hows the idle? Much tuning? I just had a PITA with my 224/224 114cam, but I may swap cams this winter and I have my eye on that cam.

Pros or cons for a A4 with 5.3 heads?

 

Skeert already?

 

Cons are the obvious Idle issues. Car also doesn't like hot starts. Needs some throttle play to get it started after it was running for a while. Cold starts have been good thus far though. Turn the key, let it warm up a min or so and go. You have a stall so a slight bump in the idle shouldn't hurt. Some have a hard time when they raise the idle with a stock stall since the car tries to creep forward when stopped.

My car still has stock (unported) heads and 918 springs. Car idles fine even with AC on but it took ALOT of tuning and tweaking. Luckily I had a local "Edit" guru do the tuning and it runs great! TR230/224 cam is a nice cam, makes good power 3k on up. I have yet to get a dyno tune though, still wanna get that done to dial it in right.

 

well ok, i am here to dispell the A4 big cam myth. yes my car doesnt run like a stock idling car, BUT it is not bad at all (and i know this is subjective). BUT, for one, i NEVER hae to use the gas pedal to start the car up, second, i do get some slight surging but not that bad, for a few seconds, then it finds its idle like a champ at 900 rpms. third, i have NEVER had a problem with hot starts since i got my programing finished. big convertors really help and i believe yours is even bigger than mine. i have a st-4000. i ran 116.8 mph on my et drags at about 3500 lbs or so raceweight in +450 DA.

oh and i run the 230/230 on a 111 lsa on stock heads. raging motorsports has tested this cam on a stock rear car to the tune of 385 rwhp with a cam only combo. without tuning it idled terribly and surged like crazy but i HIGHLY recommend alan futral for your tuning. he has done wonders for many a4 big cam cars. you should have no problems. i can get in my car, start it up, let it idle for about 15 seconds max, and then put it in drive and drive away no problems.

 

Looking at a new cam already farmer

 

well im gonna keep my cam for a little why, but I may need bigger to reach my goal but we shall see

Stu: when offaxis dynoed 420 in his A4 with AS heads and that cam it made me think a little HEHHEHHH

 

Hey 98TAauto,

I recently completely the install of my new motor with 5.3 heads, TR230/224 cam and Yank SS4000E. Only difference is I have an A3.

When I first tried to start her up, she wouldn't fire up unless I feathered the throtlle. Then as soon as I let off she would stall. I was getting misfires on all cylinders, my LTFT's were pegged at 25%, the timing was jumping around in the 20's, and my IAC was like 200.

On my car this combo needed major LS1Edit tuning. It took me a while and alot of research to finally nail everything down. But I finally got the car running perfect. Here is a list of the things I did:

First I needed to get the car to fire right up and find its idle without feeding it gas. In LS1Edit I went to the Volumetric Efficiency table, I highlighted cells 400-1200 rpms, then I multiplied them by 60%. Doing this allowed the car to instantly fire up when I turned the key and find its idle.

Next I needed to lower my IAC #'s and stop the car from surging and hunting for idle. First I raised my Idle from 850 to 950, on my car idling at 950 felt and sounded good for my setup. I tried 900 and 925, but at 950 it seemed just right. After I set my Idle I drilled out the hole in my throttle body to, i think it was 15/64. Anyway after that the car would idle a little better, but the IAC's were still like 180 at idle and the car would surge if I put it gear and moved. The next step I did was to drill the hole out to a full 1/4 it didn't help that much, so I edited the IAC PARK and IAC GEAR table in LS1Edit, I multiplied both tables but 150%. This did the trick, the 1/4 hole with those #'s had the car idling at 50 IAC and 70 IAC in gear. The IAC will jump like 20-30 when you add load the engine from the converter.

Now that the IAC's were under control and the car would fire right uo, she still seemed to idle a little ruff and my LTFT's were still maxed at 25% and I was still getting misfires on all cylinders at idle but not during acceleration.

TO smooth out my idle I lowered the timing a little. I edited both Base Spark tables and set the timing for 0-1200rpm to 21 and 1600 to 24. I left all the other timing values alone above 1600rpm. You can go back and raise them more when you are tuning for WOT. Best thing is to slowly raise timing until you get KR, then back it down a little and save it. After I made the timing adjustments the car fired right up and purred smoother than ever. I could stab the throttle and she would roar then come right back to idle, no hunting, no surging. I could put it in gear drive, come to a stop and no surging.

Next I needed to get my LTFT's done some and get them close to 0 or a little negative while cruising. At this point the LTFT's were at 25% at idle and about 10% at 2-2.5k rpm and lower with more rpm. To bring down the LTFT I multiplied the Injector Flow Rate table by 95% to bring down the LTFT's. 95% was perfect. I was seeing about 15% LTFT at idle but as soon as I hit 1500+ rpm I was 0 to -3% during all driving.

After all that the car would now start instantly hot or cold, I had a smooth idle and no surging. Next thing was the WOT tuning but that is another story.

Anyway I hope this can be helpfull to or someone else maybe. Also I know there are other ways inside of LS1Edit to adjust things, these are just the things I did for my setup.

Good Luck,
Lee

 

98TAauto,to reach your goal this fall you might check into swaping out the converters to a TCS 4400 like mine
and keeping the TR 224 cam because i think you will pick up more with a more effeciant converter rather than a .1 going to a bigger cam. Then again the TEA heads may want a bigger cam but on the other hand it might like a bigger converter also. OH! what a decision that would be . I'll post how my new 4400 does in a few weeks in the Automatic transmission section because i think it's going to be the ONE that will set the standards,atleast i hope!

 

Lee, thanks alot for that long reply buddie! That sounds like half the stuff I did to get my 224/224 cam to idle perfect. I still had some light surge and warm start issue from tie to time though. BUTTT, after I added the heads my idle and surge is FINE! Guess the added airflow helped my idle.

StreetStalker: Ive thought about that, but my lil viggy has been so good to me. If I went bigger I would more than likely need 3.73's to get rid of that looseness from a 4400 stall. Let me know how your setup does! The vig is killer off the line, but like you said it lacks a tad up top. Im gonna try to loose some weight on the car I dont need(its free).