Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

[tkoforpresident]

Keep an eye on this thread ;)


Without using a stand alone system like Megasquirt, or a limited "flash" tune from Fastchips, or a Jet Chip which is no more than resistors upping your spark advance a few degrees, the time has come to fully tune our 3.4's.

John Caraher aka ForcedFirebird, owner of 60*inclusive has begun making OBD-1 Swap kits that will essentially change our PCM's, while keeping our wiring the same. How is this done??

By "re-pinning" the connectors and referencing wiring diagrams for the 3.4 he has made harness adapters that are literally "plug and play".

This will turn our PCM's into fully tuneable OBD-1 computers, think 3rd gen tuning.

Using techniques that have been used for many years and have been fully developed it won't take an average mechanic long to tuner their 3.4


When you consider the price of a Jet chip (250$), Fastchips reflash (350$), and Megasquirt (200$ or so, but intense modification to sensors etc.) John's price starts to look pretty good, especially considering the Jetchip and reflash are not even real tunes.

A little more info on the product...

The harness adapter (pictured below) will plug into a stock 7727 pcm (think 91 lumina) and then into your current pcm connectors. The base tune that has been created will let you plug in the harness adapter into the new pcm (with base tune installed via the prom chip) and run your 3.4 like you normally would.



What this means is that we are doing an entire PCM swap....

In about 5 minutes!!!

and of course the best part...

This PCM is completely hacked and tuneable!!!

Whats even more is that once mounted with your stock PCM harness, you can't even tell there is a new computer in there.




John has all the things we need to tune our 3.4's. The harness adapter, 7727 PCM, the base tune, and other things necessary for tuning.

At the most, you will have to buy your own chip burning equipment.


I'm the prototype, or the "Guinea Pig" so to speak :D since i haven't completed the swap yet. But, I will be doing it shortly and i encourage any of you interested in getting more power and control out of your 3.4 to tag along for the ride.

While you might not have a lot of modifications done to your 3.4 that will really make it beneficial to tune, keep in mind that the stock tunes on these motors suck and having a fully tuneable PCM will make any kind of Forced Induction or 3x00 swap a piece of cake.

I'm doing the swap mainly because of the radical camshaft/heads/bigger injectors that are reaking havoc on my stock tune.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

Here's MY chip burning equipment (bought from moates.net)





So now your all wondering what kind of tuning capabilities are there? I've just gotten started with my tune, but i can tell you that the possibilites seem endless. We are using the $a1. mask which is completely hacked. You can do all of the following and much more:

-Tune for bigger injectors
-Disable Speed limiter
-Disable Rev limiter
-Change Fan temps for aftermarket thermostat
-Modify fuel tables
-Modify spark tables
-Modify VE tables
-Disable EGR

etc. etc.

In fact, as of right now I'm already working on my own personal tune through tuner pro RT which is extremely easy to use.

Take a look at it





I'll be burning this ^ tune onto one of my chips and installing it for the first time, hopefully in the upcoming week. Then I will datalog, change my tune, burn the chip again, and keep making progress one step at a time.

If you guys have any questions feel free to ask. I'll be updating this thread on my own one way or another whether there's interest or not, but my gut feeling tells me that some people will finally have the answer they need when it comes to tuning a once "non tuneable" vehicle.

As a final note, it's important to understand that only the 93 3.4 (auto and manual) and 94&95 (manual) are candiadates because in 94 &95 autos the pcm controlled the transmission, hence the 4l60E for electronic.

[lil' jon]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

Wow this is pretty awesome. Seems like it might be kind of a hassle having to re-burn chips everytime you want to change your tune, but it's definately better than nothing. What's the base tune like on that setup? Is it good enough to make your setup run? On a side note, are you running ported iron heads or are they the aluminum 3x00 heads?

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

Wow this is pretty awesome. Seems like it might be kind of a hassle having to re-burn chips everytime you want to change your tune, but it's definately better than nothing. What's the base tune like on that setup? Is it good enough to make your setup run? On a side note, are you running ported iron heads or are they the aluminum 3x00 heads?

