Neil

Has anyone used a MiniRam III with GM FAST BURN heads? I just installed these components and am having driveability issues, i.e., backfiring through the throttle body. At this stage I am not worried about performance, I just want to get around the block without backfiring! I have a custom e-prom from AS&M which worked awesome with my 383-TPI setup (Cam specs Duration .224/.236 Lift .540/.555). I will burn a new prom for this MR setup, but I would like to know if the custom chip I have now will at least get me started?
Thanks,
Neil

TRAXION

Neil,

I do not trust AS&M chips at ALL. Nick D got one through AS&M for his setup and we later found that the chips was a TOTALLY stock chip.

Tim

Neil

Tim,

I have to agree with you, AS&M chips aren't the best, however, with the Hi-flo LTR and base manifold I had on the car before, performance was reasonably good. Now with the MR, new heads, and same chip, I can't even drive the car.
If you have any ideas please let me know!
Thanks,
Neil

87Z-ya

iTrader: (1)

Bump up the fuel pressure, your having a lean tip in problem.

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87z 383,afr 190's, crane hyd roller(224/230-.509/.528,112 sep),Ported and polished mini ram, 30lb inj, 3.42 gears, strange 12 bolt, tremec 5spd, , 1,3/4" slp headers.
"Just remember children, no man can beat you once youv'e found the cliterous." 'chef'

blak92!

Forget about AS&M, they sent me a photocopy of an accel dfi manual when I thought I paid $15 for an actual softcover booklet. The manual was out of order, front to back upside down, a complete f!!cking mess. I spoke to the owner and he wasnt interested in an exchange or replacement.

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'92 Z28 Black 5.7L 5 Speed
'95 Competition Yellow Corvette Coupe ZF6


[This message has been edited by blak92! (edited February 19, 2001).]

Grim Reaper

A eprom for LTRs would be a complete mismatch for the MiniRam. You don't state which type of ecm system you have (SD or MAF), but especially for SD I would not expect it to work very well.

I am not the knowledgeable with MAF, but with SD, your VE tables are one of the most (if not the most) important tables for determining fuel delivery. As the name implies (Volumetric Efficiency), these fuel curves are based on the VE of the engine.

LTRs are simimalr to the stock setup where you get your max VE at 3,200-3,600 rpm with a dramatic drop off as the rpm increases. With a MiniRam, you don't have your max VE occur until a much higher RPM and then at much higher levels than the with LTRs. Thus you will be overly rich at less than 4,000 rpm and lean above 4,000 rpm.

And then there is the question of EGR. A Miniram (unless they changed the MiniRam III) does not support an EGR. With LTRs, you WILL have an EGR (unless you specifically requested it to be disabled). And even you you have it disabled, most eprom writers just turn off the SES part, you should actually change the "EGR Temp Engage" to a very high value like Hex FF.

This EGR would be the same for both MAF and SD and I suspect this is your REAL problem, compounded by the incorrect fuel curves.

99MONGOOSE

What the heck is a mini-ram III, I know the mini-ramII, but when did they come out with #III? What is the difference?

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1999 Camaro SS LS1 m6 12.6@112mphw/1.9 60ft
1987 Iroc-Z 5.7 TPI best et. 14.3@94mph w/2.0 60ft.
1984 Camaro

89ProchargedROC

the miniram III was designed to work with the new vortec/fast burn style heads. i think that is the only change

99MONGOOSE

COOL!!!

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1999 Camaro SS LS1 m6 12.6@112mphw/1.9 60ft
1987 Iroc-Z 5.7 TPI best et. 14.3@94mph w/2.0 60ft.
1984 Camaro

Neil

Thanks for the replies! Well, Glenn I am running a MAF system with 24lb/hr injectors. I spoke with the good folks at TPIS and they said the problem was with the EPROM (basically what you are saying) and that I should consider stepping up to a larger injector. Wouldn't a 30lb/hr injector be too large?
Next I will try the fuel pressure, if that fails, I'm going to start playing with the chip parameters.

Grim Reaper

30# would avoid any possibility of exceeding the duty cycles of the injectors. But, TPIS hates 24# SVO injectors because, they are not their expensive injectors.

Personal opinion, I would learn how to burn my own eprom. For US$500, you could get ALL the equipment plus a scan tool and burn a far better eprom than TPIS. I have heard from more than one person that they had problems with TPIS and TPIS even had the nerve to charge them to "fix" their own mistakes.

No matter WHO you get to burn you an eprom, you will only get a "formula eprom". Some are pretty good, some are pretty bad. But NONE are optimized to YOUR own car.

Yes, it takes time and effort (initially), but just liek computer programming, it is a "building knowledge" in that everything you learn is appicable to other things.

In a few months you will almost think that you could burn an eprom for anybody and can do almost anything. In fact, you will laugh at even wondering how you could even think about buying an eprom from someone.

[This message has been edited by Glenn91L98GTA (edited February 20, 2001).]

87Z-ya

iTrader: (1)

How did I get here?

[This message has been edited by 87Z-ya (edited February 21, 2001).]

Neil

Glen,

Once again, thanks for the info! As a matter of fact I already have the hardware needed to "burn" my own chips. The software,"Win Bin" I down-loaded from the net, is this a good version or is there something better? Right now I am at the low-end of the learning curve and hopefully I'll get the hang of it.


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Neil's 383 IROC-Z: TPIS MiniRamIII / GM FastBurn heads / Strange 12Bolt Diff./ Neil's Home-Built BulletProof 700R4+Vigilante 2800 stall converter.

Grim Reaper

I much prefer TunerCat. It's Window's based, very easy to change thing, priced reasonably ($69.95) and you can get a demo at www.tunercat.com

With the demo they give you the 42.tdf (TBI Truck)which doesn't help you to properly evaluate it. You don't specify your exact engine so I cannot tell you the TDF you need. But quite a few people have emailed TunerCat and stated that they would like the correct TDF to evaluate their software and TunerCat has been very obliging.

Let me know which engine you have (year/induction) and I can tell you the TDF to get and then you can look at your eprom and even modify it for 30 days.

Just tell them that you were recommended to look at TunerCat from the guys at www.thirdgen.org by Glenn and hopefully they might throw you a "demo" tdf to really evaluate the product with YOUR eprom.

To get a TDF other than the 42 TDF, TunerCat does charge an extra $20.00, but its worth it. WinBin is too tedious. I want to get out there and test my eproms, not fight with an Editor to make my changes. My time is too valuable.

Also, TunerCat is CONSTANTLY improving their TDFs and I think they are the most progressive of all the "Editors" out there. They also have some other neat products like TDF Editor that allows you to further customize the TDF for constants/tables that you may discover that TunerCat has not yet implemented on their TDF.

I use TDF Editor a lot as I have gone beyond the standard TDF and playing with "new" things. Don't buy TDF Editor yet. Learn TunerCat first and then consider TDF Editor when you have progressed more.

And I do not have any financial interest of involvement with TunerCat other than as a very happy user.

Neil

Glen,

Cool, I agree, my time is too valuable as well to be farting around with tedious details! I am very intersted in Tuner Cat, so here are my engine specs: 383 w/hydraulic roller cam Dur: I/E 224/236 Lift:540/555, Mass Air system (1987 (original TPI) IROCZ, 165 ECM $32B calibration), 10.5:1 compression, GM FastBurn Heads 210cc intake runners and of course the MRIII.
BTW, what does TDF stand for? Day by day I am learning to interpret all these abbreviations/acronyms.

Thanks,
Neil