First off I would like to say I think this forum is great. I have belonged to it for over a year. When they made the transition my user name and password did not work and I emailed the administrators but never received a reply.

But I still like this forum and think the majority of the people on here are very knowledgeable.

Second I would like to make a comment on one of the sponsors. I have dealt with other mechanics for various reasons. I am basically only familiar with LS1's mostly from reading about them. My main expertise was with the old carb cars. And other then that for personal reasons I could not do a cam install myself. Several people recommended Rapid Motorsports, probably mainly for my location. Going there restored my faith in people. After a 2 hour ride, arriving at 9:00am Mike greeted me outside his business. He informed me my car would be ready several hours later and we parted. From comments posted on this forum I had complete confidence in Mike. Coming back at 3:00 PM my car was ready. No excuses, no hassle. My car was just done. It's unfortunate I live so far away from such a knowledgeable person. And I should have spent more time asking questions while I was there, but my wife and kids came in a separate vehicle and we decided to make it into a family day. I haven’t been in that area in a long time and kind of turned it into a mini vacation.

Well I was informed by Mike that I would need tuning with the cam. Prior to purchasing the cam I consulted the head of tech with Comp cams. They called me back several times to assure me no tuning what so ever would be needed with this cam. But driving home the ses light came on. Shutting the car off, I had a hard time starting it back up. It starts but shuts back off. Now my problem is a lean condition that is causing a pinging, the ses light comes on then goes off and comes back on again at different periods. When the car is cold it will start up and idle. After running it for awhile and shutting it off it'll start but will not maintain an idle until after you drive it awhile.
I called comp cams and spoken to one of their techs. They told me to adjust the idle set screw. They are currently working on an LS1 (1999), and are having issues with a similar cam install I believe.Sorry forgive my ignorance, but I did not see an idle adjustment screw. Or throttle adjustment set screw, whatever you wish to call it.
Two questions, 1. why does the ses light go off and come back on sometimes several hours later? 2. what can I do for the idle without tuning?
The cam installed was comp cams 220/226 564 569 113+4. Do you guys think this is a good cam? My mods are limited at this time (see sig). I plan on headers some time this summer, and possible tuning then.
Thanks for any input, and sorry for so long of a post.

 

I just put in the TR224 on a 114lsa. It sounds about the same as yours as far as how it runs except it doesn't die that much. Go to autozone and get your codes read to see what is going on. They do it for free. You might have a bad plug wire or something. Are you using premium gas? It seems wierd that you would be lean after a cam. I would think that you would be rich. The SES light will go on and off depending on what is really going on. Mine does too now. It stays on more than off because I am running rich and the small cats in the Jet-Hot set up I have don't clean up the extra rich exhaust enough. To fix the idle you can drill the throttle body idle hole a little bigger if your year car (i don't remember which ones do or don't) doesn't have a set screw. See how in the LS1howto.com cam install instructions. It is kind of a permanent solution, but not hard to do or bad for your car. I'm just gonna deal until I get the tune in a few weeks. You definitely need the headers to take advantage of the cam and it would probably run better without a tune too. Get a nice set of long tubes; you'll like the difference. Your kind of doing what I did in reverse. I got the headers and now the cam; then comes the tune because I didn't want to waste money on the extra tune. Anyway, good luck.

 

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If you want the car to run perfectly, you need it tuned ... period.

The SES light is probably a misfire code, the computer picks up the larger cam as misfires and that light will go on and off randomly until you have the code Deleted (not just cleared).

I am also pretty sure the person you talked to at comp cams has never worked on an LS1 engine .... Our idle speed is set by the computer, and needs to be tuned in ... there is no idle screw. You can drill out the TB hole alittle bit to provide a better hot start, but to raise the idle you need to have it tuned.

I would get the headers, have it dyno tuned, and be done with it. It is never going to run the way you want it until you do that.
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I appreciate the feed back. I wish more people would make comments like so. I just want comp cams to understand the information they gave me was misleading. I think comp cams to be a good company. But when they say that you DO NOT NEED TUNING or no other mods basically that is the way it should be.

I will be speaking to them again tomorrow to see what will be the next suggestion short of not getting it tuned.

The main two things I am dissapointed in is the fact that it was stated more then several times by comp cams that tuning will not be needed, and the second being ,that if I had to by some chance pay for tuning, I would have gotten a more radical cam.

 

It's always best to get tuning done after a cam swap so you can see the full benefits of the cam and up your rev limiter while you're at it. I also have a TR 224 on a 112 lsa and before the tune, my car was kinda difficult to drive around. Now that she's all tuned up, she drives like stock (with a slight lope ). I'd also wait until you get your LT's installed and have your car tuned at that time so you won't have to pay twice for tuning. If you're doing to delete the EGR and AIR systems, be sure to take them off prior to tuning that way the codes can also be cleared.