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Thread: reflashing cavalier 2.2 OHV

  1. #1
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    reflashing cavalier 2.2 OHV

    i've got a 1996 cavalier with a OHV 2.2. and a 5 speed j cavalier basically i want to get to or as close to quad four power and torque numbers as possible... the catch... it needs to retain the stock injectors, intake, i am gonna see if a manifold from a s10 will clear everything, no port work can really be done. it needs to be done by advanceing the timing, high octane no lead race gas so i can run as much timing as possible, richining the A/F mixture.

    it is in my buddys dirt track car, it is OBD II, it is in the rules all cars must be stock when it comes to the drive train, but alot of guys in his class are cheating, mainly with head work and raising compression ratios, but most are to stupid to take in to account the tuning required. plus the rules state nothing about a reflash of the vehicles computer. he had a custom pipe bent at a local shop, i believe 2 1/4 as opposed to 1 7/8, then we cut the old flange off the original pipe, welded it to the new pipe. it has no cat, is wide open to the rear with a 3 inch long "muffleling device" (basically a 3 in portion of a glasspack) i also would like to RAISE the revlimiter about 800-1000 RPM, i cant eliminate it though, cause the cars have to have them, and there really not supposed to be tampered with. again, one of those "gray areas"
    also, any stock GM injectors that fit in the 2.2's manifold, possibly off say a 3.1, 3.3, or 3.8.? also whats a fuel pump that puts out higher pressure then a stock cavaliers that goes in with little to no modification of the tank.

    ANY help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, i mean anything, this is kind of a new breed for me but i want to go into it with both hands.

    believe me ANY help will be appreciated

  2. #2
    Advanced Tuner imphat0260's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 68390AMX
    ANY help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, i mean anything, this is kind of a new breed for me but i want to go into it with both hands.

    believe me ANY help will be appreciated
    96 is not supported. You would need to change to an 97 pcm. To top it off, you are not going to gain that much HP/TQ on a stock 2.2 OHV with Sidefeed injectors without other mods. You may gain 5hp with the tuning. Good luck!

    P&P Tuning

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by imphat0260
    96 is not supported. You would need to change to an 97 pcm. To top it off, you are not going to gain that much HP/TQ on a stock 2.2 OHV with Sidefeed injectors without other mods. You may gain 5hp with the tuning. Good luck!
    X2 on what he said.

  4. #4
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    Dude i have the same problem. 96 cav 2.2 ohv 5 speed race car. we dont want that much more power we just want a few more rpm before the computer steps in. Bouncing it off the rev limter before the corner is like hitting a brick wall and kills lap times...

  5. #5
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    I have a97 , it used to have an auto, now a5 speed.
    raced it for 2 years, now its time to up it a little.
    Building it with a new cam and valves and springs and pistons.
    Would like to strip every extra wire and code from the damn thing including pass lock 2
    I need to up the rev limiter about 400 or soand tune it. Is this a good place to start?

  6. #6
    Advanced Tuner Dr. Nopps's Avatar
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    "Building it with a new cam and valves and springs and pistons."


    Where did you find cams for this car? I'm currently in the process of torturing myself with a '97 Cavalier 2.2 auto and can not find cams anywhere and it would help! Also, at what point do I literally run out of injector? If I stay N/A with just cams and mabey minor porting would I still have to up-convert-grade? It's costly and I would like to stretch the stock ones as far as they will go.
    Last edited by Dr. Nopps; 05-04-2011 at 09:24 PM.

  7. #7
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    Howard cams, copied a profile from a sbc 170 shipped.
    Also have an ebay header.
    Now do I need: hptuner,pro, wide band?
    Going to try trifecta @250 I'm willing to take the chance.

  8. #8
    Advanced Tuner Dr. Nopps's Avatar
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    "Now do I need: hptuner,pro, wide band? "

    Yeah VCM Suite Pro can do what you need. That's basicly all I've done so far with mine. Changed idle & fans for 160 stat, shift points & properties, high octane spark map. I believe you will only be able to wide band tune this car in PE mode, closed loop because of the way it was designed. I'm over it, would be handy to have a green/red LED idiot light to let me know when I'm not using my commanded AFR because of a bad sensor or something keeping me OL without me knowing it.

