When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Wait, so this comment above spurred the comments below??
Unless I missed something OP didn't say that it can't be tuned. 1 stuff is going by the wayside.
.
Yes it did, and what you missed is we want clarification on if there are issues getting it tuned as most of us see this as a gateway to having many tuners available taht can tune our cars. As a 96 owner, I was disappointed when I found out how hard it was to find competent tuners for the LT1/LT4. Still is my dream car, but I want to put a new Cam, Headers, and a larger pump/fuel injector set in and it will need to be tuned. Going to be real hard to get over 400whp without further custom tuning.
@smitty2919 Funny you mention frying LT1/4 computers. Have a friend that did ported heads, longtubes and lt4 hotcam. Tuning shop fried his computer. I was like wtf.
Yes it did, and what you missed is we want clarification on if there are issues getting it tuned as most of us see this as a gateway to having many tuners available taht can tune our cars. As a 96 owner, I was disappointed when I found out how hard it was to find competent tuners for the LT1/LT4. Still is my dream car, but I want to put a new Cam, Headers, and a larger pump/fuel injector set in and it will need to be tuned. Going to be real hard to get over 400whp without further custom tuning.
There are people that have the ability to tune a 96, but not the equipment. The only way that I know of is to purchase a Jet box, unless you were one of the folks that purchased the product before it was sold to Jet.
There is a dyno shop here that will do my car, I just had to purchase the box. When I go to have it done after the engine build, I am going to put in a new battery and buy another battery for my laptop, so it is running on 2.
@smitty2919 Funny you mention frying LT1/4 computers. Have a friend that did ported heads, longtubes and lt4 hotcam. Tuning shop fried his computer. I was like wtf.
I knew it was a possibility going into it. And it bit me lol
There are people that have the ability to tune a 96, but not the equipment.
I said it was hard to find a competent tuner, not impossible. A lot of folks are rusty on the LTs and some don't want to mess with it since they are not using their software packages they use daily. Been there, and had those conversations.... but if it was LS, there are no less than 10 shops in 100mi radius with guys that know them well.
Originally Posted by drcook
The only way that I know of is to purchase a Jet box, unless you were one of the folks that purchased the product before it was sold to Jet.
I am not as I just recently acquired my 96 in the last year. I am thinking about picking up a copy soon. My only problem is my car already has a custom tune, but nothing to return to original. Probably not a big issue since it will never be stock again, but a tuner my prefer to start from a base tune rather than someone else's end point when I add new equipment (Cam/Long Tubes/Bigger Injectors&Pum-remove FMU)
Originally Posted by drcook
There is a dyno shop here that will do my car, I just had to purchase the box. When I go to have it done after the engine build, I am going to put in a new battery and buy another battery for my laptop, so it is running on 2.
None of the shops I talked to really wanted to get involved. Didn't say no, but didn't say yes either. I got more of the feeling of "If you make it worth our time".
This is why I was excited about the torquehead not only getting rid of the opti, but also opening up more options for tuning sources.
Still awaiting the follow up on this threads in regards to the tuning issues.
I am not as I just recently acquired my 96 in the last year. I am thinking about picking up a copy soon. My only problem is my car already has a custom tune, but nothing to return to original. Probably not a big issue since it will never be stock again, but a tuner my prefer to start from a base tune rather than someone else's end point when I add new equipment (Cam/Long Tubes/Bigger Injectors&Pum-remove FMU)
Automatic or stick ? I have base calibrations for both. The only difference would be the serial nbr and possibly the gear ratio.
My car has a 3.07/A4 from the factory, I don't know what the LT4 calibration I have has for a gear ratio, but the Jet box recalculates that.
When you get the box, you are quite welcome to have a copy. In fact, I will go in and change the VIN to all 9's, or your VIN or whatever.
Just say when you need it.
Also, just to be safe, source yourself a Win XP laptop that is dependable. WinXP is the safest OS to run under. You can run it under 7 and above using WinXP emulation mode, but it can crash and trash your car's cpu. I have figured out how to crash the editing software at will.
Going with the TH system only opens up your ability to not be immediately turned away from 90% of the shops when you pull up in a LT1 C4.
However, having the TH system does not mean a tuner will know what he/she is doing with the car.
OP, I'm curious if the coils you got in your kit are genuine GM units. See if there are any stamped PN's on the truck coils. If they are Chinese knockoffs then that could be an issue. The website parts list specifies a AC Delco Cam and Crank sensors but simply says "Eight Ignition Coils (D585 Truck Coils)"
Included in the Kit:
24xLink PCM w/C3 (Coil, Crank, Cam) Harness. PCM is powder coated for long lasting looks and protection.
C4 style PCM mounting bracket to allow fixture of LS PCM in factory location.
24xLink Sensing unit w/ adjustable crank sensor mount
Knock Sensors (Supplied if your vehicle is '94-'95 OBD1, +$70).
Water Pump Gaskets with misc installation tools
When I did my conversion on my 95 Camaro I sourced my own coils from Ebay...scratch/dent but NEW genuine OEM units. NEVER had an issue. I bought 8 OEM Delco units for $115 AC Delco PN 12573190. Each coil was stamped this PN on the metal coil body.
Last edited by smitty2919; 02-25-2019 at 11:45 AM.
Automatic or stick ? I have base calibrations for both. The only difference would be the serial nbr and possibly the gear ratio.
