Corvette LS1 Power Tuning

Power tuning today's computerized engines is a highly technical skill.  Power tuners use computer software programs to re-map the car's computer. Each bolt on power part you add to your engine changes the computers air fuel ratio. Only power computer tuning can maximize the performance improvements of each bolt on power part. One of the popular re-mapping programs is LS1 Power Tuning.

Power tuning is done on a rear wheel dyno with the engine running and the tuning computer connected up to the car's computer system. The car is run and accelerated from 20 mph to 140 mph, usually two or three times. Before any changes are made to the car's computer a base line snapshot is made of the previous settings and saved. That way they can always come back to the original settings.

• Install up-grade parts before tuning
• Position vehicle on the Dyno before tuning
• Run for base-line stats before tuning

Next the tuner begins altering the previous settings in 100 rpm increments, tuning the fuel and air mixtures all the way across the RPM range. Power tuning usually extracts extra horsepower without changing any mechanical components of the engine.

Just look at the intake manifold and the intake ports of the LS1 engine, and you see why power tuning this engine really works. To re-tune your engine for maximum horsepower and monster torque throughout the entire RPM range, just plug a power programmer into the diagnostic port of your  Corvette. The power programmer is more than a power tuning chip, it's actually an "automotive tuning computer". In addition to power gains and the potential for gas mileage improvements, it will let you increase shift firmness, reset your cooling fans for a cooler running, more powerful engien, and increase you top-speed limiter for higher speed-rated tires. It will also automatically recalibrate your speedometer, odometer, and transmission shift points for custom tire sizes and rear axle gear ratios.

The Chevrolet Gen III V8 (also known by its General Motors hardware/option code of LS1) debuted in the 1997 fifth-generation ('C5') Chevrolet Corvette. It was soon fitted to GM's Chev Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. From 1999, the Gen III found a home in Australian- and New Zealand-market Holden Commodores, Statesmans and Monaros, and the Middle Eastern and South African Chevrolet-badged export derivatives, Chev Lumina and Caprice. Until recently, modification to the LS1 has been limited to simple intake and exhaust system hardware changes for better breathing, or in the case of modified airflow meters, to 'trick' the standard PCM.

Written by : JMC