lt1 tuning help?

[jrgcjnl]

hello guys, i am a newbie to tuning, and i want to learn more about tuning, lt1s in particular
i have already started out by increasing the firmness of the shifts, adding 2 degrees to all across main spark advance and extended spark adv, as well as closed tps advance
i was wondering how i can make more power out of my car?
i also wired up the "transmission perform" button and programmed it to use it as an automated downshifter, for roll races, so that i wouldnt have to drop it to first or etc.
my only mods are intake and cut out, and i use 93 octane fuel
another thing i was wondering, does a higher MAT reading equal less spark advance tolerance?
once again, sorry but i am just trying to get a little bit more juice out of my 96z28 :p
any help is appreciated, thanks guys :thumbsup:

[mynumber1hater]

Im here doing the same thing bro, the guys are super cool here. Check out my thread and see if it helps you at all. I have some data logs and my tune posted. GL

[jrgcjnl]

it sure seems like it, thanks a lot man, its hard out here, especially with no tuners for us lt's anywhere close to where i live
ill be sure to check it out, thanks once again

[mynumber1hater]

Same here, dayton tx. I am on a bunch of forums and this is the only place where guys are willing to help..

[EagleMark]

Glad you guys are having fun here. We are just a bunch of obssed EFI guys having fun, teaching others and all learning and working as a team. :rockon:

With the performance button added you really don't need to firm up shift times, if you look through the mask for your bin you'll see the performace shift times are all 0. Other shift tables have some smooth times in them. I didn't do the button I just zeroed out my tables and have good firm shifts all the time. Tranny temps went down too!

When I forst started playing with my LT1 I found spark tables to be all they could on regular gas and could only get away with a couple more degrees with 93 octane. They are some pretty aggresive tables and others use them for their small block builds. So be careful there and watch your Knock Retard, it's nice that it will only pull .1 degree sometimes but also pull up to 15.0 degrees, so watch knock retard more then knock counts.

Best trick I can give you for a LT1 is need to download and read instructions on WOT BLM locker in EE thread:
http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Injection/showthread.php?335-16188051-and-16181333-PCM-Information-EE-EEB

Run your bin through the program and add 20% fuel to the WOT AFR table. That's where I ended up on a stock LT1 to get 12.8 AFR at WOT consistenly. If your don't have the BLM locker it only adds fuel to whatever the BLM is so you never have a consistent WOT AFR.

You can do things like turn up enable temp so air pump does not come on. Turn off traction control and when ypou do a burnout it will not poop out in middle.

[jrgcjnl]

thanks for all the help
actually in the performance mode tables the shift times were 6+ seconds, although i know that isnt true but thats whats on the table, and the only reason i wired up the performance button, is because in case i race a manual car or some guy tries to be sneaky and drop his car in manual mode, all i have to do is press it and it will automatically drop to either first or second (all i did was make the shifts happen at the max speed for each shift, such as make all 1-2 at 36mph, etc.)
now about the blm locker, i just simply run my bin through there and add 20% fuel all across the rpm range? and if so, under what table would i do that?
again, thanks for the help guys

[EagleMark]

The paremeter name in TunerPro is "%Change To Fuel/Air Ratio Vs. RPM at WOT"

After I found the WOT BLM locker and ran it, I played with fuel there while watching the WideBand O2 sensor and ended up with adding 20% to get 12.8 AFR which is supposed to be optimum for this engine.

[jrgcjnl]

alrighty, thanks a lot, im gonna try to borrow a wideband o2 sometime soon, hopefully next week but hopefully ill notice a difference

[EagleMark]

You will, it's a good trick. I couldn't beleive my butt dyno when I tryed it. So I did some logs with times and there was a difference. Look at the picture and you'll see INT and BLM are all 128 and the O2 sensor voltage is not getting cross counts the voltage is .900 + indicating richer then stoich/14.7 to 1

http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Injection/attachment.php?attachmentid=2155&d=1333581130

[jrgcjnl]

oh wow thats pretty cool, i cant wait to try it for myself :jfj:
and woah, your MAT is around 40-50? thats way better compared to the 100-ish degrees my car reads lol

[EagleMark]

That was a warm day on the highway. At idle or after parked mine will be around 100, but it should drop down to real close to putside temps when driving.