My car has a 3.07/A4 from the factory, I don't know what the LT4 calibration I have has for a gear ratio, but the Jet box recalculates that.
Sorry, I don't have my details listed. Prochraged LT4 CE edition, so it has the 3.54 gear and a 6-Speed.
Originally Posted by drcook
When you get the box, you are quite welcome to have a copy. In fact, I will go in and change the VIN to all 9's, or your VIN or whatever.
Just say when you need it.
I appreciate the offer. I figured if it was needed, there would be a way to get back to original. I will keep this in mind if there need arises. It may be years before I get to adding additional components to this car. I have another project right next to it (88 Iroc), and a fun daily driver I may do some things to along the way (16 Challenger Scat Pack).
Originally Posted by drcook
Also, just to be safe, source yourself a Win XP laptop that is dependable. WinXP is the safest OS to run under. You can run it under 7 and above using WinXP emulation mode, but it can crash and trash your car's cpu. I have figured out how to crash the editing software at will.
.
I have one I currently use for WinALDL with my TPI. I also have another one I have held onto. I love XP.
^ me too. I dropped/fumbled a plug at one point and a month later I developed a terrible stumble/misfire. Chased it for a week and a half only for my friend to suggest replacing the plugs...problem went away but it never fried any other component in the car using the TH system.
May be a coincidence...electronics will be electronics. Friend owns a shop, is a TH vendor and has done maybe 7 installs. He has come across a PCM that did not work out of the box. **** happens, but Paul has always made things right.
Last edited by smitty2919; 02-25-2019 at 02:21 PM.
off topic, how much did you lower your car? that is the perfect height, I would like to get mine that same height. awesome right up
They are just coilovers. Did some trial and error with tire width, previous owner had them too thin. No sure of exact height since I measure from the coils and the backs are different than the front probably an 1 1/2 to 2” though.
My car is stock suspension stock height. Funny I was just talking with my daughter how it looks lower with the new wheels. New wheels are 1" wider front and rear. Then previous. Here is old wheels
Ok so sorry I dont have alerts set for the forums since I am not in here as much as the fb groups these days. I want to make a few things clear though since there was some question. I originally was having Pat G tune the car from a mailorder since I bought the TH kit. He had me purchase HP Tuners so that I could just upload the tunes as well as data log them. I personally wasent a fan of getting tunes every two weeks so I started looking for someone else to tune which lead me to someone who is litterally up the street from me. That way I dont have to trailer hours away or deal with leaving my car in a bad area. So I have to qualified LS tuners looking and looked at the car and attempted to tune it.
Right now, as of yesterday i have received the PCM back from TH. I was told by them that their was nothing wrong with the PCM and that it worked fine on their test mule c4. Now for clearity. I have asked for another pcm that was not TH but from a LS car and was going to have that to test as well. Last minute before they shipped they told me they couldnt do that anylonger because they really needed all the pcms they could have because they were busy. Also I was told that their files for their test mule C4 were still loaded on the pcm.. when I went to load my tune I had no option to dl their file... which lead me to belive their was no file or my last file was still on the pcm. I could be wrong but if someone know HP tunners and knows what I am missing here I should be able to just download the file off a pcm and on to my computer...
All that being said Smitty is correct that all the files are custom OS. As far as tunning I am still as a cross roads as tor really trying to figure out what is wrong here and whats to blame. So far I have had 2 tuners look at it and sent the pcm back twice. Now I am going to look at the car. The car has plenty of power and does seem to want to run normal.. but the random idle surge is whats the biggest problem. I have now ordered a new IAC since my IAC and TPS have not been changed since I bought the car and probably have never been changed. They are really the only two sensors/controllers left on the car attached to the engine that were never changed. My hope is that swaping the IAC will fix this surging issue then I can look at tuning again. Everyone that has looked at the files say the tps and IAC look to be running normal... but I would rather just be sure.
Lastly, I dont know why the coils would go bad... but ever since I changed the sparkplugs, coil and got the pcm back the first time I sent it in I havent had a noticeable issue with missfire.
Let me know what else you guys would like to know. As well as suggestions and I will also try to upload a video so you can see first hand what I am seeing with Tilikum.
Yea thats the great thing about the Black color! This is before I lowered and got new tires.
Originally Posted by BLKMAMBA
My car is stock suspension stock height. Funny I was just talking with my daughter how it looks lower with the new wheels. New wheels are 1" wider front and rear. Then previous. Here is old wheels
Pretty Excited, I changed the IAC and saw a dramatic change in driveability. So hopefully if everything goes right I am going to change the TPS as well since it and the IAC were the original parts that have never been changed since I have owned the car. From there I will have to look at the O2s again and see if there's any issues there, maybe false readings on the WB or sluggish O2s. After that if I cannot find anything else I will be going back to the Tuner and seeing if he can clean up the tune. The car is still bouncing around AFR from rich to lean but the rpms are more stable and not surging like before.
Im wondering if theyll do a partial kit. I was hoping to keep the stock engine covers by using valve cover mounted coils and using internal crank and cam sensors. Not a huge fan of the external stuff. As far as the electronics go, I like keeping all the dash functions...that to me is a win.
I just got my GS started with the Torqhead setup. With the base tune it started up pretty good. Have to work out 2 issues though. Getting a CCM code 81 for invalid vehicle configuration, and no spedo. Felt good on a quick drive. Waiting to see what needs to be done.
02-21-2019, 11:18 AM
