What is a calibration file?

 

Read the stickies

 

yep , i've been reading the stickys and they said

1. Run your Editor.
2. Load the correct calibration file.
3. Load your BIN.
4. but it does'nt say what a calibration file is , so then i googled the term and still no luck , i've been also looking for a list of commonly used terms that people who burn chips use and there definitions , no luck with that either!

 

OK , calibration file , i found it , it is also known as a definition file , i know what a definition file is!

 

Like you I'm learning! Read this;

http://wiki.3400z24.com/ECM_tuning

 

I was really intimidated at first , so much info , but i've been breaking it down and i think i can tune it,
I'm not going for high performance , just trying to get it run good
I'm not worrying about Power Enrichment right now , i'm just starting VE and then spark table and i have the stock spark tables for the vortec so i think i can just plug the numbers in and just worry about adjusting VE

Good luck

 

Here's copy of my notes

Terms
Mask The mask is the program ID{example $0D
　
Broadcast code Then there is the broadcast code. What is this? Consider this the version. Gm wrote this program called $8D for speed density cars, but there are obviously numerous different models (some with manuals, some with 5.0 liter, some with 5.7, etc) So GM had to make various versions of the $8D program. Each unique version has a broadcast code.

When selecting a version (broadcast code), pick the one that matches your car! Obviously if you have an automatic 350, select the broadcast code that was offered for a 350 automatic. This will provide a close baseline, and there will be less to have to modify initially.
definition file (also knopwn as a calibration file)
bin

 

Adjust VE
Aldl logging, your new best friend.If your new fresh bin is able to
idle, and drive the car, now its time to bring your partner along. Your partner
is going to be a cheap laptop, and an ALDL cable. You're going to want to let
the car idle up to closed loop (aldl software will display this), then start
driving. Try to use every gear, every throttle position, etc. accelerate,
decelerate, stop, everything. Get a good long scanner log.
Beginning
VE / LOAD tuning:Once back from your drive, you'll have plenty of data
to start diving into the fueling part of the prom. What I like to do is export
my CSV data to a excel spreadsheet.
I label the columns; hide the junk I
don’t want to see, and then freeze the label windowpanes in excel.
What
we want is to get your bin as close to a baseline as possible for part throttle
and cruise driving. You'll notice you have a column referred to as BLM, or
l-term. This column is the long-term fuel correction that the ECM is providing.
In most documentation I’ve read, the BLM directly affects the fuel injector
pulse width (how long it opens for). It appears as such, the inj PW uses the BLM
as a multiplier. When the BLM is 128, its "dead on". If the BLM is 120, 118,
108, or anything less than 128 that means the car is programmed rich, and the
ECM is trying to reduce fuel. (Obviously, multiplying by a lesser number will
decrease).
If the BLM reads a number higher than 128, then the car's
programming is lean and the ECM is trying to add fuel.
There are
numerous methods of getting your LOAD or VE tables in check. I recommend reading
some of the tuning articles specific to your ECM. Generally a lower number in
the VE or LOAD table means less fuel. A higher number means
more.
　
Advanced VE / LOAD tuning:
This is an ongoing process.
Making changes, driving the car, making more changes, etc. The idea is to get
the BLM as close to 128 as possible. Now you'll notice I said earlier to wait to
drive your car until its in closed loop. The reason is if your tables are WAAY
far off, I want the ECM to make fuel corrections so you either don't get
stranded, or don't blow something up by running too lean.

 

