Ga Gt 2001 Ecu...

[meti]

well i was wondering where would my car's ECU be located?
I never did any sort of looking nor interested into knowing where it was!
Anyone with a qucky answer?
thanks,
Meti

[Ridenour]

It's the black box behind your stock air box. It is bolted to the same bracket that your airbox is bolted too. It's left of the driverside strut tower, if you're facing the car with the hood open.

[meti]

o ok thanks alot man!
Now i know where it is!

[Ridenour]

No prob meti. I'm just curious though, what do you need to know for? Installing a replacement or somethin?

[meti]

well I am making a list on things I can do to make it go faster and one of them is to reprogramm the ECU so than I was wondering where it was!

Everything is so expensive for grand am though. and very rare to find.
for example: like a dual muffler that i want just like the one i have but better tips and better sound of course! I havent found one yet and i still want 4 or 2 big tips to come out when the new one goes in!

Simple wording: "they just make it too hard for private people to work on these things" damn pontiac! lol

[Ridenour]

well you can't find a reprogrammed ECU for your Grand Am meti (same as my car) - You can get a reprogrammed PCM. That's the part you need reprogrammed. It is actually located underneath the dash, on the driver's side, I believe. There's a company that makes one called Digital Horsepower (you often see them called DHP).

Go to http://www.digitalhorsepowerinc.com/ and you'll find the one I'm talking about.

There's another company that makes one for our car too. Go to www.grandamgt.com and do a search and you'll find everything you need to know on PCM's and whatnot.

Sidenote: I noticed you live in Mason? I live in St. Johns. I think you're the closest person yet that I've seen on here. What school do you go to?

[meti]

haha thats awsome and i checked out the site you gave me, and you are right!!!
yeah I live in Mason and am a senior at Mason High.

I have been in St. Johns few times...and thanks for the help man! appreciate it cuz now i am just trying to learn new and new stuff about machines and cars because i love them. But I know some basic stuff and not enough though lol

[Ridenour]

yeh no problem meti. Any other questions and feel free to ask - there's lots of people on here that know lots - They've really helped me out with all my questions, and they'll help you too.

Another great grand am forum is www.grandamgt.com - you can find anything in the world on grand am's there.

Do you know Robert Poxson or Matt Kruise?

Do you know anyone in st. johns?

[meti]

noh I dont think I do. Well not by their names at least. There was a exchage student from Europe that i knew and who just went back 2 weeks ago. So I went to St. Johnes to see him and take him out a little.

Yeah I know about grandamgt.com. its a good place but they are too expensive . like for a hood wiht the air pockets = 600$!!! yeah I would add 200$ to that and get a terminator/vader II combo body kit. lol

[Ridenour]

Oh well yeh I'm not sure exactly which school they go to, but they're too friends of mine and they live down near you. What was that exchange student's name? Was it ivan?

I don't get what you're saying about grandamgt.com? It's a forum, not a place that sells stuff. But that hood you're talking about is the SC/T grand am hood, and it usually runs right around 600 bucks. You probably saw it on another site and got it confused. lol o well. It seems you're into body kits. I'm personally more into performance, I would take that 800 dollars for the body kit and probably buy a set of headers and borla exhaust first, lol, but here's some sites I thought you might like checking out if you're looking for cool body kits:

http://www.rsmracing.com/
http://www.rksport.com/
http://www.andysautosport.com/

All those guys carry body kits for the GA. Enjoy

[meti]

yeah it was some other site lol sry for confusion
the exhage studen was Taulant.
But other than andysautosport.com....i never heard of. THey are great and I thank you for sharing them with me!
Well I love performance but I thought for a long time and i came to a conclusion that looks come before performance since the people wont know what i have uder the hood and i really dont have to street/drag race. Not that I dont do it hehe

Well cops are really 'dic*s' here in mason and they hate me alot so I do w/e i can just to piss them off. Lansing is cooler though....I just wanna go out of this state though lol.

But what do you have under your car's hood?

