Hello, working on a 1988 GTA

[eseibel67]

I recently changed the cam in a 1988 GTA LB9 5 speed. It runs great, but it stinks at idle, and I think a tune might fix the problem.

Not sure what equipment I need, but I find all the computer lingo very confusing. I have a couple of spare stock PROMS for burning, I'm ok with popping them in and out as changes are made.

Looking forward to reading though this site. Any advice would be appreciated.

[eseibel67]

HAHAHA! I just noticed my status is carb & points! Yes, tuning to me means jets, metering rods, weights and springs.

Very funny.

[EagleMark]

:welcome2:

You'll work your way up with posts to Electronic Ignition before you get to Fuel Injected...

:welcome:

[dave w]

:welcome:

We were all beginners at one point in time.

I think the best place to start is with an ALDL cable and laptop with TunerPro RT to learn data logging.

dave w

[eseibel67]

Thanks for response. I have a professional scanner so I'm fairly familiar with what good data looks like from the various parameters. The area I need to concenrate on is the integrater and block learn, which I assume are similar to STFT and LTFT.

[EagleMark]

INT = Short Term Fuel Trim

BLM = Long Term Fuel Trim

You can make some VE fuel adjustments based off scanner, but with TunerPRo data, history tables and a spreadsheet you do way better. You'll need TunerPro anyway to make changes to chip/bin file and it also does Data Logging.
http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Injection/showthread.php?466-TunerPro-starter-Tutorial!-New-users-this-is-a-must-read!-)

Seems like you have car skills, now you need to work on PC software skills! :thumbsup:

[RobertISaar]

INT and BLM can be manipulated to display like STFT and LTFT values (meaning 0 as no correction, + and - values for fueling changes), if you're more comfortable that way.

[EagleMark]

Ahhh... he may be used to STFT and LTFT being 0, where INT and BLM are 128, lower is taking away fuel and higher is adding fuel.

[RobertISaar]

yeah.... on the other hand, you can also make LTFT and STFT display like BLM and INT, should you be more comfortable with that.

(X-128) * 100/128

that's the equation to make BLM and INT display like LTFT and STFT.

[eseibel67]

Thanks guys. Yes, cars are not new to me, I've been doing them as a hobby for 30 years. I realize the ideal tune can only be done on the car. At the same time, my mods are mild so any of you gurus could write a close to perfect tune right now. But that wouldn't be any fun, I want to learn and play with it.

Since the car runs really good on the stock PROM, I want to keep that one out of harm's way in case I really goof up.

I have a decent laptop, but I'm still struggling with what hardware I will need since there are so many options with strange names that I don't understand. Easy solution would be for me to beg for direction, however I want to read through some of the options first, and then come back to ask for clarification. I only want to place one order for everything I need to start, I am in Canada and want to avoid multiple shipping charges.

[dave w]

There are a couple options for the Assembly Line Diagnostic Link (ALDL) Cable.

http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Injection/showthread.php?1592-Support-The-Forum-Buy-ALDL-Cables!

http://www.aldlcable.com/

http://cable.invisibill.net/

The software is free, but a donation is suggested::thumbsup:

http://www.tunerpro.net/downloadBinDefs.htm


dave w