Tune-up tips

[KB93z28]

Well I got my parts in today, msd blaster coil, accel 9000 8mm heat reflective wires, ngk tr55ix plugs, and the modified slp spark plug socket (dont know how much this helps). Im going to attempt the dreaded lt1 tune-up this weekend or the next, so any shortcuts/hints/tips/help would be greatly appreciated! Maybe if we get alot of good info going here we could make this a sticky

Thanks guys!

Edit: and what should I gap my plugs at?

[941LE]

Still haven't put those long tubes on yet huh.

[Formula413]

Do #7 from the bottom, all the others from the top.
Have regular and deep sockets and some small extensions.
Take the alternator off.
Have skinny arms.
Be patient.
Tell me how you got #2 out when you do.

[KB93z28]

Haha nope, I actually sold those, and i plan on buying a different set. regular and deep sockets....check, small extensions check, skinny arms....nope haha, and im definitely not patient haha

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

easiest thing you can do is pull the alternator on the pass side. easier to get at plug #2.

use anti seize on the plug threads. and die electric on the plug boots. if the plug wires have never been changed? you will have alot of fun digging the #7 plug wire out of the tray the runs under the manifold. and the size wires you have now the wire wont fit. so dont bother trying or you may rip the jacket on the wire...... if i think of anything else ill post up.

[frankzlt1]

I don't know what the problem is its easy as hell to get at everything when I had my long tubes out 2 years ago. Lol

[KB93z28]

so dont bother trying or you may rip the jacket on the wire......

So what do I do then? cuz I obviously have to get that boot off

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

no i meant dont bother using that wire way. re route the wire/zip tie it up out of the way. there really is no other way with the 1993 manifolds.

[941LE]

i got 2 fuel filters laying around if you need one lol

[KB93z28]

Ok, gotcha pizza, and I just changed my fuel filter this season Mike haha

[ZFreie]

i found laying sideways across the manifold , yes on top of the engine, facing down made it super easy to reach plugs, i have some skinny arms tho. id say with LTs it takes about 1/4 the time, the stock manifolds blow hardcore.

the very first plug took me 4 hours to do, had i no idea the angles of the plug, where the sparkplug hole was, blah blah, after getting the first one in the rest were 15 20 min each. now i can do it in about an hour, less with LTs.

[Formula413]

I also found it was easier to put the plug socket on the plug and than turn the plug socket with another socket.

[ZFreie]

I also found it was easier to put the plug socket on the plug and than turn the plug socket with another socket.Oh man, this is genius, would have made the first plug change with stock manifolds SO much easier.

[KB93z28]

I also found it was easier to put the plug socket on the plug and than turn the plug socket with another socket.

This is where im hoping the modified spark plug socket will come in handy. Its a shallow socket and theres a hole in the back so the plug can stick through, and then you can get a wrench on the end of it.

[ZFreie]

If you had put the LTs on you could reach right in a grab the bastards. I couldnt believe how awful to stock manifolds were for plug access. epic fail in GMs R&D.

Like my 99 300m. To change the battery you had to take off the passenger front tire. Had a access panel in the wheel well to take it out....You can tell they designed the engine bay and when they went to start it were like "shit...we forgot the battery...stuff it in the fender". lol

[KB93z28]

If you had put the LTs on you could reach right in a grab the bastards. I couldnt believe how awful to stock manifolds were for plug access. epic fail in GMs R&D.

Like my 99 300m. To change the battery you had to take off the passenger front tire. Had a access panel in the wheel well to take it out....You can tell they designed the engine bay and when they went to start it were like "shit...we forgot the battery...stuff it in the fender". lol


Im sure it is a pita, but im sure ill get it done, I dont give up easy haha I was planning on doing them when I got arounf to putting my headers in, but I sold them cuz I wanted a different set, but I havent bought them yet haha

[ZFreie]

Just giving you crap man. :lol2-1:

[KB93z28]

Haha I know, I wasnt offended lol

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

Cry Baby!!!!

[bottledbird68]

Pace setter mid lengths on our 95. Stay away from them lol!
They make the plug change horrible. Did it once myself and butchered my hands/arms. Last time a couple months ago I tried for about 15 minutes to get at #4 but my big hands didn't fit. My other half had two done on the other side in that time. Told her she could do them all, she's better at them lol.

