Question for those with aftermarket cams

MagikDraggin · 09-21-03, 12:29 AM

Just got back from a 5000 mile road trip to the west coast and back. Nearly every day I had to wipe down the rear-end of the vette to get the nasty yellowish stain off it from the exhaust fumes. Also, the inner chrome Corsa pipe-ends turned black after about 400 miles of driving....the outer ones turned blue.

Do any of you other guys with aftermarket cams have this problem? And is this considered "normal" with a long duration cam? What about smelly exhaust? Is that another fun benefit of these cams?

Other than that......what a trip! All you guys that only take your vettes out on the weekends when the sun is shining. You have NO idea what you are missing by not taking that machine on an extended road trip. Even the wife was amazed at how comfortable the vette is on a long trip.

switch · 09-21-03, 01:16 AM

I'm running the HotCam and had to do a bit of PCM tuning to get everything back in order. Had to pull fuel out in the low end and add at WOT.
Before tuning, the exhaust smelled bad and my newly ceramic coating on the headers was starting to discolor.

I have things close now and will be off to the dyno for the final tune.

vader86 · 09-21-03, 01:29 AM

You might need to perfect the tuning a little more

MagikDraggin · 09-21-03, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by switch
I'm running the HotCam and had to do a bit of PCM tuning to get everything back in order. Had to pull fuel out in the low end and add at WOT.
Before tuning, the exhaust smelled bad and my newly ceramic coating on the headers was starting to discolor.

I have things close now and will be off to the dyno for the final tune.

Both you and Vader have said the same thing. I had TPIS do the reprogramming.....cost a small fortune, too.

However, I did NOT have the motor run on a dyno before the reprogramming was done. What you are suggesting is that I should have it dynoed first...and THEN have it reprogrammed?

Tell me, if any of you know, is this "LT1 Edit" program anything an amateur like myself should attempt to mess with? Or should I leave this sort of thing to the "experts"?

switch · 09-21-03, 03:10 PM

Just what cam and other mods are you running?

The choice to program yourself depends on lots of things;
Do you plan to do future mods?
Are you comfortable using a computer (laptop with serial port is prefered) so you can monitor and log data with PCCom.

If you send off you PCM for someone to tune, they can only guess and at best get you in the ballpark.
LT1Edit allows you to change a multitude for things, things that can get you into trouble also.

You may want to check out carputing.com and maybe subscribe to LT1Edit.com bullitin board and see whats going on first.

vader86 · 09-21-03, 03:17 PM

What i'm saying is that no tune is perfect unless done with a wide-band O2 sensor on a dyno, so if you dont want any junk on your rear bumper, you should go somewhere with a dyno and a wideband, and have them tune it.

I wouldnt want to spend the money either, so what i would do is live with it for the time being. In the meantime, Id learn how to tune it myself with someone elses dyno and then perfect it once i knew what i was doing.

MagikDraggin · 09-21-03, 05:04 PM

Ok, gotcha Vader. I will get ahold of TPIS again Monday and see if they have access to a dyno or know of one in the area, as there are none around here and they are only about 250 miles from me.

This "in the ballpark business" way of tuning just isn't going to cut it for me. Hopefully, they will honor their work and redo it at no charge or at least a very minimal one.

MagikDraggin · 09-21-03, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by switch
Just what cam and other mods are you running?

It is a Crane ZZ409 roller cam from TPIS along with having the heads and intake ported and polished along with LT4 sized valves, 2600 TC, 52mm TB, TPIS longtube coated headers, and 3.54 gears.

As I mentioned to Vader, I will call TPIS in the morning and see if they have a chassis dyno there. If not maybe they can recommend one nearby and I can get them to redo the program as I am only about 250 miles from them.

I am not completely computer illiterate, but don't know squat about programming per se. If it is something along the lines of that Hypertech gadget, I am sure I can plug in figures in the appropriate places if I knew what the new figures should be.

Thanks for your help.

sothpaw · 09-22-03, 08:43 AM

Mark,

No, I have no smell issue with my heads/cam change. I have Ed Wright programming, and it can't be cheaper than TPIS.

Who did the heads? Did you do the install yourself?