403 LS2 FD - LS7 Build for 2020!

[MPbdy]

Well, this has been a fun little distraction.  Nothing like breaking your perfectly running car out of boredom.

After heading into limp mode 3 times in 2 drives thinking it was my connector on the TB (previous issue), I have learned about codes P0068 and P0106 which protect from runaway throttle by comparing maximum allowed airflow vs TPS.  Yup, I exceeded a programmed limit of airflow lol.  All the boosted guys are gonna be like



But yeah, definitely making some more power.  It also wants all the revs.  Shifting by feel I ran it out to 7200.  Here's a comparison of before/after with the g/cyl after I could finally do some pulls.

Before:



After:



I just got it good enough so I could go beat on it some.  It is doin some weird shit like backfiring out the exhaust at 2500 rpm under load and I'm heel toeing it back to idle coming to a stop, but I can bomb around at 7200 no problem lol.  I think I'm going to hold off on street tuning it for driveability and just shift focus to getting the Holley installed.  Idle and slow speed tuning is boring af and it isn't like I actually have anywhere to go right now without AC in this heatwave.  With a decent base map, real time tuning and self learn I bet the Holley can be dialed in way quicker.

[MPbdy]

More cool shiite I've been collecting for a while.  Made a parts run up to my dad's garage today.  I should have everything I need to install the standalone now for the most part.  Not too sure how I'll be mounting the screen yet, but I want it on the steering column somehow.

[MPbdy]

Well guys it has been fun guys I'll probably never have a running car again.  At least it is inside the garage lmao.

I pulled the passenger kickpanel and wanted to punch myself in the dick lol.  At least I still have my old notes from ~8 years ago. 

You can see the rats nest in the picture.  I've threaded the DBW pedal harness and the OBD2 harness out from the driver's side and am going wire by wire cutting out the splices and making notes of what they are.  Luckily there really isn't much in that kickpanel that I actually need anymore.  If I clean it up enough I may even try to mount the ECU behind the kickpanel.




Eyes on the prize though.  It is going to be sweet.  I can't wait to launch on a 2step and flat shift the thing through 4 gears.

[Exidous]

That's some fancy wiring right thar.

[kinger]

Oh man!  There should be a meme - wiring... what a nice way to burn 100hrs of labor and still not be done..

Flat shifting eh!

[MPbdy]

So, big improvement the kick panel is now empty and the harness is pulled into the engine bay.  I have a few mystery wires that are loomed up and go through my fender.  I'll need to pin those out at the connector to know what they are.  I'm guessing fuel pump and cooling fan relay signals.

After that gotta get it up in the air and unhook the trans and the O2 sensors and get the manifold off so I can try and work the harness up from between the engine and the firewall.

The only thing I need to hook back up from that rats nest is the tach signal going to the dash which the holley has a programmable square wave output, and the reverse lights.

Oh man!  There should be a meme - wiring... what a nice way to burn 100hrs of labor and still not be done..

Flat shifting eh!

Yeah flat shifting!  I have a clutch pressure switch for one of my inputs that I can activate a 2step and also ignition cut for shifting.

That's some fancy wiring right thar.

Hoooooo dawgie I tell you h'what

I learned a thing or two since then I'd like to think, but I'm also still extremely lazy so I don't know if I'd do it any different lmao.  The wiring worked perfect from day 1 and never faltered so I can't be mad, but I definitely did not make it easy to remove the harness lol.

[MPbdy]

Soooo it's been a minute.  I got really lazy end of last year and just sat around staring at different screens.  Over the past couple weeks I got the Holley Terminator X wired and installed.  Haven't tucked any wiring or made it nicely loomed.  I'll wait for the new engine to tackle that.  The tach is reading double by the way...that was ~7000rpm in 4th which was a lot faster than I was planning on going but it just didn't stop pulling lol.

The LS7 has been difficult, but making progress. There haven't really been great updates to share.  It wound up going to the machine shop 3 times when really it should've been knocked out in one shot.  To work on that engine I drive about an hour up to my dad's on the weekend and then have been finding roadblocks like the mains need align hone, the bores weren't square after honing etc.  I hope to get there this weekend and measure the latest work from the machine shop - finally file fit the rings and maybe assemble the heads.  It is not too far from being ready to be final washed and screwed together and then it'll be off to the engine dyno at Westech.

I wanted to get experience with the Holley before I throw the new engine in.  If I struggle with the tune or damage something I'd rather it be the 20k+ mile engine that owes me nothing instead of the brand new engine that has taken 3 years to build.