I got only a K&N air filer in the filter box. came with the Ram Air. I got a small crappy chip which does a pretty good job when i do over 50mph. I noticed a lil.
I do use 94 octane when i go racing in summer and even may try octane boosters but I know how weak my pistons are and they will melt fast but I'll keep it cool

If when i get money soon I hope! I will proly get racing pistons and cams first than the other stuff.
haha
thats my story pretty much.

its funny: I never got a speeding ticket! muahahah

[Ridenour]

o yeh no problem. I can see what you mean about looks coming before performance. With my car though, I did some minor looks stuff, and then I decided that there would always be cars in the parking lot that looked cooler then mine, so I decided to workin on engine upgrades.

The performance mods I got are:
Approximately 125 pd weight reduction - still looks completely stock
Warm Air Intake / CAI Hybrid (hard to xplain)
MSD 8mm helicore wires
NGK Iridium XIII Plugs
Removed MAF screen
Polished MAF, minor porting w/ dremmel
Removed intake resonator
Always run premium
Other little minor stuff - Cleaned battery grounds / changed fuel filter / other miniscule crap I can't even remember

Very soon to come: 62 mm throttle body with port matched upper intake manifold
Adjustable fuel pressure regulator

Hey don't feel bad about only havin that K&N drop-in. That's what I started with, cause I had to find a way to mod mine without my parents knowing. lol. That 'chip' you're talking about is just one of those resistors for your IAT sensor, right? I tried one of those of Ebay, and I noticed a miniscule gain from having it run richer, but after I made my custom intake, I got rid of it. If I were you, in the winter I would take that out. In case you didn't know, the way it adds power is by making your computer think that the air is only 32 degrees, so it dumps in fuel accordingly (colder air is denser, so it takes more fuel to keep ratio correct). However, in the winter, the temperature very frequently goes below that, especially in michigan, and then, you'll in fact be running lean - which kills performance and can be dangerous for your engine. So I would deffinately reccomend taking out that resistor until spring, and if you ever get a warm air intake or cold air intake setup, just lose the resistor completely.

You said you use 94 octane when your racing. I would advise just running straight premium in your car all the time (91 octane). That's all I do. And don't even bother messin around with octane boosters. There's a big myth that people think that higher octane = more power. It's wrong. The only reason your car seems to run better on premium vs. normal, is because higher octane fuel has a longer combustion time, so it runs smoother = less 'knock'. Your knock sensor cuts timing when it reduces knock = killing power, so by running higher octane, you're in fact, for the most part, just preventing your computer from robbing you of power that you already have. So my advice - just run premium w/ no octane booster, and I wouldn't worry about "melting your pistons" LoL - aint gonna happen. I suppose MAYBE if you were running like 110 octane all the time, you could burn your valves, but premium in our cars is fine.

And you said your looking at racing pistons / cams, but I would buy other stuff before you did that Meti. If you ask me, this is the route I would take as far as performance mods:

1) Cold Air Intake / Warm Air Intake setup (I prefer WAI)

2) Remove MAF screen

3) MSD wires / NGK Iridium plugs

4) Lighter billeted underdrive pulley

5) Borla cat-back exhaust system w/ good muffler

6) Headers

7) 62 mm Throttle Body / port matched Upper intake manifold

8) Adjustable Fuel Pressure Regulator

9) Reflashed PCM

10) Ported heads

and the list goes on after that to big stuff...

well that's good you haven't gotten a speeding ticket yet. I for one, don't speed a whole lot except on the freeway. I like to get up to speed quick, but I don't take great joy in driving super fast, which is due partly because I've been in 3 accidents in the last 2 years (long story) lol

[meti]

You know It looks like we have the same deals going on or had with parents but you are way smarter than me lol.

here I got some questions!
1. where would MAF be located in our cars?
2. MSD wires / NGK Iridium plugs>>> I got bosch plugs and some OK ignition wires. The plugs were teh best they had. with 4 metal ignitors.

