A few mail order tune Q's

[_R_J_K_]

So, this thread is obviously shamelessly targeted at either Greenfoam or Delco.

Anyhow, a few months ago a mate of mine picked up a 5 litre VP Calais with the intention of parting it out and putting the motor in his HZ, except that the VP was too good to part out and he ended up keeping it as his daily.

About a week ago, he decided that it was time to cam his car because of it being a bit gutless under 2,500rpm. I mentioned that he might like to get a mail order tune to tide him over for a while and see how that worked out for him instead of camming it straight off the bat.

Now for the questions!
- He is under the impression that he needs to find a memcal from a V8. I told him that the memcal was simply a blue chip that held information, and that they were all almost the same. Can a tune for an 8 be burnt onto and used on a memcal from a 6?

- He will be camming this at some stage. Will a mail order tune sufficiently provide for him, or would he be better off taking it to a dyno? He also is interested in taking the idle down to 450-500 when this happens (god only knows why), is this possible also?

- His 8 (and my ecotec) are pretty stock at the moment. Were Holden conservative in their factory tunes, and is there much to be gained from a relatively stock configuration?

If anybody could shed some light it would be greatly appreciated.

[greenfoam]

Hi mate for a VP 5L, you can just grab a V6 memcal from a VN/P or VR. There's one pin on one of the chips up the back of the memcal that needs cutting and sending to ground to convert the memcal to V8 fuel mode, then it operates exactly the same as a V8 memcal. I modify them all as part of the deal. The tune on the 5 litre is _very_ conservative and so long as his car is in near perfect running condition he will see more gain overall from a tune than he will from a cam and I'll be within a few rwkw of a dyno tune. Alot of dyno guys however don't understand the other maps that come into play in less controlled enviroments than a dyno room and that's where you can win big time. Anyway I wont lower the idle speed, it's allready at about 550 stock, that's low enough. If his is higher than that then he has something to sort out with the throttle body or IAC valve.

He will need another tune for the cam at some stage, if he want it to be a grunter then he needs to talk to me about cams, because you will loose alot of power down low with most medium popular cams. For low end torque he will need a not so common cam.

Delco can do your VS and answer the questions about that one just to keep it fair square

[_R_J_K_]

Thanks Greenfoam. I'll pass this info on.

He's trying to keep the 5 litre as a tow car.
I'm just after a nice tune because I'm not bolting anything onto my car any time soon.