by not tuning? To summarize: 1989 Firebird, V-6, 5-speed. Engine: 2.8L (bored 30 over), with 3.1 rotating assembly, so yes a stroker. ARP rocker studs, 1.52 roller-tipped rockers, 260 grind cam, port and polish of heads and plenum, high volume oil pump, double roller timing set, 8 mm Aurora wires, CAI, Royal Purple oil (for what it's worth), Pacesetter ceramic coated headers, Dynomax Superturbo muffler to complete cat-back exhaust and heated O2 sensor. I stayed with the stock injectors and stock fuel pressure regulator. Timing is set at 12 degrees. I haven't dyno'd yet (no time). Any ideas on what it's putting out and how much I would gain by tuning?

I take it you changed base timing without adjusting it in the ecm. Well you could be leaving quite a bit without optimizing it. I'll bet you could gain alot of torq by tuning the spark table, the stock table's not even optimized for the stock motor. If you look at some of the early BCC's the table looks like it's made of lego bricks. I have no idea where your wot afr's at, I doubt it's anywhere near where it should be. Do you have acess to a scanner to give me the blm's? You could probably pull another 5-10% more out of it.

Thanks bl85c. I don't have a scanner.

The build was phase 1 I guess. Now I'm starting to think about studying the "tuning" thread (phase 2?) as I am new to this whole thing. I was just wondering if the expense of all of the tuning equipement and time involved was going to be worth it.

Definatly going to be worth it.

The tune alone won't "unlock" lots of power, per-se, but will optimize the combination you have or plan in the future.

I find that tuning will help improve drivability more than anything, and can also help get the power curve wider, when it's matched to the mechanical combination under the hood.

Building an engine without tuning, is like eating a Hamburger without the toppings, while you may get full, it won't taste as good as it could.