Where I have been and where I am going...

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Sinister Fiero
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Where I have been and where I am going...

Post by Sinister Fiero »

Enter: Sinister Performance, LLC.

That's right, I finally made it official this year. Some of you might remember me as "gmtuners" or have heard of a "darth chip" or "darth swap", etc. I have been doing engine swaps in all types of vehicles (not limited to Fieros) for several years now and the quality of my work has improved every time I do a swap, unlike most of my competitors who haven't yet figured out how to use a tape measure nor a level. My swap labor rate is reasonable and I strive to do each swap per customer unique specifications. You won't find me doing swaps to cars that immediately go up for sale on eBay or used auto listings by me. That is not the type of work I desire to do.

I have been doing custom chips for 6 years now and specialize in 3rd gen TPI, OBD-1 3800 PCMs, and 91-93 3.4 DOHC systems, but can do many more. I now have the ability to reprogram 96-05 GM Trucks, Corvette, GTO, Camaro and Firebird. (Sorry no OBD-2 3800 software just yet but it is coming). My rates are extremely competitive ($40 per OBD-1 chip and $80 per OBD-2 PCM reflash). What sets my custom programming apart from the competition is the amount of information I use from the customer to lay down a custom tune. The more information I am provided with (IE: scan data), the better. I also offer a 1-year, no-hassle guarantee on all of my services which means if you need some tweaks after the inital tune, I will take care of it.

Those of you who know me also know that I welcome competition. Competition is what drives me to make my products and services better and better. I have noticed in this type of business that if no or little competition exists, usually the vendor doing the work tends to become lazy and/or charges outragious amounts of money for the amount of work actually done and the poor quality of that work.

For those of you desiring to contract my services I can tackle custom chip orders immediately, but turn around time usually takes 3-5 days. The shop schedule for engine swaps and performance mods is completely full until early next year, but if you are interested please drop me a line so I can pencil you in on the schedule.
OVERKILL IS UNDERRATED
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Custom GM OBD1 & OBD2 Tuning | Engine Conversions | www.gmtuners.com
SappySE107
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Post by SappySE107 »

What performance gains have you gotten with the stock 3.4 DOHC?
SappySE107
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Post by SappySE107 »

btw, seems our companies overlap on some things. Im in warsaw indiana:) Id love to meet up with you sometime. Ill be out there in 3 weeks dyno tuning a grand prix with a 3400 swap.
Kohburn
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Post by Kohburn »

well now that my autoprom is back and working I should be able to get some datalogs with wideband to send you -- can't wait to have it running well enough for a track run
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Aaron
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Post by Aaron »

Kohburn wrote:well now that my autoprom is back and working I should be able to get some datalogs with wideband to send you -- can't wait to have it running well enough for a track run
Darth, when you get Kohburn's info, PLEASE save it as I think the chip for the turbo Z34 will start out identical to his. Then I will get some Wideband O2 info and scantool info for you after the initial setup.

Kohburn, your turbo 3.4 is pretty much 'stock' right? As far as the motor goes?

I hope to have pretty much the same setup, except with a ball bearing turbo and an intercooler that isn't as cool, but should function the same if not better. But for all reasonable thinking, the tuning should be nearly the same between the two. Your motor is basically my Z34's test engine...hehe
88GT 3.4 DOHC Turbo
Gooch wrote:Way to go douche. You are like a one-man, fiero-destroying machine.
Kohburn
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Post by Kohburn »

Aaron wrote:Kohburn, your turbo 3.4 is pretty much 'stock' right? As far as the motor goes?
motor is internally stock - haven't done anything to cam timing yet - its running on a grand prix turbo 7727 ecm with a 2bar map setup and 36# GTP injectors
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Aaron
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Post by Aaron »

Kohburn wrote:
Aaron wrote:Kohburn, your turbo 3.4 is pretty much 'stock' right? As far as the motor goes?
motor is internally stock - haven't done anything to cam timing yet - its running on a grand prix turbo 7727 ecm with a 2bar map setup and 36# GTP injectors
Huh. I wonder if it will make a difference that I'm planning on running a stock 3.4 ECM, but with the TGP 2 bar map encoded in. But I also want to run the GTP injectors.
88GT 3.4 DOHC Turbo
Gooch wrote:Way to go douche. You are like a one-man, fiero-destroying machine.
Sinister Fiero
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Post by Sinister Fiero »

SappySE107 wrote:btw, seems our companies overlap on some things. Im in warsaw indiana:) Id love to meet up with you sometime. Ill be out there in 3 weeks dyno tuning a grand prix with a 3400 swap.
Truth be told I am not really doing much with the 3.4 DOHC's right now other than what Kohburn and Aaron have mentioned. I was doing some "beta" testing with custom chips using the 94-95 MAF based 3.4 DOHC PCMs but my main beta tester got in a bad car accident. I have a Fiero sitting in my driveway that has a 3.4 DOHC in it with one of my 91-93 based custom chips and it runs flawlessly so I have really had no motivation to mess with perfection and convert it over to the MAF based PCM even though the engine itself is one of those 91-95 GM crate service motors.