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    Ok this is what I've been looking for! If I buy hp tuners could I copy s file from you, apply and would that be a good start? Feel kinda dumb but what is pe?
    would love to be doing this with about three other people and sharing results.

  10. #10
    Advanced Tuner Dr. Nopps's Avatar
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    I'm not a professional tuner & haven't tuned with wideband yet, but I'll post my tune here later and have no problem sharing with you. Your best bet would be to look at my tables and use those values as reference points. They shouldn't fry your car but will cost alot of gas mileage, and if you're going to use them I reccomend manually entering them or using copy/paste with rightclick to transfer those values to your tune that you can save, work on and then later write to your PCM. Safer and more educational than just writing my tune on your PCM! If you click on the calibration details icon you can get a brief summation of what I was trying to achieve. Make sure you name, save, and backup your original tune. Lots of good ideas in forum regarding this. I believe PE mode is used by my fuel system to recognize conditions when extra fuel would be needed. Unfortunately on my car it's the only table that allows me to command any specific AFR.
    Last edited by Dr. Nopps; 05-08-2011 at 07:27 PM.

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    I just might buy hptuners then. We are circle track racing so fuel mileage is not really a concern.
    1 need a safe tune
    2 need to eliminate rev limiter
    3 then I will worry about tuning and playing with files.

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    Do I need the pro version? Or can I data log with something else and adjust from there?
    Need to order soon. Thanks for the help.
    Ps can I eliminate the dash and key then?

  13. #13
    Advanced Tuner Dr. Nopps's Avatar
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    You should go with the Pro. That way you can log wideband o2 (or almost anything else 0-5v) through the inputs in the future, when you seriously tune. Not just on this car, but others in the future as well. Not sure w/ dash issue. Certain things may not work properly without the dash in the car but, one this old should still write to the PCM no problem.(still follow all the rules!) If you're going toggle or pushbutton for the key, again our cars are so old I've never seen a chip in any of those keys so I think you should be O.K. You will need to retain a KEY ON-Engine OFF key position for and during PCM writing/flashing.
    Last edited by Dr. Nopps; 05-08-2011 at 07:09 PM.

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    Thanks for the advice doc. I really don't want to spend another 100 to 350 for something I don't need, or some thing i might need. The way I see it,i need hptuner pro @650, wide band@ 350
    I had hoped for 499 and done. But I'm going to buy hptuners pro hoping that us all I need for now.i will share every thing I get to try to make sense of it all.

  15. #15
    Advanced Tuner Dr. Nopps's Avatar
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    Yes, to be able to wideband tune you would need both VCM Suite Pro and a wideband -o2 sensor+module kit. The basic Suite for $499 would still allow you to customize your rev limiters right now & change anything else you want, but later on if you wanted to wideband tune your car or others you would have to upgrade to Pro and find a wideband kit. You could also just buy Pro for now, use it now to change what you can and then buy your wideband kit later after you learn alot more, actually know how and are ready for that phase. A 97 Cavalier is fairly simple to initially learn this stuff on and may be the ideal beginner car. Not many tables, so it's easy to slowly grasp all the stuff you can change, and no MAF sensor to worry about.
    Last edited by Dr. Nopps; 05-09-2011 at 03:03 PM.

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    Hey Doc thanks again for the advice!
    going over the file and comparing the stock file with yours there are some big differences,
    if you could point me in the direction as to what and why there are differences.
    such as main spark stock is about 5 degrees retarded from your tune.

    So its like this: got a 11:1 motor, big cam,big valves, turning 7000 rpm.
    I need to change _____________
    then________
    then________
    then_______
    but make sure you do __________ first.
    and you can leave __________alone for now because you are running race fuel.
    Im not so sure I like all of the advance you have there with the compression I will have.
    I might try changing it as we go but i need a safe baseline.
    again thanks for the file, it gives me a a place to look at what changes to make and why.
    Last edited by o2l8; 05-15-2011 at 09:35 PM.

