95 G20 conversion van

I have a 95 Chevy conversion van I am looking to improve performance on. I am not looking to make it a fire breathing pavement pounding asphalt melting machine. Just looking to grab the low hanging fruit so to speak.

I use this van to pull a 16 foot travel trailer for vacation travel with the family. Other than being a backup vehicle to get to work that is all this vehicle will do. For the immediate future I am just looking to get a little extra power, fuel economy, drivability, etc. I am a mechanic by trade, so the mechanicals are no problem. I understand what the tuner community does but I do not possess the knowledge or the time to play with it myself. I spend enough time dealing with my current fleet job keeping up with tractor trailer emissions, regen and DEF concerns for Detroit, Cummins and International that I do not have enough time to learn how to tune gas burners.

I have been trolling recently for performance chips for My 95 G20 and nobody seems to carry anything for what I have. I have also noticed that playing around with Pre 96 Gm processors and proms seems to be common past time for a lot of people.

Just today I found a processor with the same part number out of an astro van as a spare at a local pull a part yard.

Is there a performance chip or reprogrammed chip to be had that will do what I am looking to do with stock equipment?

Suggestions for down the road improvments to hardware to take advantage of existing software are welcome.

http://www.gearhead-efi.com/Fuel-Inj...5-7-for-Towing is my van. Gone now but got to try a lot and learned. The preburned chips are pathetic, be glad you don't have one of them. Once I got the equipment to read chips, I read a few just to see if I could learn something from them. They were almost a fraud. So little done. I like the 1995 computer. revising the shift point to delay shifting can make a good difference. Especially 4th if you have a 3.50 and lower ratio.

Headers, dual 2.5" exhaust with high flow cats, a X-pipe and magnaflows, 1.6:1 full roller rockers, edelbrock intake bored to 2" with a 454 TBI unit and 454 van air cleaner/intake duct setup had my 350 TBI at 200 rwhp and 300 rwtq after chip tuning. Roughly 250 hp and 375 tq at the crank. No head or cam swap required. Drove like a stock van with alot more grunt. The best intake GM ever built for a truck was also not used on a truck. I swapped a TPI onto my G20 at one point as well. ALOT more midrange grunt for minimal investment.

My latest G20 swap has a LQ4 6.0L with ported 862 5.3 heads that were cut for 2.00" intake valves and milled .020" with a small cam, headers and trailblazer SS intake. Even with the 3.08 rear gear it runs very strong. Roughly 450 hp and 450 TQ.

What size engine is in the van? The 8th digit on the vin would helpful as well. If it is a 5.7L, then Fast355 has you covered. You will need some form of scan tool to begin with.

You have room to cheat a little without a chip. Advancing base timing by turning the distributor until your IAC valve reading on the scan tool is about 3-4 counts on a warmed up engine. Advancing timing this way has a price, the idle will destabilize a bit, but not too badly. That is the "EL-CHEAPO" amateur mod. heh. Worked on my truck's v6. Runs like a v8, that was enough for me at the time.

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Originally Posted by vilefly

What size engine is in the van? The 8th digit on the vin would helpful as well. If it is a 5.7L, then Fast355 has you covered. You will need some form of scan tool to begin with.

You have room to cheat a little without a chip. Advancing base timing by turning the distributor until your IAC valve reading on the scan tool is about 3-4 counts on a warmed up engine. Advancing timing this way has a price, the idle will destabilize a bit, but not too badly. That is the "EL-CHEAPO" amateur mod. heh. Worked on my truck's v6. Runs like a v8, that was enough for me at the time.

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I assumed it was the one in his signature that shows 5.7.

Another el cheapo mod is an adjstable fuel pressure regulator and a good quality 0-15 psi fuel pressure gauge. I raised the pressure 0.25 psi until I got the best measured track time. My mostly stock 350 ran best at 14.5 psi. Dropped nearly 1/2 second in the 1/8 mile from 11 psi to 14.5. Ran stronger everywhere. I had a TBI Firebird that was running at 9 psi. Absolute slug. Did the same and found it ran best at 13.5 psi. At 9 psi it would not even spin a tire. At 13.5 it would spin through 1st gear. 9 psi is sadly within spec. In my experience a TBI needs 13-14 psi to come even close to running right.

