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Supercharged Tahoe Tuning Options


MDelgado

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Hey guys, I'm new here looking for honest opinions on what to do in my situation. Here's the deal, I have an 02 Tahoe Z71 5.3L with 60K. I plan on keeping her for at least 3 years and do a little towing. I was looking at superchargers for a while and came across a new Powerdyne at a decent price on Ebay. I ended up winning and it was new as advertised, BUT the Diablo Predator programmer it came with is locked on another vehicle. Diablo wants $149 to unlock the tuner and update it. AND if they do that, it restores the programmer to Diables mild tune (not supercharged). So I lose the custom tune that I need. So what are my options as far as tuning? Should I trash the diablo and get the truck put on a dyno and tuned locally for $500 (first quote). Should I have Diablo unlock it and send the programmer out to someone to retune? Powerdyne has recently acquired by Borotex Tech and are in the middle of aquiring the Co. so they were no help.. What do you think is my best option?

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No question here at all.

 

Contact Justin with Black Bear Performance. He is an excellent tuner and does a lot of FI stuff.

 

www.blackbearperformance.com

 

or you can send Jennabear (Justin's Wife) a PM. She is an active member of this site.

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No question here at all.

 

Contact Justin with Black Bear Performance. He is an excellent tuner and does a lot of FI stuff.

 

www.blackbearperformance.com

 

or you can send Jennabear (Justin's Wife) a PM. She is an active member of this site.

 

Thanks, I'll contact Justin and see what he says.

 

I also want to ad that i'm not opposed to sending the whole kit back to the seller if you guys are thinking that. I wasnt expecting these added costs.

 

And if I do keep the unit, I'd like to be able to take the supercharger off and put the trucks tune back to stock for resale.

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No question here at all.

 

Contact Justin with Black Bear Performance. He is an excellent tuner and does a lot of FI stuff.

 

www.blackbearperformance.com

 

or you can send Jennabear (Justin's Wife) a PM. She is an active member of this site.

 

Thanks, I'll contact Justin and see what he says.

 

I also want to ad that i'm not opposed to sending the whole kit back to the seller if you guys are thinking that. I wasnt expecting these added costs.

 

And if I do keep the unit, I'd like to be able to take the supercharger off and put the trucks tune back to stock for resale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Email Justin at Blackbear and ask him what to do. He tuned my supercharger (TVS 1900 on my 6.2) in my Silverado and it will run with a corvette-no kidding.

Justin is the man when it comes to tuning GM engines. I know first hand.

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What did you pay for the Powerdyne? I would be tempted to get in touch with the seller, as he has sold you an incomplete item (if he told you programming was included).

 

We are well versed in the FI applications, and have Magnachargers on all our DDs. Feel free to shoot us any questions you may have.

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What did you pay for the Powerdyne? I would be tempted to get in touch with the seller, as he has sold you an incomplete item (if he told you programming was included).

 

We are well versed in the FI applications, and have Magnachargers on all our DDs. Feel free to shoot us any questions you may have.

 

 

I won the auction for $1200 and the kit is new. I contacted the seller, but of course he's oblivious to the fact programmers can only be used on one vehicle. Regardless, if I send the seller the programmer to return his vehicle to stock to unlock the programmer, I'd still lose the custom tune.

 

Jennabear, I'd like to keep and install the charger, but what's my cheapest option for getting this thing tuned once the kit is installed?

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Justin will be up in the Springfield MA area the weekend of April 9th. If you wanted, he could set you up with a basic tune to get you up to the meet, and then dial it in in person. Your other options would be a traditional mail order tune or a cable tune. Check out www.blackbearperformance.com for further details on the differences.

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Justin will be up in the Springfield MA area the weekend of April 9th. If you wanted, he could set you up with a basic tune to get you up to the meet, and then dial it in in person. Your other options would be a traditional mail order tune or a cable tune. Check out www.blackbearperformance.com for further details on the differences.

