Just picked up a nice 94Z that has been very well taken care of for my 17 yr old son. I've seen some of these "teenager" monitoring systems that I can install that will act as a tattle tale to keep him honest. Are there other ways to use the existing computer on the car to set limits and/or record speeding, etc?

 

Get in touch with Bryan at pcmforless.com, he can set you up a program to help limit the power output and top speed for your sons Z28. I have a 94 Trans AM for my son when he is old enough to drive it and that is what I am going to do. Bryan already sends me programs for my 95 Z28 and I had contacted him about this before I bought the Firebird for my son, he said no problem it can be done. I was Thinking of a rpm limit of say 5000 and a top speed of 75 for interstate driving. I can repogram it with my laptop if he wants to take it to the track to race it. I told him thats the only place I would allow him to race. Good Luck!

 

Thanks Killer. I appreciate the info. I'm new to the PCM game so I've got a ton to learn. My rods have always been muscle cars. My '69 Camaro will never see him behind it's wheel. Is it possible to log anything with the PCM itself?

 

Not as it comes from the factory I don't know if anyone has an aftermarket system for it or not, but just as it is from the factory it does'nt store any data like what you are looking for, just shift adapts and Idle postion and trouble codes is all I am aware of it can keep up with. I am coming to the realization that I will have to trust my son when he is alone in that car and hope he does the right things. all I can do is try and limit the amount of power he has so he knows he would not have a chance to win any races he may want to get into unless he takes it to the track.

 

Why buy a z-28 when you are just going to limit the power and speed of the car. You should have just got a v6 camaro or a honda if you don't trust your son. But a z-28 would be a bad@$$ car for a 17 yr old.

 

Well, I already have the car for one thing. Yes, maybe I bought the car because I always wanted a 79 TA when I was his age, but my parents couldn't afford to help me out. I can afford to help out my kid, although I'm not the kind of parent that will blindly give a $35000 hot rod to a smart kid with male hormones (read that last part as having the propensity for being stupid when HP comes into play).

And although it probably isn't popular, I don't trust anyone (regardless of age) with a hi performance car. However, my goal here is to limit the testosterone factor to the drag strip. I have no problem with performing all sorts of mods to the car to increase the performance, but until my son is capable of handling that car, I'd like to help him through those testosterone moments that we all have.

Best way I know of is to give him enough rope to hang himself. I'd much rather have a monitoring capability than a restriction that he'd have to consciously make a choice as to whether he was going to f*up or play it cool. I'm new to the computerized hotrod world, so that's the reason for the question.

I'm looking for options - help me learn what the possibilities are...

 

There are a couple things you could do, actually. The first one has already been said, limiting the power by putting a program into the PCM that limits the speed, RPMs, and power. Another would be to have a laptop in the car and run a program such as Datamaster or Freescan that logs the information from the PCM and records it into a file for viewing. It'd need some custom programming, however, so that the program automatically engages and reads when the car's engine is running. Not too difficult to do, if you know what you are doing. Just a simple C program, I bet using Freescan would be perfect because it was written with C and you could just input what you need so the program logs and runs once the OS comes up. If you don't trust you son, that would probably be the best way to go, then you could just pull up the log file once he gets home and see how fast he was going the entire time he was driving it. Of course, this assumes your son knows nothing about computers himself. If my parents had tried something like this with me, I'd have reprogrammed everything myself to read what I wanted them to see, but it would never actually record what I had been doing. Again, not difficult if you know what you are doing. If you son isn't very programming literate, I'd say it would work fine.

 

C'mon Dad,F***ing Up is the best part of growing up!
I sure laugh when i read this post,my son.s 18 and my wife gives me a hard time about giving my son my 87 T/A(which shortly lost all the teeth off 3rd gear) and letting him loose in my Z,but I don't mind.I had a ball growing up in a 67 GTO,then a 70 340 Duster,and a 69 GTO.
He's a good kid and fixing the stuff and paying the insurance is worth it.
Anyhow,anything you program in there I'll bet your son can program it out!
He's not going to get in any more trouble in a Z28 than he can in a honda.
Your son must be a good kid too or you wouldn't have bought him the car right?
Let him smoke them tires Pop!

