a 2006, you could change the rear-end gears to 3.73, add a good cleanable air filter (or change over to a CAI), and maybe loose some weight in the car. Normal thing like wheels and tires, lowered springs, dechroming the exterior are all part of the fun.

Your PCM is on the inner fender under the hood, it is not inside the car(they changed that in '05).
Don't waste your time reading about the MZT, you already have a comparable intake.

A tune really wakes these cars up.

Occasionally the door sticker is incorrect because the department swapped the rear out of one car into another, it's not "common" but it can happen. I'd check the tag on the diff cover. It should say 3L55(many times the 3 is not visible under the bolt).