Get er done!!
Nice to see you back bud....
Get er done!!
Nice to see you back bud....
Hi Gang,
Sorry it has been a while. Been actually using the trailer and hauling the whole family back and forth to Disney. They have an awesome campground... Well if you call it campingIt is a bit rough as the woods are so thick and tall that depending on the spot I have a hard time getting my satellite TV to lock up and am forced to use the Disney cable tv..
Anyway, making some major progress and wanted to post some notes.
Historically I was getting 8.3 mpg when towing. I've been working on the tune after each trip and it inched up to 8.8 and this last trip is was a whopping 9.6 mpg. I had found some weak spots in my timing table and also switched to using brand name premium gas versus Wal-Mart unleaded on the last trip. Wife even commented on the fact the engine sounded different. Not that I condone it and normally don't run that fast but I looked down at the speedo and we were doing 68mph, with the bad tire size loaded, with 5500lbs behind us. I backed it down to 60 and set the cruise.. She just purred along.
These numbers should actually improve a bit as I had the wrong tire size in this whole time. Shortly after getting the van I put on a set of BFG A/T's. Although the numbers are the same it is a 28" tire vs the factory 27.1.
I have some questions coming on trans TCC slip readings and some other stuff that I'll throw into their own threads.
Thanks always for the help guys.
side note, stupid story actually.... ex girlfriend borrowed an all wheel drive van while the owner was out of town, without permission, loaded up all the nieces and nephews to bring them to the water park..... to make a long story short the front tires were just replaced and the mechanic put on a slightly smaller overall tire size.... that combined with the highway speeds played games with the allwheel drive and overheated the front differential, causing it to fracture and expell its fluids... catching fire, burning the borrowed van, and preventing the kids from getting to the water park.. no one was hurt.
NOT TRYING TO HI-JACK your post just adding an obscure reference. Goodluck with the MPH!!!
No problem on the hijack. It is a very real issue and I've heard about it on a number of the astro boards. I'm pretty religious on rotating and balancing tires every 7000 miles and when I replace tires on the astro it has always been 4 at a time.
Another related tip for anyone with a GM electronic AWD is make sure you are using the new GM Auto-Trak II case fluid. It gets rid of all the studder and chatter problems that existed with the original fluid.
I had an 90 E4WD Aerostar I got it with odd sized front tires that have me fits when it was cold, when warm ok, it took me a while to figure it out. I guessed it was running AWD most of the time and 4WD when the speed differential crossed a preset point, and the temp gave me a wider/narrow tolerance. But I can tell you one thing, when the 4WD kicked in, it was a handful to drive! It bound like crazy. One tire was a 215 75 14, the rest were 215 70 14.....
Hey gang, wonder if I could ask a favor and get some feedback on the attached log and tune.
Dragged the trailer home tonight to do some work on it. Typical South Florida hot afternoon, 93F.
This is the same tune that, mentioned prior, I had such great highway performance with one exception. Not sure if this was a mistake or not but since I had no ping with the last run, which was using the factory spark table, I added 1 degree of timing to the entire table. Still running Shell high octane fuel.
If you use my cfg file, anytime the IAT is red, it means I have reached the point in the tune where the ecm is pulling timing because the IAT is too high. Also when the TPS goes red it is when power enrich takes place.
Anyway.. Running home tonight I picked up a bunch more ping than I expected and noticed a few times that my LTFT's went really negative and at times went positive.
Lastly any feedback on the TCC slip would be appreciated. Not sure if I have an issue or not as I really don't understand the readings and behavior here.
Keep in mind that I am pulling a 5000lb cinder block shaped trailer with a 5000lb brick. So my performance stats are really anemic compared to you guys.
The log is long as I tried to get a bunch of stop & go, hwy cruise and some WOT's.
Any feedback would really be appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Hank
Hey Hank. I'd set you timing in PE to 22-23* max. Give it a try and log some more. I really think you are just a tiny bit high.
Paul
Towing that "RIG" I'd expect a little trim action once in a while!!
Hello Again,
Been playing with the tune a bit since the last trip in August.
Just a quick update from this past weekends trip to Disney. I did not get to log anything as the wife had me take out the laptop mount for this trip.
Anyway, on the way up to Disney I was able to cruise up at a comfortable 65 MPG and pulled 11.1 MPG. On the way home I pushed it as I was tired and ran between 70 and 73 MPH and still got a whopping 9.5 MPG.
On a side note, I've been running the balancing beads from Innovative Balancing in both the van and the trailer and the ride quality has been fantastic.
Just wanted to say thanks to MMGT1 and the rest of you for all your help.
All the best.
Hank
Last edited by FGCUhank; 10-23-2007 at 01:51 PM.
Hi Hank
Hello All,
Well some more Disney trips and tuning have passed since my last post. Just wanted to say thanks again to all who have helped me with this.
Latest data is 10.5 mpg around town towing the trailer and 11.8 mpg on the highway doing 75mph. This was even after adding a 2" lift kit and KYB Gas-Adjust shocks.
I could probably squeeze out a little more if I increase the TC lockup but I don't like changing too many things at once.
As always I'll take any feedback on the tune.
Thanks again guys.
Copy the high & low octane spark tables from this 2003 4.3 Sonoma tune that I did. Also zero your AFR Spark Correction table.
Set your TCC max table to 100 & the TCC min table to 90.
Russ Kemp
Holy crap that spark table pulls nice. Thanks!
Do I need to worry about 100% tc lockup? Does it put any extra stress on the TC when towing that much weight? I guess lockup is better than slip which causes heat.
I'll log a bit and post back.
Thanks again.
If you are towing, I would HIGHLY recommend a TransGo HD2 (nothing else!) shift kit. I personally would neve tow without. At least not heavy.
And then you also don't ever have to worry about the TCC PWM anymore, it is disabled by a spring that is stacked up. No more early trans failures due to
You don't want slip at all....Slip is bad....
It's bad when you dont want it. lolOriginally Posted by n0dih
Of course, sitting at a light or brake stalling, you need slip...otherwise...engine no runny. haha
The TCC settings eliminate the TCC slip, its all good!
Russ Kemp
Good point!
I know I'm digging up a six year old post but I wanted to chime back with an update and say that I still have the Astro, now with 145k on it and I'm still dragging that big trailer all over Florida.
Just got back from two back to back trips last night. The looks on people's faces are just priceless when I pass them by on the highway.
The HPTuners stuff was the best investment that I have ever made. After the initial tuning was done, I've just had to make a little tweak here or there on the spark table and that is it.
Thanks again to everyone for all the help.
Here is shot from a recent trip. My wife doesn't think a camping trip is complete unless you stop at a Wal-Mart along the way...
That's awesome. I have a ton of respect for the Astro/Safari vans. Since I live in Baltimore, and there were built here is neat also. My old man had a 2000 Stro 4.3 and we put that thing through hell and back and it never missed a beat. I still hate when people refer to them as "minivans"
I know these are old posts but figured i would ask. What grades of fuel were you both running on those spark maps?
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