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Bad tune?!?

Rlugo87

Rlugo87

New member
Hi guys,
So I have some odd crap happen to my cars, or maybe it's normal and I just don't know, maybe you guys can shed some light on this stuff. So since installing my intense tune in my 98 riviera I have been setting a p1811 code and having some pretty hard shifts ( car shifted flawlessly before pcm) btw here's a little list of what's done to the car ( 4inch custom fwi, 160 tstat, al 104's, 3.5 pulley) now before the tune and pulley I had 0* or at all times, after pcm and pulley I was seeing up to 9* kr when hitting 2nd gear but only occasionally never consistent and never the same sometimes I would see 1* on up to 9* being the worst. So today I dropped the pan on my car to change fluid and install a zzp shift kit in hopes of bandaiding the p1811 for the time being, here's what I found, cherry red fluid that smelled clean not burnt, clean pan and magnet, so hmmm why am I having a trans problem all of a sudden? I expected to find a ton of material in the pan. I installed the kit and filled her up with dex vi. After multiple trys deleting codes and going through shift cycles I was still getting the p1811 code and harsh shifts. So I figured why not toss the stock pcm back in since that's when this issue started. And wouldn't ya know, the code is gone and my shifts are back to normal, I even put about 70 miles on stop and go to be sure, now here's the kicker, my scans show 0* kr on the stock pcm at all times, yet I had some pretty bad kr with the intense tune, so the car shifts perfect, pulls harder and has no kr on a factory tune, is this common of canned mail order tunes? I sent John at intense an email about this to see if it's something we can fix or if I can just get a refund on the tune although I'm sure that won't happen as they have a no return policy on pcm's. If i can't get a refund for it I will post it here at core price if anyone has a use for it, it's the same pcm as 97-03 gtp and I'm sure it's the exact tune you would receive for said car. Thanks for any input guys. Overall I'm pretty happy I took care of my trans code and eliminated my kr spikes by going back to a stock part haha

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Too many people under estimate the stock tune. It's overlly rich from the factory, already runs safe timing and really doesn't need much tweaking unless you are looking for specific transmission and airflow related changes.

Adding more boost will just lean out the rich factory tune to bring into a better air fuel range and the timing is already in a good spot.
 
Fivefingerdeathpunch said:
Too many people under estimate the stock tune. It's overlly rich from the factory, already runs safe timing and really doesn't need much tweaking unless you are looking for specific transmission and airflow related changes.

Adding more boost will just lean out the rich factory tune to bring into a better air fuel range and the timing is already in a good spot.
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Knowledge! Thank you i would have never known any of that. It makes perfect sense, the shift kit makes my shifts feel great and not having skip shift is fine because the car has plenty of scoot only dropping one gear lol. It's crazy how much stronger the car feels right now. I'm seeing just over 9lbs of boost (With belt slip, I can hear it squeel above 5k), I can't wait to get my headers situation figured out and start making more power.

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they just might have the wrong gear ratio in the tune if its shifting really hard and normal with the stock pcm in there.
 
Did you even talk to Intense about it? Did you discuss the mod's you have prior to ordering tune? Something seems amiss and I'm sure they'd make good on it. But this is what you risk with canned tunes!

Before pulley and tune you had 0*kr? How were you scanning and with what?
For your information, absent mod's, I don't know anyone who had 0*kr with stock tune, stock parts... And those mod's won't help. I added headers and 1.9YT RR's and still showed a few degress knock on stock tune, but those mod's took away a good 5*+.

FWI, 160 Tstat, colder plugs are hardly the mod's I would start dropping pulleys with. People say sure, go ahead, but every car is different! Just because someone said they did, doesn't mean you'll be able to as well. At the very least, some breathing mod(exhaust) needs to be added. you're adding approx. 3# of boost by dropping the pulley to 3.5" it's going create more heat as well as you're spinning the SC faster, something those plugs and TStat isn't going to make a difference on.

you leave out a lot of information in your post too...
year
mileage
maintenance
etc...

So, my suggestion is give Intense a call, talk to them about what's happening, see what can be done. In addition, I would seriously consider adding some supporting mod's for dropping pulleys. Don't think doing the minimum effort will gain you the maximum result! Read the Modding your 3800 thread, it's very helpful.
 
coolone said:
I added headers and 1.9YT RR's and still showed a few degress knock on stock tune, but those mod's took away a good 5*+.
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That's the direction I'd like to be heading soon. I agree, you'll need more something at least to go smaller pulley.

Not sure what you can check, but hope that bad shifting didn't do (more) permanent damage. The trans is known to need hard parts after only like 80k.

Idk, man. You just got it painted by insurance, right? Take it easy and enjoy it for a while.
 


my car has 8º kr stock, 1.95 rockers killed off 5º, just a U bend delete killed the last 3. car felt so much better with full timing and no kr.

then headers 3.4 and chipped piston with a tune. :th_laugh-lol3:


then see sig for mod list today.
 
John is going to look into it when he gets in tomorrow, but I think the wrong ratio is very likely, I sent him my old zzp gt pcm to write to, gt has a,3.29? Ratio. I have every intention to do "flow" mods. With the amount of modification needed to get headers made for w body's onto my 98 buick riviera I am hoping to wait for zzp to get powerlogs back in stock (any day now according to zzp) I was seeing 6* of kr completely stock, I did the t stat, plugs and intake and come down to 0*, intense recommended a 3.5 pulley so that's what I went with. Originally I wanted my tune to have extra timing and I would run a stock pulley and John recommended if I had no kr to keep timing stock and drop to a 3.5 so I went with that.

Here's the info on my car
98 buick riviera
140k
Intake gaskets
Water pump
Plugs
Wires
Coils


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John at intense sent me a new pcm. I think it was my old pcm I sent him out of my gt that didn't want to cooperate

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So installed the new tune today and I immediately removed it, the car idled horrible and was obviously running very rich as it smelled horrible of gas, also the intake was extremely loud :( I think my best bet at this point is to stay on the stock tune as the car seems to perform fantastic on it, maybe in the future I will find a tuner in my area or that I can travel to and get a custom tune.

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coolone said:
Shouldn't need to case learn, but it wouldn't hurt, also, you need to allow the trims to dial in...
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Oil pressure sensor went today on a trip, wife was driving not sure how long the car ran without oil before she noticed the light, was bone dry when she pulled off the road, I had the car flat towed to the next town and repaired on the spot, no bad sounds but the car seems wayyyyy down on power and bogs hard while cruising in town only way I can describe the "bog " is like if you shifted a manual into 5th at 30 and tried to accelerate. Worst case I have a l67 in storage but it has 190k on it. Suppose it would be a good time to refresh it and do headers while it's out.

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