Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Turning A Truck Engine Into A Car Engine

  1. #1
    Potential Tuner
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Adrian, MO
    Posts
    3

    Turning A Truck Engine Into A Car Engine

    My family is new to tuning and we have jumped in pretty quick. It's me, my dad, and my grandfather (we could make our own comedy car show). We have installed a 2002 Silverado 2500 6.0L into a 97 S10, bought a complete quick connect wiring hareness from Current Wiring (GREAT INVESTMENT!!), we took the truck intake off and put a new one off a 98-99 Camaro, and a 550 lift ZO6 cam... We recently purchased the HP TUNERS PRO Kit and we are just trying to figure out what adjustments would be BEST to make, which ones need to stay the same, etc. The problem we are having is that the truck isn't running NEARLY as strong as we imagined. I assumed it's because the computer is trying to figure out why the intake and cam are reading so much differently than they should. Is there an easier way to "flash" the truck computer into a corvette computer/tune.

  2. #2
    Advanced Tuner CatnipG5Bandit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    El Paso, TX
    Posts
    297
    1: tune MAF
    2: tune VE
    3: tune PE and fueling settings
    4: tune timing advance
    5: if auto, tune trans.

    There is a sticky in this section on general tuning how-to articles that will help you do those. You changed the intake so the VE is different. Is it a stock Z06 cam? Whatever you do, only modify the tune your car has now. NEVER flash the tune from another car onto yours.
    2008 Pontiac G5 2.2L (main oil seal became a crunchy Autumn leaf, RIP)
    2016 Fiesta 1.0L Ecoboost - Project "not-so-detestable"

  3. #3
    Tuner JnJSpdShop's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Western New York
    Posts
    195
    Quote Originally Posted by CatnipG5Bandit View Post
    1: tune MAF
    2: tune VE
    3: tune PE and fueling settings
    4: tune timing advance
    5: if auto, tune trans.

    There is a sticky in this section on general tuning how-to articles that will help you do those. You changed the intake so the VE is different. Is it a stock Z06 cam? Whatever you do, only modify the tune your car has now. NEVER flash the tune from another car onto yours.
    Good advice and a good place to start. Also if you have the hood clearance you should consider the 2008+ GM 5.3L truck intake with a 90mm throttle body or put your truck intake back on to get the torque back that you lost going with the LS1 Z28 intake. Trucks are usually more about low end and mid range and not so much about 6000 rpm horsepower. Most likely on a dyno the original intake will out perform the LS1 intake and I know for sure the newer GM 5.3L intake will definitely out perform it

    Western New York's Performance Headquarters

    716.830.0506




  4. #4
    Potential Tuner
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Adrian, MO
    Posts
    3
    Thanks to both of you on your advice. And we are wanting to keep the factory good so we don't have the clearance for the original intake. We are wanting to smoke some late model cars on the highway and make them wonder what the hell just happened

  5. #5
    Moderator
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
    Posts
    6,347
    Quote Originally Posted by CatnipG5Bandit View Post
    1: tune MAF
    2: tune VE
    3: tune PE and fueling settings
    4: tune timing advance
    5: if auto, tune trans.

    There is a sticky in this section on general tuning how-to articles that will help you do those. You changed the intake so the VE is different. Is it a stock Z06 cam? Whatever you do, only modify the tune your car has now. NEVER flash the tune from another car onto yours.
    I wish I had seen such a concise order of doing it when I was first learning

    You WILL need a wideband O2 sensor. The first two steps are 100% dependent on having accurate readings from a wideband. Otherwise you are just guessing

    Basically you'll be comparing what air fuel ratio the car is TRYING to run vs. what it is ACTUALLY running (via wideband). With that you can figure out a correction factor to adjust the MAF, and then the VE tables.

    Lots of good info around here..

    You can download tunes out of the HP Tuners repository from their website, HOWEVER, these CANNOT be directly flashed to your vehicle. Do not even try it unless you like wasting $100 on licenses every time you try it

    The proper way to do it is to open your current "tune" in VCM editor, then go up to compare then open compare file.. from there, open whatever other tune you want to look at (i.e. corvette or whatever you find on the HP tuners repository that you think is close enough to help)

    From there there are three buttons on the top menu of VCM editor that will say "show main file", "show compare file" and "show differences". With that you can go through all the parameters and see what is different between your current tune and the one you just downloaded, and adjust accordingly. There's also a difference log under the comparison menu that will give you a list of all differences

    If you do ever try to just open someone else's tuning file, DO NOT license it. Hit "no thanks" when the license menu comes up. If not, you'll waste 2 credits every time you open one. Not cheap, and 100% not necessary or helpful in any way
    Last edited by schpenxel; 10-25-2014 at 07:10 PM.

  6. #6
    Tuner in Training
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    27
    Quote Originally Posted by JnJSpdShop View Post
    Good advice and a good place to start. Also if you have the hood clearance you should consider the 2008+ GM 5.3L truck intake with a 90mm throttle body or put your truck intake back on to get the torque back that you lost going with the LS1 Z28 intake. Trucks are usually more about low end and mid range and not so much about 6000 rpm horsepower. Most likely on a dyno the original intake will out perform the LS1 intake and I know for sure the newer GM 5.3L intake will definitely out perform it
    How easy is it t find these intakes and throttle bodies. I have been looking for one for a fair price without any look so far.
    I can find a ton of the 3 bolt throttle body manifolds. I have bought complete motors for less then what a saw a few of the newer intakes sell for.

  7. #7
    Advanced Tuner
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Posts
    225
    Keep looking but they are bringing a pretty high # these days but you can also get a decent amount for your ls1 intake.