4 cyl - the votes are in!

[Chris@HPTuners]

Hi guys,

Thanks to everyone who emailed me over the last 2 weeks. Here are the results by model and for the top two broken down even further for your interest.

We still need to do a bit more homework on the PCM hardware but it looks like 97-03 Cavalier and S10 VPW based PCMs would be first. It's impossible to split the 2.4L and 2.2L as they polled very evenly.

The late model stuff polled kinda low relative to the others but that doesn't mean anything too drastic, we haven't done anything on the Cobalt or Ion as yet but obviously will be investigating further as they are CAN based PCMs.

VERY IMPORTANT: At this time, i need to go away and do some detailed work on the hardware side of things and calibrations to determine exactly the breakdown. If anything that shows as popular here isn't covered by the reading/writing software work that has already been coded, or there is some other hardware variant out there i need to know about it now. Obviously, i don't want to make a final promise and then have one of those "oh crap" moments and have you guys chasing me down in your liteweight turbo'd cav's and me in my s/c'd ls1 trying to get away

Again, i thank you for the feedback especially the j-body and s-10 forum guys who obviously know what they want (Phil you know who you are!). I trust this info is useful and if your vehicle sits in one of the bigger columns in the chart i guess you can breathe a little easier over the coming months...



Chris...

% vs. vehicle type




Cavalier % vs. year




S-10 % vs. year

[12secSS]

Very cool!

Hey Chris, I thought that the Cavalier and the Sunfire were pretty much the same vehicle ... much like the Camaro and Firebird. Is this not the case? ??? Also the Chevy S10 and GMC S15 are similar like the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra.

[hypsy]

so when are you going to get to the ecotec motors?

there are 2 totally different 2.2L motors...95-02 had the 2.2L OHV and 02-05 had the 2.2L DOHC Ecotec. just wondering which 2.2 your doing first


i need a tuner for my 04 ecotec so the sooner you make it the sooner i buy and can tune

[fast_eddie]

Very cool!

Hey Chris, I thought that the Cavalier and the Sunfire were pretty much the same vehicle ... much like the Camaro and Firebird. Is this not the case? ???

They are.

[Chris@HPTuners]

yes, that may very well be. However, generally all different vehicles have different calibration sets, providing full coverage is the issue. If they are the same it will be easy for folks to email us directly for support of a specific vehicle if we decide they are close enough.

eg. the V6's we have this policy on things like Malibu's because there is no way i am writing 30 definitions for a unpopular (from a tuning perspective) model when only 2 people need it.

in regards to the engines, i was planning to support whatever engines fall into the 97+ range

CHris...

[hypsy]

well 97+ had 3 motors....
2.2L OHV; 2.4L DOHC; 2.2L DOHC
95-02 95-02 02+

please do the ecotec PWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASEEEEE (02+ 2.2L DOHC)

[fast_eddie]

2.4 2001 alero 5-speed base cali #, 9387229
2.4 2001 cavvy 5-speed base cali #, 9387214

Hopefully you can provide some love for the N-bod. If more info is needed (.bin, options, etc) let me know.

I would imagine the manuals are very close since there is no TCM code to modify, but you are the experts. Hopefully this is a common enough cali that we can get a tuner built 8)

[Elio]

Excelent info friend. Let us tuned, Chris.

Best Regards,

[Elio]

Hey Chris, I have a doubt, do you think that this first VCM Suite software release will be compatible with my Venezuelan 2000 2.4L Cavalier PCM?

[boostedeco]

yes please if you can do the 2002+ ecotec first. We need if more than the others.

[97cavie24ls]

sweet !!!!!!!!


i had a post on our local board , and posted about this on j-body.org


if there is anything i can help with let me know


ive got a extra pcm or 2 hanging around , a 97 2.4 auto cav a 00 2.4 auto sunfire , and a 01 2.4 manual cav

[shadow]

Ive got a question, what about the 96 2.2 ohv. the motor is the same as the 97 but is there a differance in the pcm that would make this non-compatale? assuming if everything went through for that motor. and if there is a big difference do you know if the pcm would be interchangable with a newer one that would be compatable? Thanks

[IanB]

Can you verify whether or not the 2.4 Cavy's are the same for this purpose as the 2.4 sunfires? I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be, but I don't want a crushing disapointment if this turns out otherwise. Thanks again for supporting us!

[Chris@HPTuners]

the PCM hardware is the same as far as i can tell. However, that is not the issue when it comes to supporting the Sunfire on day one. The issue is that ALL vehicles regardless of PCM hardware have different calibrations and software (in some cases up to 10 or 20 per year). To offer "support" of a model we have to implement definitions for the majority of these calibrations, otherwise the day you get your software you will be emailing us you .bin file and we will have to create a definition file for it. If you are a tunershop you will understand that this is not a very nice situation to be in with a car on the dyno and a "please email [email protected]" error message on screen.

The V6 is exactly the same issue. Anyone who has emailed us asking for support of a V6 model that is not officially supported but has simlar hardware *usually* gets a positive answer and a result in a week or so and depending may be asked to pay an extra fee. Regardless the expectation is always set that this is a special case and don't email us every day asking are we done yet.

We want to support as many models as we can but there is a point where we have to draw the line between "common support" and "special support".

For the 4cyl cars no decision has been made on which vehicles will fall into the "common support" bucket, but if you look at the charts above you can see what the answer is likely going to be (on day one).

Cheers,

Chris...

[Shifted]

I have BIN files for many 4 cylinder Cavs (and a Sunfire) I'm willing to provide, please email me, [email protected] .

[Chris@HPTuners]

I have BIN files for many 4 cylinder Cavs (and a Sunfire) I'm willing to provide, please email me, [email protected] .

we have them all but thanks for the offer

[alero_ecotec]

im sure your tired of the randon questions, but i've got to ask for the guy's over on aleromod.com ............i figure there is probably only a small chance that something gets released specifically for the Alero w/ the ecotec....so assuming there's not, would there be any chance of the cavvy program working on the Alero, with small modifications maybe?

[Chris@HPTuners]

im sure your tired of the randon questions, but i've got to ask for the guy's over on aleromod.com ............i figure there is probably only a small chance that something gets released specifically for the Alero w/ the ecotec....so assuming there's not, would there be any chance of the cavvy program working on the Alero, with small modifications maybe?

please read reply #13 in this thread. At this stage the answer is maybe in future by special request (unless we are swamped by Alero tuners in the meantime). This may change, i just don't know yet.



Chris...

[TurboECO]

Sweet I can't wait. Eco Cav's are SO fun turboed.

[Creeper]

Well, I am a little late, but here is the start of the 2002+ Alero 2.2L DOHC tuners swamping you. Just because we have been outcasted by the shut down of Olds doesn't mean we can't run with the best of them. Here is to making a 2.2L DOHC in a 3400lb car (me included 8)) beat a v-8 in the quarter.