Coolant temp was off by 10 degrees as I was learning to make ADX files. Then got it down even more with several flushes of cooling system, it was always serviced by GM dealer with Death Cool, ah.. I mean Dex Cool... no rust or corrosion just clumps and gobs of crap, I've been told it eats intake gaskets too... GM decided to make it's own anti-freeze to save a nickel a gallon over real Prestone around that time... something like the .25 cents a tire savings Ford made that caused all the Ford Explorer tire blow outs horror story... OK enough back to your regular LT1 programming! :laugh:

[jrgcjnl]

sounds rather fresh
haha yeah, well its been around a couple of weeks and ive been messing around with my air fuel ratio, and i tried leaning it out from a 11.8-12.6 to around a 12.2-13.0 and the car still seems very responsive, although i cant really account for more or less power due to differences in weather lately (darn texas)
anyways hopefully they will be opening the 1/4 here in around a week and a half, so ill be ready to take my car and try about 3 different air fuel ratios, stock, plus 20% fuel and a little bit leaner (dont remember the percentage)
quick question, how do tuners get so much power out with a tune? like i know a good tune can get you around 10-15whp being stock, how do they achieve that? i thought there was only so much you can do with a tune, but it seems like they must really know what theyre doing :jfj:

[RobertISaar]

because factory calibrations are a compromise of emissions, drivability, fuel economy and power.

emissions are dictated by the EPA
MPG is required to actually sell a car
drivability is important to not make the customer feel like they got ripped off
power is important for reasons i need not explain.

you can usually trade off one or two for an improvement in the others.

[jrgcjnl]

but my question would be what do you change in the calibrations? i mean adding 2 degrees of advance isn't gonna net you 5whp, changing shift points doesnt really give you more power just lowers your 1/4, so is the secret changing your air fuel ratio?
idk im stumped :mad1:

[RobertISaar]

depending on the application, 2* CAN give 5WHP. in heavily boosted stuff, 2* can be 50WHP.

factory AFRs usually leave quite a margin of safety and can be intelligently tweaked.

but there is a LOT to art of tuning.

[EagleMark]

but there is a LOT to art of tuning. and each car or with each mod this is a good moto.

For the LT1 read post 5 above... I can't find anymore then that without adding parts, boost or Nitrous.

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

I used the BLM Locker and switched the Performance/Normal Shift Points on the Cadillac towing bin file. How do I add the 20% fuel to the WOT AFR table? Is there a way to do it on TP?

[EagleMark]

Well mine needed 20% and checked with Wide Band O2 sensor came out to 12.8 to 1 AFR.

But if you do the math included in the TunerPro XDF file it is closer to 15%.

It is in tables "PE % Change To Fuel/Air Ratio Vs. RPM at WOT "


Ratio Vs. Coolant Temperature are summed to arrive at the Power Enrichment Fuel/Air Ratio.
The resulting air / fuel ratio can be calculated as follows:
PE AFR = 14.7 / (1 + %Change vs Cool/100 + %Change vs RPM/100)
For the selected RPM, suppose the percent change to Fuel/Air Ratio from the RPM table is = - 5.1 and the percent change to Fuel/Air Ratio from the COOLANT table at the selected coolant temperature is = 22.7, then the approximate Power Enrichment AFR would be:

14.7 / (1 -0.051+.227) = 12.5:1 AFR
Basically, for every 1% that you adjust the %change vs RPM table, the A/F ratio changes by 0.147.

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

Where do you find these formulas on TP? I went to the View/Edit Parameter XDF info(F2), then to conversions, is it that conversion to use? Can I put the cells value in as 'X' and it will sum it up or is that not how TP works?

