Flashing suggestions 2003 Cavalier Strictly Street Race car?

[EDZIP]

Received a call from a neighbor who building a father/son race car for our local dirt track. This is the first year of the Strictly Street class (4cyl). They have a 2003 Chevy Cavalier 2.2 5sp. They began stripping the car down to reduce weight, built a cage and want to run a basic OBD2 managed engine. Haven't seen the car yet but he says after removing some parts it will now start, run for about 5 seconds and shuts down. Going to run over there tomorrow with my scanner to help them get this project going - BUT FOR THE FUTURE:

Looking for suggestions to help set him up and probably someone to flash his PCM (or two). Since it's strictly for the track should it be set up for open loop etc? Won't have downstream O2 etc. Attached a pin-out from my MOTOR MANUAL and it has a bunch to be disabled and I hope to clean up the wiring.

Thanks

[1project2many]

I love four cylinder racing classes. There were several guys on j-body.org that were into the 2.2 engines several years ago and we came up with some good tricks. One of the forum members and a partner ran two cars and had some success at a small track in the midwest until the track killed the class. Then they raced with eight cylinder cars until the other guys put up a stink. I believe the team purchased hptuners to make changes to the stock ecm. Custom cam, solid lifters, custom intake, larger injectors, ported head. PE mode almost always, and maybe a trip to the dyno to help dial it in. Disable any cat temp protection, any security system goodies. 5 seconds to stall sounds like security system protecting car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYi_BXnyFwQ
The good stuff begins about 2 1/2 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXWebvVXnIU
Another of the same car on a wet track.

[dave w]

It appears HP Tuners supports the 2003 Cavalier 2.2 liter.

dave w

[EDZIP]

What is the cost to get set up with HP Tuners for OBD2? Also, will there be relearn procedures after flashing?

[1project2many]

Without O2 feedback there isn't much to learn other than IAC position.

HPTuners:
https://www.hptuners.com/order.php

[EDZIP]

Thanks

Can this vehicle operate operate without the BCM (PCM only)?

[EDZIP]

What obstacles would there be to convert the car to OBD1?

[1project2many]

I honestly can't remember ifyou can run the OBDII controls without the BCM. I spent some time on J-body.org looking at old posts but I couldn't find an answer. I believe the BCM is married to the PCM and the only way to divorce them is with tuning software. You can force the starter to crank but the ecm will kill fuel if the BCM signal isn't present.

OBDI swap can be easy if you don't care about keeping any of the factory gauges. A 95 ecm will work in the fenderwell and be OBDI but will probably need wiring changes. Older ecm's will work but they should be moved into the car and would need complete tuning.