Awesome!

 

So I attempted the PCM re-learn tonight... Given the fact the car has sat all winter, even with the battery disconnected, it discharged enough that I can't simply start it (not uncommon, sometimes I have to jump my cars I park for the winter because they are not stored in a way that I can easily start them).

Once the PCM re-learn gets to the point where it is willing to engage the starter and the injectors, the battery does not have enough juice to crank the starter hard enough. So right now I have a trickle charger on the battery. I hope tomorrow I will be able to finish this step and actually get the Monte out for the summer!!

 

PCM Re-learn completed. She STARTS!!! Muh-hahaha!! Now, she needs a fresh oil change!! Then if this stinkin' rain would stop, I would finally want to take her for a nice joy ride!!

 

LOL one thing after another huh? :P

Can't wait to hear what you think of everything.

 

Nice job , MORE POWER ..

 

It would be even BETTER if it would stop raining in my area. Good grief, other then one or two good days here and there (such as when I tore into the car), it's been raining pretty consistant for over 30 days....

I hope tonight it's only "misting" and I can change the Monte's oil (it's all old oil from last year, granted about 2000 miles on it, but with what I just did to the car and it sitting all winter, it needs fresh oil).

 

I'll warn you, this is a LONG post.... But, read it all to get my full opinion!!

OK, Wednesday, I changed the oil on the Monte and took her out for her maiden voyage with these MODs. Now before I continue, from the beginning I have TWO problems:
1 - The car has been parked since October with a full tank of gas with fuel stabalizer in it. Historically, this tank of gas has the worse MPG (and sometimes performance can also be adversely affected).
2 - It's been since October since I drove the car, so a true perception of performance improvement is rough.

That being said, the maiden voyage was a bit of a let down. It felt like it was driving similiar to what I remember it driving like last year. During this drive, I noticed two items occur:
1 - It started as an intermittant issue, but through out the drive became recreatible. From a dead stop, gradually applying the gas and the car would stumble (eventually reach a point in the pedal travel where the car began running fine).
2 - When I first took it on the freeway and hammered the gas, the car reved high, shifted nice and firm and popped the check engine light. Scanned the code and if gave me O2 code "Low volts on Sensor 1 Bank 1".

Yesterday I researched this more and both the stumble and P0131 have a common cause... The shop book suggests a silcon contaminent, remove the O2 sensor and inspect for a white, powdery substance. I also inquired with PCMforLess who did the tune to see if they've heard any similiar feedback. PCMforLess did inform they have heard that people who have made large changes like this have had O2 sensors fail and they have heard of parts, like a header having a coating that burns off and damages the O2 sensor. I know my shiny new Power Log had a dusty substance I blew out with the air compressor, so I think that may be the culprit!

Weather permitting this weekend, I will check out the O2 sensor and probably just replace it. I drove the Monte to work today (today, specfically, I report to a building 40 miles from home).

And today it stumbled a LOT less, almost not at all (still has the engine code), and actually, NOW I'm more impressed by the performance. It seemed to pull pretty good at all speeds when it did not stumble and could ramp up speed pretty quickly. So I'm thinking fix the O2 issue, burn the current tank of gas and get some fresh stuff in it and after consulting with Chibi, I think I need to look into a Wizairded CAI (but at the moment, my funds for performance toys are tapped). But I'm on the right path!!

Basically, despite my FIRST impressions, I think these mods are showing promise!!

 

Today, weather permitting (and so far it looks GORGEOUS out), I will be changing the failing O2 sensor on my Monte (having that changed and once I burn off the old fuel should make the ride more impressive). But I've driven it the last few days and it's definately different. More power and keeps the power through out higher speeds.

I finally pulled pics off my digital camera.... Since I switched from the plastic/fiberglass valve covers to aluminum ones from a late 4th gen F-Body, I lost the nice guides that would hold the plug wires. Now, these are the stock wires with 62K on them, they actually hold their shape pretty good, but that was NOT good enough for me.

I was going to by a cheap wire seperator kit (only for like two pieces), but before I was going to head to the parts store, I decided to check my spare Grand Am parts. As luck would have it, I found a 3100 v6 wire seperator that with a little work and a spray of paint was PERFECT!! I looked at it on the car, used the Dremel to remove a section of the original hanger then primed and painted.
One thing I did find.... When I put the valve covers on, I use all new gromets. With the wire seperator between the gromet and the washer built into the valve cover bolt would squish out when torqued properly. The rubber of a new gromet was really soft for this application. To avoid a "funny" look, I re-used an old gromet on this bolt (it did not appear to be dry rotting, but due to age and heat was not as soft and held it's form MUCH better when torqued down).





Bottom line, thanks to spare Grand Am parts from me helping part out a couple 3100's, I had a free fix to my plug wire issue!!