and I was thinking and planning on getting a lighter underdrive pulley! 160-180$ damn compared to 50$ for 2.4 engines haha

Well exhaust system and headers are a lil out of my lines since I have to go to my home country in europe this summer so my savings will be GONE!!! haha

I'll try to keep up and but I really want that headers&exhaust system package thats like 900$. I'll ask Bill Gates for some pockat change!
thanks man,
Meti

[Ridenour]

no prolem meti. lol yeh we kind of have the same deal - they're against me doing mods, but I talked em into the intake, based on the grounds of "better gas mileage" - especially since I drive about 60 miles a day for one of my classes. Aside from my intake setup, all my other mods they don't know about - it's all stuff that they can't see. lol and no I'm not smarter then you man, you just gotta get creative. Hunt around and you'll find out there's lots of stuff you can do that noone will see.

To answer your questions
1. The MAF on our car is as follows. Stand facing the engine. On the right side, you will see the throttle body. Attached to the side, you will see a black rubber section with sensors sticking into it. Past the black rubber section, before your intake, you will see the MAF (It looks like a metal box that's in the middle of the air flow. So it goes

Throttle body || rubber tubing | MAF | intake

It has one plug going into it, and on the side, the direction of the air flow is marked with arrows.

2. I would get rid those plugs right now Meti. If you go search around on www.grandamgt.com for the "Bosch platinum" plugs, you will find TONS of horror stories. I'm sorry to break it to ya, but our cars hate those plugs and people have had tons of problems because they run too hot for our engines. It sucks you didn't find out before you bought them, but I would definately take them out and go with plugs like the NGK Iridiums (heard nothing but good stuff about them for the 3.4), they run cooler for our engine, have a great spark, and noone, including me, has had any problems. I would go with those and MSD wires. If you want a place to get MSD wires, go to www.doctorspeed.com - he sells 8 mm and 8.5 mm. I bought the 8 mm just so I could fit them in the original brackets, if you buy 8.5 mm you'll have to have them loose across the engine block.

lol that's too bad you can't afford the headers and exhaust. They're great things. The thing that sucks for me is, I can afford em, but I couldn't let my parents hear them! and they WOULD hear them! lol. BTW, what country are you from? Are you going to be able to take your car back?

[meti]

noh this car is for here. But I got a Fiat 2.0L Turbo charged over there. lol that thing is PRETTY FAST. haha Well i originally come from Kosovo. not a country yet but its by Albania.

What school do ya go to?

yeah Man i just found that MAF thingy! lol
my friend was here just and just left but we planned out how we could work with the air flow.
have you noticed the flat tube that sucks in the air into the air filter box? well its under the car to ur left facing it and it has a HUGE bold thingy on the middle. I said WTF? why would they block it? they just need to put like net but not a big thingy.

Well I am thinking about taking the box out soon and getting a cone air filter and put it on. Also put some lines from under the hood facing the frong like the sctock one is but wide open and just free air flowing in under hood. 'air lines'

Ok lets see if you know what i am talking about now:
On top of engine there is the block with 6 curves thingies and its hollow inside and air flows in i think. wow i am bad with terms...but when i take that off, my friend said that I should make the holes a little bigger which will increase the air flow. Makes sense logically but I just wanted to ask you.

Dude since well English is my seconds language but and also learing about this new stuff so i really dont know what everything is called.

I'll get that MAF off tomorrow or Saturday and I gotta. Is your car silver? I raced a guy on I-127 with GA GT like 4 months ago and I kinda won but we got pretty high speeds!

Also: I want to get the F-ing governer out lol.
do you think few monds will by pass it?
haha so much to talk about and i just love my car.

do u have a body kit on urs?
if u dont and got the money get a Vadder II front bumper and sideskirts but get a Terminator back bumper! I could show you some pics. I have it all planned out when i get the cash! I wish I was rich.

also: tax returns coming in so I'll get the plugs and ignition wires all fixed up! thanks ALOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT