westers performance ecm installed

[matt-max]

installed the hipo westers tune in the tahoe late tonight and went for a brief drive.

15psi boost gauge is pegged in most of third gear! gonna need to mount the spa digital that's lying around instead i guess....

a quick powerbrake gives some smoke from the exhaust and quite a bit from the tires too.

will run the g-tech on it tomorrow and maybe give the boat a tow to see what it feels like with a load and watch the egt's.

have not had the water injection hooked up for a while, been waiting for this program.....

for those wondering about whether or not the 1999+ factory programming can be improved upon via aftermarket ecm, wonder no more. the improvement is big.

matt

[ 10-30-2004, 05:52 AM: Message edited by: matt-max ]

[matt-max]

off to the top-secret site this morning for some g-tech monitored acceleration trials.

the 6.5td in the tahoe is stock except for kennedy's 3.5" exhaust. dirty factory air filter in factory box. 58k miles. no turbo-master or turbo boost foolers of any sort. no charge cooling of any type either.

last time i weighed in at 5800# with 1/2-tank of fuel but i've yanked the water-injection and the spare tire and mounting bracket since then. half-tank of fuel again today and i entered 5800# into g-tech, will weigh it to see how far off i am, maybe 100-150# too heavy?

played around with diffent launch techniques on acceleration runs, finding the best results with auto-4wd on and brake-torquing until the rears spin. this is the first time i've been in 6.5td that needed 4wd on dry pavement to keep from burning up the tires!

best time of four runs was 16.67 seconds @ 84.5 mph with a 0-60 of 8.84 seconds. max egt did not exceed 900 degrees pre-turbo.

switching to the horsepower measuring function, it seems like 2wd gives better results. figures varied depending upon launch technique, but the best of 6 runs was 207hp!

time for a new intake setup, as the filter-minder is sucked in big-time now. may rig up a custom cummins set-up......and probably be good to reinstall that water injection system....with a bit of methanol too.

looking for solid 15's at 90+ and sub-8 second 0-60's.....

matt

[david]

Matt,
What is this ecm you bought??
And how much and where?????
Please, it looks interesting>
David :eek:

[Dihrdbowti]

Matt-Max didn't you do a L56 to L65 ECM swap last year? I take it it wasn't enough? Any seat of the pants data yet? is there supposed to be a MPG increase? (providing you can keep your foot out of it :D )

[matt-max]

owner's name is lyndon and he programs the ecm's for heath as well as kennedy and probably most of the other resellers out there. he offers a LB7 duramax ecm that is supposed to be good for 230hp extra too!

find out more at: http://westers_garage.eidnet.org/
or search for westers garage, he is in canada.

the program i am running is custom for my truck and vin and is his 'hot' or 'extreme' setup, although even towing 6000# of 25.5' boat and tandem trailer up very steep hills with my foot to the floor yesterday (would you believe it was 75+ degrees here?) did not get the egt gauge over 1000 degrees.

yes, i ran the 2001 L65 program for close to a year while trying out other programs from heath and westers along the way. the L65 yielded a best of 171hp or thereabouts with heath's turbo-master mechanical boost controller. (with stock L56, it put out 127ish hp.)

it ran well but stepping out of a 400+hp duramax into a 170hp tahoe was underwhelming to say the least. my goal with the tahoe has been to get to stock duramax performance levels of acceleration (where it is now) and horsepower and torque (still got a ways to go here).

with the L65 programming i tried running both heath's mechanical turbo-master as well as kennedy's electronic boost control and each added boost and power but the mechanical unit kept the boost more consistent while the electronic unit seemed to mimic the stock boost pattern of in/out and up/down variation, just at higher boost levels. neither gave what i was looking for though.

i have not found a spot for an intercooler on the tahoe so the water and methanol injection setup was added. i will be hooking it back up eventually to see how it does...supposed to be good for 30-40hp with the alcohol....who knows....

[matt-max]

seat of the pants says big difference, especially third and fourth gear. where the L65 programming ran out of pep, now the truck just pulls pretty hard through 80mph and keeps on going. highway performance is much improved. i have not towed heavy with the tahoe much because there are other more suitable trucks on hand, but i expect the difference will be great there too.

not sure about mileage....with the L56 i got close to 20mpg on the highway at 65mph as the best.

keep in mind that the westers program does not use an add-on boost controller of any type and also changes, among many other things, the tranmission shift points and firmness. according to lyndon, all this can be done within the ecm more effectively.

give it a try! he is very easy to work with and reponsive to (welcomes!) custmoer feedback. in fact, the main reason i wound up with his product is to simplify the communication process rather than going through a third party. he does charge a bit more than his resellers though.

matt

[izak]

Was running the L65 ECU worth the trouble? I was just starting to look into that for my Tahoe. I have not had the chance to research the cost or setup yet.

[matt-max]

definitely! the tahoe went from under 130hp to over 170hp by blocking the egr system and modififying the upper intake, adding kennedy's 3.5" exhaust, changing the timing to -1.94 and using the factory programming for a 2001 3500hd.

doing the programming cost me about $100. i used autotrader.com to find the vin for an automatic-equipped 6.5td 3500hd medium duty truck and supplied that info to the service manager at the gmc dealership for him to program into the stock ecm. simple enough?

and yes, the 40hp addition is noticeable.....

matt