Once you have
everything close to 128 in closed loop, its time to make sure your calibration
is actually correct. The way I do this is I turn off closed loop mode. Most any
ECM program ($8d, $58, $6E, $32B) will have a constant for closed-loop enable.
Usually a coolant temp setting. Set this to some crazy high number, so it never
enters closed loop. Then go for your ride. You'll probably notice some of your
BLMS that used to be 128 or close, are now different. That’s because the ECM is
not correcting anymore, therefore not skewing the numbers any. Now what you want
to do is get your BLMS as close to 128 as possible again. Once you've done that,
you have mastered your part throttle / cruise fueling.
　
What about
spark advance?
Spark advance comes after, and only after you have your
fueling right. Unless your combo has super-high compression, and you had to
lower your timing in some areas to get the car drivable, then NOW is the time to
tinker here.
Everyone has different opinions on your spark table. Though
it appears fairly split. Most people like to get the spark advance as high as
possible everywhere, without generating knock. Remember a few things however: As
you increase spark advance, you'll increase fuel consumption. Often you need to
then add more fuel to compliment
Your spark. So you maybe jumping back and
forth between spark and part throttle / cruise fueling.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Use WINALDL; look at the Wide Average BLM table. Then adjust your VE tables by using the BLM. Say that your BLM at 1,200 rpm and 80 MAP, is 135, divide it by 128(represents 14.7:1), then multiply the by the current VE in the VE table lets say 55%. That is 135/128x55%=58.00%. Enter that in the VE table. Do the same for the whole table. I ignore the information for any cell that has under about 10 data bits. Now just the opposite, lets say your idle is rich. That would be around 114 BLM at 800 RPM and 45 MAP. For the example lets say the VE table has 28% in it. That would go as follows 114/128x28=24.93%

 

usescan tool
start with the lower VE table
Once you begin tuning the VE tables you will not want to change the car’s parameters. That means the following must now be static: fuel pressure,
injectors, injector constant, thermostat, and the car is in an otherwise good state of tune (IAC and TPS have been set via the factory methods, the ignition system is in good condition, etc). The object is to achieve BLM values
of 128 across the board at all RPMs and MAP readings. Readings of 128 indicate that the amount of fuel supplied by the injectors for a given RPM and MAP achieves a perfect 14.7 Air/Fuel Ratio. For an ‘ok’ reference on the BLM
　
I make sure that I hook up Diacom (my scan tool of choice) and start the car. I allow the car to warm up to operating temp and enter Closed loop (using Diacom to register closed loop). I use the record feature of Diacom and record 30 seconds of data at various RPMs with the car in Park. I go from idle in 200RPM increments to 1600RPMs. This will yield 5 to 6 good data points. I record 30 seconds of data at each RPM because it takes about that long for me to get the RPMs rock solid and for the BLM to have adjusted and be rock solid. With this data I begin working on the Lower VE table. The Diacom recording will have RPMs vs MAP vs BLMs. Diacom shows the specific BLM used for each RPM and MAP. So, what do I do with this BLM? Let’s assume at 1000RPMs and 50kPa the stock VE value is 69. Lets also assume that Diacom is showing a BLM value of 108 for the same RPM and kPa. BLMs less than 128 indicate that the car is running rich and the ECM has had to decrease the injector pulse width to compensate. 108/128 = 0.844. We take the stock VE value of 69 and multiply by 0.844 to get 58.2. Change the VE table value from 69 to 58.2. Proceed with the other data points in the recorded Diacom session and adjust the VE table accordingly. This will only yield 5-6 data points. I have heard of others conducting this test using 100RPM increments which can be done and will yield twice the amount of data points. In any case, you have now adjusted a very small portion of your lower VE curve. At this point I will burn a new chip with the new VE values and run this chip in the car. I’ll check the new VE values by doing the same test in Closed

 

Loop. The values should be very close to 128 if not on 128. I then get ready for a new Diacom recording. I again make sure the car is warmed up and in closed loop and record myself driving around town. I get 2-3 sessions of about 2 minutes of driving around. On this session I avoid roads with hills and I avoid pressing the throttle too far down so as to ensure I don’t engage Power Enrichment. With this data I then scan through and have many different RPM vs MAP readings. This will give me many data points for adjusting the lower VE table as well as data for adjusting the upper VE tables (when we get to them). After adjusting VE points in the lower table with this new information I use TunerCat’s graphing functionality and view how the lower VE curve looks. The points that have been adjusted will be obvious. I use these points as a guide for adjusting the other points in the curve to achieve a nice uniform even flowing curve. This may or may not be correct. Later readings from Diacom will show how ‘off’ my guestimates are. With the data collected I then begin working on the upper VE tables. Notice that the lower VE table has 1600RPM data points. The upper VE table also has 1600RPM data points. I transfer the 1600RPM data point values from my lower VE table to my upper VE table. I then use the Diacom data to calculate new values for various upper RPM VE values. Sometimes I use TunerCat’s graphing functionality here to start smoothing points that are obviously off. For example, if I have a new value for 2000RPMs and 40kpa (52%) and a new value for 2000RPMs and 60kPa (55%) and the old 50kPa value at 200RPMs is 65%, then I will adjust this value down to between 52% and 55% (so long as the trend is a slight increase along those kPa values). I then program a new chip with these new VE tables and go collect more data via Diacom. I conduct the same tests as before and see how well the new changes worked. This is a tedious process … collect data, evaluate data, adjust VEs, program new chip, collect data, evaluate data, adjust VEs, program new chip, repeat continuously. This process can take many days and many chips.

