Hello all,

First let me introduce myself and my situation. I live in sunny Gainesville, FL and work full time as a master ASE certified mechanic. I have a passion for cars but due to the fast n furious phase I went through, have only previously built ricers. Fast, but unreliable. True money pits. Finally I found the 4 eyed fourth gen of my dreams. Black with cream interior, only 70k miles, and a steal at 2000 dollars when all it needed was a fuel pump. So I have a little money left over to throw at it, but while being a master a 'factory styled' mechanic work, I have NO experience with aftermarket tuning, so it is my hope someone somewhere can give me the 'lowdown'. Here is what I have done so far, or will do within the next month, prior to needing a tune. It is my 2nd car.

1. Generic cold air intake with K+N filter
2. Full tune up with the recommended TR55 plugs. (copper) + new opti
3. Magnaflow rear exhaust (mainly done as the exhaust section was missing)
4. Upgraded what I believe were 2.73 gears to 3.73
5. Pacesetter knock off Ebay headers with NO AIR or EGR fittings
6. Possibly an aftermarket cam? But I'm not sold on the value of this considering the massive amount of work involved. (Ive never done a cam on an OHV engine)

Being a mechanic I hate driving my vehicles with the MIL on, and I know that these upgrades will leave me with plenty of codes, not to mention an incorrect speedometer. These will be the only upgrades I do, it is after all an LT1 and I don't want to throw good money after bad, I'll buy a LS7 Corvette when I'm ready to do that....

What I wanted to do was introduce myself and my car, any suggestions regarding where to get a tune done, how to do it myself, what to expect after the tune, best programming software if I do it myself, and whether a cam upgrade would be worth it for my situation.

Having a lot of 'book smarts' i.e. technical knowledge and theory, as well as experience with driveability issues, I will try to lend a hand whenever possibly in the forums if I feel I can help someone get their car back on the road. I hope someone takes the time to respond to my posting also, all comments and feedback are welcomed.

Thanks in advance!

 

Welcome to CamaroZ28.com!!!

Maybe I missed it, but what year is the car - the tuning methods depend on the specific year? 93 requires a new chip. 94/95 are flash programmed, using OBD-1 compatible software, 96/97 require OBD-2 software . Appears it has an automatic trans, if it had 2.73:1 gears.

 

Thanks for the reply Fred, I'm going to be getting on the site far more frequently now that I got my own laptop...

You were right in assuming that it is an A4 car, it is a 1996 z28 A4. Since my last post I have installed the long tube headers, deleted the EGR and AIR, and installed my 3.73 gears. I have a little issue with the gears however as I lacked access to the tool for measuring pinion depth and unfortunately once they warm up they begin to whine. Not to mention, without the tune the speedo (and therefore the shift points) are wayyyy off so for now its parked in the garage :/

I am looking to send out my PCM next week though to PCM for less, I've read mixed reviews but for less than 200 dollars it seems to be the most logical approach...

 

There's a guy on another site who gets rave reviews for his very high HP tunes, and he offers free tuning of problems that crop up for participants at the annual LTx Shootout, Moe Bailey. His screen name on LTxTech.com is MoeHorsepower, but that's all I know about him.