Hello, new guy here. Just picked up a 09 4dr SS yesterday, taking full delivery of it saturday. Bought from a private dealer who has zero knowledge of the vehicle

I'm new to these cars but not new to turbocharging, my last car I tuned via laptop/piggyback on a garrett super60 at 18psi, due to lack of aftermarket support.

Now my question. The car I picked up has 52000mi, the only aftermarket items I can visually see without knowing specific cobalt items are, ZZP 3in downpipe with high flow cat, k&n SRI and a big old front mount that I couldn't find a brand name on. Sounds/looks like the stock diverter valve and the charge pipes are stock as well.

Upon taking the car on a few test drives, I noticed the car had a pretty decent amount of power and I was scared of the possibility of a bad/no tune given the aftermarket items installed.

On a 3rd gear pull while watching short term fuel trims, the tires broke free going about 70 if I had to guess. As that was happening, I looked up at the boost gauge and saw it was reading 25psi. My buddy was watching the trims under full boost and said it was actually pulling -17 so it's over fueling which was a small relief, and I have zero knock count.

I understand with the tires breaking, the boost will spike but it still seems awfully high, I thought I remember reading the stock boost was set at 15psi. I'm in upstate ny and it was only 40deg yesterday so temp isn't a factor.

Is there Anyway I can visually see if this car has a tune on it? Just based off what I've read on this site it would seem that it has to, but I'm always worried about someone else's previous work and if they did it correctly.

Thank you for reading my long post and help, I just don't want to buy a grenade

 

There is no way to know for sure if it's tuned without looking at the tune itself on HP Tuners. It sounds like it could be just GMS1. That intake, most really, will throw off the fuel trims that far.

The 3 bar GMS1 TMAP sensors are held in with one bolt instead of two and they have a blue sticker. That's about the only visual thing you can check as far as what tune it's running.

 

I recently picked up a 09 myself and all it had was a Hahn intake. The fuel trims were crazy... These cars need a tune for just an intake. Upon getting to the filter it was blacker than black. Replaced it and it ran better, but got a few more aftermarket parts and she's ready for a tune in a month or two. I'm just scared to know how long it ran untuned with this intake. The guy before me is about 58 years old so idk if he knew about the trims and all. But I know I'm stock tune for sure, barely even hits 15psi.

 

The only other information I have, that may be irrevelant, is that it has a "GM performance division" tag under the hood. They may all have this, i don't know. When I pick up the car this weekend I'll do a little more digging and testing

 

There are no visual cues aside for the 3bar map sensors to really tell if there is a tune, and that's not even an accurate way of gauging things considering that could mean the car just has a simple gms1 tune. The most definitive way to know is to read the tune file on the ecm and (more importantly) know what you're looking at in order to know if the car is tuned (which it very likely is) and to what extent.

 

u can check if its trifecta select a tune. try a run with both cruise control on and off, see if one has more power than the other. im assuming u had comp mode on since ur tires broke loose, traction control would stop that pretty quick, so leave traction control on, don't put it on comp mode and try a run, if it has less power, less boost, its a trifecta tune. could also still be a non select a tune trifecta tune.

yes they all have that

 

really? I used to have a Hahn intake, my ltft was at like 4, which is pretty good. with my k&n im at 7

 

I'll probably just keep the Hahn for now just for that fact that I didn't buy it Lol. Do have the stock intake too. I like a full cold air, not so sure about a short ram. I know both have pros and cons.

 

Doesn't matter with turbo car, turbo heats the air up anyway. K&n is what most like, it sounds great. And no worries about getting water in the intake. I always had wet dirty filter with my k&n. Got tired of it. Also had mud sludge in intake pipe from wet dust. K&n solved that problem. No idea how dust got past filter. Live down a very dusty road

 

And oh yes hahns piping rusts. It's normal steel as apposed to aluminum

 

Yeah I know my Hahn one has little rust already and I never thought about the the heated air. Duh Joe. And the intake is on the bottom of the list at the moment. Gotta put the rest of my stuff on before the tune in a month or so. Waiting for this dang weather to break

 

Ya I had to order a new tune. Have a zfr coming in the mail

 

I still have one Hahn part, upper intercooler pipe, got a zzp one waiting to go on to, but will do it when I put on zfr. I bought all Hahn stuff , then I saw my lower charge pipe on the inside and Hahn died to me

 

So until I can figure out for sure what I'm working with, do you guys think it would be smart to send it out for a can tune?

