Rey from Badger Tuners. I have don’t have a lot of experience working with 6l90E. Though I haven’t had issues until now either. I have two clients back to back with 6l90E issues and I hope you can shed some truth to which I invite your brutal honesty.
First up, 2015 GMC Denali. Client brought me a poor idling truck that hardly run. He and his son rebuilt the 6.2l with stock compression pistons and a rattler 290 duration cam. They also put a rebuild 6l890e with 50,000 miles on it (was in the same truck 50,0000 miles ago) and a stock torque converter and then figured out they couldn’t do it on EFI Live, they brought me this Happy Meal… So I put a rattler idle tune on it youll see in the attached tune file. But the crazy thing is that as soon as I started to drive it, it would downshift really hard. I mean, I have tuned 3 boosted trucks and never had to make changes to the trans other than add 10% fill. So Im pretty sure Im gonna learn something I don’t want to hear from you but, I welcome it at the same time. If Im gonna be relevant in this industry I need to learn and grow and focus on the truth! I cant go screwing up peoples Shit, need to know, And here I am asking for your help! Thank you,
So I attached the tune file and a short log where you can see that the driver floors it to 58 then lets off in third gear and the converter locks, then the trans shows huge slippage and the trans stacks 4th,5th, 6th pow pow pow and you feel the truck slow down momentarily. 6:38:20.421 and 6:40:02.870 are two examples of such events.
The client took it back to the dealer and they connected the Tech 2. Nothing is wrong they say despite the harsh upshift and downshift. So I tried working on it and made some real improvement but just couldn’t make it clean up. Tell me what you think.
Now…The Zinger. 2011 Caddy CTS-V. Fresh rebuild, 11:1 comp. running on 91 pump, Ugh… Wont go over 11 degrees total timing without pinging. “E85 take me away!” 6.2 LSA Blower worked over by Jokers in Illinois, pack’n 14ish PSI. Unknown converter, 6L90E. Client bought this car from an auction in Missouri, had a dyno sheet showing low 600 HP, drove it 2 weeks, Pop goes the weasel cause the weasel goes POP. Cylinder 7, go guess right! Anyways, I rebuilt the motor myself, I am a SAM tech graduate 1998, ASE Cert A1 A6 A8, Ive buildt engines for years, mostly Roundy Round, and now own a Dyno Shop I have managed to solidify my reputation for 4 years, Until now…. At least that’s the way I feel with both these vehicles, I cant Look my clients in the eye and offer a valid explanations.
So the client picked it up the caddy engine from my shop and delivered it to the shop that pulled the engine and the same shop now reinstalled it. The client brings me a running driving vehicle that pings all day long. This is my first time looking at the tune file. I see the WOT timing at 22-27 degrees and at least 8-10 degrees Knock retard every time you stab the throttle. I put it on the dyno and quiet the knock and message everything to 700 hp without knock or ping. Take it out for a test drive and notice it goes into limp mode every time you hit 6000rpm. Yes I also noticed it maxed out its airflow at 514 g/s and realized things needed scaling. So before I do that, I wanted to work on transitions, decel, cruise, that sort of thing on the street before I go jerking the whole tune file around. You know? Anyways, while doing that I notice a trouble code pop up immediately on the first test drive. U0101, Loss coms with TCM. So I put the car on the lift and check the PCM and wiring to the trans with a once over. Nothing jumps out at me. Clear the code, test the trans shifts fine and shifts on command using special functions, code doesn’t come back. So I take the car home and tune the whole way. Still no codes. Its really coming in at this point and really happy at the results. Next afternoon, I jump into the car to pick up my son from football practice, Man its running good down low, very smooth. I get on the main two-lane highway and hit 55. Then Bam, RPM’s go into the high 5’s, I had the windows rolled down so I could hear the sound of the rear tires skidding, car goes western and Im steering into the skid. At about 30 mph the rears unlocked, the car righted itself, not before scaring the shit out of the oncoming traffic, LOL, and I get to the side of the road. Nothing in first or second, but rolls in third. Done…Roll-back to the shop, back on the lift, pull the pan and drain the rear end. Looks like rear end oil never changed but no chucks, just fine material hard packed onto the magnet. Pull the trans pan and filter to find black twisted clutches crumbs (Cracklen’s) and what looks like strips of sprag material. Pulled the trouble codes but no freeze frames came up, probably cause none are emissions related. C0242 (SES) Pending/Current/History, and U0101, U100, U0140, Pending/History.
I included the Log and Tune File. The skid happened at 6:09:51.475. You can see me try to shift gears 1-3 after that with no speed. I was also trying to get out of limp mode and clear codes but it wasn’t having it. Since, if you try to start it, it fires up and dies immediately with no codes pending. Called and spoke to Glen at Circle D where its going to go as soon as it hits the floor. In the Meantime, Man I need your help and hopefully some insight and direction. I figured you would appreciate this message here more than a lengthy phone call. My only intrepidation is that Id really rather not post my tune files up here for the public eye. So I posted my log files and configs.
Thank you!
Rey Moreno
Owner
Badger Tuners, LLC
608-738-8606