Spent Saturday afternoon at Thunder Racing to get my tuning more in line with the capabilities of the motor. I had previously run a Lunati 221/224 .558/.560 113LSA cam. I switched to the TR224 112LSA cam a few weeks ago and immediately found the car was much beefier in the low to mid range. The idle was also much cleaner...so much so, that the hole drilled in my throttle body was now way too big for the TR224 cam. Driveability was noticably improved. Keep in mind, this was all before the tuning.

I pulled the car into Thunder Racing, let it cool down, then made a few baseline passes. I was dissappointed to find that the TR dyno read a little lower than the dyno from my favorite Houston shop, but I was looking for gains over baseline...so off we went.

The car made 371.5 through the converter on the baseline run (with a ton of torque). Power pulled cleanly to 6800 rpms with no real drop off. Geoff richened the car up, added some timing and the results were nice. 381.2 peak power (unlocked) and 399.7 locked up and running through a closed exhaust.

Here's the before and after dyno unlocked:
www.converter.cc/SSdyno3-23-02TRtuning.jpg
I picked up a solid 10-12 rwhp and rwtq everywhere over the program done by a very well known custom tuner.

Here is the dyno with the converter locked, but the exhaust still closed.
www.converter.cc/SSdyno3-23-02TRtuning,L.jpg
Take a look at the monster torque. 390 tq from 4000-5000 rpms with a peak of 395. This TR224 cam is super torquey. At least 10-15tq better than my Lunati 221/224 with as much or more rwhp. Also notice the low 6000 rpm power peak. This convertible is going to 60' like a **** with this much torque on hand. I would highly recommend this cam for any daily driver (like mine).

We would have picked up at least another 9-10 rwhp with open exhaust, but since I run on the street and the track with the exhaust closed, it would be a moot point. If the car had a stock GM program, the gains would have been even bigger. Nice to know you can pick up over mail order tuning when you spend time with a wide-band O2 sensor and a chassis dyno. Thunder racing and LS1-Edit Rock!

<small>[ March 25, 2002, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: Patrick G ]</small>

 

VMOORE I hope you read this, we need to take the time off and go down to Thunder, I hope Norris gets your car done quickly.

 

Mike it must be nice to have days off from work.. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" /> Patrick that is awesome. I am happy to hear everything is running right. I think I am going to take a road trip up to Thunder Racing and have my car retuned and then go to Houston for a high dyno... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" /> I cant wait for my car now. Even though I have no choice but to wait. Keep us posted on the track times..

 

Those are some excellent results Patrick! Did you get your PCM unlocked by the "well-known" tuner? I'm really wanting to play with LS1 Edit after a cam goes in, but I'm still waiting for the '02 program. I've thought about swapping out to a '00 PCM just so I can use LS1 Edit. Mail-order PCM's are hit and miss, especially with internal mods, and I would like to have complete control over my PCM. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />
Thanks for the info on the TR224 cam. I'm looking at cams right along those lines and on a 112 LSA as well. Now get the 'vert to the track for some timeslips! <img border="0" alt="[Chevrolet]" title="" src="graemlins/camaro.gif" />

 

LOL Trevor

Actually, I had two pcms modified by the "famous tuner". One (my latest pcm) was un-useable by LS1-Edit. Guess he saw LS1-Edit coming and decided to give us "the finger" when it came to making changes. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="gr_images/icons/mad.gif" />

Fortunately, my spare pcm was programmed a couple of years ago and was LS1-Edit friendly. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="gr_images/icons/cool.gif" /> I will get my own version of LS1 Edit soon and Geoff at Thunder Racing was cool enough to promise he'd e-mail me the file of what he's already done so I don't have to start from scratch. <img border="0" alt="[Fluffy]" title="" src="graemlins/fluffy.gif" />

 

Great, useful info as usual Patrick! Do you have the A/F ratio before/after graphs that you can post to compare with the before/after unlocked dyno?

 

I'm glad you had a good time Patrick! It was nice meeting you as well. 10-13rwhp across the board is not too bad for a little tuning. I can't wait to see how it runs at the track.

I'm glad to see you made it home in one piece. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

Jason

 

Onfire,

We didn't print out the a/f graphs (ran out of time), but the car was pretty lean before it was tuned. It started off around 13.9 to 1 at 4000 rpms and richened up to 13.7 by 6000 rpms. Geoff got the a/f ratio to flatline at 13.0 to 1 on the dyno. FWIW, that shows up around .880-.900 on the street with autotap reading the front O2 sensors. Funny thing is, my O2s always read between .880-.900mv even before the tuning. What that tells me is our factory O2 sensors are not near as sensitive as a wide-band O2 sensor like Thunder Racing uses. Had I tried to tune using my factory O2 sensors alone, I could either be lean or rich, but still fall in an acceptable window. The wide-band nailed the a/f ratio right on the money. Now I don't mind having locked L-Trims (at 0%) since the a/f ratio is where it needs to be. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="gr_images/icons/cool.gif" />

Patrick

 

Great info Patrick. What do your timing tables look like now? You still keeping a PHAT tune for the spray?

 

Hey Brooke,

The timing is at around 28 degrees climbing to a max of 29 degrees. We found no gains past 28-29 degrees. We went all the way up to 32 degrees. Didn't gain on the dyno although it may on the track. Might be something to test in the future, but I think I'll keep the timing on the lower side to keep it safe for the spray. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />

Patrick