Two years in the making...My L99/A6 build

[white ZL1]

In September of '06, I assigned my local Chevy dealer with the impossible task of finding me a gently used 2005 Impulse Blue Metallic GTO. I wasn't asking for much, it just had to be an M6 with black guts and the 17" wheels. I mean, come one....there were 160 of these cars built in 2005 so certainly they could find me one ASAP.
Two weeks later, they actually found me the exact car! I was driving the GTO 80 miles a day for work, so a few simple mods and I was happy.



A few months after buying the GTO, the previews for the Transformers movie started hitting the TV and I started looking up info on the car that was to become the new Camaro. While I liked what I saw, I wasn't sold on it.
I ended up selling the GTO in order to buy my first house in April of '08 and again started searching for info on the new Camaro.
In November of '08 I was asked by my employer to relocate from Illinois to the New Orleans area, so the thoughts of buying a toy were gone as I now had to sell the house I had just bought and start looking for one in New Orleans.
In the year that it took to sell one house and buy another, the Camaro had started to grow on me. Since I missed the GTO and loved the color, I told myself that I wanted an ABM SS. And I wanted an A6 that would eventually be supercharged.
In April of 2010, I closed on a house just outside of New Orleans and started to hunt for my ABM SS. I took my time in hopes that something would drop into my lap just like the GTO did.
This time it didn't and in November of 2010, I was asked to move again...this time to Texas. So here we go again with selling a home I had just bought and looking for a 3rd one in 2 years to buy.
In June of 2011 I had sold the house in Louisiana and found one that I liked in Texas. While getting the financing on the new house lined up, I started looking at the new 2011's on the local dealers lots. I still wanted an ABM, but also wanted to buy a brand new 2011.
I drove a used 2011 SIM SS with the A6 to make sure I didn't have any issues with the car or the A6, and told the salesman that once I closed on the house and had an address that I could title a vehicle to that he would see me again and we'd find my new 2011 SS.
On friday July 22nd I closed on the house in Texas, and on monday July 25th I went talked to my salesman again. At 10pm that night, I signed the papers brought home my white 2011 2SS with the RS package and the A6. I wasn't screwing around anymore.







I liked the look of the pure white car, but knew that I wanted to pull the bowtie's off the front and back and throw on some SS emblems. After doing some searching here on the forum, I bought the white SS emblems for the front and back from Sparks Restorations.
I also wanted to add a little black to the car to offset the white, but wanted to try and do something a bit more subtle than the stripes on the hood and decklid. So after doing a bit more searching here on the forum, I came across Big Worm Motorsports and ordered some hood spears and a rear blackout panel.







Close, but not quite enough. So I hit up Big Worm Motorsports again for some gill vinyl and sidemarker and tail light blackouts.







This.....I like.

[white ZL1]

Well now that I'm happy with the first stage of appearance mods, it was time to see what the car could do at the track.
October 21st brought some decently cool weather to the DFW area, and the DA was about 1300ft at Dallas Raceway. I was hoping for something a bit better, but good enough to at least make a few passes and get used to the car. I was still hoping to see somewhere around 13.3@106mph???

I tech'd in after my 45 minute drive to the track and got in the lanes. I drove around the waterbox, turned off both TC and stabilitrak, cleaned off the stock Pirelli's, made sure the shifter was down in M....and staged.
My first pass was a 13.66@102mph. I don't think a 13.3 is in the cards in this car, at least not tonight. But at least I cut a .503 light on my first pass at a dragstrip in probably 5 years. Gotta take something positive out of it I guess.
I let the car cool down for an hour and a half, staged her again, and it went 13.43@104mph. Much better! Air temp was in the low 60's so letting the car sit with the hood up for nearly 90 minutes certainly allowed the car to cool a bit and helped get rid of a bit of heatsoak on the MAF and IAT.

By 11pm the DA was down to about 900ft, and I told myself that if I can manage to get my 2.0 60 foot times down into the 1.9's that this 400ft lower DA should be enough to get my 13.3. And I was right.
1.996 and 13.32@103mph.

Minor mission accomplished, but 103-104mph?????

