Purchased my 2000 SS a month ago and wanting to get some advice on tuning. I bought the car from out of state and not sure who put the tune in it. It is cammed and headed with a dual nitrous setup on it. It has a MSD twister to pull timing when spraying. The main thing is I don't know the cam specs. Should I bring it to a tuner and have them tune and dyno on motor and get the most horsepower there and then use that tune for nitrous also and just pull timing since I will run on motor most of the time. Do I buy a HP tuner and get 2 different tunes to use on car with one for motor and one for spray. One other thing is that the converter doesn't lock up until 55 mph so driving around town is a pain because it never locks up. In the tune is the only way to change this right? Any help here would be greatly appreciated. This all new to me because I am old school! Thanks!

 

Any advise here?

 

You bought it from a dealer or private party? I'm sure you should be able to call the dealer and explain the situation and they would give you the number to the previous owner so you can find out all the specs.

I'm having some similar issues with my transmission. The pressures seem way too high for a DD. My torque converter definitely locks up, you can feel it when it does, almost like shifting to a 5th gear! Only way to fix it is to change the values in the tune.

 

Get it on a dyno and have someone tune it.

 

Thanks! I am gonna schedule me a Dyno-Tune here in the near future.

 

OH and Elwood I got it from a private party that couldn't help me on the tune.

 

The lock up on the convertor sounds about right. If it has a large cam in the engine and it locks up at a low rpm it will bog, surge ,studder and just not run correct. You have to leave it in drive(3) will driving below hiway speeds. If your getting into the stall speed of the convertor then either down shift or give it more throttle. I have to drive this way when in town. 4000 stall and 242/250 cam. With more cubes the less noticable it is.

I would check the plug heat range before spraying the car. If they are correct then take it to the track. I would make some motor passes till you are comfortable with the car. Then start with a small shot and test it out.

The only thing I would be worried about is fuel pressure at WOT. (do you have enough pump)
I also would want to know where the base timing is. So you know how much timing to take out if any.
How does the car run?

 

If the converter is a multi disc it will lock up like that. That is the correct way for it to operate

 

It is a Billet 3500. IT won't lock up even in drive in town.

 

Yea it should lock up in drive and OD at part throttle and at full throttle. I have mine locking based on MPH at part throttle and rpm at full throttle.

 

It's up to the owner or tuner though... it's an opinion that it 'should' lock drive. Everyone has their own idea of how an auto should act/feel to some extent.

Most of the aftermarket stalls I see are single-disc and the lockup clutch has less surface area than stock. I do not allow third gear lockup on these (nor is it needed honestly) as it's just extra un-needed wear.

Back in 2005-2006 I played with locking multi-disc units at WOT in N/A and nitrous cars. It yielded a MPH or two but consistently failed to reduce ET. No one cared much for the MPH if there is no reduction in ET to accompany it. Many of those units (all WOT lockups are done solely on the request of the owner) had early and repeated failures as well.