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HP Tuner Interface

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Old Feb 26, 2021 | 06:21 PM
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Default HP Tuner Interface

New motor installed, 99 Z28, motor runs rough, turn motor off, hook up interface and laptop, cranked up the engine and it runs good, unplugged the interface while motor is running and it starts to run rough, plug it back in and it runs good. what is up with that, any ideas?
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Old Feb 26, 2021 | 07:35 PM
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Broke ground or missing ground on back of the head.
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Old Feb 26, 2021 | 07:46 PM
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Thx minytrker, there are only 3 grounds on the back of the LH head, none that I know of on the RH head. the 3 on the LH are connected hard at the head but I haven't chased down those grounds at their other ends.
the 2 grounds on the DTC rang out solid and the orange power wire has 12 volts. don't understand why it runs good with the interface hooked up and bad when its disconnected.
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Old Feb 27, 2021 | 06:47 AM
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Could it be that the two grounds in the OBD2 connector are assisting / supporting a bad ground situation at the engine?? Pin 4 and Pin 11 may be helping here while the interface is in use.

Rick
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Old Feb 27, 2021 | 11:00 AM
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Originally Posted by rayrat
Thx minytrker, there are only 3 grounds on the back of the LH head, none that I know of on the RH head. the 3 on the LH are connected hard at the head but I haven't chased down those grounds at their other ends.
the 2 grounds on the DTC rang out solid and the orange power wire has 12 volts. don't understand why it runs good with the interface hooked up and bad when its disconnected.

Every time I have seen this it was a bad or broke ground on back of the head. When you plug in to the odb2 its grounding through there. Check and make sure a wire didn't break off the eyelet on one of the grounds.
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Old Feb 27, 2021 | 07:58 PM
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I will check and let you know, thx.
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Old Mar 7, 2021 | 09:11 PM
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I be damned, I pulled the intake off and guess what I found. One of the 3 ground wires to the LH head was buster, ring terminal was busted. I had the trans off and looked up at those 3 grounds and they looked good to me, guess my eyes were lying to me. Will let you know how it runs thanks guys.
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Old Mar 8, 2021 | 11:20 AM
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The first time this happened to me 15+ years it took awhile to figure out. Customer drove here, changed injectors, I plugged in and tuned it. When they got ready to leave I took out my laptop and the car wouldn't start. Plug laptop back in and it would fire right up. Same thing happened to them, one wire broke off eyelet when they took off the fuel rails.
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Old Mar 12, 2021 | 08:01 AM
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Originally Posted by rayrat
I be damned, I pulled the intake off and guess what I found. One of the 3 ground wires to the LH head was buster, ring terminal was busted. I had the trans off and looked up at those 3 grounds and they looked good to me, guess my eyes were lying to me. Will let you know how it runs thanks guys.
I actually cut those thing off, added 20" of wire, resoldered everything, ran the wires through the injector harness loom, and grounded up front so I could both verify them and repair as needed without pulling the intake.
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Old Mar 12, 2021 | 02:45 PM
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Darth, don’t you know the ground currents are way different on the front of the engine?

Just kidding! 😊

Great catch on the ground minytrker. That lug, that bolt, and those wires have tripped up many folks.

Had an LS swapped Solstice in the shop that had random complete weirdness going on and it turned out the customer forgot to tighten that bolt.

Ron
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Old Mar 12, 2021 | 02:48 PM
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Ah yes, as in so many aspects of life, one needs to be well grounded....
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Old Mar 14, 2021 | 07:19 PM
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Does anyone know where exactly the other ends of those ground wires go? I originally had 3 (I think) with ring terminals attached to the back of the heads. After everything was apart, and then put back, I could only find two. I even have a picture which shows a 3rd one (I think), but it's just disappeared. I haven't had any electrical problems though, in fact I did have a problem before everything was apart, where I'd turn the key to start and nothing would happen, then after some tries it would work - now since everything was put back together that hasn't happened even once, which is weird.
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Old Mar 15, 2021 | 01:53 AM
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The factory service manual has very detailed and accurate schematics of the wiring. You can find all the grounds there.
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Old Mar 15, 2021 | 05:40 AM
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Originally Posted by RonSSNova
Darth, don’t you know the ground currents are way different on the front of the engine?

Just kidding! 😊

Great catch on the ground minytrker. That lug, that bolt, and those wires have tripped up many folks.

Had an LS swapped Solstice in the shop that had random complete weirdness going on and it turned out the customer forgot to tighten that bolt.

Ron
My bad.
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