My Fiero has a 3.4 pushrod V6 crate engine with a few mods, and a GM 1227730 ECM programmed by Ryan at Sinister Performance. The ECM was originally programmed for my old 3.1 stroker. But that engine died, and was replaced with the 3.4 V6.

I recently bought a Moates Burn2 chip programming device, and would like to start using it to tune my 7730 ECM for the new engine. I've been playing around with the bin file that Ryan programmed into it, and have a few questions. First of all, there are some parameters that I'm not familiar with. Maybe somebody can tell me what they're for?

-- CCP Enable Coolant Temp Threshold: OK, what exactly is CCP?
-- Highway Mode vs Lean Cruise: What's the difference? Should I only be using one or the other, or can I use both?
-- Injector Flow Rate (Display): In gallons per hour. What's the difference between this and the other flow rate parameter?
-- Injector Flow Rate: In pounds per hour. If I change this value, will the fueling be adjusted for the new flow rate?

I also have some questions regarding the spark and fuel tables. For example, the spark advance table only goes up to 4800 RPM. So what happens when I rev the engine past 4800 RPM? It just keeps using the same spark advance as 4800 RPM? I also noticed the spark advance table has a "valley" in it at 3600 RPM. Any idea what that's for? I also noticed the main VE table only goes up to 4000 RPM? Is there a way to extend these tables (for example, up to 6000 RPM)?

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 07-19-2010).]

One factor determining ideal spark advance is the air mass ingested in the cylinder.

I'd suppose that for your 3600 RPM "valley", the timing is more retarded compared to other RPMs because this is your peak VE/torque engine speed.

It's a pretty sharp drop, though. Check it out.





I guarantee you the torque curve on my engine is not that peaky. Unless there's some compelling reason to keep that gully in the spark advance table, I'm going to try smoothing it out.

*crickets chirping*

quote Originally posted by Blacktree: -- CCP Enable Coolant Temp Threshold: OK, what exactly is CCP? -- Highway Mode vs Lean Cruise: What's the difference? Should I only be using one or the other, or can I use both? -- Injector Flow Rate (Display): In gallons per hour. What's the difference between this and the other flow rate parameter? -- Injector Flow Rate: In pounds per hour. If I change this value, will the fueling be adjusted for the new flow rate? I also have some questions regarding the spark and fuel tables. For example, the spark advance table only goes up to 4800 RPM. So what happens when I rev the engine past 4800 RPM? It just keeps using the same spark advance as 4800 RPM? I also noticed the spark advance table has a "valley" in it at 3600 RPM. Any idea what that's for? I also noticed the main VE table only goes up to 4000 RPM? Is there a way to extend these tables (for example, up to 6000 RPM)?

I have done quite a bit of tuning on the 7730 using the 8D (and the SAUJP V4) and I know there are a few differences between the code masks (like the EGR is digital on the V6's and analog for the V8).
**CCP is Charcoal Canister Purge and controls a solenoid for the charcoal canister.
**Highway Mode and Lean Cruise should be the same - they allow leaning out the fuel mixture and increasing timing under certain conditions to improve highway fuel efficiency, but at the expense of emissions.
**Injector flow rate (display) - no idea what this is for
**Injector flow rate (lbs/hr) - with the 8D mask changing this value will increase or decrease the amount of fuel across the entire map (I am not sure if the V6 masks do it the same way). If you find that most of your BLM's are scewwed to the same direction and amount (say they are all 145 - vs. ideal of 128). Then you could adjust the Injector Flow Rate down (lower values) until the majority are close to 128 across the board. Then focus on adjusting the remaining outliers. Otherwise, you will need to adjust almost every single value in the grid.

As for the spark table, total spark comes from a combination of the base dist setting, Timing table and the Power Enrichment additional spark. I would take a closer look at what the PE tables are adding. Some tuners like to zero out all the PE values and put all the info into the table.

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 07-19-2010).]

Thanks for the info! Ryan uses the $88 code mask for the 7730 conversions in Fieros, so that's what I'm using as well (for iron head V6 w/ distributer). My engine is a 3.4 pushrod crate engine (with some mods), if that makes a difference.

I did, in fact, look at the PE spark advance graph, and it was a pretty smooth curve. So I doubt one graph was compensating for the other. This is what made me think the graph needs to be smoothed out.

I also installed a vacuum solenoid to operate the charcoal canister. So that little bit of info will help me out. Plus, I installed a heated O2 sensor. So I can probably reduce the wait time for closed loop mode quite a bit.

The Highway Mode vs Lean Cruise had me confused, because there are two separate flags for enabling them, one for Highway Mode and another for Lean Cruise. It looks like Highway Mode was disabled, but Lean Cruise was enabled. I guess it won't hurt for me to enable both?

