First Gen Volt Tune (Volterado)

[TownDrunk]

Sorry, we need our interfaces to log and change our own tunes. it would be very inconvenient to be without an adapter for several weeks.

Also, our licenses are stored on the usb adapter. If we lose the adapter, we'd have to buy new licenses. By flashing the tune on your Volt, you'd be using our licenses, which cost about $100 for a 4 cyl Volt.

Logging in the mountains is a want, not necessarily a need at this time. We do have a member (an automotive engineer) from Denver, but his laptop isn't in good shape (whatever that means) and he's busy with other things so eventually we can cross that off.

If money is a concern, you could line up someone locally to flash the tune to your vehicle when it's ready. Ray found a performance shop that would do it for $50 a flash. Since there will be periodic updates, he wants to wait until it's reached a stable state. BUT, that person/business would be the one to manage your license going forward. If you purchased Tuner later, you'd have to use another license, since the first one would be stored in their adapter and it's not transferable. Ideally, you'd want a neighbor that already has Tuner so you could flash as often as you want and just pay the $100 HPT license fee.

[MPG Mom]

Will the standard interface be good enough for this, or do I need the pro?

[MPG Mom]

Sorry, but I'm a total n00b on this. How does one get the tunes? Do tuners sell them separately to each other, or is there a repository you'll post this to?

[MPG Mom]

One other question--does lean burn with E10 require the special O2 sensor? E10 seems to be all that's available around here, with pure gas being rare. I'm not interested in E85 at all.

[TownDrunk]

Yes, Standard is what most of us use. I've never wished I had purchased Pro instead. Pro is more suited for a race car.

Most people do their own tuning. We tune as a group, each person working on their own thing.

HP Tuners does have a repository, but most of the tunes there are stock.

Many tuning shops don't want others to steal their work so they protect them and flash it themselves.

We'll post a tune here when it's ready, but some times we send them via email.

[TownDrunk]

Lean cruise currently requires premium (91 or 93 octane) fuel. It's possible we may make that work with regular gas again.

The alcohol sensor is only required if you want to burn any fuel, E85 or E10 or anything in-between. For example, you might normally fill with E85, but while traveling, it's not available. So you could use regular or premium until you can find an E85 station again. Otherwise, if tuned for E85 and you fill with regular, you'd get a check engine light (too rich) and poor mileage and could even ruin your catalytic converter.

Many people burn E85 because it's a LOT cheaper than premium (or less polluting, or made in America). Usually it'll save you money if more than 20% cheaper. For the Volt this is great because the Volt likes high octane fuel and E85 is usually around 97 octane while premium is 91, maybe 93 octane and regular gas is 87 octane. Since we tune for E85, you'll get better mileage with E85 than most FFV's because they're rarely optimized for E85. Although cheaper, you'll still have to fill more often since you'l get between 15 and 20% less miles per tank.

[Mickrat]

So which guy on here is Jeff?

[supermac]

It is a 2012. I just had a high voltage isolation code and had to take it in to the shop as it wouldn?t charge. 350$ later and all engine/ev modules were reflashed. I should have the latest firmware for a 2012

[supermac]

What is the method of sharing the tune files?

[TownDrunk]

No Jeff's here that I know of.

When I had my ECM flashed, I had to relicense and submit it to HPT since it wasn't recognized. Another member also had to relicense after flashing updates to fix his Volt's AC problem.

We'll release via the forum once lean cruise is finished, so soon. One tuner is currently testing with E85 to fix a minor A/F ratio problem. It was off by almost 10% for anything other than E0.

[raybythelake]

Lean cruise currently requires premium (91 or 93 octane) fuel. It's possible we may make that work with regular gas again.

The alcohol sensor is only required if you want to burn any fuel, E85 or E10 or anything in-between. For example, you might normally fill with E85, but while traveling, it's not available. So you could use regular or premium until you can find an E85 station again. Otherwise, if tuned for E85 and you fill with regular, you'd get a check engine light (too rich) and poor mileage and could even ruin your catalytic converter.

Many people burn E85 because it's a LOT cheaper than premium (or less polluting, or made in America). Usually it'll save you money if more than 20% cheaper. For the Volt this is great because the Volt likes high octane fuel and E85 is usually around 97 octane while premium is 91, maybe 93 octane and regular gas is 87 octane. Since we tune for E85, you'll get better mileage with E85 than most FFV's because they're rarely optimized for E85. Although cheaper, you'll still have to fill more often since you'l get between 15 and 20% less miles per tank.

Could you summarize the procedure for getting the Volt e85-ready? I know I need the flex-fuel sensor module that measures percentage of alcohol in the fuel and that one or more hoses should be replaced with alcohol-resistant versions.