Edit: If that is not how to do it would it be with the Function, Value, and Execute buttons on the table itself? IF that's the case would it be that with a %change of 0.78 multiplied(Function) by .2 (20% Value) then hit execute --> 0.78*0.2= 0.156
Take that 0.156 (rounded up to make 0.16) and add it to 0.78 to equal 0.94, is 0.94 the new number for that cell? 0.78+0.16=0.94

Is there a way to add the 20% to the whole table or do you have to do it for each cell?

[EagleMark]

On mine I left the 800 RPM alone and started at 1200 to 5600 RPM and left higher alone as I do not need to rev higher and don't want to rev higher.

Multiply, for 20% use value times 1.20. For 18% multiply by 1.18.

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

How did you get those values?.. 1.20 and 1.18

When I multiply the cell value by 1.18 and hit execute I get one number but if I do it on the calculator I get another.. why is that? Which one is right?

[EagleMark]

I don't know? If I multiply anything in TP by 1.20 or do the same in calculator it comes out the same... got to use your "." in the right place.

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

Got it!

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

Ok, got a tuning question. I just tried programming my pcm for the first time. I tried 3 different bins and every time turned out to be the same.. The car will crank and start but dies right away. I am able to program the original bin back on the pcm with no problems but can't use any others. I am able to read the files though. I am using the WinFlash software.

I am using a 94 SS adx and xdf file. I tried a Cadillac, stock Impala, and a Cadillac tune with a couple things changed.

What am I doing wrong?

[RobertISaar]

FYI: your post had black text, i changed it to white so we can actually read it.

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

No idea how that happened... I didn't change any settings.
\

[RobertISaar]

are you able to scan for codes after firing the engine (and letting it stall out) to see if anything odd comes up?

[EagleMark]

Ok, got a tuning question. I just tried programming my pcm for the first time. I tried 3 different bins and every time turned out to be the same.. The car will crank and start but dies right away. I am able to program the original bin back on the pcm with no problems but can't use any others. I am able to read the files though. I am using the WinFlash software.

I am using a 94 SS adx and xdf file. I tried a Cadillac, stock Impala, and a Cadillac tune with a couple things changed.

What am I doing wrong?Sounds like your not saving the bin after changes? After you make any changes in TunerPro you need to save the bin file so the checksum updates. Close TunerPro, open Winflash and reflash PCM. Need fully charged battery on car and laptop, key on, engine off, everything off, no interuptions!


FYI: your post had black text, i changed it to white so we can actually read it.Then I could not read it when using the light forum color. Always use default or automatic and it will be correct for Dark or Light...

[RobertISaar]

Then I could not read it when using the light forum color. Always use default or automatic and it will be correct for Dark or Light...

and color me newb, i didn't even know there were other forum color settings.

[EagleMark]

Scroll down to very bottom of page left side...

[RobertISaar]

now that at least myself has gotten that figured out....

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

EGR Electrical Failure, Error 27 EGR Diagnostic, Error 32 <-- I will check over the vacuum lines and the EGR valve/solenoid tomorrow, should I replace them since I'm almost positive they're original.

VATS Enabled. On a stock 94 SS it's 'set' where my tune it is not. What would be the benefit of disabling the anti-theft?

Air Pump Diagnostic, Error 29 I'm guessing the air pump isn't set in the pcm anymore or something is wrong with the pump?.. None of the A.I.R. pump has been changed by me.

I went to my car to program it again and still nothing.. start and die right away. Once I put the bin file that was originally in the car it runs fine.

[EagleMark]

EGR Electrical Failure, Error 27 EGR Diagnostic, Error 32 <-- I will check over the vacuum lines and the EGR valve/solenoid tomorrow, should I replace them since I'm almost positive they're original. Yes replace them if they are that old but still might not fix the issue. Can look at that later... is there a EGR tube from your headers to intake? Was it turned off in last tune?




VATS Enabled. On a stock 94 SS it's 'set' where my tune it is not. What would be the benefit of disabling the anti-theft?Turning off VATS is common with aftermarket tunes. If you loose your pellet key or the cylinder in steering column goes bad the engine will still run, if it's a conversion engine to another vehicle without VATS module and steering column it will still run. If it is an SS and this went bad it should not crank over either though? But you could turn key on and jump the starter solenoid and start car. In the 9C1 Police option there were no starter disable from Vats, just fuel disable from VATS. Aren't you the one with early $EEB? If so you have such an early SS with an $EEB I wonder if something was changed and it was closer to a 9C1? Do you have the stock factory bin file or just the mail order tune?

