I've been on the forum reading the DIY Prom, DFI and TPI sections for about a year now, and using the many fine articles by some obviously very dedicated members. The search function is my friend!

With any luck, this weekend I'll be firing up a TPI equipped 406 in a Caprice wagon. SlP runners, 230/236 cam on 113 centers, AFR195 heads, Headers, 32lb/hr injectors, with a Prominator stacked on a 730 ECM. I'm using a registered version on Tunerpro RT. My starting bin is from a commercial tuner of notoriety from the forum. It should get it fired up at least. It has the low rpm / low kpa area fuel table hollowed out to prevent it from being pig rich, which is, as I understand it, typical of the big cam / poor idle syndrone.

I thought my first goal should be looking at BLM's to allow adjustment in the fuel charts for the big cam allowing stabilizing of the idle first. To do so, I would think I'd want to track rpm's and kpa's. Tunerpro SEEMS to allow monitoring six things at once. I say that only because the "Dash Board View" shows six screens.What should the other four things be?

I was wondering about IAC counts to see where the idle is being modified by the ECM?

Maybe coolant temp?

Spark advance would probably be good.

What else , or what other as an alternative to those I've listed would you recommend to recorded / monitored?

Most importanly. Where do I actually read and see the results? Where will the recorded BLM's acually show up to be viewed? I've heard mentioned of spreadsheets in some threads, but have never worked with one, nor understand how to generate one from Tunerpro. I'm an optician not a computer wizard.

Your advice to a rookie would be greatly appreciated and you have my sincere thanks in advance for your answers. I'm a little (actually a lot) overwhelmed. Thanks for your help!.

 

Three Days later. NO advice from anyone?

 

If it were me, I'd do the following. Though, I don't use Tuner Pro, so I'm only going off the statement you made about being able to view only six parameters at any one time.

For Idle:

O2
INT
BLMs
Spark Timing
IAC counts
MAP Sensor

You're probably going to have a nasty "hunting" idle speed that you'll need to stabilize. Work on getting the BLM's correct and possibly reducing or eliminating the spark correction vs idle speed parameter.


For part throttle Cruising, Accelerator Enrichment, and Power Enrichment:

O2
INT
BLMs
Spark Timing
TPS sensor
MAP sensor

There's a wealth of info in the stickies regarding these which I recommend reading (and re-reading). I had to read some of it several times before it finally sank in.

 

Agreed of the wealth of info within the stickies, although it can be overwhelmimg at times. Without the vehicle actually running at this point, it's all been digestion of theory.


I'm still unsure if Tunerpro generates the data back in a readable form. I'd suspect people wouldn't be talking of opening spreadsheets if it happened directly. Luckily the writers of the program show up here occasionally and may shed some light to help lift my perpetual fog.

 

Yup... definitely have to jump in at some point and start doing it.

 

[QUOTE=ULTM8Z;3311498]

"You're probably going to have a nasty "hunting" idle speed that you'll need to stabilize. Work on getting the BLM's correct and possibly reducing or eliminating the SPARK CORRECTION VS IDLE SPEED PARAMETER"

IS this the main spark table or an auxiliary table that you are referring to.

My main table at from 400 to 800rpm and 20 to 50kpa is around 25* +/-2* , Are you indicating I will likely need to lower the advance in this area if the idle is hunting?
Thanks for the interest. Dave Buchholz

 

edit for duplicate entry

 

there is idle an speed spark correction table based on rpm error i believe. some lower this or zero it out to help stabalize idle. also keeping the sa the same in all your idle are cells on main sa table will help.

as far as reading data in tunerproRT, you can playback your log in tunerpro and have different parameters opened in the dashboard. there is also other screens on the dashboard to read all data. you can also export your log to a spreadsheet format from tunerpro to read the data.

 

Thanks Sideways, That should help answer a few questions.

I'll keep digging in the tables


I found the dashboard screens and have been able to select the desired category that it will show, as suggested earlier in this thread. I found the ALDL associations and seem to have gotten that far.


I need to download a few bins to the Prominator as my first step and document what bin is residing at which number on the Prominator memory via the remote dial.

The family computer has microsoft office excel, although, I've never opened a spreadsheet before. I'd hope i could export from tunerpro and import to Excel to see the data.

 

That's right. There are actually two tables though. One is spark advance vs idle speed error and spark retard vs idle speed error.

 

When you say idle area, Am i correct in thinking the 600-800rpm range or should that be expanded to 400-1000?

I found the Idle spark advance vs rpm error. At 50-100-150-200 each blocvk has a correction factor of 4.92 degrees. The idle speed retard vs rpm lists the same 4.92 in all blocks.


In the meantine, The fuel pump is either seized or fried. THe 3 ton jack is no longer lifting, so I spent most of the day shopping, and returning jacks that wouldn't fit under the car.

Now I need to drop the fuel tank to replace trhe pump. THe relay was clicking in and out, But even sending the pump 12 volts directly from a spare battery, wouldn't spin it over.

 

Lakeeffect

Since your are converting from TBI to TPI make sure that get fuel pump capable of TPI pressure!

//RF

 

I ended up zero-ing mine out and having less than 10 IAC steps. Turns out it's a lot more stable idle when the computer isn't controlling it.

 

Thanks, I told the counter guy at Advance Auto it was for a 1992 CAMARO with the 5.7 TPI motor.


Will likely zero out the idle spark advance,. Since I can store 8 programs in the Prominator, I was thinking having one unmodified, and one zeroed out, and flip the selector switch. It would be an easy way to compare which idles better that way. I need to take advantage of the resource that the Prominator offers for comparisons.

 

Replaced the fuel pump and the tank is now back into place. Tried a trial crank over after venting the air out of the fuel rail at the valve.

NO JOY. NO JOY

Failed to fire up. Had gas at the Schraeder Valve Set the TPS to 0.54 volts per instructions found here at the forum. Couldn't fire up to set the IAC counts yet.
No clue as to how close of far the base timing is at this point. No one around to turn the key, while I checked the base timing (connector disabled of course)

Hoe 'bout if I pull the fuel relay so I don't flood the engine while getting base timing near 6 degrees?


ANY THOUGHT? YOUR WISDOM IS APPRECIATED!