If you follow this guide and just copy/paste these settings into your tables I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS. While these settings are not a race map or something insane, they are FAR from stock! Be sure to log your car and guarantee its safety!
Hopefully if you're reading this you have installed the software, plugged in the MPVI and loaded the drivers for it. Make sure you check in My Devices that it's showing up MPVI Chan A and Chan B!!
I had some issues just getting mine to read, here's what I do and seems to be working for me. Unlock the car and get in, close the door, open the door, close it again. Plug the MPVI into the PC as well as the OBD2 port. Turn the Key to ON, the position JUST before it would crank and start. Turn off the auto lights as well as the radio and anything else that is on. Then select Flash -> Read from the VCM Editor. It should bring up a little dialog box, click begin. On my car this took ~20mins!!!! So don't get nervous if it's taking awhile!! You may find leaving your driver window down and doing this thru the window allows you to have a life for 20mins instead of sitting in the car the whole time.
After you read the file, you will be prompted to buy a license. If you plan on tuning other people's SS', it maybe worth it to buy same model/year license for 6 credits at this time!!! If you plan on just doing your own, get the single license. SAVE YOUR STOCK ROM!!! And make sure you name it accordingly. EX: 09_Stock_CobaltSS_Turbo.hpt
Now that you have your rom it's time to tinker! First thing to start with would be the: Max Airload Torque Table. Across the top is the RPM obviously and the value below each RPM is the Max Airload in % the VCM will be looking for. Starting at 4500RPM and going to 6300RPM adjust the Airload to be 99%. If you look at the start of the table at 1650RPM, you will see the value is 72%, then 75, 74, 75, (yes I rounded for this discussion). Smoothly ramp up the MAL to the 100% point at 4500 RPM.
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Next will be Power Enrichment Lambda. This will be your commanded WOT AFR from 60-100% throttle. I personally never liked the way the car ran 14:1 during most of the band while WOT, so I changed it to be a steady .88 from the point I hit my boost spike. People will argue the AFR, make it what you want, that isn't the point here! To change the WOT AFR goto the 3K RPM cell in the 100% column. Highlight from there to 6K RPM (bottom of chart) and make the values .88.
AFR = 14.68 * Lambda.
so
12.771 = 14.68 * .87
If you feel you want a similar change at other TPS values, then go right ahead and change them. I made my 90% run .87 in the same areas. I would DEFINITELY NOT go making gross changes to this table, you can mess up the car with this one! I should also add, I ramp the PE in now compared to the flat PE I used to run. Seems to make the car a lot smoother when going WOT below 3K RPM.
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Next up is the Desired Air Load Table. This is where you set the boost values you are trying to achieve. This is prolly the most complicated part of this, and not that it's hard, it's just a lil confusing at first. Down the side is RPM and across the top is TPS %. There was a few different views on how to adjust this table, all had pretty much the same idea. Starting with the 90 and 100% column, I made the DAL's 300 down to 2500RPM, 325 to 5K RPM and 350 from there to redline. I then selected from 50%-100% and did smooth selection a few times. I then went back and input the same values from above BACK into the 90-100% columns.
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(These values are NOT a direct correlation to MAP KPa!!!)
Now you will want to mess with the Max Torque vs RPM vs Gear. This table is where you can adjust the power/torque per gear and RPM. You will find with the above adjustments the car will be extremely hard to handle at lower RPM's, in traffic especially. So you will want to reduce power slightly using this table. There is no REAL science here IMO, this is also another table you can adjust a lil here or there and feel changes immediately.
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Now we'll do a little with the Timing tables. There are (4) in total to adjust and you MUST adjust all 4 tables! I've read to change 1 and then copy/paste to the others but after looking over them, each table is a little different then the last. So I would just make similar changes to the high load areas and use the KR Histogram in the logger to adjust your part throttle areas the same. Here's an example of the 1 Timing table, use these value at YOUR OWN RISK!
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(Another tip is to take all of your low/mid range timing and smooth it out! You can either use the smoothing feature or sit there and hand smooth it perfectly! This will allow you to run more timing since you don't get any erratic timing changes causing false KR)
Smoothing Timing Guide
Whether you're running the stock downpipe w/cat or an aftermarket w/out cat you will want to change the Cat Over Temp Lambda table. If you have NO CAT, you can set ALL of this table to 1's to remove all cat protection! You have no cat to worry about melting! Otherwise, I would still lean out this table a little, leaving it just richer then your PE table.
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You can also change the rev limit if you want to. You can also change it per gear which I am using myself now. 1st gear at 7K, 2nd at 6800 and 6600 for the rest.
To do this you will need to change the RPM Limit in the following spots:
Oil Temp Limit
Trans Limp
Transient Limit
Both Normal and Short Incr in the Cutoff RPM vs Gear section
(For Drag Racing Tunes, you should make 1st thru 3rd all go out to 7K RPM!!)
And finally is Over/Under Boost Enable RPM. With the DAL's as high as above it IS possible to spike over 22 psi! So you will prolly want to turn of the Overboost Protection!
You can find this in Engine Diagnostics -> Airflow -> Enable RPM
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Now that you have your settings dialed in, it's time to flash it back to the car! Turn the key on, auto lights and radio off and plug the MPVI into the car and lappy. With your newly updated map open, Click Flash -> Write Calibration ONLY, VERY IMPORTANT!! You don't need to write entire!!!! This should only take a minute tops! Close the VCM Editor and close the car door. Start the car
Finally, and VERY IMPORTANT as well. You want to LOG the car!! I can't stress enough how important this part is, especially since you have all the tools to finish the job properly! You will find that the Default Logger Definitions for the SS/TC aren't very good, so I've included a CFG file that will bring EVERYTHING you need up. You can then fine tune the CFG file using a Right Click and adjusting the Chart Settings. LNF CONFIG FILE (This is a good time to read the LNF MAF Tuning Guide and get those straight before adjusting anything more with your power!! I cant stress enough how important a properly tuned MAF is on these cars!!)
LNF MAF TUNING GUIDE
Once you load the LNF Config file, take the car out and drive it while logging. You want to be sure there is no KR during part throttle acceleration, if you goto Histograms and select #3 you can then drive the car and it will record and average of any KR that occurs. After you drive a bunch of miles and try to hit all different loads, you can go back and input the changes it shows you into the Timing Tables.
If everything is seeming kosher, get into 3rd gear and give the car moderate throttle. You're looking to make sure the Wideband is indeed switching to the AFR we adjusted to earlier. If all seems well again, what the hell, go for a 3rd WOT pull. After you log a full pull (3k-6300) go back home and review the chart. If you filled in what I did above you should be seeing 20-22psi spike, holding at least 20 most of the band and tapering off to redline. The AFR should be a steady .88 during that pull as well! If anything has swayed a little, you should have the knowledge to adjust it to be steady.
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Originally Posted by BackyardTurbo_FTW
And my car was totally cooled off when we started, we warmed it up on the dyno and did some light driving until it came up to temp. Then did a pull. We then reviewed the graph and flashed it back to the stock exhaust table. So prolly 10 minutes there and then it needs to idle/drive easy for a couple minutes to get the trims to start reacting again after a flash.