ECM Tuning for Cutlass

[3.1V6Lover]

Hey all, I dunno if I am in the right place, I have a 94 Cutlass Supreme 3100SFI, with the OBD1.5, me and my buddy or doing a crap load of work to it (performance cam, homemade turbo kit, ported heads, large valves, etc) I was told the 1.5 system is unmodifiable, but my buddy(who works for a GM dealer) says he has a computer software at work that works on the 1.5 system, and thats what he did for his 94 Cutlass, does this sound right? Anyway, once we are in the ECM, what is some stuff we should change? We are removing torque management, and adjusting shift points, but what else would we need to do? Thanks

[mfewtrail]

The GM software can reflash those ECM's with updated calibrations, but I wasn't aware that the programs actually give you access to change specific things. The "calibrations" I've reflashed in the past were just files that you selected and it updated the ECM for you...there was no real "user" made changes that could be applied as far as I know. I do not have any recent experience with that stuff though, the last one I dealt with was in 2004. I still kinda doubt that GM gives you access to change things yourself NOW as people that didn't know what they're doing would likely cause more problems than they would solve.

As for what changes to make, someone else here would have to help you with that...

[3.1V6Lover]

Yeah its sounded weird to me, but he says he had to take a week long course on just to use the system, but we will see, we are hopefully put the car on the lift here shortly and start measuring since we got a long road ahead of use and I was to get it show worthy for Summer, I hope someone can help me out on here as to what we would need to change or modify in the ECM, thanks

[Jonpro03]

You should try www.60degreev6.com

Its the best place for swaps, turbos, and tuning

[flybynite]

If you are going to turbo it I would re-pin the harness for 8f. There are not many tuning solutions for obd 1.5 nor is there any support for turbo applications.

[DefEddie]

I think your buddy is confusing the tech 2's abilities.
It does have bidirectional controls for timing etc.. but as mentioned above you cannot go in and selectively change calibration settings,only update the current calibration.
The week long class he went to was more than likely a driveability training class,which concentrates on diagnosis and repair of OBDI or OBDII utilizing the TECH 2 as a diagnostic tool.

My Ford IDS (laptop based tech 2 type tool for Ford,Lincoln,Mercury) will only allow me to update calibrations (IF a new one is available).
It will allow me to change programming,but it's like tire size and seat belt chime.
Even then we can only choose from set responses.
When I want to program in a different tire size than given I actually have to do the math for all the size's available to convert to height and then compare to actual using the closest match.

Factory diagnostic tools are FAR from a tuning tool,most even suck at datalogging without extra equipment (got over $10k in the IDS and can't datalog for more than a few seconds).

But nothing beats them for diagnosis.

Personally I would just swap to OBDII,you've got the cam sensor already and that's the hard part as long as the reluctor wheel is the same on the crank.

[3.1V6Lover]

Yeah I was just thinking about swapping to OBD2 since I do have a 2000 Malibu with a 3100 in my driveway that I could use for parts, I will discuss this over with him and will see what we can come up with.

[TurboGTU]

Im only aware of flash updates using the gm tools.

With OBD1 you got plenty of support and the tune is far more forgiving than a MAF system.
with OBD2 you get SFI to control big injectors more better for idle but won't be too friendly if your tune is off.