Uncheck the VATS and give it a shot! Your car is doing exactly what a VATS issue would cause.



Air Pump Diagnostic, Error 29 I'm guessing the air pump isn't set in the pcm anymore or something is wrong with the pump?.. None of the A.I.R. pump has been changed by me.But have you owned the car since new? Disabling Air Pump is common practice as in 95 it was found to have an issue of collecting moisture and letting it into exhaust, since it was not needed to pass emissions there was a factory TSB to plug line at air filter inlet, remove relay and reflash PCM to disable. Nothing is removed.

You should do this anyway, there are 2 checkmarks to disable, one turns it off and one turns off the Check Engine Light.

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

I have the stock bin file available(found on this site), I tried that file with no success. How can I tell if it's an early $EEB or newer($EE)? I should be able to just flash a new tune with no problems right?

The only flags that were set on my mail-order tune are the ones that I listed. Error 27, 29, 32 and the V.A.T.S. I planned on replacing the EGR valve/solenoid anyways, I did replace my vacuum lines so I will check over them again. I wouldn't think that would make the car die right away though. I will try disabling the VATS and A.I.R. pump. Where is the checkmark to turn off the CEL when you turn off the air pump?

I don't think the EGR was turned off, only issues I see are the 2 flags. How do you actually turn it off? Don't you need to block off the ports if you disable it? The 3 EGR enable scalars are all set to stock.

[EagleMark]

You sent me your bin file once before didn't you? It was early $EEB. I have flashed 2 $EEB with newer $EE now with no issues...

Turn the VATS off and see if it will run.

Or post bin that runs and one that does not and I'll take a look at them.

[Fuzzy from MN1988]

I got the tune that I made to work, had to switch the VATS off. I tried the SS file without turning VATS off and it wouldn't work. The anti-theft was the answer. I'm going to try and switch it off with the stock one and see how that works. I couldn't get TP to work right when I took it for a drive to see how it handled and to log the info. My ALDL cable kept wanting me to switch between the Comm port 3 & 4, I had to mess with that more than once just to get WinFlash to work. In TP when I tried to connect I would get Data Connected(blue) and Data Error(red) flashing on the bottom of the screen. I never got an error message why it was happening with WinFlash or TP. I tried Start/Stop Data Scan and hitting the button that has the blue arrows pointing opposite directions, neither worked. The cable is brand new so I can't see that being the problem.

I did like some of the Normal Mode shift points switched to the Performance Mode shift points but I definitely want to learn how to change them around to make it better suited for me. Is there any additional equipment needed to watch the tranny? I know in TP it has it's own separate Monitor and Dashboard but they never change. One thing that I didn't like about the custom tune is that the car got a lot warmer than my mail order tune. I noticed on a tach that I have in my car that once it was warmed up it idled in Drive at a stop light at about 4-500 RPMs where my mail order tune would idle at about 5-600 RPMs.

[muddyjimmy]

Glad you guys are having fun here. We are just a bunch of obssed EFI guys having fun, teaching others and all learning and working as a team. :rockon:

With the performance button added you really don't need to firm up shift times, if you look through the mask for your bin you'll see the performace shift times are all 0. Other shift tables have some smooth times in them. I didn't do the button I just zeroed out my tables and have good firm shifts all the time. Tranny temps went down too!

When I forst started playing with my LT1 I found spark tables to be all they could on regular gas and could only get away with a couple more degrees with 93 octane. They are some pretty aggresive tables and others use them for their small block builds. So be careful there and watch your Knock Retard, it's nice that it will only pull .1 degree sometimes but also pull up to 15.0 degrees, so watch knock retard more then knock counts.