I like the idea of higher octane and the lower fuel cost of E85. I have two stations within a 3 mile radius of my home that offer E85 and it is significantly cheaper than regular 87 octane and about 75 cents a gallon cheaper than premium in my area. However, I'm on the fence since I have had a bad experience with adding an E85 sensor to a turbocharged car I used to own. Despite a lot of expensive dyno tuning, it never ran without some stumbling, hesitation or surging at different speeds. I had installed higher capacity injectors (I gather from past thread posts these are unnecessary in the Volt for E85 and stock injectors can be used), most robust fuel pump and all the right hoses yet I never enjoyed smooth operation. I know an E85 tune using several tables of settings: one for 100% regular or premium fuel, one for 100% E85, and 2 or 3 intermediate tables for mixtures in between such as 25% E85, 50% E85 and 75% E85.

I would be very interested in hearing from other Volt owners who have installed the E85 sensor and used E85 successfully.

Ray

[TownDrunk]

SENSOR INSTALL

You need the $30 ethanol sensor inlined with the fuel line near the engine firewall. You will likely also need the pigtail for the sensor, since they don't come with one. My sensor is attached with rubber fuel line to the quick disconnects at the sensor and sits behind the engine cover so is barely visible.

If the wire isn't present at the ECM (pin #34 - white wire, in front of the left-front wheel), a clip would need to be purchased to attach a wire to run to the sensor. My '12 did not have the clip, yet Mr. Comment's '12 did. The +12v and ground are obtained from the X2 connector on page 7529. The sensor wiring can be found on the service manual on page 7530. The service manual tells how to remove the front bumper cover to access the ECM. This manual is huge, about 70 mb: http://temp.paoberson.ch/AMPERISTE/Service_Manual.pdf

Mr Comment was the first to get a sensor installed, but couldn't get it to work until our team worked with him. (The Torque Coefficients from Torque Management in our tune are required for the sensor to work.) The other connections at the sensor are power and ground. I think there's a link to his sensor install on the first page of this thread.

Adding the sensor does nothing with the stock tune. It has to be turned on in HPT before it does anything. So it could be installed before flashing our tune.

To my knowledge, Mr Comment and I are the only ones using a sensor on a Volt and last I heard he was still using E85 since it was priced nicely.

Others in our group have committed to installing one, but it has not happened yet.

Here's the page that Mr Comment used as a guide when he installed his: https://forum.efilive.com/showthread...uel-Conversion

[raybythelake]

Thanks for your prompt and instructive reply. I gather you have yours setup so that you have smooth running without surging or stumbling at all the various mixtures of gas and E85? That's the bugaboo I want to avoid.

Ray

[TownDrunk]

Runs like stock, even when lean cruise kicks in (under 2000 rpm).

No loss of driveability was a major criteria we have for our tune.

Our other criteria was to improve mileage for premium and e85 and to improve the "fun" factor of driving a Volt.

The only time I've had problems is when I had a bad merge of 2015 tune into my 2012 and wasn't able to drive without flashing something else. But if you have a 2015 or 2012, those are the most tested versions of our tune and everything is safe to merge.

[supermac]

Can someone share the tune files with me and I?ll get started tweaking my 2012. Maybe send a google drive or Dropbox link?

[TownDrunk]

VCM Scanner setup for first generation Volt

Attached is a zip file with the xml files needed to start logging your Volt.

It should look like this when running:




Here's where your xml files will go:




Since the forum won't let me upload zip files, I renamed it by adding ".txt" to the file name. Download it and remove that leaving the "zip" on the end.

Once the files are in the proper place, it's just a matter of loading them from Scanner.

You can load the layout via the Layout menu. Load maths via the Tools, math parameters menu. Right -click on the graphs, charts and gauges to load that. Finally, you can load the channel config via the Channels menu on the far left.

Note the mpg gauge uses the ethanol sensor. Simply change the source for that gauge from MPG - Sensor to MPG (under user defined maths).

You should now be able to log with a Volt using VCM Scanner.

[supermac]

Thank you, can?t wait to try

[TownDrunk]

I updated the ethanol sensor description (post #112) to add links to buy the sensor and pigtail from eBay. The only thing I don't have is info as to where to buy the ECU pin, which my installer took care of. I think he may have taken it to the Chevrolet dealer to have them order it.

[TownDrunk]

One more member is going to install the sensor and document it. Hope to have a pdf of it when it's finished.

[raybythelake]

One more member is going to install the sensor and document it. Hope to have a pdf of it when it's finished.

Thanks for the link to the components. As far as the "ECU pin" you mentioned, do you have an idea of what I would say to my local Chevy dealer parts dept. to order this? Thanks.