2.7i Tuning - Any Option besides purchasing a chip?

[TobyB]

I'd like to keep the stock AFM and modify one thing at a time,

While changing one thing at a time is generally a good idea, the stock AFM is the low hanging tree fruit of tuning-

as in, while it's not a huge airflow restriction at stock flows, it's mechanically disasterous, electrically arcane, and relatively unreliable.
I have a tote bin full of them, and all have failed in one way. Except for the one that's rusted shut. It's failed in 2.

So especially if you're not tuning the DME (ECU, whatever) yourself,
I'd start with a known- good match AFM as a tuning input,
instead of the flapper. The beauty of that is that
you can ignore the thing until you're ready to tune with it, as
manifold pressure (MAP) and throttle position (from TPS) gets you 80+% of the way there...

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