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  1. #1
    Fuel Injected! donf's Avatar
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    Starting to Learn on 95 G30 5.7 for Towing

    Hello, I found this site a few months ago and what a great spot for information it has become for me. I have a 1995 G30 Van (Light Duty, it's really only a 3/4 ton GVW with SF rear and 4l60e) I am using for a tow vehicle. It does pretty good for what I need it to do as long as I am not in a real hurry because there are a lot of long steep hills here in Oregon. I first swapped the differential gears from 3.23 to 4.1 with new bearings and that helped a lot and got rid of the noises from the rear end. I lucked out and found a VSSB from a Suburban with 4.1 gear for a dollar, so the speedometer is spot on now. Next I plan on a few engine and transmission upgrades to a ramjet roller cam and possibly new Dart 165cc heads so a new tune will be needed once that is done. I figured I would break up the tuning part into smaller bits instead of throwing all the parts on and then trying to sort the tune out all at once. First I am going to try to read the stock eprom and burn the same information to another spare 7427 ecm and get familiar with the reading and burning process. That way I have the van and its original ecm in case I mess up and need to use it in the middle of all this. I have done a little bit of soldering in the socket conversion on a Honda OBD0, but had someone else do the chip, so this will be a learning process for sure.

    I found this thread http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Inj...r-27SF512-Chip from a few years ago and there seems to be some debate over if the socket is needed or not. So I was hoping for some updated advice on that. Also when I go the the local pick a part to look for a donor ecm to experiment with, I am just looking for another 16197427 from a 94-95 V-8 application, nothing else matters, correct?

    Thank you for the help!

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by donf View Post
    Hello, I found this site a few months ago and what a great spot for information it has become for me. I have a 1995 G30 Van (Light Duty, it's really only a 3/4 ton GVW with SF rear and 4l60e) I am using for a tow vehicle. It does pretty good for what I need it to do as long as I am not in a real hurry because there are a lot of long steep hills here in Oregon. I first swapped the differential gears from 3.23 to 4.1 with new bearings and that helped a lot and got rid of the noises from the rear end. I lucked out and found a VSSB from a Suburban with 4.1 gear for a dollar, so the speedometer is spot on now. Next I plan on a few engine and transmission upgrades to a ramjet roller cam and possibly new Dart 165cc heads so a new tune will be needed once that is done. I figured I would break up the tuning part into smaller bits instead of throwing all the parts on and then trying to sort the tune out all at once. First I am going to try to read the stock eprom and burn the same information to another spare 7427 ecm and get familiar with the reading and burning process. That way I have the van and its original ecm in case I mess up and need to use it in the middle of all this. I have done a little bit of soldering in the socket conversion on a Honda OBD0, but had someone else do the chip, so this will be a learning process for sure.

    I found this thread http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Inj...r-27SF512-Chip from a few years ago and there seems to be some debate over if the socket is needed or not. So I was hoping for some updated advice on that. Also when I go the the local pick a part to look for a donor ecm to experiment with, I am just looking for another 16197427 from a 94-95 V-8 application, nothing else matters, correct?

    Thank you for the help!
    Weird that you have a 4L60E. EVERY G30 I have ever seen from 1991 and beyond had a 4L80E.

    Ramjet is not a bad cam, but far from my favorite. I had one in my Express van and it was only marginally better than the stock cam. I have since traded it for the GM SPO 350 357 HP cam. Also curious why you would want the 165cc head. Those are smaller than the stock TBI heads and probably do not flow enough better to warrant the money. I would look at putting some Tri-Y headers on it or atleast some form of long tube header. Doug Thorley made them for these vans and they still show up on ebay from time to time in decent looking shape. The stock intake manifold, stock exhaust manifolds and stock cam will choke your setup FAR BEFORE the stock heads will.

    Finally your 1995 block may not even be roller ready. It may lack the necessary machining to install a roller cam or may even lack the necessary bosses all together.

