helping Dad with his GN

[Kevin Jones]

He has a pretty built up motor and a lot of things which we aren't familiar with (I know its a 4.1 with meth injex but I do knot know this GM motor, SBC I am at home, I am not comfy here). I know turbos, have a 400+hp busa myself and fairly good at tuning and afr tables. I can plot a target AFR map, do boost by fueling and timing tables once I know the baseline for the motor, but I look under his hood and I see ancient electronics. Im not wishing for a motec standalone but he still has the eprom n chips and without a laptop interface, I feel crippled. We are in Central FL, I am Daytona/Ormond, he is West Coast @ Crystal River. I know it is busy season and all my tuners for bikes are backed up for a month or so at least and I imagine the car community is the same. I think we should start with an appointment to a shop who can tell us what all mods it has and capabilities. We need a standalone and I will help him install. Both of us are good mechanics but he is new to boost. We will do our own tuning but please give me your recommendations for both shops and compatible personalities. My experiences with tuners and builders in this state were a painful road to a narrow path and a lot of nationally known tuners who IMHO have inflated reputations, at least in the bike community.

Please let me know who I can get with Central FL, regardless of how backed up they are. Time is not of the essence but personality and compatibility are. I can think of at least 3 tuning sessions I have paid for which ended with putting my bike back on the trailer and hard feelings and potentially damaged reputations. Lets not do that please.

 

[ITSAV6]

Cal Hartline and Don Cruz both have shops in Fl. Cal tunes most of the fastest on this coast. If you want to tune it yourself look at Megasquirt from diyautotune.com Megasquitt 2 or 3. They have self tuning ability and you can get a plug and play adapter. Also you can keep the stock ecm and get a Maf Translator Gen 2 or Pro and both have wot wide band a/f ratio correction and you can trim fuel/spark....

 

[ITSAV6]

The previous owner doesn't know the mods? You can pull the ecm and look at the chip and it should have a sticker with writing on it. You can post it in the chip section and probably find out the injector size. Is he gonna race it or drive it around? How does it run now?

 

[Reggie West]

Call Cal Hartline. He sells the FAST units and he provides you with a good base tune if you buy it from him. One stop shopping and his customer service is very good.

He has been tuning Buicks and other cars for 20 plus years.

He knows what he is doing and you will not be disappointed.

 

[psycho6cyl]

Post some pictures of the car and we might be able to tell you some mods. Things to consider fuel pump and hot wire a scanmaster for the very least. Depending on goals you may not need a stand alone. Looking at 1900+ you can get a chip that gives you limited tuning and add a powerlogger to it to record it. Next step up would be an sd2 chip. It's a step up from the adjustable chip with more tuning features. Or you can go to a more expensive xfi system. A good way to get lots of boost with out race gas is Alky injection. Alky control.com he's in FL as well. I would state your goals and go from there

 

[Kevin Jones]

Ok, let me get some pics up. I thank everyone for the kind words and help, this doesn't come easy in the race bike community, you guys are awesome. Ive been busy working on my busa with my tune attempt #4 coming Friday, (last time made it to 300hp but couldn't take out enough fuel at 11psi, found out we were making a newbie error with the microtech by not lowering the adjacent fuel table, kept reading too rich I guess the ecu bounces between boost tables and the map was for a diff model ecu, way rich). Armed with a strategy and a starter map this time. 5 hours one way, oh well fingers crossed.

 

[Kevin Jones]

double post

 

[Kevin Jones]

 

[Kevin Jones]

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[ITSAV6]

Well I see a Maf Translator and LT1 maf and a Snow alcohol kit. Turbo has a 4" inlet. The translator has fuel adjustments, if it is a Translator Plus it has timing features too. I also see Red Armstrong volt booster, Champion fuel rails, aftermarket plenum too. Is the intercooler stock? Need to see what chip is in it. Is it running bad?

 

[Kevin Jones]

Well I see a Maf Translator and LT1 maf and a Snow alcohol kit. Turbo has a 4" inlet. The translator has fuel adjustments, if it is a Translator Plus it has timing features too. I also see Red Armstrong volt booster, Champion fuel rails, aftermarket plenum too. Is the intercooler stock? Need to see what chip is in it. Is it running bad?

When I saw it had nothing for AFR inside, I told him he needed a wideband he could see, so he bought a scanmaster, I don't know what model. I cant get him on phone right now. I know its a 4.1 magnaflux block n crank steel rods n caps. Has a comp roller cam n rockers (I don't know profile) pt 66 snail, 2 red Armstrong pumps in tank,, hughes torque converter (I don't know revs neither do I know rear axle ratio). The intercooler is upgraded he told me injex size but I cant recall. Right now we bought that tool to get the cam sensor right and he has several chips, I don't know which they are but I will find out the missing puzzle pieces. I think it may either be running lean and the timing is getting pulled or we don't have the right chip in it. I have been through any pulls with him so that I could look at the AFR. Does the scanmaster or MAF translator have any datalog capability that I can pull with software onto a laptop?

 

[ITSAV6]

No datalog from translator. Scanmaster shows the stock O2 output I think.

 

[psycho6cyl]

Scanmaster will show stock 02s and is narrow band.. here's a great site to start with

http://ihadav8.com/forum/VortexBuicks/

gnttype.org is great as well. If you have older chips I would definitely look into modern day chips like a turbotweak or a Bob Bailey chip.

Also get a boost guage. Don't depend on stock LEDs they are never correct. Same goes for rpm.

 

[Kevin Jones]

Well I see a Maf Translator and LT1 maf and a Snow alcohol kit. Turbo has a 4" inlet. The translator has fuel adjustments, if it is a Translator Plus it has timing features too. I also see Red Armstrong volt booster, Champion fuel rails, aftermarket plenum too. Is the intercooler stock? Need to see what chip is in it. Is it running bad?

When I saw it had nothing for AFR inside, I told him he needed a wideband he could see, so he bought a scanmaster, I don't know what model. I cant get him on phone right now. I know its a 4.1 magnaflux block n crank steel rods n caps. Has a comp roller cam n rockers (I don't know profile) pt 66 snail, 2 red Armstrong pumps in tank,, hughes torque converter (I don't know revs neither do I know rear axle ratio). The intercooler is upgraded he told me injex size but I cant recall. Right now we bought that tool to get the cam sensor right and he has several chips, I don't know which they are but I will find out the missing puzzle pieces. I think it may either be running lean and the timing is getting pulled or we don't have the right chip in it. I have been through any pulls with him so that I could look at the AFR. Does the scanmaster or MAF translator have any datalog capability that I can pull with software onto a laptop?

Scanmaster will show stock 02s and is narrow band.. here's a great site to start with

http://ihadav8.com/forum/VortexBuicks/

gnttype.org is great as well. If you have older chips I would definitely look into modern day chips like a turbotweak or a Bob Bailey chip.

Also get a boost guage. Don't depend on stock LEDs they are never correct. Same goes for rpm.

Thank you for the site, its going to be great learning. I already see that if the scanmaster only updates at 1.4 sec rate going through ecm, that is a claymore waiting to go off. In the bike world we do not have anti knock and .1 sec is too slow. Had I known that I would have urged him to get something that read much much faster and had datalog capability. No wonder he wasn't able to tell me what the afr was doing on a pull. It would only refresh several times and who knows the shape of the sensor it is pulling the data from anyway.

 

[psycho6cyl]

Well.instead of buying something twice get a powerlogger it comes w an update chip for scanmaster that I believe help it reads faster. Add a sd2 chip and you can really fine tune.

turbotweak.com has all you need as well as fullthrottlespeed.com

 

[ITSAV6]

Turbo Tweak makes a chip with wideband correction as well as Bob Bailey. The Translator Gen 2 and Translator Pro offer lots of tuning ability. My Bailey Extreme G chip tune was dead on at wot. They both have wideband tracking and wot fuel correction. The Pro can run speed density and you can use a flex fuel sensor for E85. Turbo Tweak has similar option. I don't think IMHO that 99% of these cars don't need FAST or similar ecm. A few years ago yes, but with all the chip options now has really extended what the stock ecm can do.

 

[ITSAV6]

Turbo Tweak also has a new box like the Translator also. Looks simpler to use also.

 

[Kevin Jones]

Looks like that powerlogger is the stuff with which I am used to. I usually review each pass with the software, charge my battery a bit and let my clutch cool and this interface looks 10x simpler to use than what I have. Of course that is first look. Plus if it comes with an upgrade for the scanmaster, for $270, cant lose. I agree now about the standalone, you have so much more available to you than we in the bike market do. I am so jealous.

 

[psycho6cyl]

Also looking at your clamps for throttle body and intercooler connections they should be the spring loaded ones (that's what I call them) and also the coupling between turbo and intercooler looks too big. Get the proper size. And zip tie all vac lines.

 

[Kevin Jones]

Ok, bike is good to go minus clutch tuning and Dad is ready to get back to this. Going to revisit what you guys told me before and see what seems to click with my experience.