  17. #17
    Advanced Tuner Dr. Nopps's Avatar
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    I can use that much timing with an automatic and 93 octane gas. The extra octane of your race gas may allow you to get away with it as well. Or you could just take out 2 or 3 degrees to be safe. Did you check out my Calibration Details? It's right next to Save File in the toolbar at the top and will offer some insight as to why I did some of the things I did. You need to change your Fuel Cutoff & Fuel Resume, Spark Limiters & Spark Ramp Out, Full Throttle Shift Speed & Full Throttle Shift RPM, just to get your engine to still produce power at the RPM levels you will be seeing. You should think about turning off Abuse Mode and zeroing out anything involving Torque Reduction under both Engine tables and Transmission tables. You might also want to adjust ECT Startup Closed Loop Enable to minimize any delay untill you enter PE mode commanded AFR. The rest is up to you as far as what AFR you should use, what top speed limit to use, and what your target idle should be. The first thing you should do with one of these cars is pull the ABS fuse so you can actually stop and ground out the E-brake lever sensor to eliminate ETS. If you have'nt installed a 160 thermostat yet I would do that. Then you could adjust fan settings & idle to match up. As far as your valves and cam go you can fine-tune your VE tables with your wide band to fully take advantage of those changes.
    Last edited by Dr. Nopps; 05-16-2011 at 10:40 PM.

  18. #18
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    Thanks again doc!
    this is our third year with car.it was an auto so we clipped the abs and e brake long ago.
    we also just left the shift indicator (the one for the starter solenoid) unplugged the one that told it it was in neutral. I think I have enough to get started. Would like to remove the whole dash. Eliminate EGR SECONDARY O2. The speedo hasn't worked since we put the 5 speed in the car. But the old girl is fast! Had fast time 4 weeks in a row and finished 2nd overall fir the season, my son is 15

  19. #19
    Advanced Tuner Dr. Nopps's Avatar
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    Just make sure you adjust limiters for park & neutral then, not just drive & reverse seeing as those sensors have been removed. Some sensors/input are needed for the car to enter closed loop and allow you to control AFR. Other wise it will just try to command open loop 11/1 AFR. (Happened to me when an injector started going) It gets deeper and weirder too in OL but not a topic for here, or one I fully understand yet. I don't know if those exact sensors will cause you any problems or not (doubt it) just some info. I left my EGR & related settings alone as I have a street vehicle with no unusual mods that would allow ME PERSONALLY to gain much from it or require modifing those settings to make my engine run properly or longer, but you may do what you like. I still have my cats, so I left my DTC's (for the o2 sensors) alone. But you have an off road racing vehicle and actually can do whatever you like there too. If you do any EGR mods, DEFINATELY get 160 thermostat. Had trouble finding one. Autozone can special order it, oddly enough only place I could find it. Had trouble replacing it. Found an elbow marked THERMOSTAT only to wipe all the soot off to reveal THERMOSTAT LOCATED AT WATER PUMP! (Passanger Side) Always glad to help out someone dedicated to racing especially when you have a car as limited by it's CPU as this one. I'm plauged with owning cars like that and also have a 92 Crown Victoria that even with the police spec CPU settings, is very "restrained".
    Last edited by Dr. Nopps; 05-17-2011 at 12:51 AM.

  20. #20
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    I wish I would have started a wiki a something. Luckily I found the thermostat b4 we tried to race it. The easy it works originally is the return water from the heater actually hearts it up and causes it to open. I never heard of any problems with removing egr, but ok. But it sure wouldn't hurt lower the temp a little. Wish I had a dyno as it is hard to log for trims when you can drive it at the track.
    Bought Greg bannish book. I was thinking that driveability isn't really an issue as we are wot or off the gas.
    Last edited by o2l8; 05-17-2011 at 06:10 AM.