    I would consider something like the Crane Energrizer 260 grind. It works very well on a TBI head engine with the stock compression ratio. It will take some tuning to make it run right, but it would run very strong. Some people may push the use of a dual pattern cam on these setups, however the single pattern grind will make more torque and offers less overlap for a given duration. This allows the LSA to be tightened and even more midrange torque. I like around 210-218* of duration @ .050 and around .450" lift on both intake and exhaust for these engines. Preferably a 110* LSA and 106* ICL.

    The 305 Vortec I built for my brothers 1999 Tahoe has a Lunati High Efficiency 268 cam in it. It pulls very strong and has great manners for what it is.
    Last edited by Fast355; 06-20-2017 at 08:46 PM.

  3. #3
    Fuel Injected! donf's Avatar
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    Thank you for the reply, yes its odd drive train wise, but https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/doc...olet-G-Van.pdf lists it on page 3 4l60e in g30 under 8600lbs gvw. It's a very clean, low miles van so that's why I purchased it, even with its substandard drivetrain. The reason for considering the 165cc Dart head is I have used them before for towing on another vehicle and they flow very well. Intake Port Flow: 232 cfm @ .500” Lift / 28” Exhaust Port Flow: 138 cfm @ .500” Lift/ 28” is from the sales propaganda. They actually do these numbers and a little more when touched up with cartridge rolls. I will not need any more head than this for what I am doing. Some confuse the darts with world products offerings. World's small heads are very rough and have poor stock type chambers.The block is a roller compatible, borescopes through the distributor hole are great. At least all the parts in the valley are fully machined for a roller, so I am hoping the part behind the timing chain is done too. I have the ramjet cam, so that's probably what it will get, but I appreciate the advise. Right now I am more concerned with learning the programming part, the mechanical stuff can change.

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    Quote Originally Posted by donf View Post
    Thank you for the reply, yes its odd drive train wise, but https://www.gmheritagecenter.com/doc...olet-G-Van.pdf lists it on page 3 4l60e in g30 under 8600lbs gvw. It's a very clean, low miles van so that's why I purchased it, even with its substandard drivetrain. The reason for considering the 165cc Dart head is I have used them before for towing on another vehicle and they flow very well. Intake Port Flow: 232 cfm @ .500” Lift / 28” Exhaust Port Flow: 138 cfm @ .500” Lift/ 28” is from the sales propaganda. They actually do these numbers and a little more when touched up with cartridge rolls. I will not need any more head than this for what I am doing. Some confuse the darts with world products offerings. World's small heads are very rough and have poor stock type chambers.The block is a roller compatible, borescopes through the distributor hole are great. At least all the parts in the valley are fully machined for a roller, so I am hoping the part behind the timing chain is done too. I have the ramjet cam, so that's probably what it will get, but I appreciate the advise. Right now I am more concerned with learning the programming part, the mechanical stuff can change.
    That makes sense. Dart is marketed more for performance and World more stock replacement stuff for mass rebuilders.

    Also you learn something new everyday. Never had seen a 4L60E 1-ton but apparantly they did in fact exist. I would atleast treat it to a Transgo HD2 shift kit and Corvette apply servo to make sure it is up to handling the additional power. I put those in both my brothers 1999 Suburban and 1999 Tahoe. Really made it shift much nicer before I touched the line pressure, shift-time settings or torque management. Atleast you have the good 9.5" 14-bolt semi-float rather than the 8.5.

    The programming is not too hard. You likely have BJYN and I have read a stock one and it was at one point in time in the $0D .bin section on this site.

    To support more power you are going to want to change the fuel pump (I use a 1993ish CPI Astro pump) and pickup an adjustable fuel pressure regulator. Even a stock TBI engine responds well to a solid 14 psi of fuel pressure. I have seen them stock running anywhere between 9 psi and 14 psi. The ones running at 9-12 psi run like dogs. They are much happier at 13-14 psi. Once you start making airflow changes it can take as much as 30 psi to feed the 350 with the stock 61# injectors.

