What mods have you done currently? I'm wondering if a tune now is worth the money or if you're better off waiting until you do the rest on your mod list.
What mods have you done currently? I'm wondering if a tune now is worth the money or if you're better off waiting until you do the rest on your mod list.
I like neat cars.
I am starting to wonder why bother with a custom tune.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Even with mods, the things he wants to do are super standard and have been done a million times. Any shop charging $1,000 for a tune on that thing is spending 15 minutes loading a tune they already have and then spending the rest of the day "testing" it.
228/232 0.600 cam with new pushrods, timing gear, BTR trunnions etc. Intake, long tube headers, exhaust, 4.10 gears. Various other stuff that doesn’t really affect tuning.
One more for Dario and Toma hands down. Toma is a tuning wizard. How many cars have we tuned with him O great one? 20?
Dario is an extremely amazing mechanic and fabricator. These two guys working together is LS magic.
Machining, Fabricating, Welding etc.
It's been a long time since my days of wrenching on C5's but I recall getting decent gains from an air intake, headers and a tune. With the addition of gears, like you've done, they were an absolute riot to drive. Regarding the cam, I've been out of the game for too long to know if it's worth it to tune it and what you'd pick up. 30rwhp? Most importantly, I don't think you'll hurt anything without one. I'm sure there are other guys on here that can contribute more on the topic then me.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
I will say, this brings back a lot of memories of ripping around in Eisenberg's old C5 Z06 with 675rwhp. This was back in 2004 ish.
I like neat cars.
I think it’s probably worth tuning. It’s definitely running rich, you can smell all the raw fuel coming out the exhaust especially at idle or after getting on it, and I’ve noticed the fuel economy majorly decline even at an easy cruise speed. I still have two cats in my exhaust as well that I’d like to avoid melting down. Ideally I’d also like to get rid of the SESL that sets at idle because it thinks it’s misfiring.
If it runs like that with the cam, I agree with you.
I like neat cars.
I'm surprised it is driveable with that cam and no tune. Davenport could obviously do it, but even a main order tune would be much better than nothing. I had a Frost tune on my old WS6 that was great (no cam, just bolt ons). https://www.efi-performance.com/product-p/mot_2.htm
There is also Matthew at Tecmotion. He could easily take care of the tune with your mods. Not sure how much he costs.
Mike
14 ZL1
07 Mazdaspeed3
Thanks. Car is actually quite driveable as is, I’m surprised how smooth the low rpm is with this cam, but I definitely want it tuned and optimized before I drive it too much more.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
If local I'd definitely go to Davenport, they've got more LS experience than anyone else in town.
If you're ok with remote tuning I'd recommend a Diablosport inTune with a remote tune by Diablew (https://www.diablewtune.com/) I had the tune on my C6 vette for years and was very happy, also made tweaks as I added mods. Good buddy also has it on his GTO (LS1) and is quite happy.
I’ve never been much of a remote tuning guy. Likely going with Davenport.
Yours is a manual, right? Doesn’t really matter where you get it tuned, it’ll be fairly straightforward. The 6L80/90 is what was usually an issue.
And if you plan on doing multiple tunes, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get HPT or a handheld. Added benefit is you can log and make tweaks if needed.
It’s manual yes. I was just planning for one tune, I don’t drive the car much.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Davenport has been hit/miss for me for tuning. Sometimes I've had good experiences, other times not so much. For basic/mild builds it's been a good experience. For big/unusual bids it's been negative primarily because it felt like they rushed through my tune and I got the car back half-finished because they didn't like the car (literally was told stuff like 'this car is too loud to work on'). One time they gave me a car back where, at full throttle, the a/f would spike to 15 before coming back to 12.7. Of course most of my experiences go back ~10yrs ago with them so things may have changed.
The last 8yrs Tecmotion - Matthew - has tuned all of cars (mostly LSs) and done a fantastic job, I'd highly recommend him. The only downside is his is a mustang dyno so it rapes you on the power readout. But I'm more concerned about the tune being spot on than what a piece of paper says I make.
Last edited by M.alex; 05-03-2019 at 06:25 PM.
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I didn’t mean multiple tunes for the current setup, I meant get a tune now and get another tune later when you do heads/etc. For the price of two local tunes, you could have your own stuff, remote tune (which gets tweaked with logs so you get something really dialed), and have money in your pocket.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Yeah, people get too worried about power numbers. Relative change is all that matters when tuning the car after mods. And if you want to know what it really makes, just make some passes at the track and see what it MPHs. Have seen some “high” HP cars run some pretty weak MPH.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
You see my signature, but notice my handle. That's how I started. No one has destroyed more terminator engines than that guy. It was a running joke.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
If I had an LS, I would buy HPtuners and tune it myself. Davenport doesn't tune. They load a mail order map, make 3 pulls, charge you $750 or 900 in your case. They built my Magnusan supercharged Denali about 10 years ago, and told me they "tuned" 8 vehicles per day.
A manual LS will be easy for you. This book is at Mopac and will guide you through it. https://www.amazon.ca/High-Perf-Fuel...ystems-Banish/ I had to retune the Denail, this book takes you through step by step.
GT1R. 8.82@169
Mission
I was originally going to take a stab at it myself with HPTuners but people kept talking me out of it because I don’t have a wideband, just OEM narrowband sensors. I’ve never actually tuned a car personally but I know much of the basics, and have done lots of data logging and driving my dads car around while he road tunes it.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
By the time I buy HPTuners, a computer and a wideband that’s about $2000. I could still go that route.
Hptuners will run on a potato. Grab a $100 laptop off kijiji.
Widebands are $200.
The new communicator is $300usd and I think it comes with some prepaid credits.
A single unlock for a vehicle is $150cad.
So no, its not $2k. And it gives you the ability to fix the stupid bullshit GM does with all of its vehicles.
I have a 6.0L gas 2500hd right now, with 4.10's I'm knocking down 13L/100km on the highway at 110km/h.
Hptuners rewards you for using it. Its also very useful as a diagnostic tool. Your corvette, even with future mods, is about as childs-play for tuning as they come, and the perfect area to start.
My biggest complaint is I'm lazy and don't have time to go for an hour long drive when most vehicles I'm just trying to improve mpg. So I cut the cats off, turn lean burn on above 65mph, and remove all the tq management.
Wow that’s about the same mileage as my unloaded Duramax at that speed.
Looks like I can get a wideband for $266 on Amazon, and it’s $400USD for the basic HPTuners with 2 unlock credits, I was looking at the pro version originally.