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I have owned since 2002. Lot's of blood, sweat, and tears I assure you. It is at a reputable shop right now but I am still concerned. Been there for a minute. I did do a lot of the work myself but it's also been in shops. Getting harder to find shops that will even accept cars this old. I am not going to say at this time who is doing the work on my car but..........If they do me right, I will promote the hell out of them like no other. I am really thinking shops put these at the back of the list unless they have a newer converted engine.
I've bought WS.6 floor mats, yes that right panel in rear was not closed all the way. Lot's have changed since those pics. Hopefully new pics soon. Engine bay is dirty. Hopefully getting car back from shop soon.
Getting harder to find shops that will even accept cars this old. I am really thinking shops put these at the back of the list unless they have a newer converted engine.
It's odd to see someone state this regarding an LS1 car. This *is* the sort of modern engine that most folks are converting *to* (meaning Gen III/IV SBC), so I can't imagine what else more modern would be expected to be under the hood. Not too many folks doing Gen V conversions in comparison.
FWIW, there are several shops in my area still working on dinosaurs from the 60s/70s, even ones with original engines. A 25 year old car is still 'late model' compared to those fossils.
I had one shop that told me years ago, no more working on my car.....The shop starts with a "G" in the Friendswood area. The shop it's at now told me if I would not have opted for the PCM newer year model changeout (98 PCM is quirky) they would have turned me away. Maybe it's the year model, but he had to re-pin the harness to upgrade the PCM. It has been at the shop a long time. I am really hoping to get it back soon.
It's odd to see someone state this regarding an LS1 car. This *is* the sort of modern engine that most folks are converting *to* (meaning Gen III/IV SBC), so I can't imagine what else more modern would be expected to be under the hood. Not too many folks doing Gen V conversions in comparison.
FWIW, there are several shops in my area still working on dinosaurs from the 60s/70s, even ones with original engines. A 25 year old car is still 'late model' compared to those fossils.
Yeah, my area has many shops that would welcome my business. I'm surprised to hear that from a TX guy.
OP, good luck with the shop. I hope it works out OK for you.
From a controls side of things they are more rigid (98 ecm's) I know for boosed applications that ECM is a no no cause of how it handles the Map sensor input. Not sure what that has to do with folks no wanting to work on them though? For stock/NA they are still fine, my 414 runs on a 98 ecm? I dont take my cars to people anymore unless I absolutely have to, and we lease my wife's cars and get the maintenance plans. Id bet seeing that Nitrous plate at a regular maintenance shop would be a big turn off for most, from a potential liability standpoint.
That said, car looks to be in great shape congrats!
I minimize my work at shops as well. These are well known performance shops I am talking about. Would love to hear more details about controls / ECM/ Map sensor / tuning. maybe I am misunderstanding? I have heard several times about 98 tuning being a particular bitch, Then again, I don't tune.
I could possibly see some tuners not wanting to deal with the '98 PCM as it's "different" and has some disadvantages over the later years, but I don't see how that translates to not wanting to work on the car in general. These are pretty modern vehicles with still recent & relevant powertrains - especially in the performance world.
FWIW, I had no real trouble finding a local shop with a dwell meter to set the points on my dinosaur '74 Oldsmobile distributor last year. I now have another working dwell meter of my own so I can do this myself, but I was lacking of this last year. That's some ancient technology that many young folks might not have ever even seen. Any LS1 vehicle is practically a brand new car in comparison, it's crazy that any shop (especially a performance shop) wouldn't want to, or know how to, work on it.
Now, if you showed up with a 1909 Pierce-Arrow I could see the average shop taking a pass on that one...
The amount of parameters & the checks the pcm makes against itself the the two main differences, for instance: 98 LS1 pcms have ~395 editable tables Most 99 LS1 pcms have ~455 editable tables
Also when switching operating systems on 98's if the end user accidentally hits write calibration only instead of write entire theres a good chance they will fry the pcm since the pcm has no way of checking this against itself until its already too late. There's less resolution on the tables, The MAF range is a little shorter, the timing table is much easier to bottom out, the idle routines are better in the later OS's (99-up), the later OS's can run HPTuner's real time OS's and 3-bar OS. 2-bar vs 3-bar is really only important for boost tuning.
A good tuner couldnt care less about most of the above, but that is one of the flaws with HPtuners from my experience. Anyone can buy that software and use it and as a result "call" themselves a tuner......
dive into our ECM section and run a search for Pros and cons of 98 ECM or 98 ecm vs 99+ and theres more info to be had on the differences.
Good summary, thanks for discussing blackbyrd. I'm going by what my tuner is telling me.........He is supposed to be a very reputable tuner. I will dig around and read some more on it though.
Picking car up tomorrow, so very happy. Numbers really don't matter compared.... I was already very happy and he addressed several major issues. Car will be beast.
And not bragging like that, impressed for a budget build. But it does have some surprises that makes a difference.......Dana 60 Strange Eng 410, all UMI, I'll update later.
I agree, when I ordered was just guessing. The red is a little harder to see. I'll try the white combo but probably ordering a red bulb. Funny thing is.....those 3 gages were well over $1k, Only option I had was different color bulbs lol.
I am not going to say what I found when I looked over the car yet but....there are issues that need to be addressed. It's an hour drive with no traffic but ohh well, it's got to go back to be right. Hopefully update coming soon.
07-04-2023, 09:26 PM
1998 ws.6 #384 