Didn't know slp made a socket like that. I made one myself by cutting down a regular one and opening the hole up so the plug could stick out the back. Makes a huge difference on a few of them. Don't know what it costs but you'll think it was worth every penny.

Moral of the story, find a girl that's into cars, hand her the slp socket, and let her do them all. That's how I do them now lol :D

[KB93z28]

Haha, I need to get me one of those!!!! Can you get them through mail-order?????

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

pretty sure the ones threw mail order LOVE what ever YOU WANT THEM TOO????

[KB93z28]

pretty sure the ones threw mail order LOVE what ever YOU WANT THEM TOO????

SIGN ME UP!!!!!!

[KB93z28]

Well, I got the whole drivers side done today, took me about two hours. I had no problems except I broke the tip off the electrode of one of the plugs, so Ill have to pick up a new box. I was able to run the last plug wire through the tray by the manifold, but I couldnt get it into the loom that was there so I ripped it out. I hope I dont have any issues with that tho.

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

yeah number 7 wire SUCKS!!!! i have more cuts from that fucking shield!!!!! pacesetter LT's are SO easy i can do the plugs in 15-20 minutes.

[KB93z28]

Yeah, longtubes are on my to-do list, I wanna see if I can get 300whp out of this car between fixing the misfire, longtubes and maybe a few other things. But do you think that last wire will be ok if its in the tray without the wire loom around it?

[KLAB]

I lost horsepower with LTs. :) have fun with the tuning weeeeee.

jk but i dont even remember how i did mine but yeah it sucks even on a 95 i guess 93 is worse. but as others have said, i recall removing alternator and having skinny arms. I think I did the 5 and 7 from bottom..

[KB93z28]

Im not finding it to be too bad, im gonna start on the passenger side today sometime.

[KLAB]

GL. You should clean your TB and IAC and everything north of the intake manifold. It isnt hard and if you got some time on your hands and boredom its really good to clean it up prob run smoother knowing theres over 100k on it and the oil blows up there.

[KB93z28]

GL. You should clean your TB and IAC and everything north of the intake manifold. It isnt hard and if you got some time on your hands and boredom its really good to clean it up prob run smoother knowing theres over 100k on it and the oil blows up there.


Haha DAMNIT KEVIN!!!!!!!!:Dumb: pretty sure Ive told you before that everything is new, brand new TB, brand new IAC, brand new TPS, Brand new MAP, Brand new K&N filter. And I just recently pulled the intake mani off to clean out the IAC ports too.


Anyways, got it all done today. Passenger side was definitley much more of a PITA than the drivers side because you have to deal with all the accessories, and theres less room between the side of the engine and the strut tower. I found that removing the alternator like pizza said helped, I also took the bolts out of the power steering pump, but I left all the hoses connected. This allowed me to move it up, down, side to side a few inches to help with routing the wires. I also removed the belt tensioner which helped to get at the wires going into the opti. I could have made my life alot easier by removing the starter too, it would have made the last two plugs much easier than trying to jam my arm up there lol. But I didnt feel like taking it off lol. I think the biggest help of all was Alex's suggestion about using another socket on the end of the spark plug socket. Some of the plugs were far enough in where you couldnt get a ratchet on the spark plug socket itself, and my smallest extension was a little too long, so just that extra inch or so from the second socket worked perfect. I found absolutley no use for the modified SLP socket, as far as I'm concerned its useless haha.

With that said, she fired right up, and idles alot smoother than before. It idled kinda rough before enough where you could see the car shaking in the side mirrors. So hopefully this solves the misfire issue at 4500rpms we saw at dyno day. Overall, not the worst thing ive done, but still quite a bit of work for just plugs and wires haha

[KLAB]

Good to hear. and woops I forgot I have short term mem loss.

[KLAB]

Save all your stock wires for spares when you put your LT's on incase you melt one.

[KB93z28]

Save all your stock wires for spares when you put your LT's on incase you melt one.

Haha too late, already threw them away. The cars not my DD anyways, so im not too worried about it. and if I do put LTs on im going with the wire routing on the valve covers. or maybe ill go with a 24x live conversion so i can actually tune the car haha

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

Kick Ass! congrats!! and now that you know what your up against you will be fine the next time around......

[ZFreie]

Traitor

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

ohh and do the 24x you will make power and gain drive-ability and Reliability!!!

Screw Zfreie!!!!

[KB93z28]

Im hoping to do the 24x next winter, or maybe even this winter depending on funds. I was hoping you could help me out with it pizza.

[KLAB]

you can tune without a 24x! shits expensive... I considered it myself but, meh.....

[KB93z28]

The way I look at it, I'll start piecing what I need together, try to find stuff cheap on craigslist, or junkyards, So I can keep the price of the swap as low as possible, and I got a buddy who does awesome fabrication work, he could make me some coil mounting brackets. Once I have all the misc. shit I need, Ill buy the kit. And its like Pizza said, gain driveabilty, power, and reliability, sign me up. Then I wont feel so inclined to do an ls swap. haha

[KLAB]

Yeah I'm just gonna get a junk LS car when I find one haha. Swap everything :klab:

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

24x is Far superior to Any and ALL LT1 PCM's!!!! ill help yah as best as i can!!

[KB93z28]

24x is Far superior to Any and ALL LT1 PCM's!!!! ill help yah as best as i can!!

Thank you kind sir! Im gonna start slowly piecing things together.

[ZFreie]

24x is Far superior to Any and ALL LT1 PCM's!!!! ill help yah as best as i can!!I have yet to be sold on it, going FI or CRAZY power lvls sure, but of a basically stock lt1, I hardly believe there are major gains to be had.

Again, I'm not talking reliability, My opti had 160ishk on a stocker when I sold my tuna, and it drove just fine. I'm not one to really say the opti sucks, other then placement under WP.

If i were to be putting a snail on my lt1, then yes I would do a 24x swap. I know ill never ditch the opti even when i go heads and cam car. The opti is to much of a conversation piece. I want people to be pissed i beat them with an lt1 AND it still has an opti :haha:

[KLAB]

Yeah obv LS1 pcm is far superior but worth the cost to swap when you have a good opti and a stock motor? .... I don't think so.

[KB93z28]

I dont plan on keeping it stock, I'd like to get 400 whp or maybe even more out of this car, maybe some day, and idk how many miles are on the opti in my car, but it works great as far as I know (I say this because I had a misfire at 4500 rpms on dyno day, but hopefully it was just the plugs and wires) I know the last owner told me it had been replaced once or twice. And I want a good, reliable tune I feel comfortable with as well.

[KB93z28]

And I may want to go turbo, im not sure yet, this is all a little down the road. I like the sts kits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrC3HKEKsCY

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

sts kits need a really small turbo to be able to spin that far away from the engine Really restricting the power you could get spending the same amount for a front mount and a tubular K-Member. get the room and the weight.

[KB93z28]

Ive heard alot of controversey about how theres alot of lag with the sts kits, but then there are others who say they have no lag whatsoever, and there are guys running t67 rear mount turbos and they seem to be spinning them just fine. idk i guess its just one of those things you have to find out for yourself haha

[KLAB]

I know someone with a stock LT1 and the sts... its slow.

[KB93z28]

Really? did he have it tuned right? or did he just bolt it up there and drive the thing?

and them theres this guy running and 80mm rear mount turbo, he seems to spooling pretty quick (granted it is 370 cu in motor)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtbuWxFGY20&feature=related

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

you will need cubes and an auto to spool a rear mount. and even then it still wont produce as much as a front mount. turbos work off heat differential Not air pressure. by the time the exhaust gas gets to the turbo its cooled off over 400 degrees-ish

[KLAB]

Untuned.. I think its just a clusterfuck hack job to be honest sorry. fuckin turbo hanging out the back of your street car sucking up dirt and water and shooting it 6 feet up to the front of the car. gawd dammmm what a mess

turbos work off heat differential Not air pressure. by the time the exhaust gas gets to the turbo its cooled off over 400 degrees-ish

True fact to consider as well.