As for the 3400 I have been doing custom chips for a british car engine conversion company for some time now utilizing the 7730 ECM. I have done several chips for the newer 3100 and 3400 engines with great success.

But in all honestly my shop schedule is very "bogged down" with 3800 stuff. One of these days I might get time to mess with my own stuff again... But you have a good idea we should meet up sometime. Where are you doing your dyno testing?
Sinister Fiero
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Post by Sinister Fiero »

aaron wrote:
Kohburn wrote:well now that my autoprom is back and working I should be able to get some datalogs with wideband to send you -- can't wait to have it running well enough for a track run
Darth, when you get Kohburn's info, PLEASE save it as I think the chip for the turbo Z34 will start out identical to his. Then I will get some Wideband O2 info and scantool info for you after the initial setup.

Kohburn, your turbo 3.4 is pretty much 'stock' right? As far as the motor goes?

I hope to have pretty much the same setup, except with a ball bearing turbo and an intercooler that isn't as cool, but should function the same if not better. But for all reasonable thinking, the tuning should be nearly the same between the two. Your motor is basically my Z34's test engine...hehe
I always save the info but you have to keep in mind that no two cars are exactly identical. I'm sure the information gleaned from Kohburn's logs might help you but I don't want you to get the impression that they are going to be 100% compatible with your setup. Experience has shown there are always differences.
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Post by Aaron »

I understand that completely, I just want something I can start with. So long as the A:F is somewhere between 10 and 14 and it isn't pinging, it'll be fine until I could get you that info.

I also just learned that Kohburn is using the TGP ECU, whereas I was hoping to use my factory ECU with the TGP update. I don't know if that makes a difference or not though.
88GT 3.4 DOHC Turbo
Gooch wrote:Way to go douche. You are like a one-man, fiero-destroying machine.
Sinister Fiero
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Post by Sinister Fiero »

aaron wrote: I also just learned that Kohburn is using the TGP ECU, whereas I was hoping to use my factory ECU with the TGP update. I don't know if that makes a difference or not though.
The TGP programming in the DOHC ECM does work. However, the last time I tried it on my car it experienced an unstable idle. It didn't stall nor did it have a hard misfire, but you could tell something wasn't right. I played around with the timing and fuel settings and did get it to clean up a lot but it still wasn't perfect. However I ran out of time and had to get back to work on a customer's car so I put my DOHC chip back in and that is where I left it.
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Aaron
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Post by Aaron »

Sinister Fiero wrote:
aaron wrote: I also just learned that Kohburn is using the TGP ECU, whereas I was hoping to use my factory ECU with the TGP update. I don't know if that makes a difference or not though.
The TGP programming in the DOHC ECM does work. However, the last time I tried it on my car it experienced an unstable idle. It didn't stall nor did it have a hard misfire, but you could tell something wasn't right. I played around with the timing and fuel settings and did get it to clean up a lot but it still wasn't perfect. However I ran out of time and had to get back to work on a customer's car so I put my DOHC chip back in and that is where I left it.
So money aside, would you advise me looking for a TGP ECM or do you think we can get the DOHC one to work just as well?

Considering this is my Dad's daily driver, a smooth idle would be very nice, as would overall smooth drivability. That is what attracted me to the turbo route, Tim's turbo Z34 ran just liek stock, just a helluva lot faster.

Thanks Darth!
88GT 3.4 DOHC Turbo
Gooch wrote:Way to go douche. You are like a one-man, fiero-destroying machine.
Sinister Fiero
Posts: 665
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:10 pm
Location: Waterloo, Indiana
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Post by Sinister Fiero »

aaron wrote:So money aside, would you advise me looking for a TGP ECM or do you think we can get the DOHC one to work just as well?

Considering this is my Dad's daily driver, a smooth idle would be very nice, as would overall smooth drivability. That is what attracted me to the turbo route, Tim's turbo Z34 ran just liek stock, just a helluva lot faster.

Thanks Darth!
Aaron, I think the DOHC ECM should work just fine unless we ultimately prove otherwise. We know it runs and we know it can be made to idle. Probably just going to require some fine tuning which isn't a big deal.
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Aaron
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Post by Aaron »

Sinister Fiero wrote:
aaron wrote:So money aside, would you advise me looking for a TGP ECM or do you think we can get the DOHC one to work just as well?

Considering this is my Dad's daily driver, a smooth idle would be very nice, as would overall smooth drivability. That is what attracted me to the turbo route, Tim's turbo Z34 ran just liek stock, just a helluva lot faster.

Thanks Darth!
aaron, I think the DOHC ECM should work just fine unless we ultimately prove otherwise. We know it runs and we know it can be made to idle. Probably just going to require some fine tuning which isn't a big deal.
Good. I'll stick with it, we are slowly starting to gather parts, not 100% set on the project yet, and time is an issue. We still need a new welder and some saws.

I am going to guess we'll start it over summer sometime, as my Dad is really anal about only 1 car being torn apart at a time, and my Fiero has the garage reserved for now :thumbup:
88GT 3.4 DOHC Turbo
Gooch wrote:Way to go douche. You are like a one-man, fiero-destroying machine.
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