96 RS Performance Tuning Questions
 

So this won't be the last question I ask here, and I am sure there are other V6ers like myself that I hope have the same questions as me.
So first question...:

Is a programmer chip really worth it?
It says it can give me up to 35+ HP
up to 30% more torque
Faster acceleration
better MPG
and other things?
Who has tried this?
Any first hand responses on the plug n plays?

Here is what I was looking at getting

Stage 1 GTE Performance Chip ECU Programmer for Chevy Camaro V8 V6 | eBay

no its not worth it.

FYI, 96 v6 pcm's are not tuneable you will need a pcm form a 97, and if you can get one thats close to yours there will be less to change.
like when i got mine it came form an A4 with 3.08 gears, so only my gear ratio needed to be changed and not my whole trans table.

mail order tunes suck, or at least for me it did, luckily they refunded my money since it wouldn't run.

hptuners is the best but expensive, its best to find someone close to you that has hptuners and see if they will let you use there's, then you just need to buy 2 credits to access your car $100 for both. Then you can do what ever/needs to be done, as many times as you want or that they will let you borrow there cable....lol



http://www.hptuners.com/products/

http://pcmforless.com/

My best friend has one of those super readers that takes the different cartridges and different chips to read the check engine lights and all that? It is the one of SUPER nice ones that cost 1200, so is that kind of what your talking about?
So all I would have to do is buy the cartridges and chips for my car and I'd be set?

The reader is a Genisys OTC

Attachment 14941

No that's not the same thing, and you will still need a 97 pcm before you can do anything. Go to hptuners site and read up on it.

it has to be a 97 3.8 pcm to work right? not a z28 er anything like that(i know stupid question still learning)

Yes it needs to be a 3800 PCM but none of that matters. Unless you have done stuff to your engine then tunings not going to get you much more then 6-8hp. The mail order tunes should be ok for bolt on addons like headers, port and polish. If you go Cam, port polish, rocker arm the whole ball of wax you should get the car Dyno tuned. In a perfect world you could get a Dyno tune with a place that uses HP tune. Then you would have your own file.

The problem with HP tune is going to be the leaning curve. To tune a car you have to understand the effects of what you are changing. Bad tune can damage a motor.

Now if car is stock you should add some headers and install a 180 deg thermo and head over to PCM for less (linked above) you could see 20 ish HP but your 96 will wake up at 3000 RPM because you current exhaust manifolds suck. PCMs for less will supply you with the PCM. You can not use yours as a core. The good part is you still have your original PCM as a backup.

I've heard they quiet doing the 96-97, to many problems like mine. here they dont even list it anymore 1998-2002 Camaro/Firebird 3.8L V6 Mail Order Tuning guess you could email them and find out.

Ok, i don't know if they make it for our cars but I live in an area that eats in the teens during the winter(don't worry I don't drive her in the snow), but should I get a 180 thermo or a 160 thermo, would the 160 be bad with me living in an area that gets so cold(if they even make the 160) and what brand is the best to get of the thermos?

180, but you still have to tune for it, or it does no good. An 160 is way to cold, you heat want even work, I know, I tried and it sucks.

Looks like your right. I can not find anything for the 96 or the 97. I can kind of understand why they would drop the 96 because they would run out of the 97 PCMs but I would think the 97 would still be there. There was a lot of guys on other forums that where very happy with their PCM for less tunes.

When I was reading up on it, it was kind of saying its plug n play kind of think, how would I need to tune it?

So what should I do before I cam, port and polish? Or could I jump strait into it?

yeah its plug and play, but if you don't re-tune your fans for the lower temp it does no good, the coolant will still get well over 200 before they kick in. mine are set to come on at 185, so even in stop and go traffic in the summer, i barley see 190 now.

depends on the cam and the money, I have the GT2, and i ported/polished my upper and lower intakes (home port/polish job nothin fancy)

When it comes to port and polishing I am completely lost besides taking them off and bringing them to a shop to have it done but what is the gt2?

Gt2 is the cam I have.

oh oh ok what would I be looking at in price for a cam like that?

$325 ish its a ZZP

ok on the ZZP sight I'm looking at all kind of great things.
BUT I'm having a little issue which I didn't know about.
They say they have all these parts for a L36(3800) but when I read into it, it says only for:
Grand Prix GT/GTP, Bonneville/Regal, or Monte Carlo/Impala
would the parts for those L36 still work on my camaro L36 or should I rip out the whole daumn motor and put in a small block?

depends, I got my gt2 cam, ls#90 springs and comp thicker pushrods for $225 shipped with 5k miles on them form the grandprix forums.

brand new unopened comp oe lifters shipped $100 firebirdv6.com.

you have to shop around, cams are usually cheaper on the fwd forums cause its more work for them to change out the cam.

L36 is and l36 same for the l26, fw or rwd, parts are the same, only when you get in the l67 supercharged motors will the parts start being different.

dont forget about INTENSE-Racing.com: GM 3800

So still one of my first steps I will need to do is getting a 97 cpm? and when I get a 97 cpm do I need to send it in somewhere to have it flashed or anything for my car? or what do I do once I get it?

if you get one thats the same, same tranny and gears, than nothing untill you get your mods done, then you need a hptuners, there's no where let to send the 96-97 pcm's anymore.

and I read up on some stuff on those hptuners and its not getting the device thats hard its the learning part huh?

I had someone do mine.

would you suggest I get all the mods done and then do the tuning or tune it every time I get a mod?

Alright so I just called a few local shops around here that do the hp tuning and they told me that they have to run my car on the dyno? because if they just do the tuning to the pcm it wont be exactly right? am I getting screwed?

If you have to pay each time I would wait, but once you do the cam it will have to be tuned. But if you have access to hpt anytime you want, then tune each time.

if I just made it a point to buy a tuner, how much reading and all that would it take to get down to use the tuner right?

Probably a lot, one wrong adjustment and the engine goes boom! You'll also need a go wideband to tune with, so hpt is getting a live feed on the air fuel ratio.

Well as of right now it seems like I might have to sell my car, I'm losing power somewhere, and my tranny is leaking fluid. Don't have the money to pay for the tranny fix

You where talking about tearing a motor down and replacing the CAM and replacing a external seal in a transmission is a problem? Even the front main seal is 3 hours worth of work. All the other seals are much less.

I love the car, she's my baby, but I think more is going on with the trans then just a leak, I checked all my oil and all that but still no change.
it changes from revers to drive and back with a hard clunk and just recently(yesterday) its having problems changing gears in high rpm

Hard clunk could be your carrier bearing. That is a pretty common issue and $50 fix but that would not help with the shifting issue. If you have a scanner you could see if the PCM is telling it to shift and its not or if the PCM is telling it to be bad, which could be something simple like a TPS or a bad speed sensor.

Bad speed sensor will make the trans go nuts because the compter only know what the sensor telle it.

My buddy has a reader so I will check both out, still it keeps being one problem after another

if you cant fix those problems or are complaining about one thing or another, you definitely don't need to touch that pcm or cam.