[KLAB]

Get creative, take the car off the road, invest in a welder and go to town fabricating a front mount in your engine bay. Its much more impressive to see a clean custom job like that esp on an LT1.

[ZFreie]

Get creative, take the car off the road, invest in a welder and go to town fabricating a front mount in your engine bay. Its much more impressive to see a clean custom job like that esp on an LT1.The debate on what I might do when I get an lt1 again...

[KLAB]

build a clean stripper shell with a cage and lots of power weeee

[KB93z28]

It seems like guys who have the kit on a car love it, and make great power with it, and those who have never had one knock it. Ive never read about someone who had one on their car, and hated it. Plus with the new design, the filter is tucked up into the body of the car, away from the elements. as you can see in this photo, the pipe all the way to the left is the intake pipe, and its out of the way.

http://www.ststurbo.com/i/u/1473169/i/4FB-100_2534.JPG

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

the guy is on here. has a 416 LSx. heads cam full bolt ons. made just about the same power with the STS as with out it. he had to run such a small turbine A/R that it choked the motor so bad it wasnt worth it pulled it off and threw it away literally.

[My84Z]

I've driven an sts car spool time is horrible if u have an auto it's not bad and they do can do well. A front one is better no ands ifs or buts. However if u heat wrapped the whole exhaust etc it would only loose 200ish degrees and do gret with an auto.

[KB93z28]

Well this is depressing news haha, I love the sound of that sts lt1 haha

[ZFreie]

A front one is better no ands ifs or buts. This, is why if I do it its gonna be front mount. There is no debate on how bad ass it would be.

[KLAB]

yeah but hear a frount mount big turbo car lmao. i rode in one its like bleh. I felt like a boosted GSX was nore "turbo" feeling

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

go for a ride in sams car then youll shut your face!!!!!

[ZFreie]

Plus once FI its a lot easier to turn up the boost then it is to change cams every time I wanna go faster. lol

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

not really. comes a point were you need much stronger components to sustain the added cylinder pressure. more fueling and methanol all come into play. just adding a turbo with a knob doesnt cut it.

[ZFreie]

not really. comes a point were you need much stronger components to sustain the added cylinder pressure. more fueling and methanol all come into play. just adding a turbo with a knob doesnt cut it.I bet going from 400~whp to 600~hp is a lot easier with FI then N/A....

I'm aware of the breaking shit and what not, but as a whole, Ill build the motor for my end goal, not the other way around lol, but no way would I just fire up a 600hp turbo monster and just go killing my self. The boost would stay down till I got used to the car and setting up the suspension.

[KLAB]

just adding a turbo with a knob doesnt cut it.

and this my friends is why DSM's don't run! :sFun_crazydance:

[KLAB]

go for a ride in sams car then youll shut your face!!!!!

Ok, convince him to give me a ride weeeee :klab:
Never rode in a good turbo set-up V8. Should feel quicker than the procharged 351 foxbody I rode in tho! :ohsnap:

[KB93z28]

One of my buddies has an '03 mustang gt with a 60mm front mount setup, and race block, that car is FAST! i forget what he put down for numbers but its somewhere around 500 on a conservative tune haha

[KLAB]

lets all boost our cars. northeastboostedf-bodyassn

[KB93z28]

lets all boost our cars. northeastboostedf-bodyassn

You paying? haha

[ILuvPizzaTimes10]

yeah ill hit the Mega-Millions and then we will all have turbos built and tuned by SlowHawk!!!! EVEN LT1 HAHAHAH BITCH!

[KLAB]

dont tell me you play mega millions!!! I got a job at a liquor store supplying people's addictions and the lotto is a pain in the anus

[ZFreie]

Some people can get away with scratch tickets and shit. My buddy scratches a 100$ ticket weekly, at minimum. Hes scratched like 4 $100s and a $500 this week alone...pisses me off lol

[KLAB]

yeah but how much does he pay for them lol

[ZFreie]

yeah but how much does he pay for them lolhe will get 25 in tickets and scratch 100. This week every ticket hes scratched was a 100+ winner. Usually every ticket he scratches he wins money, he never ever loses money, at worst breaks even.