Thread: BillBoost Tune

I am going to be doing a PCM Tune when I start doing my mods, future mods are located in Sig. I was referred by another member to get a BillBoost Trans Tune.

I would like to know what members have had his tunes and there thoughts on it!

Note: It might be crazy to ask this question...Lol!

Originally Posted by Flip97GTP

I am going to be doing a PCM Tune when I start doing my mods, future mods are located in Sig. I was referred by another member to get a BillBoost Trans Tune.

I would like to know what members have had his tunes and there thoughts on it!

Note: It might be crazy to ask this question...Lol!

I posted in your other thread about "Stage 2 Performance Package"

Read it.

Ok....It of been nice, if posted here...lol that's why I did this thread, but I know that was a long post you did and thanks

Here, I'll move it to this thread.

Maybe I can break it down a little bit for you. We all were Noobs at one point in our life.

PCM - Powertrain Control Module: It is located in you stock (bottom) of your air box. It is the "brain" of the car. Controls how the car acts/reacts with engine and transmission. Controls both.

You can adjust the setting on the PCM to enhance performance using a tuner such as DHP, HPT, or a dyno. A tuner is program on a labtop with a cord the connects from the labtop to the OBDII port of your car (picture Scotty posted). You open the program with the interface connected to your car, and it has every setting and information available the PCM can obtain. You adjust the settings to the mods you have and download the new file (changed settings) to the PCM. You take the car out for a drive, see how it reacts to the new settings. If it needs changes, then you do that, re-download the new settings and try again. You keep going until you get it right.

Billboost - is a person on the forum (who's a genius on everything) who tunes, but so do many other forum members. Iceman6669 tunes and is located in Michigan. He is a personal friend of mine and does a great job tuning (as he has tuned me multiple times). Reptile is another forum member who will tune a PCM from his home and send you the PCM through the mail. So all you have to do is swap PCMs. Dsmuts is located in Ohio and tunes as well. There are many other members on this forum who tune, but I'm not sure of any located in Florida. You'll have to ask around yourself, or join some Grand Prix Facebook Groups and ask there.

When it comes to "Performance Packages" stay clear from those. First off, they are a rip off of money. You can piece things together (New & used) much cheaper. Second, just because a website has a few things you can do to your car and says your car will be fine, isn't true. That information is 10 years old and these cars are much older now. Every car reacts differently to modifications. Just because this person ran X and Y mods safely, doesn't mean your car will. So it's crucial to scan for KR to see how your car reacts, which leads to my other point.

KR = Knock Retard. Knock Retard is how Pre-Detonation is read, and it's read in degree's. Detonation is when the Air/Fuel mixture in the cylinder "explodes" with an uncontrolled burn BEFORE the spark. Then when the spark is created from the spark plug, the rest of the unburned air/fuel mixture is lit, and you have two flame fronts bashing heads. This causes an extreme amount of heat and pressure. If it gets bad enough, something has to give, which is usually always a piston. Hence why you hear about "chipped pistons." KR at wide open throttle is detrimental (the more the worse obviously). The more mods you have the smaller window of "safety" you have. For example, if your car has 5 degrees of KR at WOT on a stock motor, you'll be fine. But if you have 5 degrees of KR with a heavily modified build, you're chances of breaking something are increased substantially. You can monitor KR with something called a scan gauge.

A scan gauge is something that connects to your OBDII port and spits a lot of information from the PCM on what your car is doing, including KR. Most people use a gauge called "Aeroforce Scan Gauge" since its a normal sized gauge and can fit in a Pillar pod. They cost $220 new but can be had used for roughly $150+. You can also use something called a Scangauge II for $150 but its a rectangle shape, and odd to mount somewhere. If your on a budget and have an Android phone, you can download an app called Torque Pro, purchase an OBDII wireless port for Torque for $20 from Ebay, and that app will read KR. The bad though, the refresh rate is slow, so once you see a high spike of KR, more than likely it happened a split-second too late. The first thing you should do before modding is buy a scan gauge. It's a must to be safe.

To get you started on modding, i'll lay it out simple for you.

1: Make sure your car is running properly and fix any maintenance issues with it.