 

At this point in tuning the VE curves you will notice that you don’t have many of the higher kPa values. This is expected. In fact, I specifically stated that I avoid roads with hills. Roads with hills will allow one to tune their upper kPa VE curves. On straight roads the car lunges forward when you step on the gas (RPMs increase quickly). On roads with hills the RPMs don’t increase fast when you press on the gas. Thus, you can press on the gas on a steep hill (increasing your kPa because the throttle blades are opened more) and the RPMs will still be low. Simply put, driving uphill puts more load on the engine at various RPMs. Getting several scan tool recordings on various grades of hills is very useful for getting a handle on the upper kPa curves. However, don’t pick hills that are too steep or else you might have to press on the gas too much and thus, Power Enrichment will be engaged. Use these hill recordings to adjust the VE tables again. These recordings are only meant to get a handle on the upper kPa values. I actually use another method for fine tuning these values. The biggest problem is that you cannot press on the gas pedal too much or else Power Enrichment will be engaged. We don’t want to engage power enrichment. We want to operate solely off of the VE tables. It is extremely difficult to tune the upper kPa values in the VE tables because you have to push the accelerator pedal fairly far in order to get to the higher kPa values. This almost always engages PE. So, my method is disable PE mode in order to tune those higher values. First let me emphasize a warning here. It is very important in my method to conduct as many ‘hill tests’ as I can before proceeding with this step. You want to ‘have a handle’ on the upper kPa curve. The last thing that you would want is to disable PE and then find that you are lean in the upper kPa values of the VE tables. This can cause severe engine knock which can lead to engine damage. With that said, I don’t necessarily disable PE. I change the point at which PE is engaged. In many of the stock BINs PE is engaged anywhere from 50% to 70% throttle depending on RPM. I change these values to 85% across the board. The table that I am referring to is the ‘TPS Threshold for Power Enrichment vs. RPM’. It begins as Hex 603 and is 5 rows and 1 column (2D table). I change all table values to 85%, program a new PROM, and road test. Now it will take 85% throttle in order for PE mode to be engaged. That means that I can now test on the same inclined roads that I did previously and Power Enrichment will not be engaged. This allows me to begin to nail down the upper kPa values. I eventually change the PE tables to 90% and then collect more data, evaluate the data, and modify the BIN. I then change the values to 95% and then collect more data, evaluate the data, and modify the BIN. I then change the values to 99% and then collect more data, evaluate the data, and modify the BIN. You can see that I slowly narrow down the calibration. The one thing that you don’t want is to run lean in the upper kPa values. Patience is definitely a virtue here. When you are done testing for the day don’t forget to set your ‘TPS Threshold for Power Enrichment vs. RPM’ table back to stock settings!

 

You can easily see that this process is extremely iterative: road test and collect data, evaluate data, modify BIN, program PROM, … repeat. It can take many PROM revisions in order to ‘nail down’ your VE curves. You want to try to get the car to respond with 128 BLMs across the board.

NOTES:
1) Try to tune your VE curves on days of the same outside temperature. Temperature does play a role in VE calculation … especially if you have relocated your MAT. More on this issue in subsequent posts.
2) I have discussed getting your BLMs to 128. However, I didn’t mention the integrator. Why? More to follow.

