I never drove a car before that bogs so bad when an accessory is loaded. I can hit the (electronic) brakes and the RPMs bog a few hundred RPM to the point where the vehicle would stall if I wasn't running the TopGun chip that raises the idle to an eyebrow-raising 850-1200 RPM? I get the impression that raising the idle is a band-aid fix to work around the real problem (not to mention wasting gas). My Cavalier Z24 idles FLAWLESSLY with 150,000+ miles on the original motor/trans at 650 RPM!! You can even engage the A/C and the motor barely misses a beat. Do that on a TGP and the damn thing is gonna near stall on you. Is this all poor chip programming from McLaren or what makes this motor so weak at idle? It's the same cam as my LH0 N/A 3.1 and same heads so I'm just left scratching mine!
How old is your alternator? These cars draw a serious amount of amperage just sitting there idleing with no accessories on. When you turn on your A/C the secondary fan kicks on and if you are at a high operating temp the 60 AMP primary fan will kick on. When everything loads and the alternator does not keep up, the car will bog, rough idle, and/or stall. My suggestion to you would be to see what voltage your alternator is at when the accessories are on. Obviously you will need a voltmeter to do that as we do not have voltmeters in the car... 8)
Mine does the same things that Tooky described.
I plan on getting a good battery sometime (Exide Orbital, had one in the lumina, loved it!), and then seeing how things work then. I know it doesn't take much to run the battery down in the car as I've done it while waiting in the staging lines at the local track with the single primary fan running. :roll:
The alternator is brand new; its an ACDelco Reman TGP Part # alternator from my GM dealer. No difference was noted with the new alternator. Also, the battery has just been replaced as well (that was definitely a tight fit!!! Also nice to see that TWO horns are responsible for the TGP's incredibly loud horn though ;))
Quote from: TookyCatI never drove a car before that bogs so bad when an accessory is loaded. I can hit the (electronic) brakes and the RPMs bog a few hundred RPM to the point where the vehicle would stall if I wasn't running the TopGun chip that raises the idle to an eyebrow-raising 850-1200 RPM? I get the impression that raising the idle is a band-aid fix to work around the real problem (not to mention wasting gas). My Cavalier Z24 idles FLAWLESSLY with 150,000+ miles on the original motor/trans at 650 RPM!! You can even engage the A/C and the motor barely misses a beat. Do that on a TGP and the damn thing is gonna near stall on you. Is this all poor chip programming from McLaren or what makes this motor so weak at idle? It's the same cam as my LH0 N/A 3.1 and same heads so I'm just left scratching mine!
Sheeze, you grouch lately :roll: don?t you got a girl friend, or did you marry her :lol: First the easy stuff, the reading you are getting on your scan too should be more accurate than the dash tach, setpoint in the chip is at 775 rpms for most fully warm areas (though o2 Cross-Counts make it bounce all over the place, and spark retard/spark advance verses desired idle speed is pretty busy following that, though better than stock in my chips), and this slightly higher rpm setting/100 more than stock is for other good reasons not your complaint :roll: The jump to higher might be the IAC trying to catch a stall by kicking the IAC up a bit/1,000 rpms or more. The stock chip use to kick the IAC up a ton when the AC was told to come on, and the Main Fan, but I adjusted those down a little since stock chip owners were complaining (me too) of the car lurching forward at a stop light if your foot was not on the brake enough when one of these came on. I have a TGP here that struggles with accessories too, good/new alternator and battery but I know from the way it starts the injectors are leaking and hanging up some, which shows up when asked to start an engine, and when finesse is required to idle it, that is the problem with mine for now/till I can get to it. I would check the battery voltage as there are setpoints (no need to change, values are great) to raise the idle speed even more than the 775 value if the battery voltage gets low, and even a little higher rpm if the battery gets real low, to a limit (9 volts then shut down). As for the stock chip, McLaren was only given 2 weeks to tune this chip, not much time at all, and why it took me a few years to fix a lot of the areas, then tweak, then test on a number of TGPs over the different seasonal changes, stuff like that.
Cheer up, you got a ton of other nice cars to drive.
Jeff M