Best trick I can give you for a LT1 is need to download and read instructions on WOT BLM locker in EE thread:
http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Injection/showthread.php?335-16188051-and-16181333-PCM-Information-EE-EEB

Run your bin through the program and add 20% fuel to the WOT AFR table. That's where I ended up on a stock LT1 to get 12.8 AFR at WOT consistenly. If your don't have the BLM locker it only adds fuel to whatever the BLM is so you never have a consistent WOT AFR.
You can do things like turn up enable temp so air pump does not come on. Turn off traction control and when ypou do a burnout it will not poop out in middle.

I am going to try this on my tune but I did notice in my PE% Change To Fuel/Air Ratio @ WOT table the numbers go negative at 4000 RPM. Is this normal? If I multiply by 1.2 to get the 20% wont that take fuel away in the upper RPM range? That doesn't sound right but I am still new to this.

[EagleMark]

Since this it LT1 thread I'll use the LT1 $EE for example. Take in mind every calibration is differant, some same cars are differant. You can look at the same identical calibration/bin file in 2 tuner programs and positive numbers in one and negitive numbers in another!

This is my favorite $EE bin file to start with. 1994 Caddilac LT1 4l60E RPO code V4P was the only true towing option that had changes from stock bin! Way nice transmission tuning already done! * DO NOT USE 1994 bins in 1995 cars and most trucks...*

http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Injection/attachment.php?attachmentid=2905&stc=1&d=1345612094

Yes if you Multiply by 1.20 in TunerPro it will take away from negitive numbers. Adding 20% to table is the goal.

You can see where the numbers start to drop as muddyjimmy was mentioning. See where it starts to loose PE fuel at 5200 RPM? Well it's starting to take out fuel in 4800 as cells get the calulation from interpolating from cell to cell, like a smooth. Well that's all this engine was desinged to need and all GM was about to give. Probably one of the best. All the LT1s are when comparing to others.

It's also your built in fuel cuttoff, even if your cuttoff is set higher.

The 20% I added worked great. Was a stock LT1 and even with Wide Band it was so close to on 12.8 to 1 the entire RPM range, it was the easist find of PE power ever. I don't think this was by acccident as the LT1 did have a lot of money into the prograam at that time! But if you have any mods the only way to dial this in is with WideBand tuning.

I did raise mine to 5200 with a little fuel taken out at 5600 up. It really helped 1-2 shift, it was bumping into the fuel cutt off when it shifted at 5100 RPM, I did find this with the Wide Band o2 sensor. Turned from a shift to a lanuch. Probably one of the earliest tourqe control for transmissions too.

[RobertISaar]

* DO NOT USE 1994 bins in 1995 cars and most trucks...*

i'm fairly certain i know the answer why, but you may want to elaborate on this Mark.

[EagleMark]

4L60E transmissions are differant from 94 to 95. 95 is a PWM TCC. Extra wire to PCM and 12 pin electrical connector on trans, 11 on 94.

Is there more?

[RobertISaar]

not that i know of, that was the only difference i have been aware of for a little while now.

it certainly explains a few odd things in the differences between the automatic 94 and 95 3.4 F-body calibrations that i otherwise couldn't figure out.

[EagleMark]

Trucks of that era have to be watched very carefully as well.

[muddyjimmy]

Thanks for the information on that. I am going to lock the BLM and add the 20% and tune from there with my wideband. My car is just a bolt-on LT1 so I would think that the fueling should be close to the same as a stock one. The clarification/explanation on the negative numbers helps.

[EagleMark]

The BLM locker is a sweet little program, it makes this work well as there is always a given fueling starting point. 128 INT BLM, straght from the fueling VE table. You can then use the O2 sensor voltage to add and subtract fuel. Not as accurate as Wide Band, Internet rumor everyone says it won't work but after doing this a few times data is consistent enough to do a good tune.

[muddyjimmy]

So I did the BLM locker and added 20% fuel to my WOT table and I made a couple runs on my way home tonight. They were all rolling WOT runs and the AFR stayed 12.7-12.8 all the way. I started with the a mail-order tune but never had the wideband to watch. I don't know where it was but it does seem to be right now. Now the test is to see if I have picked up anything at the track.