 

I would have to say that a MPH limiter on a car does not really affect racing or messing around. A 75mph max lets you still race 1/8 mile, or just mess around from stopsign to stopsign, or from a light, If I didnt already have 2 years experience driving like I do now, I would nail the gas and race all the way to 75 everytime. But since I have been driving for 2 years, and took out a loan to pay for my car that I drive now, If I do race, its going to be at the track. If you did want to limit his racing, or messing around, I would say a rev limiter of 4000, or just mess with the timing so he has no power above 4000, so he can still rev it higher but it wount do much. Just make sure he knows what hes doing before it gets cold. A friend of mine drove a honda for 2 years, got a 5speed twin turbo RX-7 with 14k miles on it from some old lady, IMMACULATE. He flipped it in 2 weeks. Went to fast on a sidestreet, swerved to get out of the way of a car, hit a patch of ice, started spinning out, never drove a rwd car before, and before he knew it he went rear first up the guidewire of a telephone pole and flipped over :/ Now he drives a 00' SS

 

I plan on giving my Z to my son when he gets his drivers license. Of course he is only 3 right now, so i have some time. My wife is totally against it. I kinda wonder about giving it to him to a little, because if i had this car when i was 16 or 17, i would have probably killed myself. Like i said have a few years to think it over.

 

Congrads to you dad!!! Wanting your son to have a cool car while also having concern on his safety. Awesome. It's important for him to feel cool for the chicks and friends driving what I think is the cool car for his age. Back when I was in high school the IROC and GTA were "it". Cars like the vette were considered "daddy" cars and didn't get the respect that is so important in his eyes. More importantly, you two can work on it and mod it together over time. Great for bonding when teens sort-of think doing things with the folks aren't that cool.

Jeff D.

 

Come on guys, when I think of my "childs" saftey I don't think 275 hp z28. Your pulling your own finger if you do. If you got enough intelligence to fart around with rev limiters, you got enough intelligence to purchase a "true" first time car for a 17 year old child. My car was a 4 cylinder Toyota, rusted, and barely reach 60 miles per hour. Yes, this is a perfect first time car.

He maybe the most responsible kid on the planet, but if he was...... then why the crap is dad worried about a rev limiter


I love the answers here..... they are typing one thing..... but thinking another

Dad, go buy this kid a real first time car, if he is responsible, tell him to keep his foot off the accelator, or like my dad would have said....." I will kick my foot up your a$$ if you don't"

Trust me....I listened

 

im 17 and i was lucky enough to get a 86 iroc that my pops had in the garage for a while and even more lucky to get it when the time came i had to keep grade up in school and pay for gas and stuff and mod if i want to do them, i learned a lil the hard way i though ahh a lil 305 isnt nothing to fast so i was driving around with friends before i even had the plastic license still had the paper and i got it around a turn (open diff that one wheel sure did like to spin alot) swurved side to side spun out nailed a curb bent a axle, smashed a bearing, seal, and cracked a rim, but i ended up paying for all the parts and doing the repairs my self, but thats how i learned my lesson no i baby it... most of the time.. and not to mention with gas prices like they are i cant afford to **** around burn all my gas out lol, and since i drove the car like it was 305 auto for a while now i know it pretty well and im building up a 350 vortec tpi motor

 

I think itsa bit of an Oxymoron to buy a teenager a fast car, then try and limit its speed so your son doesnt kill himself or someone else.

 

I really don't think I want to put my son in a P O S toyota that will barely get to 60 and have some guy in an SUV plow over him. That just goes against everything we are talking about here, The object is to give Our kids a sporty car that we did'nt get a chance to have and allow them to grow into it as they mature and after they become more advanced at driving give them more car without buying another car. You can't tell me that you would'nt have rather had a z28 that has the power of a toyota with at least the saftey of dual air bags now can you? We realize it may not be the perfect first car but it can be made to be the perfect first car and second car all at the same time. A Camaro can get fair fuel economy as well so I believe it may be a great first car with the limits set to be mildly aggressive. I am a GM Tech by trade and will keep a very close eye on the limits on the Firebird my son will be driving and I have already been teaching him that racing is for the track not the highway, he goes to the track with me and we race togeather he ran well last night in the very firebird he will be driving on the street.