I'm running heavily modified iron heads (boat anchors). It is not quite the hassle swapping out chips when you consider the other tuning options for the 3.4 (or lack there of). It's only 2 10mm bolts holding the pcm down anyhow....

plus if you really don't want to swap chips constantly or are going to be doing a lot of tuning you can just pony up a little extra cash and buy an emultor (you can modify your tune on the fly)

The base tune is a mix between a number of masks (.xdf's) that is a BASE tune for our 3.4's, nothing more. If you want to customize it for your build you will have to do what i'm doing. But the key point here is that you should be able to swap pcms without doing ANY tuning and still be able to fire up your car like nothing happened.

[BEAST]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

if you dont mind me asking why the 91 lumina pcm....and not say a lt1 pcm?

my other question let say i allready have my tools to burn chips and a software to do so for lets say a 93 camaro lt1....and i can get a 91 lumina pcm....could all i do is just buy the specail adapter you guys made?....because this senerio is something i might get into with my truck(if work picks up)....and if all i have to do is pick up this harness and a pcm from ebay or junk yard i would be very interested.

and last what are some prices?

[firebirddrvr]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

this is pretty awesome however sucks that its somewhat limited to certain models. however, sweet advancement if i do say so myself. im really really interested to see what kind of gains the n/a 3.4 can put out with the true tune. id like to see gains on stock motor and also on a modified motor like yours. should be sweet sweet sweet cant wait to read more of the progress

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

if you dont mind me asking why the 91 lumina pcm....and not say a lt1 pcm?

my other question let say i allready have my tools to burn chips and a software to do so for lets say a 93 camaro lt1....and i can get a 91 lumina pcm....could all i do is just buy the specail adapter you guys made?....because this senerio is something i might get into with my truck(if work picks up)....and if all i have to do is pick up this harness and a pcm from ebay or junk yard i would be very interested.

and last what are some prices?

1. The 91 Lumina PCM is the "7727" PCM or so it's called which is a VERY widely used computer. It's not just in luminas, it's in corisca's, beretta's, etc. That alone makes it desirable. It's weather proof and has a removable Memcal which is what we are looking for when tuning obd-1.

2. I'm not entirely sure what your asking here but i will try to make this as simple as possible. The guy who makes these harnesses can cross reference with other PCM wiring diagrams to fit just about any application. So basically, he's not just doing this for the camaro/firebird but also for people with luminas, fiero's, etc. As long as he can get the wiring diagrams, I don't see why he couldn't fab something up for you.

3. You say you have equipment? what kind of equipment.

4. Price seems to be around 350-400 for the custom harness.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

this is pretty awesome however sucks that its somewhat limited to certain models. however, sweet advancement if i do say so myself. im really really interested to see what kind of gains the n/a 3.4 can put out with the true tune. id like to see gains on stock motor and also on a modified motor like yours. should be sweet sweet sweet cant wait to read more of the progress

It's not really limited to certain models (it's just that he's only done harnesses for a few so far)

It just takes time fabbing it up by referencing wiring diagrams and things like that.

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

I'll try to get up some datalogs so you guys can look at what i'm doing.

[BEAST]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

350-400 for the hardness alone?

is the harness all you need that is specail? or is the pcm also modified?

in other words if i have tunning software and a 7727 pcm all i need now would be the special harness?

[Derek3.4]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

that would be awesome for my 93

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

350-400 for the hardness alone?

is the harness all you need that is specail? or is the pcm also modified?

in other words if i have tunning software and a 7727 pcm all i need now would be the special harness?

correct, if you have the pcm and the tuning equipment all you will need is the modified harness.

[flamingchicken]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

so have you done any tuning? hows it going for you?

[tkoforpresident]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

I've dabbled...

I'm having some issues running extremely rich right now that i'm trying to sort out but i have most of the winter to get my tune right so there's no hurry.

I'm using Tunerpro to log and make changes the the .bin

Obviously i've been able to do simple things like remove the speed limiter, disable the EGR, account for bigger injectors and change my rad fan turn on/off temps, but the real work and power to be had is with fuel and spark which is not as easy as simply "chaning a number" in the tune.

[BEAST]

Re: Who wants to tune their 3.4 ??

http://www.dragstuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22

http://www.dragstuff.com/techarticle...-pictures.html

im not a tunner but i try my best to read and try things out .... and reading sparkplugs is a must....here are a few good sites.