Anyways, the car is much, much faster. I never dialed in the bigger cam with the factory ECU I pretty much parked it and pulled the harness out. The LS7 should be terrifying.  The old cam had me at 512whp, but this already feels like another level.  It is smoother, broader powerband and the Holley is crazy good.  I built a base tune for it and I have just been letting the car self-learn for now.  I still need to optimize the idle control, smooth out low speed driving, and push the timing map in some areas.  I also have a flex fuel sensor to wire in and a clutch swing for no lift shifting and 2 step.  Overall though I couldn't be happier with the ECU.  It was ready for full throttle after the first warm-up honestly.  After the first couple pulls it has WOT regions within +/- 1-2%.

[FC3S Murray]

So how is the Holley better compared to the OEM VCM? Just fewer tables that deal with the meat and potatoes to make it run?

[Sabre002]

I'm really looking at the Holley EFI for my next dragster project with my father. 

I would really like to hear more thought on it as you get into the weeds here.

[MPbdy]

I don't think there's a reason to bother with an OEM ecu ever again when the termi x is so cheap and easy to use.  I loaded a base map that I built up using some best guesses and have just been driving the car since then while the fuel auto learns.  There are some manual tweaks to do to improve driveability/idle/coldstart etc, but literally the car fired up and was ready to go WOT with the base tune I built.

It feels much faster in control of the engine.  The timing and fuel control is extremely fast and it translates to a smoother running engine.  You don't feel that slam into PE mode for example.  I had an early Gen4 ecu in this car with the E40.  The Gen3 0411 stuff was painfully slow and low resolution imo and the difference would only be more noticeable.

You can command whatever AFR you want at any point - I'm idling at 14:1 because my cam is pretty big now, cruise at stoich, and as RPM/load climbs it progressively gets richer up to 12.5:1 at full power.

The ECU self learns quickly and accurately based on the wideband improving your tune just by driving around.  As your closed loop correction shrinks you tighten down the learn window so erroneous data can't blow up your nicely dialed in fuel map.  In the WOT region I can probably already narrow the learn window to +/- 3% and still allow closed loop to be more aggressive, but it won't make large changes to the base map.

Closed loop wideband operation at all times like a modern car is so nice to have finally.

Real time tuning while the engine is running if you want to tweak things.

Custom tables and I/O's for adding things that dickheads want like 2steps, no lift shift, flex fuel, power adders etc.  You aren't stuck forcing the factory ECU to do something it doesn't want, or running standalone systems without ECU integration.  I still have to add these things in I was waiting for some harness stuff and also just taking baby steps sorting the car out.  I'm excited to play with e85 and NLS though.


HPtuners is good and has only gotten better, but you're still limited by the hardware.  Also kind of funny I'm replacing an ECU that was designed ~20 years ago at this point so I'd be disappointed if it wasn't a significant upgrade.

[MPbdy]

I'm really looking at the Holley EFI for my next dragster project with my father. 

I would really like to hear more thought on it as you get into the weeds here.

Depending on how many systems you want for a race car you may need to step up to a dominator.  Both the Holley HP and the Terminator X are very limited in the available I/O and advanced tables.  There's 4 inputs, 4 outputs, 4 1D and 4 2D tables you can create.

E85 for example I'm using one input, and I'm using up 2-3 tables for fuel and timing modifiers.  If I was also trying to do some other power adder stuff it would start to get tight.

Also, one thing is a little frustrating is there's limited ways to do internal processing for I/O's.  You can't really build up internal logic on things.  You sometimes have to loop an output into an input - maybe through a switch in the car or maybe just loop them - to be able to build up the logic you want in some tables.

[Sabre002]

Its just a pro-comp dragster. 

I have been looking at that it for like staging, bump button, delay box, trans brake, and shift. 

So its fairly simple But I was looking at the Dominator 58X version to run it. 

This will be a all motor LSX on race gas is all.

[MPbdy]

I think the Termi X would be a great fit for that unless you want to start adding a bunch of data acquisition then you'll run out of I/O. You should also make a map of your I/O needed before ordering make sure you don't exceed 4 each.  Transbrake would be an input, shift would be an output etc.  Electric water pump and fans too.

One thing also to note is it has only a high rev limit and a single extra rev limiter to play with - so if you want any kind of 3 step, burnout limiter or anything else you would need to add an MSD box or something.  You can use the extra rev limiter to set your launch RPM on the transbrake and there's also a launch retard function if you want.

[Sabre002]

All good to know Thank you!

[MPbdy]

Oh two more gripes about the Holley while I sing their praises lol - the tach output is 8 cylinder tach signal and you can't program it unless you want to burn another custom output.  My tach is reading double right now until I pull my dash to reprogram my tach.

The termi X can't accept a GM speed sensor signal which seems like a missed opportunity.  They also don't have a harness for T56 control.  I went the easiest route and just got this all-in-one standalone trans controller and it is awesome.  It is also programmable to spit out the correct simulated signal for the Holley so I can have a speed input.

https://www.bowlertransmissions.com/all-in-one-harness/