Just based off the amount of generic data I can read with my OTC evo, I can for the most part tell that it has some sort of tune on there, I have a innovative wideband left over from my last build, which I'm planning on putting in, so I'll at least be able to watch the AFR.

But if it's got a solid trifecta tune or something on it, I don't want to down grade. I'll have to drive it a bit more this weekend and see what I got. This was all on a test drive of the car so I didn't have a lot of time to look deeper, mainly just watched STFT and glanced at the long term.

Thoughts?

 

I would take it easy on the car until you know for sure what kind of tune is on it
Hey thread pop back up from a while ago where a guy bought one from a dealership that had an e85 tune did know about it and ran it on 93.... Not good
You really need to find a local with HP Tuners theyare really the only one that's going to be able to tell you exactly what is tuned on the car right at this moment
You can email trifecta and they should be able to tell you if a tune has ever been done for that car
And you could also email GM to see if it is ever had a GM stage 1 tune

 

U could always email trifecta and give em ur vin and see if they got u on file. Or just goto dealer and reflash to stock. Oh and u don't need a wideband , car has a wideband in it, u just need something to read it, like an intercepted gauge or dashdaq or something along those lines

 

Following this thread, as I am in the same boat as the OP

 

sounds like a tune is on that car if your breaking the tires free while accelerating to 70mph. How much boost are you seeing on the boost guage? It can only be Trifecta or HPtuners. My gut instinct tells me HPtuners. if its the gm stage 1 tune, it would only spike to 20 or 21 psi.

 

Have you noticed your Boost bouncing all over the place or does it stay constant? My spikes in the 22-23 psi and then it drops 4-5 psi as I am accelerating.

 

Get it tuned asap. I bought mine not knowing it had an E85 tune with an assload of timing. Didn't take much to crack the pistons. Only 7 days actually. Never trust unknown prior mods. ZZP sells their canned tune for around $125 and can set it up properly for your mods. That would get you by safely for now.

 

yea, when I sell my car. Im making sure the person understands what they are getting lol. Not trading to a dealer. If I do trade to a dealer, I have the stock tune on another ECU, I will put it on.

 

Just an update on this.

Thanks to good old NewYork state, this car will not pass state inspection because the o2,02 heater and catalyst monitors will not set after doing multiple drive cycles to the t. That pretty much verifies that there is a tune on it and a few codes have been deleted. So they will not set.

I had my buddy at the gm dealer go in with the tech 2 and reflash the PCM back to stock to help pass inspection. I think/hope with the catted DP and built in non fouler I should be ok and not throw any cat codes.

My new question is... with the aftermarket items on this car, ZZP 3" catted DP, ZZP Intercooler,K&N SRI, will the now stock PCM "learn" these items for fuel trim purposes? I plan on staying out of boost until I can ship the PCM out to ZZP to get the can tune, so I'm literally driving it from the dealer to my house which is maybe 15miles. And parking it until I get the tune.

Thoughts?

 

Why stay out of boost, if it's back to stock u should be fine. Won't hurt the car. U just won't make any more power than stock cause it learns down to 260 and 260 regardless what u mods u have. Only thing is worry about for passing inspection is the downpipe. Everything else I'd say won't fail u. But that one idk. In glad we don't have to worry bout that stuff in Canada here. No inspections or emissions rules for cars. Intake will mess with fuel trims but not by much usually

 

The kn will fuzz your trims a little bit but nothing that is overly harmful should be just fine to drive until you get it tuned and if the tune is stock it should pass inspection so long as the car is running right your proly right it didnt pass because there was a few codes tuned out