Help with race car idle
07-17-2019, 09:03 PM
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Help with race car idle Hello all...I recently bought a 01 SS LS Camaro.
This is a NHRA legal stock and super/stk Camaro.
It has the factory ECM tuned (by somebody) to run with the race engine. Although I may eventually put in a Holley or F.A.S.T. or big stuff 3. It actually runs pretty good. This car still starts with the key. And all the factory gauges work! pretty cool! It even has the factory high idle feature every time you start it. Settles down about 5 seconds. So here's my issue...Idle .. radically surges up and down. Sounds like a blower car. It takes some work to get around the pits and staging lanes.even harder to stage. What is causing this? Any way I can get a normal idle?...thanks
This is a NHRA legal stock and super/stk Camaro.
It has the factory ECM tuned (by somebody) to run with the race engine. Although I may eventually put in a Holley or F.A.S.T. or big stuff 3. It actually runs pretty good. This car still starts with the key. And all the factory gauges work! pretty cool! It even has the factory high idle feature every time you start it. Settles down about 5 seconds. So here's my issue...Idle .. radically surges up and down. Sounds like a blower car. It takes some work to get around the pits and staging lanes.even harder to stage. What is causing this? Any way I can get a normal idle?...thanks
07-17-2019, 09:43 PM
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Which cam?
07-17-2019, 09:52 PM
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07-20-2019, 04:48 AM
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Go through all of the idle tuning stickies at the top of this page. Most all of us skip some steps every now and then, because we know what parts are in the motor, and there is a ton of working tunes in multiple repositories, along with specific settings suggested in several threads. Since you don't know exactly what parts you have, ignore the urge to take shortcuts in nailing down the idle tune. It is a time consuming process, as it requires multiple cold start, warmup, and drive cycles, but it is worth it. Also, never forget that you could have a mechanical issue. I had a dodgy IAC motor give me months of headaches a few years ago while trying to tune out what ended up being a mechanical failure.
07-21-2019, 09:34 AM
#5
I visit another site where they build a lot of older Ford engines. As you can imagine, the cam designs are probably similar to yours where they run high duration, large overlap camshafts. In many cases, getting a FI set-up to work hasn't been fun due to the overlap/duration scenario. The computers go nuts. I have read about FAST, FITech, Holley, and Accel systems routinely being removed and replaced with carburetors. In most cases, the car will run lean, and by the time they get it to run with the FI, it is dumping gas into the engine.
Just a FYI. Go with gametech's recommendation to start, but even that may not cut it depending on the cam.
Just a FYI. Go with gametech's recommendation to start, but even that may not cut it depending on the cam.
07-21-2019, 01:51 PM
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I visit another site where they build a lot of older Ford engines. As you can imagine, the cam designs are probably similar to yours where they run high duration, large overlap camshafts. In many cases, getting a FI set-up to work hasn't been fun due to the overlap/duration scenario. The computers go nuts. I have read about FAST, FITech, Holley, and Accel systems routinely being removed and replaced with carburetors. In most cases, the car will run lean, and by the time they get it to run with the FI, it is dumping gas into the engine.
Just a FYI. Go with gametech's recommendation to start, but even that may not cut it depending on the cam.
Just a FYI. Go with gametech's recommendation to start, but even that may not cut it depending on the cam.