Here is my first post in a series of probably hundreds about my project car

I'll keep it short and simple :

85 Corvette Z51 - Auto

383 Superram / Accel DFI 6

Motor was built with the intent to supercharge it but would like to get it in good running order before hand.

I started working on this car back in like 2002 and after a number of set backs I lot interest in it and it's been sitting for the last 4 years.

I'm pretty sure the DFI Gen 6 was outdated when I put it in the car, now I'm guessing it's REALLY outdated. Am I going to have a hard time finding someone to tune it? (Southern NH / North East Mass area)

I play on using the car as a street car with the occasional trip to the drags. I do plan on supercharging it when it is in good mechanical order.

What are my options for replacing the ECS? Or will I be ok with Gen 6?

 

Anyone that is familiar with the DFI systems should be able to tune your Gen6 - I have the Gen7 and if you understand what you are doing with the newer versions - you can certainly tune an older version.

So the tuning end of the system should not be a major factor in your decision making. If someone tells you its too old to tune, RUN - they are just trying to get you to spend more money.

On the other hand, if you are comparing features like the Gen7s ability to use a WB for closed loop fueling - then it might be worth upgrading. WIth the Gen7 you can simply tell it an AFR and it will trim/add the fuel to run that given number. However you still have to tune the car as you don't want it trimming or adding a ton of fuel for correction. But the entire process is VERY easy to do. You just drive down the road and keep on hitting the "correct" when you see it trimming or adding fuel and those cells change by that factor. Before long its nearly Dead nuts on everywhere with very little correction taking place. Its pretty cool, each time you hit the button you will feel the car learch forward with the correct setting.....

For WOT tuning you record a run, and play it back and determine the cells that are being corrected and again adjust their values. This take a few times but within about 4 runs its nearly dead on.

With either system its pretty easy and you should really learn how to do it yourself. There are lots of good places out there. The best is turbo buicks sight.....there are a lot of good guys there; but I would learn as much as you can before asking very basic questions or you will not get much help. Bone up on the terms and do some playing around with basic changes. Before long you will have your wife/girlfriend driving the car around and you will be making changes on the fly without any problems.

 

I don't know about the ecu, but I'd DEFINITELY have to change my shorts after a launch like that!!!!!! How much is that solid rear conversion?? Tony needs one!!!! PM me...

 

Tuning software is pretty similar - Gen 6 DFI tuning software is at least something that many shops may recognize, unlike, say, the software for an HKS FConn (there's only six or seven shops in all the US that HKS has authoried to tune these!).

Some other thoughts...

1. Not all engines need the latest features. It only matters if it has the features you need and works reliably.

2. While you can use a wideband to tune the fuel side, it's hard to tune the ignition side without a dyno.

 

Thanks for the response. While I do like the sound of some of the features of the Gen 7, at this point I have a car that runs with a Gen 6 and changing to a Gen 7 at this point sounds like quite a bit of money.

Would it be out of line to post a detailed description and parts list for my motor and ask for someone to post a baseline file for me to work from? When I was working on this a few years ago I was talking to a guy named Dave from Baldwin Chevrolet who seemed to be very good. I actually bought the Superram/DFI from him but I have since lost his contact info. Anybody know him?