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Driving untuned after bolt ons?

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Old 03-24-2008, 02:18 PM
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Default Driving untuned after bolt ons?

I recently put on Lts, Ory, and Ls6 intake. Some have mentioned it is running lean and to have it dyno tuned asap so I dont melt pistons. Way its being said makes it out to sound like its going to blow up tomorrow. Whats the deal here?
Old 03-24-2008, 02:23 PM
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After my LT install I rode around for 6 months untuned with no problems. The only tuning I had at that point was my O2's were tuned out.
Old 03-24-2008, 02:31 PM
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LOL, whoever said that is completely off base. You'll run a little rich (i believe) but thats it. I drove my last LS1 with bolt-ons and a cam for weeks with no issues, and I've been running my current car with the mods listed for almost a year now with no problems at all.
Old 03-24-2008, 02:35 PM
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My car never saw a tune with LT's. Intake may be a different story, but I dont think you should worry about it.
Old 03-24-2008, 02:36 PM
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The calibration may not be optimal, but most likely safe.
Old 03-24-2008, 02:36 PM
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It was a shop that mentioned the lean part. Needless to say its the shop that would dyno tune it
Old 03-24-2008, 02:43 PM
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Just like getting a free brake estimate your always gonna need brakes
Old 03-24-2008, 02:49 PM
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Originally Posted by TA1364
It was a shop that mentioned the lean part. Needless to say its the shop that would dyno tune it

sneaky sneaky

MAF should register the extra air. I'm not sure of the volume changes from LS1 to LS6 intake, if significant could make you rich / lean during throttle transistion, which is such a small time frame (milliseconds), the motor would be far from damage.
Old 03-24-2008, 04:53 PM
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The stock computer will compensate with fuel trims to make up for the additional air in-air out. It's when you go beyond the fuel trims that you need to make changes to the VE tables.

More importantly, it's when you do things that change the motors volumetric efficiency, i.e. heads, cam that you need a tune because it changes how efficiently the motor runs at specific rpms.

Long story short, you always want your fuel trims to be as minor as possible, but they are there for a reason and will compensate for an intake manifold and headers, but a dyno tune is optimal and you would see some additional gains in performance and milage. But if you're planning on doing other things, or are short on cash, save your money and get it done in a little while.
Old 03-24-2008, 05:09 PM
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i had mine everything done all at once, just to be safe. i would assume you should be ok as long as u dont beat the **** out of it
Old 03-24-2008, 09:15 PM
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I wanted to get some runs at the track before going with a cam, guess i'll get it tuned then.
Old 03-24-2008, 09:21 PM
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If you are worried about it, put it on the dyno. You will see your A/f ratio and will be able to tell really quick whether or not your car is running ok. After I put headers on, I dynoed the car and actually found out that my MAF had gone bad. The A/f was at 15.2 at WOT, which is not good. I wouldn't spend the money on a tune, however, until you put a cam in.
Old 03-24-2008, 09:22 PM
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i ran lean after my LT install. get a street tune if you don't want to spend the money on a dyno tune.
Old 03-25-2008, 06:22 AM
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Or even better, get yourself a tuning suite from either Hptuners or EFILive and learn how to tune your car yourself. You see that a dyno tune is going to cost close to $500 and they primarily focus on idle and wot, but if you think about it, how much time do you really spend at wot.

Granted, it's important to make sure you're not going to grenade your motor at wot, but where you are going to find the most improvement in daily drivability is part throttle, mid rpm range.
Old 03-25-2008, 06:26 AM
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You'll be fine. When my tuner did my bolt on tune he said it barely needed any adjusting. It felt a little stronger up top afterwards, but that might have just been in my head. If you're paranoid about getting on it, go to a dyno and see where you're at, and get yourself some numbers while you're at it.
Old 03-25-2008, 06:34 AM
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Ok, here is the facts, I did basically the same thing on a stock tune, but my car came with the LS6 intake.

Its not going to hurt it beause the computer will pull timing, your car is not optimal, there is alot to gain. I would personally do it sooner then later.

My car came into the shop pulling 6 degrees of timing. I gained a ton of power, 14 or so at the peak and more like 20-22 at redline.
Old 03-25-2008, 07:57 AM
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You can run untuned with boltons. During normal driving (non-WOT) the oxygen sensors will monitor AFR and the PCM will use fuel trimming to keep your AFR ~14.7 all the time. Boltons alone will not take you beyond %25 on fuel trims so you will be fine.

Now at WOT there may be some variance on AFR after boltons. Mine ran lean at WOT with boltons, but not enough to screw anything up so no big deal.

It is always best to tune, thats the advantage of dong your own tuning on the street, I could bolt something on and spend an hour on the road and have it all tuned up and ready to go.



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