    I would run through the basics first. Verify your timing is set at TDC or 0°. Then check the fuel pressure and make sure you have 13-14 psi. Good wires, cap, rotor, and AC Delco plugs are a must. Finally it would never hurt to start with a clean fuel filter and air filter to make sure the engine is getting fuel and air adequately. Finally remove the TB, clean the IAC, clean the PCV passageways and replace the TBI base gasket so it all is in good shape. I always make sure the mechanical is up to spec before I ever touch the tuning. I prefer to run these engines a bit cooler than they run from the factory and tun a 180°F or preferably 170°F thermostat, especially if I am going to crank up the timing, run it hard, and tow with it.
    Last edited by Fast355; 06-22-2017 at 12:30 AM.

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    Thank you for the help, yes the worst part of the setup is the weak transmission. I have a new separator plate and shift kit in there along with the sonnax boost valve. It's been in there for over a year and does fine. I don't trust it though being a 95 with a weak sun shell and 20 years is a long time for transmission seals in a marginal transmission, so it's on the to do list in a month or two. It's better to freshen things up then sit by the freeway with a trailer on. I have the updated parts setting on the shelf. It shouldn't take too long to pull it one weekend and go through it. The van is in great shape mechanically. It was a fleet vehicle for an electric outfit and the owner had this one so it mostly sat in their shop. I did all the maintenance on it for years when I worked for an independent repair shop. The thermostat is a 190 currently, but I do have a 180 for it when the cam goes in. I do have a new big block fuel pump I plan on installing too. That was information I read here a few weeks ago.

    Mostly at this point it's just a practice run. I want to be able to take a spare computer and change a few minor things just to get experience of how it all works. No one responded about the memcal dip socket vs just soldering the chip in so I am guessing its still up to individual preference. I have extra chips and a zif along with the ALDL cable and chip burner by Moates.So I will just get a core 95 8 cyl tbi computer and see what is next. Thank you for the information. I read some of your posts here, they answered some questions.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by donf View Post
    Thank you for the help, yes the worst part of the setup is the weak transmission. I have a new separator plate and shift kit in there along with the sonnax boost valve. It's been in there for over a year and does fine. I don't trust it though being a 95 with a weak sun shell and 20 years is a long time for transmission seals in a marginal transmission, so it's on the to do list in a month or two. It's better to freshen things up then sit by the freeway with a trailer on. I have the updated parts setting on the shelf. It shouldn't take too long to pull it one weekend and go through it. The van is in great shape mechanically. It was a fleet vehicle for an electric outfit and the owner had this one so it mostly sat in their shop. I did all the maintenance on it for years when I worked for an independent repair shop. The thermostat is a 190 currently, but I do have a 180 for it when the cam goes in. I do have a new big block fuel pump I plan on installing too. That was information I read here a few weeks ago.

    Mostly at this point it's just a practice run. I want to be able to take a spare computer and change a few minor things just to get experience of how it all works. No one responded about the memcal dip socket vs just soldering the chip in so I am guessing its still up to individual preference. I have extra chips and a zif along with the ALDL cable and chip burner by Moates.So I will just get a core 95 8 cyl tbi computer and see what is next. Thank you for the information. I read some of your posts here, they answered some questions.
    The 7427 needs a memcal adapter. I never used a ZIF socket because even the short version would not allow the chip to fit under the service door. I merely pushed the chip into the socket.

    No need for a second PCM. Just remove the memcal adapter and plug the stock memcal back in if needed.

    I had an Autoprom wired up practically permenately in my old G20. I hard wired in a 2nd ALDL port next to yhe PCM. The PCM was in the wall behind the drivers seat. I connected to it via a single USB port and could Datalog and Tune in real time with the engine running.

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    My old Vortec head TBI when I still ran it. Had an Edelbrock Performer RPM and 502 Marine TBI on it in this picture but later ran an edelbrock 2912 single plane.



    I played with TPI on a 383 as well. Stock runners in this picture but I also ran siamese ported SLPs on it.


    I also ran Doug Thorley TH-315Y headers on it from with every engine from the stock 305 through the 383.


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