Questions about drive by wire:

They go by many names, P01, P59, VPW, '0411 etc. Also covering E38 and newer here.
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DavidBraley
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Questions about drive by wire:

Post by DavidBraley »

If it helps any, my project will be using the older service # (P01) 12200411 or the (P59) 12586243 PCM.

Can anyone here share with me their experiences using drive by wire compared to drive by cable throttle body on a project? Is there any advantage to using drive by wire vs drive by cable?

I have a 8.1L project I’m working on that is built from an older Gen IV BBC, bumped to 496 cubic inches, and controlled with a GM LS/Vortec EFI system. Because I’m so new to tuning, I would like to use an existing bin that gets me close to the engine size form the get go. The only 8.1L bins out there for the PCM's I'm going to use are all drive by wire. I’m trying to decide if I should convert everything over to drive by wire and then use an existing 8.1L bin as a good starting point, or go with drive by cable and do some major changes to an original 6.0L bin instead. Or, is it possible to use a drive by cable throttle body with a drive by wire bin? (I'm guessing not...)

I’m also asking because I’m older (not necessarily wiser), and I like to keep my projects as simple as possible. I’m concerned about making something more complex when it doesn’t really need to be.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this.
-David

I'm a machinist... because engineers need heroes too.
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Tre-Cool
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Re: Questions about drive by wire:

Post by Tre-Cool »

why not just use an off the shelf holley kit designed for an ls1?

i'd imagine with a 496ci motor you'd want atleast a 90mm throttlebody from the later ls2/ls3 from a corvette & not a smaller 75mm truck throttlebody.
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DavidBraley
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Re: Questions about drive by wire:

Post by DavidBraley »

Tre-Cool wrote:why not just use an off the shelf holley kit designed for an ls1?

i'd imagine with a 496ci motor you'd want atleast a 90mm throttlebody from the later ls2/ls3 from a corvette & not a smaller 75mm truck throttlebody.
Your advice is wise for sure. One side of me says that I've got no business trying to understand any of this EFI tuning stuff. But the curious and stubborn side says to at least have a closer look.

I have a 92mm cable throttle body I purchased a while ago, and I'm making my own intake manifold for this engine. My conservative target output will be something close to 580 HP and 600 Torque. I know I can get that with a carb. If I pursue the EFI track I'm on, even the stock 8.1L bin I have will need a lot of work. I just wish there was a Tuner Pro xdf file for the 12612114 OS...

Thanks for the reply.
-David

I'm a machinist... because engineers need heroes too.
jlvaldez
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Re: Questions about drive by wire:

Post by jlvaldez »

take a look at the hp tuners forum. There's a lot of good info about tuning VE. Same process for this too.

Basically, when I tune a new engine setup, this is procedure I do
1) Gen 3 PCMs use cylinder volume, and VE. If you update your cylinder volume, your VE is very likely in the ball park to make it idle.
2) If cammed aggresively, I pull 15% fuel out below 1600 RPM as a general rule. Dpending on where I expect peak power to come in, I will add VE up top
3) I add base airflow (~4-6 g/s depending on displacement and cam)
4) Set base idle target RPM to 1000 RPM.
5) Increase base airflow across the board by 4-6 g/s
6) Make sure your injector information is correct.

This is enough to start it up. Even if the VE is way off, they will generally idle well enough for me to start adjusting VE to bring idle in line.
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DavidBraley
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Re: Questions about drive by wire:

Post by DavidBraley »

jlvaldez wrote:take a look at the hp tuners forum. There's a lot of good info about tuning VE. Same process for this too.

Basically, when I tune a new engine setup, this is procedure I do
1) Gen 3 PCMs use cylinder volume, and VE. If you update your cylinder volume, your VE is very likely in the ball park to make it idle.
2) If cammed aggresively, I pull 15% fuel out below 1600 RPM as a general rule. Dpending on where I expect peak power to come in, I will add VE up top
3) I add base airflow (~4-6 g/s depending on displacement and cam)
4) Set base idle target RPM to 1000 RPM.
5) Increase base airflow across the board by 4-6 g/s
6) Make sure your injector information is correct.

This is enough to start it up. Even if the VE is way off, they will generally idle well enough for me to start adjusting VE to bring idle in line.
Wow! Thank you so much for that reply. I will definitely use your advice.
-David

I'm a machinist... because engineers need heroes too.
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