mlm0

89 stock with auto trans 50,500 miles.

I want to do up grades, but seems like everything I read says I have to re tune Ecu, except for exhaust, which scares me. I can figure out the mechanics part, and I have even burnt some chips to change idle speed, cooling fan start temp and vats delete, but not how to adjust fuel, spark and so forth I can't think of anything worse then not being able to get my car to run good after spending time and lots of money for upgrades Being an 89, tuning shops don't want to mess with it, and mail order appears to be hit and miss. I even thought about buying an ostrich, but without the tuning knowledge, that won't help. My hat is off to all of you who were able to upgrade and make it work

aklim

Before we go that far, why don't you tell us how much money you have to spend and what your goal is?

rrc1962

I'm headed down this road. I'm hoping someone sells a tuner that I can plug a lap top to and make adjustments. I have a Power Commander on my Harley. If it's feeling a little flat at 4000 RPM, I can tweak the timing and fuel for that range. It also has an auto tune feature which sets everything automatically to the desired A/F ratio.

mlm0

Haven't sat down and finalized a list or cost because I can't get past the re tune issue. I know that no matter what options ( heads, intake, cam) i select, I still have to re tune Ecu

aklim

Perhaps you can add to your profile the state and town? That way we can easily see where we can direct you. Dyno tuning is about $600 give or take in say the Twin Cities area MN where I go.

I have never tried it with Hitech Motorsport but they can burn you a tune roughly workable. After which you can decide if you want it closer and dyno tune it or not. Being the sort of person that I am, close isn't what I am looking for via mail order but I prefer dyno if possible or at least datalogged tunes.

mlm0

Georgetown Texas

I thought it was in my profile, sorry about that. I found a place about 100 miles away that say they can do it. I guess my question would be, with mods made, and no immediate Ecu tune, will car even run well enough to get it there? When I read the different articles I get impression the car may not even run until re tune. I really don't want to do mail order chip, because it would take too long going back and forth to get it right

aklim

It all depends on what is done. Intake and headers? No problem. I drove from Madison, WI to Lexington KY and on the way home, stopped by Decatur IN to let John Lingenfelter tune it. With cams and injectors, the rough tune will work. A mail order tune by Hitech will get you close enough but not the best. So for driving, no problem. Max performance, probably not.

Jonnymac

I did H/C swap and drove 130 miles to tune it. No problems.

mlm0

Thanks for info

383vett

If you are doing bolt ons possibly including a cam, PCM4Less has a data base of hundreds if not thousands of similar mods and can give you a tune which should work. They have many happy customers on the forum for all years of Vettes.

aklim

Depends on what head and cam.

skullandbones

Hi mlm0,

State what you want to do (specifically) and what level of budget you are planning.

This subject is way too broad. You have 3 basic options which are still very general.

1. Find a tuner who knows corvettes well, who will give you advice on which changes will make the biggest difference (biggest bang for the buck). Then you have the new setup tuned by him. He should be able to give you a ballpark idea of the gains that can be made. Most expensive.

2. You can make the changes based on the best scenarios you read about here or other Corvette sources and have a mail order chip which can be good if you do the upgrades that are most popular so the chip provider has the best history of tunes for that setup. I would consult the provider to coordinate that effort if going that way. When I called Bama tunes for example, I found out very quickly they were not helpful and marked them off my list. Least expensive

3. You can do upgrades and install a tunable computer. Megasquirt (MS3) is more user friendly than earlier versions. There are some other brands that work well, too. The point is, you have complete control of your engine. The best part is that once you get the base tune dialed in enough to run and idle, the rest is pretty easy. Using Tuner Studio (live tune), you will be able to do fuel VE table using the auto tune aspect. I literally had my engine running as good or better than it was before the computer change in about 3 days. I only spent a couple of hours each day driving and tuning. I was also a lot more conservative so it could be done faster. With the ignition table sent with my computer, I did not have any ignition tuning to do. That doesn't mean you can't. It just means it's good the way it is. If you want to fine tune, a dyno session would help improve the ignition data. Bottom line is my car ran very well after a few hours. I still had to do some WOT launches and various other types of driving to fine tune it. But I could have driven it cross country the way it was. Expensive initially but most flexibility for the future.

What you are doing is not easy any way you choose.

Good luck,

WEK.

cv67

Tuning is like Chinese it can take years to really know it well

TJ Wong of Wongs performance (google him hes a member too) can do a decent one mail order and get you very close. Know of others but never personally used them.

skullandbones

I was going to mention TJ Wong but couldn't remember the exact letters:PJ, DJ, TJ....... but from what I have read on the tuning forums, that vendor will give you a good result. You don't get that many positive comments about a tuner unless there's something to it. IMHO.

WEK.

mlm0

Thanks guys for info

MavsAK

If you don't mind some wire work, any aftermarket self learning ECM will handle it well enough, like an XFI sportsman. etc etc.

mlm0

Do they just cut into your current system, or do you have to also change top end, manifold, throttle body, injectors?

aklim

IIRC, they said to get ABS to work with the LS series ECM you have to change the reluctors? Will that be the same with the aftermarket ECM you talk about? Will that work for the FX3, ABS and any other systems that the current ECM talks to?

aklim

The ECM will control the motor AFAIK.

skullandbones

You really need to get over your "budget remorse". In the old days, you could slap on the add ons and "tune" the carb and get away with it. However, these days the tune whatever route you take is part of the cost. It hurts but it's the price of going fast with technology. If you, even begrudgingly, include the tune cost, you will get used to looking at it that way after the initial shock! I did a spreadsheet to itemize the costs for one build. Believe me, it was an eye opening experience when you see it in black and white. Then I had to add about 15% for the incidentals like gaskets. Ouch!!!

Keep us informed on your progress. This sounds interesting.

Good luck,

WEK.