darguy

I've been looking for a clean speedway white 01Z for a daily driver, and have found one reasonably close by (6 hrs) for a decent price, but it's been modded more than I'd want:

"Texas Speed MS4 Cam with hardened push rods, new valve springs, titanium retainers, spring seats and seals. LS3 timing chain. Full stainless steel exhaust including long tube hedders, H pipe, Corsa mufflers and tips. K&N fuel injection performance kit. Professionally tuned and dynoed at 500HP."

Got the following additional info from the owner:

"Its tuned to run very rich on a cold start, but leans out as the car warms up. The tuning was done very well, and the car is quite streetable. Yes the CAGS or skip shift has been eliminated. I have the stock x pipe with the cats, but not the stock rims. The long tubes are Texas speed polished stainless, 1-3/4 primaries. There are currently no cats on the x pipe I installed. The city mileage is about the same as my full size Sierra, 17-18L/100k (13 mpg) and 7L 100/k (32 mpg) highway. The k&n is the Fuel Injection performance kit. What it does is add a little scoop cut into the rad shroud, in which the filter sits in. It also comes with the larger intake tube. Mass airflow and throttle body are stock. The x pipe with cats from Texas speed bolts right up, if you wanted to go that route. I think it is $300-400. Or you could weld in the stock ones."

Several red flags there, IMO. I would need to have the car pass an emissions test so I'd need either the Texas Speed x-pipe and cats or the stock ones put back in. And then have it re-tuned (I'm guessing the O2 sensors have had their fault reporting turned off at least). I've seen a video of this car on a cold start up and it's really loud & lumpy. Which doesn't exactly turn me on for a city/hwy daily driver. Also, I'd have gone with a Honker CAI, myself.

It also has a giant aftermarket amp & touch screen stereo that blocks the centre vent, non OEM C6 style chrome rims, and chrome spears in the coves - clearly this guy likes to get looked at while he's driving around. Not a priority for me, I'd remove the spears and probably look for a different set of rims at least.

So I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this Texas Speed cam and header setup, and if I put their catted x-pipe in would I be able to re-tune it to be a bit more civilized. Perhaps replace the corsas with the stock cat-back system to tone down the noise? Or, is this setup too aggressive for a 60 mile per day city/highway commute?

Thoughts?

strand rider

You asked for thoughts. I think you want this car pretty badly. Nothing wrong with that, it was designed to be an object of desire.

When I bought my used car , the owner and myself went to the smog test before the bank, as a new test is required for title transfer in my state. This was a potential deal breaker for me, since a fail would have been a potential unknown open cost, while my purchase and repair budget was finite.

I can't tell you about the cam , but it sounds like you want to use the car as designed, and it now has a different performance target. I guess white cars are hard to find. The highway milage is higher than any I have read about here, and a surprise, as milage was a GM design consideration and logically would be hard to improve.

I couldn't imagine myself in this deal, as I try to limit exposure to unknowns when buying a used car. But then my skill level requires a lot of caution, and I still mess up. A hot cam is beyond my skill levels and interest, I hope it is not a big deal for the poster, darguy.

It could be the issues that bring the car a little off the purchase goal could be used for price negotiations. But for me, it would be buying a car with unknown money requirements , while people with better car skills have more options with the better understandings. I know that mechanically skilled people will have the asked for advice and expertise, but the surface cost considerations in this deal are easy.

Black 02

Do as mentioned above. Work out a deal on the car with the stipulation that it must pass the emissions test to finalize the deal. If the car doesn't pass, you're out the cost of the emissions test but you save yourself a lot of headaches.

Usually if you want something and the timing is right, everything will seem to work out. If you try to force something to work, or ignore your gut instinct, headaches happen. In this case you already have doubt on the car, so probably best to move on to the next one.

455230

I would pass on this car unless you can steal it.... , pricewise , ...and are prepared to change out the cam, exhaust and any other surprises you find, along with doing a retune to make it driveable and pass emissions.

The seller has already shown himself to be less than honest , with the fantasy gas mileage numbers he is giving you....


This car sounds like a major headache.

racebum

tuned to run rich on start means tuned rich at WOT. that's actually safe as chasing hp going a bit leaner heats up cylinder temps

the ecu has two modes, open and closed loop. open loop is WOT and start up. closed loop is what's called "on the o2" and uses the narrow band to try and keep the AF around 14:7

nullpointer

WOT uses the PE table, start up does not. Start up AFR != WOT AFR

racebum

that's weird

so these ecus don't use an open loop map for start up?

i've never seen an obd2 car like that

RonSSNova

You can set up the OLFA table to be rich at warm up but leave the full throttle stuff alone.
It's commonly altered on big cam cars to help driveability during warm up.

WOT reverts to the PE table.


Ron

racebum

no kidding, that's pretty awesome.

darguy

Thanks for all the feedback. I'm going to start pricing out parts to restore the exhaust system, scope out a stock/mild street cam, Z06 rims and perhaps a correct stereo head unit. In a previous career I was a Tech and still do most of my own wrenching. The seller has suggested the shop that did the tuning could weld back in the original catted x-pipe and tweak the tune to get the 02 sensors back on line for the emissions test, he's going to get a quote for that. That might be good enough, if the price was right otherwise, to get the car legally on the road and I could perhaps do the cam & remainder of the exhaust work for a winter project. Not really ideal, but it would get me into the vehicle I'm looking for. I might also get some satisfaction from saving this car from an uncertain future with non-enthusiast owners.