A Locked BLM allows you to make "finer adjustments" to the VE tables
start with open BLM then locked BLM

 

Timing
timing knock counts( use knock sensor to adjust timing)
Take a bin.
Make sure the timing matches the base timing in the chip.
Subtract 3d from all the table entries.
Move the timing around in the idle areas, and see if that improves the idle.
then try driving,
you shouldn't see any retard at any time. If so do some data logging to find out where it's occuring.
In the cruise areas, work the timing and fuel up and down to get the min TPS for a given road speed. 1.0v at 70ish is acceptable.
The start feeding some timing into WOT, ALL THE TIME MEASURING Performance, GUESSING WILL MELT A MOTOR. Buttometers are a waste of time, general rules
AL head (58cc chambers) 28d
Small Chamber Iron 32ish
Large MAYBE as much as 34.
Often with EFI you don't need as much timing as a carb'd motor.
Then you want to take as much timing out as fast as possible without having a sag from cruise to WOT.

Then during overrun you want very little timing

 

If this was with AL heads probably be close
assuming no WOT spark adder.
　
　
　
Assuming your starting with a low amount of timing make a base line pass with whatever timer your going to use. The start bumping the up, watching for detonation on the plugs, and noting the performance changes. going in 2d steps should be enough of a change to see a difference in performance, if it flattens off add some fuel. If you see a trace of detonation see if adding a little fuel cures that. If not then take the timing out, and the fuel, you just added.
just have to wor back and forth on timing and fuel, not easy way to get there. Then when you think your done take 2d out at WOT, and see what changes there are. If none then leave the calibration alone. The old flat head ford tuning idea of max timing, and max fuel are just outdated. If your running for money or have money to waste then the ***** to the wall tuning is fine, but not on the street. There are just tooooo many variable on the street

 

shoot for something like this at WOT:

14* advance at 900 (the "base" timing)
34* by 2800 (that's 20* worth of centrifugal advance on top of the base timing)
no more advance beyond that point vs. RPM.

its a pretty simple formula, where ever in your rpm band theres more fuel, youre going to want more spark advance.
basically just started adding timing until i noticed that i was getting knock retard, then backed off until the knock retard went away. It's helpful to have someone in the car watching the datalogging so if you get knock retard its noticed right away (if its slight itll only happen for a second) and you can back off on the throttle until you burn a new chip with less timing.
　
If you notice your knock count going up its time to baby it until you can get a new chip with either less timing or more fuel, whichever it is the motor needs.

　
At low rpms if you have too much timing it can make the motor just stumble all over the place. I pulled a little bit of timing up to 60 kpa out of the 1600-2000 range and the car is as smooth as can be now

 

　
　
　

 

BLMs.
BLM
Block Learn Multiplier, this is the correction term your ECM uses to correct fueling. 128 is perfect, above this and your lean, below and you’re rich. You aim to get your BLM's +- 10 for a ruff tune and +-5 for a decent tune and +-2 for a spot on tune.
　
lower BLM's mean your original fuel tables are too rich for closed loop!

　
Q: My BLM's are in the xxx range, what do I do?
This is really covered in Tuning Tips but briefly, a BLM above 128 indicates a long term lean condition, the ECM is adding fuel over the base calibration. A BLM below 128 indicates a long term rich condition, the ECM is removing fuel from the base calibration.
The idea is to change the VE tables to get the BLM as close to or just below 128 as possible. If your BLM's over the entire range are high or low, you should probably address that first. A slight tweak of the fuel pressure or even the injector constant might bring everything into line.
High BLM (using a BLM of 140 and VE table value of 65 as an example):
1. Divide the BLM value by 128, result 1.09
2. Multiply the BLM value at that RPM/kpa point by 1.09 ; (65 * 1.09) = 71.09
3. Enter that new value in the table, repeat a test run.
Low BLM (using a BLM of 110 and VE table value of 65 as an example):
1. Divide the BLM value by 128, result 1.16
2. Divide the BLM value at that RPM/kpa point by 1.16 ; (65 / 1.16) = 56.03
3. Enter that new value in the table, repeat a test run.
Note that you'll usually need to "buffer" (that's what I call it) the values around that specific cell a little to make everything work. This is something that you'll develop a feel for. For example, if the math shows to reduce a specific cell by 10, you might drop that cell by 5, drop the surrounding cells by 3. This is where a logging scan tool comes in handy so you can tell if you're lean/rich as you approach/leave that one (yeah right, only one) problem VE cell.
Remember that changes in spark advance can alter the BLM, since spark timing directly affects the completness of the combustion cycle.
　
　
　