I also upgraded to 19 lb/hr injectors, and the engine runs a little rich. So the injector flow rate parameter will help me out, too.

Thanks again for your help. I'd give you another positive rating, if I could.

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 07-19-2010).]

UPDATE: After a little tweaking, I think I've got everything working pretty smoothly. As mentioned above, I reduced the wait times for closed-loop mode, to make better use of my heated O2 sensor. I also smoothed out the main spark and VE tables, and a few other minor tweaks. The engine seems to run smoother, and doesn't experience as much spark knock at medium load. I also recalibrated for my 19 lb/hr injectors, which seems to have eliminated the rich condition at idle and in open-loop.

I'm probably still pretty far from having everything "just perfect". But I'm making progress.

If you have a similar drivetrain combination (3.4 V6 with iron heads and distributer ignition), have ECM tuning tools, and need a bin file to get you started, I can give you a copy of mine. Of course, it won't be tuned for your engine or transmission. But you'll at least have something to start with.

[This message has been edited by Blacktree (edited 07-24-2010).]

I'm running the 7730 with the $8F code for the turbo and using the 3.4's DIS. I am getting spark knock at ~ 3500 rpm it seems no matter the load on the engine. Are you experiencing knock around 3500 rpm?

I had noticeable spark knock around 2500 RPM at light to medium load. But it seems smoothing out the main spark and main VE tables has helped with that. Now, the spark knock is barely noticeable.

Probably a stupid question? What is spark knock, and what does it sound like? How much does it cost total to get this tuning capability and I am assuming you do it with a laptop right? Does the software give you real time data from the engine or do you run it and then download it to the laptop ? Forgive my ignorance here but I gotta learn this stuff... peace

Pete

I'm going to resurrect this thread for one more question. I'm about to convert to DIS on my 3.4 V6, and am thinking of using the $8F code mask (currently using $88). When I loaded the $8F xdf file into TunerPro, and imported my existing bin file, much of the data was turned into gibberish. Is this normal? I know I can manually copy over the data from my existing bin file. But that would be a huge PITA. Is there any way to get around that?

quote Originally posted by Blacktree: I'm going to resurrect this thread for one more question. I'm about to convert to DIS on my 3.4 V6, and am thinking of using the $8F code mask (currently using $88). When I loaded the $8F xdf file into TunerPro, and imported my existing bin file, much of the data was turned into gibberish. Is this normal? I know I can manually copy over the data from my existing bin file. But that would be a huge PITA. Is there any way to get around that?

Most of the time, the different masks put stuff in completely different places... so you can't open you old bins within a different mask.
What you can do is highlight and copy the entire VE or timing tables (using matching bin and code mask), etc into excel and then paste them from excel into the new bin. While doing this, you will probably need to extrapolate some of the data to get it to match the resolution the new code mask needs.

TunerCat can be opened in 2 seperate windows and placed side by side with different bins and code masks on each one. Then you can copy/pate from one to the other... but this only works if the two masks use the same tables and resolution within the tables.

[This message has been edited by fieroguru (edited 09-24-2010).]

Why the $8F? You have a turbo in your future? I take it $88 does not run DIS?

quote Originally posted by Blacktree: I'm going to resurrect this thread for one more question. I'm about to convert to DIS on my 3.4 V6, and am thinking of using the $8F code mask (currently using $88). When I loaded the $8F xdf file into TunerPro, and imported my existing bin file, much of the data was turned into gibberish. Is this normal? I know I can manually copy over the data from my existing bin file. But that would be a huge PITA. Is there any way to get around that?

The .bin has to match the .xdf file. The gibberish is normal because of the mismatch. I don't know of any way to get around it other to manually enter the valvues in each cell. Why are you running $8F anyways? $8F is the TGP code and is useless unless you have forced induction. $8F isnt even all that great anyways. You would be better off starting with a $A1 .bin from the N/A gen2 3.1L cars. $A1 is actually alot easier to work with than $8F.

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1987 SE / Fastback - 3500 Turdbowd / '92 5-speed swap

No bandwagon here...

Thanks for the heads-up. I actually wasn't sure which code mask to use. I saw the $8F one mentioned for use with DIS in the 7730 swap thread. But no, I don't plan on installing a turbo anytime soon.

Ryan programmed my ECM with the $88 code mask, because that's the one that works with a distributer. If the $A1 will work with DIS and natural aspiration, that's my ticket.

I have a vortech supercharger and a 7730 ecm planned for the future to go on the 2.8 - I'm planning on retaining the distributor, which code is probably best to start with? I don't reallly want to convert to DIS unless I absolutely have to