For a basic build to yield roughly ~20whp possibly:
-Scan Gauge
-Headers (Many people have Speed Daddy since they are $220 brand new)
-Make your own intake
-AL605 Copper Spark Plug
-3.4 or 3.5 pulley
-Tune

Soon you'll want more and can start looking into bigger things:
-Intercooler
-Gen V Supercharger swap and Lower Intake Manifold (Blower off 04+ Grand Prix)
-Northstar Throttle Body/LQ4 Mass Air Flow Sensor
-Rockers OR a cam
-Ported Heads (Iceman6669/OrangeL67 does ported heads on this forum)
-Heavier springs
-E85
etc...

But by this time, you'll have to start looking at replacing/rebuilding your transmission with upgraded parts to handle the extra power, and your lead foot. Transmission work and parts are very expensive. You're looking at $3,000+ for a great transmission from Triple Edge Performance.

Also, there is always a turbo build. In the end, it's the way to go. Way more power for the money. You will easily get caught up in a very expensive blower build that will get you something like 300+whp for the same price as a turbo kit that will get you 400+whp. If your just looking for big power, turbo is the way to go. But the majority of us, are addicted to the blower whine.

But before you even think about the moving on from the "basic" build, perform the "Three R's" a million times.
-RESEARCH
-READ
-RE-READ

Hope all that information was worth my time and you gained some knowledge from it.

Thanks Dan, it's appreciated!

Yea, when I first started considering modding my ride I was all into the package deals and stuff and it crossed my mind, it might be a hell of a lot cheaper, if I did it piece by piece. That's when I made this thread http://www.grandprixforums.net/threa...rmance-Package! to see what ppl thought about this on this forum. Everybody was sayin' the same thing. So, of course I changed my mind on packages.

I have the Torque Pro App on Android. Is seems like it is a pretty decent app. My problem is that I can't interpret what it all means. I did a thread on that too lol.... http://www.grandprixforums.net/threa...es-it-all-mean but i'm learning slowly but surely.

And you are definitely right about "moving on from the "basic" build". Read and research is the way to go!

All in all, your post was very knowledgeable, it helped me and it will help others!
Thanks for your time and knowledge.

Not a problem man.

We all were unknowledgable at one time or another. But this thread has a lot of great information and great members, as I am one willing to share what I know to enlighten others.

Glad I could help.

Originally Posted by Flip97GTP

I have the Torque Pro App on Android. Is seems like it is a pretty decent app. My problem is that I can't interpret what it all means. I did a thread on that too lol.... http://www.grandprixforums.net/threa...es-it-all-mean but i'm learning slowly but surely.

engines are simple... Air, Fuel, Spark... And they'll run! The amount of Air, Fuel, or Spark, will determine how the engine runs... Those 3 items you'll want to keep you eye on. Torque Pro app and the ELM Bluetooth adapter is a great way (cheap) to see what's happening in real time. But as mentioned, you'll need a bit of reading, research and discovery to make it all apparent to you. Don't rush, take your time, concentrate on just one thing at a time rather than trying to take it ALL in. It won't take long then...

great thing is this forum is very proactive on the platform, sure, you'll get yours busted a bit being a newbie, but it comes with the territory, lol. Use the search here and google and you'll be surprised what nfo you can find. Is using google, you could search and then put "Grandprixforums.net" on the end (without quotes) and will pop up threads here with the search item.

good luck!

and oh, yeah, your question...
BillBoost is knowledgable and helpful!
: )

Lmao.....Why do I got to be a newbie! I can handle a beating. Ha Ha...

Great Advice I'll take it

I don't do canned tunes, don't really have a special tune etc. I leave that to the guys with much more tuning experience than I have. I did ...tell Scotty when he was looking for something to just toss in the info I had in my trans tables, because we both have Regals. But knowing his setup and mine..there were a few things I knew would work well for him.

If you were to take files from most of the tuners out there, you will find a lot of the stuff is very similar etc.

Drop me a PM with your current/planned mods if you are still looking for a tune. I will shoot you my phone # and try to help you out!

Bill tuned my car........at 70% throttle because I wouldn't give it more