Tune an LT1 to pass emissions?

[Wilburbeest]

Last year when I installed my headers and pulled the air/egr/rear O2s I had my PCM reprogrammed by Trifecta. Well it appears that Vince totally turned all of the tests OFF and was telling me there is no way on an LT1 to make the readiness monitors always show "ready" I called PCM For Less and asked about the readiness monitors and was told they tune about 50 LT1s a month and have never heard of a problem with one passing emissions, including states like New Jersey that are pretty tough. I am finding mixed stuff on this though. Anybody have a PCM For Less or any other tune and have their monitors show ready?

[hbgben]

I have a local guy tune my 97. I'm in SE Wisconsin where emissions are manditory. Mine was converted from auto to 6-speed, headers, no cats, no egr or amog equipment on the car and mine passed emissions. Depending on the state, they might do a visual, but here they just plug into the OBD2 port and see what it reads. Everything is "ready" and no light on the dash and no codes.

[Wilburbeest]

I have a local guy tune my 97. I'm in SE Wisconsin where emissions are manditory. Mine was converted from auto to 6-speed, headers, no cats, no egr or amog equipment on the car and mine passed emissions. Depending on the state, they might do a visual, but here they just plug into the OBD2 port and see what it reads. Everything is "ready" and no light on the dash and no codes.


This is EXACTLY the kind of response I was looking for. Are you running O2 sims or did you just have the rear O2s programmed out? I noticed that some older posts on different forums were talking about readiness monitors being a problem on the LT1, but they are mostly from several years back. I'm thinking there is probably just a trick to it that Vince didn't know. That or he chooses not to do it at his shop because he is in an emissions testing area.

[hbgben]

I still have the O2 sims on the rear ones, but they are programmed out. Guess just too lazy to take them off

[Wilburbeest]

But with them programmed out it still says ready? Just double checking because that's one of the things I've gotten mixed info on.

[hbgben]

correct

[Wilburbeest]

uuhhhh huuuuhhhhhh.....between you and bryan me thinks Vince doesn't know wtf he's talking about. At least on that subject. My tune seems fine, but he basically told me he couldn't make it pass.

[hbgben]

i can't remember the software that my guy uses. Because my car was an auto, he used a stock tune for a 96ss to get started.

[Wilburbeest]

i can't remember the software that my guy uses. Because my car was an auto, he used a stock tune for a 96ss to get started.

Would have been either LT1 Edit or JET most likely

[hbgben]

think it is Jet

[Wilburbeest]

Well Vince was I guess going to try and do some research on making it pass after I gave him a call the other day, but he saw this thread and got butthurt.....pardon me for not taking what he says as the gospel and speaking the truth after both contacting him first and speaking with others, which is that, on this subject, he isn't the most knowledgeable to put it nicely.

I truly have nothing against Vince and overall think he does a great job as far as tuning/overall knowledge, and especially service goes, but really I'm the one sitting here with tabs expired since May 2nd, risking a $200+ ticket since this is my MAIN CAR, because of his lack of knowledge in this area. If anybody has the right to be a little pissed I would say that ME, the customer who payed him nearly $200 for a tune, about the same as I could have payed more knowledgeable LT1 tuners that I expected him to be on the same level with. In fact that was why I called him when we had already spoken through email. Its hard for me to believe that such an otherwise competent tuner wouldn't know this, so I assumed maybe he just didn't want to put it in writing since its a bit of a grey area legally. It is not my intention to trash talk the guy, but I'm more just sharing this as a warning. Trifecta is great if you are OBD1 or are in a non-emissions area. But if you need to get by OBDII readiness monitors with an LT1, I'd have to recommend elsewhere. The funny part was he told me on the phone about that hes had a number of LT1 customers have this problem......

[Paulster2]

My understanding is you are not so much tuning them out, but moreso setting the thresholds so high it always reads good. I don't believe they get turned off at all either, but then again, I'm definitely no expert.

[Wilburbeest]

My understanding is you are not so much tuning them out, but moreso setting the thresholds so high it always reads good. I don't believe they get turned off at all either, but then again, I'm definitely no expert.

Holy crap, whats up dude! You're exactly correct. We talked about that when I called him after digging up some info and for some reason he's under the impression that even if you do that it will still just pick up that the stuff isn't there. I'm no expert either and I absolutely couldn't instruct anybody on specifically how to do it, but after talking to some guys I (like you) do have an idea of the basics of it and know it can be done.

[Paulster2]

Holy crap, whats up dude! You're exactly correct. We talked about that when I called him after digging up some info and for some reason he's under the impression that even if you do that it will still just pick up that the stuff isn't there. I'm no expert either and I absolutely couldn't instruct anybody on specifically how to do it, but after talking to some guys I (like you) do have an idea of the basics of it and know it can be done.

It's good to see you Bro! So, Spokane is cracking down on the bad gas, eh? That's sux. I think you are doing right by contacting PCMforless ... you might check with Ion over at MadTuner.com as well. He is very knowledgable and helpful with questions I've had in the past. As for getting it done, you are spot on as it's done every day of the week. The government is putting a lot of trust in OBDII, but doesn't realize what a help it is for us. Without having to stick a probe up the tail pipe, it saves a lot of hassle and getting emissions done is a lot easier. I'd almost want to switch my car to OBDII to help in that aspect :D Hope you get it worked out. I don't think it should be that hard, especially not as hard as dude is making it out to be ... but I'm probably just stating the obvious, lol! (I'm famous for that :devil:)

[Wilburbeest]

Just thought I'd put in a bit of an update/conclusion! Paul, I actually ended up going with Ion @ MadTuner:finger: Not because of anything bad I knew/heard about PCM For Less, I just decided to have Ion do it because with all things being equal (which they seemed to be) I'd rather go with the smaller operation. Just personal preference. Anyway, this tune seems a bit better than the Trifecta one and I also passed emissions no problem with it:metal:

[MoeHorsePower]

OBD 11 can be tuned to pass emissions as easy as an OBD 1. I have tuned OBD II's to pass emissions...

[Wilburbeest]

Yeah I believe it. Vince seems to have some gigantic quandry with it though. Wish he would have told me that BEFORE I gave him almost $200. Really I have to wonder if its just something he decided he doesn't want to do, but he seemed to be trying to come up with ideas like running O2 sims and turning those monitors back on to see if that gave me enough readiness monitors (which it would not have) so I don't really think so. Something else that I thought never really seemed right but I wasn't sure if it was wrong either. Every time the computer had to relearn the car ran like SHIT, and I mean really like SHIT! It had basically no low end at all, hesitated, backfired, etc for the first few miles and wasn't really totally right for a couple drives sometimes. Does that sound at all normal to you?

[MoeHorsePower]

Now at times yes there is a learning curve that the PCM usually goes through but not that bad, Also when I do an "emissions tune", that is just what it is for, after they pass, I will go back and install their performance tune..

[Wilburbeest]

Now at times yes there is a learning curve that the PCM usually goes through but not that bad, Also when I do an "emissions tune", that is just what it is for, after they pass, I will go back and install their performance tune..

Yeah that was kinda what I figured. In my case the emissions tune is just to pass a plug-in test so no need that I know of for separate tunes:D