A friend of mine has a GM stage 3 pcm that he is looking to get rid of for pretty cheap. Now I have the stage 2 with a GM tune on my car right now. Would it be worth it buiying it and putting it on? Any gains? Pretty much bolt up and go or what? Thanks for any help.

 

Stage 3 is pretty decent, but just putting it on keeps the car at basically the same as stage 2, except it has a 2nd fuel map for 100 octane and an adjustable rev limiter. it also has a control function to run nitrous. I dont really think its worth it unless you have the supporting mods (Dual pass, other cooling) and better flowing exhaust.

 

Well I have the dual pass sitting here and I have a 1 3/4 header and 3"DP from clear image on the car. So are we looking at pretty much no gains at all?

 

i dont think so. not just putting the PCM in. Now, put some 100 octane in it and set it to high octane mode and you should see some improvement. RoelSS dynoed like 275 whp and 307wtq with 100 octane and the 50shot of nitrous.

 

the only difference would be the high octane mode and the preset 50shot calibration. The tune is slightly different and is designed for a 2.9 pulley

 

Well I have a 2.9 on as well. Sorry I shoulda stated that in the first post.

 

in that case your getting nothing but a different tune and a competition mode

 

yea but by 2.9 he means 2.99

 

Yes I have nate's 2.9. I am just seeing if it would even be worth it at all and If I would know any difference.

 

well you can make your own race fuel

sorry don't know if you would notice a difference with reg gas..but i'm sure you would with race fuel

 

So pretty much I would be getting this just to run a 100 octane mode? I am more worried about driving it normal with my usual 94 octane

 

The Stage 3 PCM in normal mode is a little tweaked to run the slightly smaller pulley.

 

yea but would he notice the difference in driving the car

i kinda want to know too

 

no, prob wont notice anything at all

 

Yeah so I don't think it would be worth just to get to have to put 100 octane in just to get a difference.

 

It's great if you plan on doing these things:
Adding nitrous
Swapping valves/valve springs and changing the balance shafts to run it higher than 7000 rpm.

Otherwise it's a 300 dollar paperweight (honestly) and it's locked so you can't fool around with the parameters in hp tuners.

Gains? No...there may be a tune for the 76mm pulley but it's just a minor adjustment you can do with hp tuners.

 

Well thank you. So you are saying thats its wortless to get it then.

 

If your not planning on using nitrous and don't wanna lose your a/c I say it is worthless.

 

oh yeah...good non-selling point i forgot to mention...

 

So....still not sure...really wasn't planning on running nitrous I guess

 

were you planning on using your A/C??

 

well....
I just sold my Stg 3 as many of you will recall....
Let me tell ya'z.... I'm not saying my car was the fastest in the world.... (obvoiusly it isn't, but pretty damn close... lol)
With that ECU, and my straight flowing 2.5 header- back exhaust it spanked a **** load of cars.... BMW Z3, 2 SRT4 Calibers, and 1 SRT Neon and many so called "Fast Civics".... Let me say this: if you don't want a custom tune, and wire up the bypass in order to use the A/C, and plan on doing a little nitrous... this ECU is your best bet... I loved it, and would do it again!

 

Then why the hell did you sell it?

And it shouldn't be a prob that the pcm is for an 05 and I have a 06?

 

I could see it being usefull if you wanted to run meth and use race gas mode and be able to turn race gas mode off when not running the meth. Your car would be pretty easy to put back to stock for warranty purposes wouldnt it? just take out the nozzle for meth, tuck the lines out of the way, they probably wont notice the mount in the trunk for the pump and resevoir, and you could either chance it that they wont notice the pulley if its close to stg2 pulley, or you could just put back your stg2 pulley. Thats actually what I'm thinking about doing,lol. Beacuse I'm trying to figure out what I should be buying to get the most bang for buck on upgrading my car while still keeping warranty. Thats the main reason i havent ordered any parts yet. I'm gonna order the 2.9 this week anyway though, that should be my 1st step, only thing is I dont have a credit card or paypal,lol, so i need to figure out how I'm gonna order it, probably just gonna give me buddy some $$$ to order it.

 

I sold it because I sold my car, thats why. It would be pointless to trade in my car w/ all my mods.

Your gas gauge will be backwards if you use an 05 ecu in an 06.


yea, if you plan on using a 2.9 pulley on stage 2 make sure u put a 2.99 pulley when running stage three.

o and i forgot to mention that my Stage 3 beat a stage 2 w/2.9