 

I'll read up and see what the difference is, thanks! What would you do? I'm really not looking to hit the strip or anything, it's my daily driver and I really only get on it every once in a while....or at a stop light or toll booth. :thumbs: And I really want to be able to return the settings back to stock for resale.

 

Can I also ask you what you run, an FMU or larger injectors? And what size wheels do you have, it looks great in your signature pic!

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Justin will be up in the Springfield MA area the weekend of April 9th. If you wanted, he could set you up with a basic tune to get you up to the meet, and then dial it in in person. Your other options would be a traditional mail order tune or a cable tune. Check out www.blackbearperformance.com for further details on the differences.

 

I'll read up and see what the difference is, thanks! What would you do? I'm really not looking to hit the strip or anything, it's my daily driver and I really only get on it every once in a while....or at a stop light or toll booth. :dunno: And I really want to be able to return the settings back to stock for resale.

 

Can I also ask you what you run, an FMU or larger injectors? And what size wheels do you have, it looks great in your signature pic!

 

 

Ok, it sounds like having a tuned PCU sent to me is my only option. I can't cable tune because I'd risk damaging my engine with the supercharger installed and no tune.

 

So the next question is about the core. I'd like to keep my stock settings, so is it cheaper to keep my stock PCU or send the core to blackbear and just have my tuner unlocked for future use of setting back to stock?

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Well, you could still do the cable tune, Justin would just send you a PCM with a basic tune for your supercharger, and then have you run logs off of that to dial it in. I will let you know that the wait list is ~8 weeks for a cable at the moment, so if you wanted to go that route, I would encourage you to get on the list soon.

 

We are running a TVS1900 on the TBSS with 45lb/hr injectors, a Radix 112, cam and LTs on the Tahoe with 42lb/hr injectors, and a Radix 112, cam and LTs on the Silverado SS with 72lb/hr injectors.

 

Thanks for the compliments on the wheels, they are 20X9.5" Weld Cheyenne 6s.

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Well, you could still do the cable tune, Justin would just send you a PCM with a basic tune for your supercharger, and then have you run logs off of that to dial it in. I will let you know that the wait list is ~8 weeks for a cable at the moment, so if you wanted to go that route, I would encourage you to get on the list soon.

 

We are running a TVS1900 on the TBSS with 45lb/hr injectors, a Radix 112, cam and LTs on the Tahoe with 42lb/hr injectors, and a Radix 112, cam and LTs on the Silverado SS with 72lb/hr injectors.

 

Thanks for the compliments on the wheels, they are 20X9.5" Weld Cheyenne 6s.

 

Thanks Jenna, I sent payment today for the PCM. I'll see how it does 'as is' and see if a cable tune is necessary.

 

Can I ask how much the new 45lb injectors are and where I can pick them up? Are they just the stock 8.0L injectors and did you have to upgrade the stock fuel pump? From what i've read, the FMU I have is really just a bandaid....

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Hey guys, I'm new here looking for honest opinions on what to do in my situation. Here's the deal, I have an 02 Tahoe Z71 5.3L with 60K. I plan on keeping her for at least 3 years and do a little towing. I was looking at superchargers for a while and came across a new Powerdyne at a decent price on Ebay. I ended up winning and it was new as advertised, BUT the Diablo Predator programmer it came with is locked on another vehicle. Diablo wants $149 to unlock the tuner and update it. AND if they do that, it restores the programmer to Diables mild tune (not supercharged). So I lose the custom tune that I need. So what are my options as far as tuning? Should I trash the diablo and get the truck put on a dyno and tuned locally for $500 (first quote). Should I have Diablo unlock it and send the programmer out to someone to retune? Powerdyne has recently acquired by Borotex Tech and are in the middle of aquiring the Co. so they were no help.. What do you think is my best option?
Having the truck tuned in person will always yield the best results in any FI application. Unlock the Predator and get with a local CMR tuner and they'll have you dialed in in no time.
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Having the truck tuned in person will always yield the best results in any FI application. