Trans Pro- MAF or Speed Density?

[Wright 63]

Just looking for some opinions. I bought a Trans Pro, I figured if your gonna switch, get the best so you only have to by once. I know this subject has been covered, i did a search, just didnt find exactly what I was hoping for.

My question is with the ablity to run either one, which would be a better option. I know theres alot of variables involved. My goal is somewhere in the 11's. Hopefully mid to lower. I havent gotten my setup like I want it yet but I am workin on it. Most people use time as a goal to determine the setup they choose, but Im a little odd I guess. I'm basing mine off of TC stall. I dont wanta go over 2800. Ive had big stalls and they suck for streetablity IMO.

I dont know anything about SD, but what Ive read it sounds like a better option. Is it easier/harder to tune? Or should I just stay with LS1 MAF? I also have an autometer wideband and had planned to use the wb tracking option. Also, I have a TT 5.6 chip but would I need to change to one of the other chips to run SD? I know there are a couple of different chip makers making SD chips.

When Im done I hope to have a setup similar to this:

60lb inj
Walboro 340/hot wired
stretch SLIC
2800 stall
not real sure on turbo, biggest I can run with 2800 stall but it will be a DBB
Ported, stock heads and intake
new cam but still havent decided roller or not. Big $ diff.
poston headers
THDP and pypes 2.5 cat back and 3" cutout.
RJC power plate
razors alky

I hope that the questions dont sound to stupid for you guys but Im lost on all this new electronic gadgetry they have for these cars now. What happened to the days when you bought a 3 way aquarium valve for a boost controler and smashed the sides of the FPR to get more fuel pressure???
Thanks in advance guys,

Brian

 

[blackmonte]

I run mine with no Maf and it rocks!! But ask Rick about this He did my car, and he runs a Maf on his . I was told that you will make more power without the Maf but not sure about that?All I know is my car pulls like mad

 

[TurboDave]

Just looking for some opinions. I bought a Trans Pro, I figured if your gonna switch, get the best so you only have to by once. I know this subject has been covered, i did a search, just didnt find exactly what I was hoping for.

My question is with the ablity to run either one, which would be a better option. I know theres alot of variables involved. My goal is somewhere in the 11's. Hopefully mid to lower. I havent gotten my setup like I want it yet but I am workin on it. Most people use time as a goal to determine the setup they choose, but Im a little odd I guess. I'm basing mine off of TC stall. I dont wanta go over 2800. Ive had big stalls and they suck for streetablity IMO.

I dont know anything about SD, but what Ive read it sounds like a better option. Is it easier/harder to tune? Or should I just stay with LS1 MAF? I also have an autometer wideband and had planned to use the wb tracking option. Also, I have a TT 5.6 chip but would I need to change to one of the other chips to run SD? I know there are a couple of different chip makers making SD chips.

When Im done I hope to have a setup similar to this:

60lb inj
Walboro 340/hot wired
stretch SLIC
2800 stall
not real sure on turbo, biggest I can run with 2800 stall but it will be a DBB
Ported, stock heads and intake
new cam but still havent decided roller or not. Big $ diff.
poston headers
THDP and pypes 2.5 cat back and 3" cutout.
RJC power plate
razors alky

I hope that the questions dont sound to stupid for you guys but Im lost on all this new electronic gadgetry they have for these cars now. What happened to the days when you bought a 3 way aquarium valve for a boost controler and smashed the sides of the FPR to get more fuel pressure???
Thanks in advance guys,

Brian

With your combo, low/mid 11's is do-able without pushing it too hard. A good 6262 DBB turbo will fit nicely with a good PTC 2800 converter.

Now, on to the Translator Pro. I've been running mine for a couple years now, and have ran it both with the LS1 MAF and in SD mode. Change over on my car is really easy because I keep a different bin file for different modes. Just a matter of popping the maf on, plugging it in, and uploading my maf tune file to the trans pro.
I normally run SD however now that I've had a good bit of time tuning that way.

I will add the caveat: IMHO, YOU WILL BE WASTING YOUR TRANSLATOR PRO'S ABILITIES AND FEATURES IF YOU DON'T RUN THE EXTENDER PRO CHIP.

You want to do your tuning with the trans pro, and your wideband tracking, and fueling, and timing adjustments, etc. etc. NOT with the chip. I strongly recommend you order an Extender Pro chip for you combo to work with your Translator Pro.

A laptop is an indespensable tool to use with the trans pro to make adjustments and file generation and uploads a lot easier. Punching buttons on the trans pro can get tedious after a while.

You could set it up in maf mode and run that way for a while and get used to some of the easier tuning tools, and then switch over to SD when you're comfortable.

The trans pro also handles closed loop boost control. It uses the same 3 bar map signal that the trans pro requires anyway. My personal setup uses two stock solenoids wired and plumbed in parallel using the stock wiring harness, and the pro replaces the computer control on that wire. With the two solenoids you have a much wider dynamic control range over boost.

There's plenty of technical assistance both here and on Full Throttles tech site for the Pro.

 

[The_Six]

Brian,
What part of TN you in Im in Kingsport? Our combo and goals sound the same I will be running the translator pro and plan to change to SD when the engine is back together I just got one of the BWR MAF pipes with integrated MAF sensor I will just unplug the sensor when I’m in SD and plug it in if I use the sensor. I’m also using the innovative WB for tracking and the High boost solenoid to control boost. I had just got everything to put it in the car when it blew.
I’m new with the translator PRO and TurboDave is probably one of the most knowledgeable people you will get to talk to about it and I only went SD to clean up the looks under the hood some just thought it was too busy in there, So I’m not going to make any suggestions there but I do have one for your over all combo, I know the new DBB turbos are nice but I have never heard of a turbo blowing up an engine if the tune was good. If I was you I would think hard about getting a regular turbo and use the extra cash to get a roller cam you will be a lot happier in the long run doing this and you will not have to worry about the cam going bad. I actually used the cash I was saving for a turbo to get my roller cam I went with the smallest one I could get the 206/206 other then the cam and some mild porting of the heads and intake my engine is stock just new rings and bearing. After stripping the lobes in my fire bird I didn’t want to have to go through that in my GN too.
My combo is almost everything you listed except the turbo and convertor I’m running the stock D5 converter and unless I can find some cash lying around Ill still have the stock turbo now for a while. I just picked the engine up so it should be back on the road soon if your close buy your welcome to come over and check it out when it gets up and running and see how you like it.
Dave’s 86 GN is in the 11s he has MSD50 injectors and his converter is a 3200 I think and he has a te-44 turbo I have driven his car and loved it and when I started planning for my car I used his for a road map on how I wanted mine.

 

[Hacksaw]

Reading the book about Ford EEC IV engine control systems by Charles Probst, he takes a dim view of switching from MAF to Speed Density. Yes, it's about Ford engines, but the principles are the same.

Speed Density has more trouble with the ECM adapting to changes made on anything dealing with engine performance, like a cam change, porting, etc. The result is worse drivbility in some conditions. But, you may get lucky.

Now, the stock MAF can become a limiting factor due to shear air flow issues through it.

 

[The_Six]

With the Trans Pro those issues are not a problem you can make changes with the pro. Back in my F-body days we had the same problem with SD every time you made a change while tuning you had to burn a new chip so we liked our MAF systems it gave us some wiggle room. But with the adjustability you have with the pro and its ability to work with the WB you no longer have that trouble.

 

[TurboDave]

Reading the book about Ford EEC IV engine control systems by Charles Probst, he takes a dim view of switching from MAF to Speed Density. Yes, it's about Ford engines, but the principles are the same.

Speed Density has more trouble with the ECM adapting to changes made on anything dealing with engine performance, like a cam change, porting, etc. The result is worse drivbility in some conditions. But, you may get lucky.

Now, the stock MAF can become a limiting factor due to shear air flow issues through it.

You need to do a lot more reading. We in this community (and many others) don't really suffer those issues with the modern electronics available to us such as the Translator Pro, or FAST XFI, etc.

 

[84BuickGNYorkPA]

Speed Density get's my vote, I went with TT, about 20 different adjustable parameters :wink:

Chuck

 

[Wright 63]

Thanks for the replys guys. Im pretty sure I'll go with the SD setup, just not sure how to set it all up. I guess I'll get it figured out sooner or later though, just have no idea on how to get started. Guess I have alot more research and reading to do, huh?

681tonburb,

I live in Bristol. I think your the one that Yankee (Ozmosis,Steve) was talkin to awhile back about where to take your motor to. He and I work on alota GN's together at his shop. As far as the turbo goes, the reason I was thinkin about a DBB was so I could run a larger turbo with less stall. Roller cams are nice, no doubt, but I can buy alot of ZDDP for the difference in cost. I still havent ruled out the possibility of buying one, just cant decide if its really worth the extra cash.

 

[TurboDave]

Thanks for the replys guys. Im pretty sure I'll go with the SD setup, just not sure how to set it all up. I guess I'll get it figured out sooner or later though, just have no idea on how to get started. Guess I have alot more research and reading to do, huh?

.

If you go with the Extender Pro chip/Translator Pro combo, then you wont have any trouble getting up and running right out of the box. When I first installed mine, I went right to SD, and used the default buick settings in the Trans Pro, and the fired and ran great immediately. Did some followup tweaking to get the fuel curve a bit more ideal so the wideband didn't have to work so hard to take care of corrections.
Now I leave the ECM in closed loop to let the stock narrow band take care of idle and cruise fuel mixture, and the Pro and wideband take care of WOT A/F tracking.

 

[The_Six]

Yap thats me I was going to go tappet but I spun 2 cams in my fire bird and the wife said she wasnt having it in the GN so she used my turbo money to by a roller cam.

 

[Wright 63]

Turbo Dave,
Thanks again for the replys. I'll check into those chips and will order one and give this a shot. I was just worried about how to get everything setup properly, but if thats really all there is to it I shouldnt have any major problems (I Hope lol). Does adding the Razors alky change the setup process with the SD or is it a nonissue?

681tonburb,
At least you dont have to hide the fact your buying car parts. Sounds like she into it also.

 

[TurboDave]

Turbo Dave,
Thanks again for the replys. I'll check into those chips and will order one and give this a shot. I was just worried about how to get everything setup properly, but if thats really all there is to it I shouldnt have any major problems (I Hope lol). Does adding the Razors alky change the setup process with the SD or is it a nonissue?

681tonburb,
At least you dont have to hide the fact your buying car parts. Sounds like she into it also.

Adding alky will require some different tune settings. Obviously you'll need to set your WOT target A/F ratio richer, and you'll be able to bump the timing and boost up some. Just more playing with the tune settings.

 

[The_Six]

She just likes that the GN has AC when we go to car shows. If it was my 68 surb it wouldnt have been so easy. We go to 4 or 5 shows from here to Fla every year and she likes that the GN is good riding car. she likes fast cars to so that did help some.