Due to an issue with the battery on my spare laptop that I use to tune and scan, I was only able to get my first pass to save. The power issue was pretty easy to spot right away. The HPT scanner is picking up anywhere from 14 to 22 degrees of timing and 2 to 4 degrees of retard being pulled out of that!!! Sounds like 102mph to me.
So I again started digging on this forum trying to come up with ideas as to why I'm seeing this much retard. No exhaust rattles, no cracked plugs, and nothing mechanical that I can find. I found a few threads with some folks discussing some knock retard being caused by the stock cats. Well, if that's it....not much I can do. The car is staying stock for now so I guess I'll just have to deal with it.
I also did some logging of some normal driving and found no timing retard at part throttle anywhere, but still the same retard at WOT. Since the track is only 45 minutes from me, I figured I'd drag the laptop back to the track with me the next weekend and get more datalogs of some runs and see what I can find.


The next weekend brought 10 degree cooler temps, and lower DA's...so back to the track on October 29th.
I also let the car run nearly empty and filled up with 93 from a different gas station. I also did the #5 and #20 fuse pull to see what would happen with timing.
DA started around 0 and ended up about -500ft. Perfect.
First pass shocked me. 1.975 and 13.16@105mph!!!
I guess my brain was registering the fact that the DA was about 1300ft better.
The scan of the pass actually showed that commanded timing was between 18 and 25 degrees depending on rpm, but I was still seeing nearly identical retard as the previous week. :(
2nd and 3rd passes were within .015 of the first and saw similar retard, so it is what it is.
While I was certainly pleased with the .16, I was similarly upset about the timing retard issue. I couldn't help but wonder what the car would do in this good air if it could actually make a pass without any retard???

I guess I'll never know.

[white ZL1]

For the last month or so, I've been fiddling with the trans tune on this A6. I've found a ton of posts on the HPT board that have really helped me sort out what is what, and I've made some small changes to part throttle shift mph, shift times, and line pressure. I've also played with TCC lock and unlock just a bit. The car is completely different to drive, and again...I've only made simple changes.
I've also pulled all of the engine torque management, changed the stoich point to reflect our 10% ethanol gas, and disabled the AFM in sport mode completely and in 3rd and 4th gears in D. Worlds better.

In the next month or so, the goal is to get the maf and ve dialed in with my wideband and then work on wot timing. Also since I haven't touched trans torque management at all, I'll start pulling that depending on rpm and calculated torque.
Then it's back to the track to see what I can pull out of this car as delivered by GM, but with an optimized ECM and TCM.

My plan is to update this post with some links to the threads and posts that I've found useful for the 6L80E, and maybe some info on maf and ve tuning on the E38 as well.

[Red Jewel RS]

:Cool thread. Thanks for sharing!
I'm new to tuning, how/what are you using to tune?

I will be waiting for more post on your build. Subscribed!

[white ZL1]

Thanks!
I've been using the HP Tuners package for years and really like it. I've also got an Innovate LM1 wideband that I use.

[AngelSpeedFreak]

Very nice.... Needs more cowbell, I mean pics

Subscribed.

[Red Jewel RS]

Originally Posted by white 2SS/RS

Thanks!
I've been using the HP Tuners package for years and really like it. I've also got an Innovate LM1 wideband that I use.

Thanks!!

[RED DEMON SS]

Hey another member of team L99! Welcome aboard!

[white ZL1]

Originally Posted by Farthestnorth

Hey another member of team L99! Welcome aboard!

Thanks!
I actually read through your entire journal yesterday! You've had a trying last few weeks.

[white ZL1]

After being away from the car for the last two weeks, I finally had a chance to get more of the tune sorted out the last few days.
I've now got the trans torque management completely disabled, and it certainly makes the car snap right into gear on shifts! Wow. It almost throws you forward a bit on an upshift! I might start putting some of that TM back in at part throttle...but not much.
And today I went ahead and dug out the wideband and tuned the MAF in open loop. I was shocked at how quick I was able to get it nailed down. 2 passes on it, and it was over. I was getting lambda at part throttle all up and down the MAF range and nailed my .85 lambda during PE. I'll drive it this week, and work on wot timing and some odds and ends and then hopefully the track will be open soon enough for me to go back and see what a stock but tuned L99 will do.
Hopefully I can convince myself not to run up to ADM to pick up their race CAI before I can make that trip to the track.

My P13W's from AAC are here too. Not sure why I didn't get them installed and get some before and after pics this weekend, but I didn't. I guess that'll give me something to do this week.

[RED DEMON SS]

Looking good, post more pics when you can!

[2010 SSRS]

Looks great

[blk20]

very nice

[austinjames]

Damn, you GTOr transformed into a camaro. Thats awesome