Another cheap mod is a power bowl and open center TBI spacer. Take the cheapest TBI spacer you can find and cut the center out of it. Then take the powerbowl, cut the bottom of the air cleaner off and eliminate the stock spacer ring that chokes the TBI off from breathing.

These are not my pictures but my setup was similar as the 454 air cleaner has a powerbowl made into it from the factory. This was built out of a stainless mixing bowl.

Ah. So it is a 5.7L.....and I've gone blind. Been tripping over everything today. I think that no one should listen to me today. Probably bumped my head on too many cars this week, and things are shorting out.

Wow! I didnt expect to get that many responses so quickly. I havent had a lot of time to check back on this post.

Yes. I have a 5.7l (L05) engine, 3.42 rear end, 4l60e trans.

I was a little dissappointed in the power and fuel mileage after the first trip, but I figure there is a lot of room for improvement over the factory specs. With the travel trailer I get about 7.xmpg, and without I am getting a little over 10mpg. I have only ran one tank of fuel through it without towing anything so it may not be accurate but i assume it is in the ball park. Travel trailer weighs in at about 3600 lbs and the van is at 5500 lbs according to the scale at the local recycling center.

So far I have only done work to make it more reliable. I replaced all coolant hoses, belt and water pump. That includes all hoses involved with aux HVAC. The complete front suspension. 4 Ball joints, upper arms, lower arm shaft, sway bar bushings, front springs, brake lines, rebuilt calipers, and brake pads. I also removed the rear leaf springs had them rearched and had 2 extra springs added on each side.

Right now I have to lay low on spending any more on this van, but these cheap and easy ideas are right what I need right now. In the future if we really get into the RV/camper thing I may chose to swing a motor and trans at a later date. I wouldnt mind trying to swing a 4l80e into the mix, but that is a subject for another day.

Yes I do need to get a scan tool to watch the numbers while it is running to see what it is doing. I was looking at an ALDL Droid scantool that puts datastream info onto a droid device. Its been so long since I have used a obd I scan tool I dont remember what info is available to be seen. What tools are available for watching OBD I data?

DonF there is a lot of stuff to read through in the links you posted. It will take some time to soak it all up.

Other than the less than desirable preburned chips, are there any chips out there that can be had that are dependable for my use.

I will definitely try the adjustable fuel pressure regulator and see what that gets me. I havent measured what the current pressure is yet so I dont know where I am to start with.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

If you need a Bluetooth adapter to interface with the phone or laptop. http://www.1320electronics.com/products.html The owner goes above and beyond customer service wise.

That is the one I have been looking at. Is there a difference between what that does and what a regular scan tool will do as far as looking at datastream info.

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Originally Posted by erob914

That is the one I have been looking at. Is there a difference between what that does and what a regular scan tool will do as far as looking at datastream info.

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Depends on what you are trying to do and what software you want to use. If your just looking at info and pulling codes. The regular scan tool will be fine. I have an OTC that's OK for repair but will not work with the software like tuner pro.
If you are wanting to log data in tuner pro or aldl droid in order to burn a chip that actually improves your van, the regular scan tool will most likely not work with those. The good part about the above bluetooth aldl is it can read and clear codes as well. https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....scan&hl=en_US i use Johns app a few times and it logs data just fine.

$90 for datalogging? Ouch. I use the Moates Autoprom. I have the older version that is close to 15 years old. Still works well. I l had to get a replacement OBD connector a couple of years ago. Said my unit was a dinosaur and somehow found a new old cable laying around his shop. Also has excellet customer service. I datalog and tune real time.

https://www.moates.net/apu1-autoprom...sion-p-54.html

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Originally Posted by Fast355

$90 for datalogging? Ouch.

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http://www.moates.net/aldu1-and-cabl1-p-127.html?
Moates stadard aldl cable is $80 compared to $75 for 1320s bluetooth ALDL that can be used with a laptop or android? I did not think the price was out of line and have been very happy with mine. Its actually made me money when I use it on customer cars. I got the moats chip burning stuff on eBay. It was a Honda owner clearing out stuff for 1/2 off. Not having the apu-1 made a lot of sense as I don't just have GM vehicles.

erob - welcome! I have a G30 1995 van, and I would also like to find a tuner I could work with easily. My performance chip has moved the baseline spark advance, which is a pain when I go to get smogged in CA. I want to make a chip off the stock one sticking with a baseline zero degree advance to make it easy to get in and out of smog.

I'll be following this thread too! Best of luck.