1/1/2013 Happy New Year

The past month has been devoted to wiring and other under dash tasks, in order to make sure all of the ancillary items are connected and operating. This is all necessary because the ECM will be checking into items like the air conditioning to determine if the engine fan should be turned on. If the ECM sees that the A/C is off then the engine fan will be controlled by the engine coolant temp as it's primary input. Therefore, the coolant wiring and the A/C, both, need to be operating correctly. Other inputs can include oil level, fuel pressure, door locks, security and the list goes over 100 items, although I had the  manufactures of my engine wiring harness eliminate a bundle of these inputs.

This photo shows the body wiring harness.

The engine wiring harness is almost completely hidden in the photo. The only engine wiring that can be seen is the coil of orange wires sitting on top of the transmission. This coil has the OBD plug that will be connected to a laptop for the final tuning. 

The ECM can be seen just above the gas pedal.

 Eventually, all of the wiring will be tucked out of sight.

With the ECM completed its' time to attempt an engine start and run.

I tried to download the run video but no such luck. I think the video may larger than wht this website will allow. Bottomline is that it started and ran as planned. I shifted it into gear and drove around the neighborhood. It didn't seem to be shifting so I temporarily connected a tach and Todd and I drove down our road. At approximately 20mph the tach was reading 2000rpm. Next I dug out the specs for my gear ratio, tire size and various transmission ratios and found that I was starting in second gear and it remained in  second gear.

I trailered the 33 out to a local Chevy dealership to have the Transmission Control Module (TCM) checked and possibly set. What I thought would be easy to upload, turned out to be rather difficult, due to required VIN numbers by GM. Jay E was very tenacious and this is what really paid off in the end. He was able to load the TCM with the programing from a GMC Yukon and this enabled the transmission to shift out of second gear which I found out was the the limp setting. Limp, as in being able to limp home if something drastic has happened to your trans.

Jay E attempted to load the programming from a 2013 Camero, with a LS3 and an 6 speed automatic. The guys at GM told him that in addition to the TCM and ECM this car also has a BCM (body control module) and all three are communicating with each other as the car moves. Take for example, if one of these modules detects one of the rear wheels turning too fast for the engine settings or whatever, than it makes adjustments to the ECM or TCM. They all have to be coordinated. Therefore, inorder to load programming to my 33 it was necessary to go to a GMC Yukon. Ok for now but this will have to change via my OBD.

The TCM is loading with standard GM programming which is not what I'm looking to keep. My next step is to eventually have an after market (HP Tuning) programming applied to the TCM.