Real Time Tuning of GM EFI

[<mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

" by using a cheap Laptop , a ROMulator II,
" and an upgrade for your TunerCat > you
" can change the 'chip' information as you
" drive > forget 'burning' a new chip outside
" the ECM.

you would want to burn a chip ultimately, when you get all the
values
tweaked, so you don't have to run around with the notebook and
romulator
spaghetti floating around.
----------
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet
rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none
thought



++


Ok - 

There was another section on the site for 
'Flash Chip' installing & burning
which is a 'nuther animal entirely, 
but not the one that makes the correction 
to the Factory unit - In Real Time -.

Also, Craig Moates 'version' requires 'chip burning' . 
Including the URL to his methodology in this article
blurs the mind set. 



For the Real Time process, 
unless I'm missing the boat, 
you  plug in the laptop equipped with the Tunercat software and 
Romulator II program to your GM ECM, put the vehicle thru its' paces,
make your corrections, double check, hit save and unplug
from the ECM.



Here is the Quote:
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

In the 5 years I have been involved in GM EFI, the number one 
obstacle to making GM EFI user friendly was the process of having to 
make numerous calibration chips to tune a system. 

Well making chips to tune GM EFI is now history. 

There are new products on the market enabling instantaneous changes 
to a GM EFI calibration with the engine running.

 This allows immediate analysis of the engine response to the change 
which in turn allows immediate correction of the calibration. 

These products and the WINALDL program are revolutionary in the GM 
EFI world.

On a recent weekend, I had the opportunity to tune two EFI vehicles 
with my laptop. 

The first was a l969 4-cylinder Ford Escort for which I had built a 
GM EFI kit. 

The second was a l988 Chevy truck with a twin turbo-equipped 350 
engine.

To tune the Escort, I purchased a Romulator II from www.xtronics.com 
and purchased Tunercat's (www.TunerCat.com) RT (realtime) software 
upgrade. Xtronics and TunerCat collaborated to create a system that, 
in theory, is supposed to allow realtime tuning of GM EFI, which 
means that no chips are burned to make calibration changes.


 The Romulator device mimics a GM EFI chip and allows the "chip" 
contents to be changed while driving with a laptop.

 To my amazement, it worked! 

Not only did it work, it worked better than my expectations.

 I could slide a mixture control parameter across my laptop screen 
and immediately see the engine respond to the changes.

 For ex., I adjusted the idle mixture and watched the map sensor 
value drop to a minimum. 

This is the same procedure as adjusting for the highest vacuum with 
carb idle mixture screws, but without having to so much as raise the 
hood of the car. 

In my DIY manual, I will describe the procedures used to tune a GM 
ECM with a RT Tuning setup. 

Also, checkout Craig Moates site (www.moates.net) for alternative 
products. Craig's AUTOPROM does emulation, ALDL data logging, and 
chip buring all in one package.

On the Chevy truck, I used Accel's Gen VII DFI software. 

My customer had already installed and run his truck with this system. 
I spent a couple of days struggling with this setup. 

Let me just say here that GM EFI with the Realtime Tuning software 
beats Accel's DFI setup hands down!

An interesting bit of info is that using a Romulator with a pre-1996 
GM ECM, you can edit the calibration while driving. 

The newer GM PCMs use on-board flash chips which means the 
calibration can't be changed while driving. 

So the older ECMs with a Romulator are actually better technology 
than the newer ones, which is good because the older ECMs can be 
retrofit on older engines whereas the new PCMs can't be retrofit 
easily.



++


Bt