Which ECM for an LS7?

[James OLC]

So... I've pretty much had it with the MSD (now painless) ECM that I'm using in the OLC. Biggest issue is that it's batch fire and on the track is dumping a bunch of excess fuel making it safe but soft. There are a host of other small issues as well and I'm ready to bite the bullet and move on.

I need something that is compatible with a cable drive TB and is pretty much plug and play with the LS7. The program we have for the Katech that Turn Key has for us is pretty decent but it's going to need a tweak ... But it's a starting point...

Suggestions?

[Rhino]

I've always been a fan of the stock PCM and harnesses. Outside of that, I have quite a few friends that have great things to say about Big Stuff lately. I believe it is a sequential system that appears to be pretty easy to tune.

[parsonsj]

Check out Holley's new Dominator. It has native support for all LSx platforms, including 58 tooth crank sensor, dual wide-band, and drive-by-wire.

jp

[CarlC]

James, I'll talk to the guy that tuned mine at Optima. E38, but I don't know about the cable throttle body. It will support everything yours needs and more, plus everyone supports tuning it. He may be around tomorrow, else it's next Monday due to the holiday.

I'd swap to DBW in a hearbeat. It's tougher in an LS1/6 with the earlier PCM.

Oh, and brain cramps on my part. Give me a call at your convienence to discuss your email.

[neki67]

If/when you would take a DBW TB into consideration, you could go for the entire LS7 GMPP set up including the fastest and strongest ECM GM is offering, the E67. Fully tuneable with EFI-live or HP-tuners . . .

[James OLC]

John - I would love to trust Holley's stuff but I was one of the guinea pigs for the Eliminator ignitions when they first came out and it cost me an engine due to a bad ground on their circuit board. It looks interesting but for now I (unfortunately) have just enough personal bias that I would have a hard time taking the plunge.

Carl - let me know if/when you talk to your guy. He was they one who really got me thinking about this. Left a message - give me a call or shoot me an email.

Rene - the GMPP is a good system and I think that the E67 is amongst the best possible ECMs available right now. It's definately an option but I would prefer to stick with the cable TB - because you never know when your not going to have a throttle body (or... more realistically... you never know when you are going to need a bigger TB).

The other issue with the GMPP "kit" is that there is a lot of fuzzy information out there - some of it from GMPP. In some of their literature they say that it is not reprogrammable. In other places they say that it won't work over 7,100 rpm. It makes it tough to know for sure that it's going to work.

[Cris@JCG]

Stock one James! I always have Speartech rework my wiring harness or build me one from scratch... I had four harness that I sent out to them last month.. My 2 cents!

[Mike Norris]

Hey James,

With a cable drive TB you are limited and I would be curious as to what tooth crank reluctor you have (24 or 58). If you have a 24 tooth, then a 12200411 GM ECM (1999-2002 Camaro SS) will work great. If you have a 58 tooth, then you are limited due to the factory GM units (E40, E38 and E67) only running a drive by wire TB.

If you have a 58 tooth cranshaft, I would go to a E38 and a DBW GM 90mm TB and accel pedal.

Otherwise a 58 tooth and drive by cable is limited to either the new Holley setup as JP mentioned, or you could use an LPE 58 to 24 adapter box and use the 12200411 ECM. The new Holley setups have proven to work quite well on the 58 tooth setups and working on a couple things for the 24 tooth packages.

I just have had issues with the LPE box at times. Brian Finch uses one that I tuned for him in his second Gen that runs pretty well though :-)

If you do go to a factory ECM setup, Speartech is your best choice for the harness or the complete setup.

Feel free to call me if you like. I have to get out to take care of Steve Rupp's car before long so I could do this one also. Hope this helps.

Mike Norris

[neki67]

Rene - It's definately an option but I would prefer to stick with the cable TB - because you never know when your not going to have a throttle body (or... more realistically... you never know when you are going to need a bigger TB).

The other issue with the GMPP "kit" is that there is a lot of fuzzy information out there - some of it from GMPP. In some of their literature they say that it is not reprogrammable. In other places they say that it won't work over 7,100 rpm. It makes it tough to know for sure that it's going to work.

James, 2 things from first hand experience:

1 - When you have a DTC that throws a code (mind you; this only goes for certain trouble codes!) to the ECM to let it go in limp mode, it will only let the engine idle! Highly frustrating! You can still drive but just very slowly. In my case I had the ECM mounted in such a way that there was too much tension on the connectors, intermittently giving me a DTC and no throttle! Took me quite some time to figure out what was going on but since I remounted the ECM, everything has been fine.

2 - The GMPP E67 is fully programmable! It's now fully supported by both HP-tuners and EFI-live. Since I have EFI-live and Mike N. is primarily using HP-Tuners, Mike couldn't just sent me a tune so he's now helping me out to (more or less) tune it myself with him guiding me through it! BIG KUDO's to Mike.

I can understand that you would like or need a bigger TB but I think the aftermarket will react to that as well soon (if they already didn't).

[James OLC]

Mike,
I have a 58 tooth crankshaft.
I'll give you a shout next week - have a great Thanksgiving!
James