Tutorial: Disabling CAGS

[bluetorp]

Figured I'd start doing some tutorials for those interested in doing their own tuning, those who are curious, whatever. If you're interested in seeing more of these, leave a comment to that effect- I don't want to spend a bunch of time on these if there isn't really an audience here for it.

(Note: These tutorials are geared towards HPT, because that's what I use and have access to. However, achieving the same thing in EFI Live should be very similar. The main differences should just be the interface and menu structure.)

Let's start really simple, with disabling CAGS!

After opening the tune file in HPT, click on the Trans menu, and you'll be rewarded with the following screen (without the big red arrow):



We can see that here we have all of the enable/disable parameters for CAGS. There's more than one way to go about disabling CAGS, since we have enable/disable parameters for TPS, ECT, speed, and barometric pressure. One thing that I personally like to do when tuning is to try to stay as consistent as possible; when there is a way to enable or disable a function via ECT, I typically choose that one over any other. So, to disable CAGS, I'm simply going to set the minimum ECT to enable it to something that is not reachable.

In the screenshot above, my mouse cursor is actually hovering over the "Min Coolant" field, and doing so gives us a handy tooltip at the bottom of the window that tells us briefly what the field is, and what the valid value range is for it. Given that, I'm going to increase the "Min Coolant" field from 171* to the max of 493*, as shown below:



You can see that the "Min Coolant" field has changed from blue to red, which signifies that I have made unsaved changes. Once saved, this field will change back to blue. So, save the file, and load it into your PCM! No more CAGS. Unless you somehow manage to hit an ECT of 493*, in which case CAGS is the least of your problems...

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

Nice keep going.

[Three of Swords]

While I'm not ready to tune yet, I would definitely love a repository of 'basic tune concepts'.

Eventually I'll get a tune. But I'll want to tweak it, and this would be an awesome way to get into it!

Thank you in advance. Please keep it up.

[Tampa Tuning]

I like to lower the disable TPS % threshold to zero or 1.

You can do both for overkill, but you have to do one or the other to disable CAGs

The CAGs are such a PITA, I run a special on the Tampa Tuning website to disable the CAGs and reduce torque management for the guys that want just a little touch of freedom from GM.
www.TampaTuning.com

[Black1SS]

Keep them coming. These are a great read and would love to read more. Thanks

[Fuel74]

Fantastic - bookmarking these. Plan on doing my own tune eventually. Thanks for taking the time.

[Iceintheback]

Sadly Tampa is a bit far from Vacaville, CA... But, if ever there will definitely stop by.

[Ck1984]

Originally Posted by bluetorp

Figured I'd start doing some tutorials for those interested in doing their own tuning, those who are curious, whatever. If you're interested in seeing more of these, leave a comment to that effect- I don't want to spend a bunch of time on these if there isn't really an audience here for it.

(Note: These tutorials are geared towards HPT, because that's what I use and have access to. However, achieving the same thing in EFI Live should be very similar. The main differences should just be the interface and menu structure.)

Let's start really simple, with disabling CAGS!

After opening the tune file in HPT, click on the Trans menu, and you'll be rewarded with the following screen (without the big red arrow):



We can see that here we have all of the enable/disable parameters for CAGS. There's more than one way to go about disabling CAGS, since we have enable/disable parameters for TPS, ECT, speed, and barometric pressure. One thing that I personally like to do when tuning is to try to stay as consistent as possible; when there is a way to enable or disable a function via ECT, I typically choose that one over any other. So, to disable CAGS, I'm simply going to set the minimum ECT to enable it to something that is not reachable.

In the screenshot above, my mouse cursor is actually hovering over the "Min Coolant" field, and doing so gives us a handy tooltip at the bottom of the window that tells us briefly what the field is, and what the valid value range is for it. Given that, I'm going to increase the "Min Coolant" field from 171* to the max of 493*, as shown below:



You can see that the "Min Coolant" field has changed from blue to red, which signifies that I have made unsaved changes. Once saved, this field will change back to blue. So, save the file, and load it into your PCM! No more CAGS. Unless you somehow manage to hit an ECT of 493*, in which case CAGS is the least of your problems...

Ive only tuned my LS swap pcm with PcmHammer and tunerpro but if i can do the same process with LFX pcm im in for all the free tuning advice you got.

Not sure what CAGS is or if my LFX auto even has it? last time i heard of dreaded skipshifts was on corvette

[SlowLS1]

Originally Posted by Ck1984

Ive only tuned my LS swap pcm with PcmHammer and tunerpro but if i can do the same process with LFX pcm im in for all the free tuning advice you got.

Not sure what CAGS is or if my LFX auto even has it? last time i heard of dreaded skipshifts was on corvette

Automatics do not have CAGS, it' was GM's version of forced fuel economy for the manual trans. Under certain conditions, it forces you to shift from 1st to 4th gear, been around since the first manual LS1 cars...