This is the bottom line, as Ol'RJ and I have talked about, I think the forum should post a sticky note at the top on "Engine Modding" stating that modded and heavily modded engines take at least a year or longer to figure out unless you have previous experience,, period,, it is just the facts. My 406 has been "coming together" for the past 18 months and it is still not just the way I want it.

Hence, my new vanity plate "NEVRDUN".

 

I think the answers are there infront of you to get your car the way you want it.

I just did a car for a guy. He was totally frustrated with his setup, 406 CI motor, in a 85 vette. The car had a dozen and 1/2 things wrong with it that he mentioned. I explained as I am here that nothing I do tune wise will make the car better till these items are fixed. Either the guy 100% trusted me or was at his wits end and just figured he had nothing left to loose, so he followed my every instruction. The car previously went 14.3s in the quarter. It was not a hopped up 406 just a mild very small cammed setup.

He did as I told him, and I eventually tuned the setup. I heard through the grapevine that he was ripping up with the car, laying patches everywhere a few weekends ago. This past weekend a few of his friends came to me and said that he went to the track. He ran 12.2 sec on street tires, spinning like a no tomorrow. They said it will easily run 11.7s with some grip.

The moral of the story is not that I am some wizard with these tunes, but the guy was willing to listen and do what I knew needed to be done. His car probably would have run 13s with the items I mentioned to him that needed fixed and maybe 13s with the tune alone. But its now running like it should with the total package.

Last summer I did a guys tune in person. The car was a mess. I didn't even want to do the tune, much less take the guys money. He isisted that I did and I did the best I could. He left the house and the car ran better, but again it was far from what I felt was acceptable from a 383. This spring he said he pulled the motor apart after my directions and sure enough 1/2 the cam was wiped out, rings were broke, and pushrods ALL bent. He seriously had some issues that were horrific, and no tune in the performance world was going to fix these items. He is now having me do another tune for his new setup, free of charge, and this time he assured me it will be done right. I can only hope!

These stories are not intended to provide excuses, but are there to shed light on the fact that other outside influences can also be the cause. We need to pay attention to ALL the details. As I am a firm believer that 1 or 2 small items on a setup not right, is more detrimental than people give credit for.

This is a good thread and is bringing about some important information for 6spd to get his setup going and also point out some very important factors when choosing a tune for your car. Your only cheating yourself if your not 100% sure everything is correct. And finding these small items is not always easy to do.

Thanks to all for keeping this civil.

 

i agree i'm trying to be calm about this. and this is my first computer car. i always had carburtored cars. my last car was a low 9sec mustang so this computer stuff is taking time for me. i don't have a problem trying to figure things out with jesse i do understand it takes time. but my problem was keeping in touch thats it. and for the record i am sorry jesse i would like to start over. by the way my o2 is working and i adjusted my fuel reg and the blm's are up to 122 but it's getting harder to adjust because the srew is starting to hit the plenum. but the fuel pressure is at 40 psi with line on. i did take the line off to adjust reg. again blm's 122 does that sound about right.???

 

40 psi with the line on is still too much. That would be around 51psi at WOT. Way too rich.

 

okay what should it be with the line on??? am i putting it to stock??

 

I have a 91 also, and Jesse helped me get things right. He analyzed tons of data from my Datalogs and told me the same thing, fix the knock, get a heated O2 sensor, and set the FP. He did my chip twice, and offered to do it again when my setup changes, what more can anyone ask for?????? Do yourself a favor and buy a second chip from him so you can swap them out between burns. For the price, you will have to wait a little, but in the long run, it will be worth it. Just get a 2nd chip, they are cheap.

Jesse, dont let anyone get you down, you provide a great service.

 

set the line pressure at 43psi with line off then put the line back on. Will give you around 36psi at idle. and 43psi at WOT. Drive it and see how it does, check your plugs. Should be good. If its not rich enough you can add 2psi at a time to richen it up, but with your mods you should be right on with that setting. You may have to use a shorter bolt in the fuel pressure regulator.

 

knock retard is false i was only getting 4-6 degrees at 3000rpm with power loss. this is why i wanted jesse to burn a chip and a few other things. now i'm getting almost 16 degrees at one point but i'm not feeling any power loss i still didn't talk with jesse on this. my book said for my car 41-47 psi fuel but it didn't say with line off or on????

 

Jesse, does good work, but I still think the best way to tune a car is on a dyno with the tuner present.

 

Its 41-47 with line off. But with a custom chip and different injectors 43psi with line off is a good starting point.

 

What scanning software are you using? And do you like it?

 

I got tangled up with a poser engine builder that absolutely denied ANY possibility that anything related to his assembly or install could contribute to the tuning woes...If I had a nickle for every screw up, I could have got the engine build for free. (blew up after a couple of hours of total run time) Things like sensor wiring pinched (grounded out), basic wiring splices with crummy spade lug "connections" that were loose, non grounded dist. module, on and on and
(Not to mention that the motor was not line bored [after a bore and stroke job] charging for Cometic head gaskets, but using Felpro. [good gaskets, but 1/2 the price])

Sorry for the rant, but I just wanted to underscore the real world sad reality of deviating from stock with the wrong shop, then trying to "tune around" the screw ups. Not even Lingenfelter could do that!