Newbie VF Owner

[lamb_daiquiri]

G'day,

Apologies in advance if this is all addressed somewhere else, I'm a bit over whelmed by the sheer volume of information on this site. I'm totally new to PCM hacking, I've been into cars for many years and done an EFI conversion on my Datto with a Megasquirt but have never owned a modern commodore before. I'm looking for a push in the right direction to start learning how to mod my VF SSV Sport wagon. 6L, completely stock as far as I'm aware. First I want to "have a look under the hood" and see how all the tuning is working and what you can do with it.

I'm also curious as to what you actually get when you buy a "tune", i.e. several places offer an OTR and a tune that nets 30kW (or something like that), I find it hard to believe that's all inlet restriction. I want to know what they actually do, do they tune it for premium and dial in some more spark advance? Do people on here have tunes? What do people do with transmission tunes? How hard is it to upgrade hardware/ software?

Any how, keen to learn, please point me in the right direction.

[oldn64]

G'day,

Apologies in advance if this is all addressed somewhere else, I'm a bit over whelmed by the sheer volume of information on this site. I'm totally new to PCM hacking, I've been into cars for many years and done an EFI conversion on my Datto with a Megasquirt but have never owned a modern commodore before. I'm looking for a push in the right direction to start learning how to mod my VF SSV Sport wagon. 6L, completely stock as far as I'm aware. First I want to "have a look under the hood" and see how all the tuning is working and what you can do with it.

I'm also curious as to what you actually get when you buy a "tune", i.e. several places offer an OTR and a tune that nets 30kW (or something like that), I find it hard to believe that's all inlet restriction. I want to know what they actually do, do they tune it for premium and dial in some more spark advance? Do people on here have tunes? What do people do with transmission tunes? How hard is it to upgrade hardware/ software?

Any how, keen to learn, please point me in the right direction.

Firstly welcome Lamb......Bloody nice cars these. I have a VE SSV wagon s2 manual at home. Your VF seems wrong and actually should have a 6.2L LS3 not the 6L LS2.... what does the engine code state on the plaque on the tower of the passenger side suspension? Do you have the LS3 badge on the front bumper?

OTR and tune is more about idle quality and charge/air destiny/temp than restriction. Yes there is a small restriction as the variable length inlet plastics take place etc BUT the heat soak that these get is rediculous. (I have not done mine yet as I do not drive this normally during the day as my wife thinks I will loose my license. So seeing she just putts around I am not of a great hurry to give her more getup and go.)

From factory these are a little rich and just playing with fuel maps can net good gains. However, to do more than fuel you will be looking at changing exhuast and then cam and lifters etc etc. If yours is auto (whihc from the pressures and shift it sounds like) you will probably notice light ticking in your motor. This is common and designed as it is the AFM lifters i believe. We are about to remove these with a mates car as it is driving him nuts and more so when I pointed it out to him and now he hears it all the time. Every auto I have drive has it whereas the manuals dont. Realistically I do not get the idea of shutting cylinders down. (Like I understand the idea behind it but it really does not save that much fuel.) Besides mine get 9L/100 on the highway and approx 13L/100 in the city. Mind you i generally dont sit in traffic all too often for silly times as I am not in Melbourne itself.

Your biggest thing to keep in the back of your mind. Rotate your tyres every 10,000klms. and do a wheel alignment. These car often have tyre wear issues and will kill a set of tyres (normally driven) in 25,000klms if not kept on top of. I just replaced the tyres on my SS (yes it is lowered) and the alignment had crabbed 5 degrees since last alignment. (my SV6 has the same idea and my mates SS UTE does too) Keep on top of it or you will be replacing tyres regularly.

Traction control off (properly) and HUD are nice in the VF, but they can bite you quickly. I prefer traction control off as I want to know what the car is going to do, not what it thinks it will do. Traction control off will speed up your throttle response approx .5sec which does make a huge difference. You can also get ODBII units that plug in that will remove the delay altogether.

One thing is that the VE/F uses ELM and not ALDL like the older units so at this point tunerpro is not a solution for tuning and you really only have options of either HPTuners or EFI LIVE, both with varying option and price models.

Above all enjoy the new ride. Holden has done a bloody amazing job at these and they do drive nicely for a road car. (I dont like the crappy understeer torana style, but what do you get when you front steer)

cheers
oldn64

[antus]

on the topic of OTR, you can log a power pull and watch the MAP. Assuming 100kpa is atmospheric pressure, the number read is how many kpa below that. Typically you might expect to see something like 94-96kpa mix, for 4-6-kpa restriction. One thing I was really suprised about when I did my efilive training was how the OTR they tested actually measured more restriction than the factory intake. It seems the factory ones actually breathe quite well. But dont take my word for it. Once you have some data logging you'll be able to see the numbers.

[vlad01]

I had the same experience with OTR on my VP, it was worse than an already poor factory box and it lost a fair bit of peak power.

I think it wasn't until VT they got the stock airbox decent, up to VS they used the one that was designed for the na VL.

As far as I heard the VE onward airboxes are really good.

[lamb_daiquiri]

Thanks for the replies guys. I actually have an ELM cable already for the outgoing Eurotrash car I have. So HPTuners and EFILive are two options is that it with the VE/VF? I'll check them out when I get a chance.

antus, do you do your power run in EFILive? I agree data logging is the best place to start looking for power. You'd also get to see what the IAT is doing.

VF Series 1, like VE series 1 carried over the drive train options from the previous model, the LS3 was introduced in the series II VF. It was a surprise to me also that the VF Sportwagon had no manual option although I'm sure if you were keen you could swap in a TR6060 instead of the 6L80e that's in there. Mechanically at least, I'm not sure how the software side of it would go.

Thanks for the tip on the wheel alignment, I wonder why they creep? Anyway, I have to agree it's a great car to drive, handles great and has plenty of go.

Looking at the standard intake it looks like a lot of engineering effort has gone into it with the various resonance chambers. Whether they're for noise suppression or Helmholtz tuning I couldn't tell you. One of the ex Holden Engineers at work might know.

Cheers