 

Miscelaneous
air fuel ratio spark
engine a air pump more air flow more fuel needed
　
tables (VE). These tables are three dimensional (3D) tables
They are separated into an upper VE table and a lower VE
Both VE tables show how efficient the engine is at a given RPM and MAP
RPMs are the revolutions per minute the engine makes and MAP is the amount of vacuum the engine is pulling.
I mentioned that the tables are 3D tables. They are according to VE vs. RPMs vs. MAP. The lower VE table extends from 400RPMs to 1600RPMs in 100RPM increments. The upper VE table extends from 1600 to 5600RPMs in 400RPM increments.
MAP signifies engine load. In most cases, the greater the engine load the higher the kPa value. Think about it this way. When you car is idling it is pulling a vacuum inside the plenum. As you open the throttle blades you are providing an inlet that will decrease the effective vacuum. Here is the often tricky part … LESS vacuum is represented by a HIGHER kPa value. Keep that in mind. Lets say we are driving uphill. You would consider driving uphill to be more of a load on the engine. If you are driving uphill you probably have your foot more on the gas. If you have the gas pedal depressed more then that means that the throttle blades are opened more. The throttle blades being opened more will result in LESS vacuum and HIGHER kPa value. So, MAP equals load where increasing load is represented by higher kPa values. When put in context of the VE tables, we can see that as the kPa values increase from left to right, this represents increasing load on the engine. When taken to the extreme we can view the highest kPa reading (100kPa) to be equal to Wide Open Throttle (WOT). WOT will put the highest load on the engine. 100kPa is atmospheric pressure ... no vacuum at all.

In conclusion, to make a long story short, if you raise a given value in one of the VE tables you will be increasing the amount of fuel the engine receives at that given RPM and that given MAP.

 

change cam and that changes low end or high end performance (depending on the cam
When you change the cam Vacuam drops or rises effecting map sensor affecting the fuel
fuel psi regulator is affected by vacuam
less vacuam at idle means higher kpa
more vacuam at idle means less kpa
less vacuam increases fuel psi (because of vacuam to fuel psi regulator
The overall response here is to re-map the lower VE table to supply less fuel at those RPMs and kPa values where the car idles. We will have to decrease those VE values.
This often is not too much of a problem once the car goes into closed loop because the ECM can adjust the amount of fuel by looking at the O2 sensor

 

VE table operation
The main fuel tables are added together and above 3200rpm the last row (or column?) is used with the VE #2 table. If that isn't clear let me know. Just remember that the VE #2 is ALWAYS used, not just above 3200rpm.
　
　
Table one is the main VE table.
table two is an adder.
The values in table 2 are added to those in table 1, all the time.

Table two allows for saving code space and processing time.

You'll notice the VE 2 values drop at the higher rpm, as the VE of the engine decreases.

The PE AFR is based on the two VE tables giving a Stoich AFR.

The BPC, VE1, VE2, PE AFR, all have to play nice together for it all to work.
　
Can I ask you to clarify please, if i understand you correctly then
　
Scenario 1
I am cruising down the road at 1600 RPMs/40Map, the VE will therefore be
the table1 1600/40 value of "43"
+
the VE2 table adder 1600 value of "44"
giving a total VE of 87.


Scenario 2
i am pressing on, 4000RPM/80 MAP , the total VE will be
the table1 3200/80 value of "50"
+
the VE2 adder value at 4000RPM "39"
giving a total VE of 89.


As the VE1 table only goes to 3200 i am assuming the last highest value at the present MAP level is used ?
YES THATS correct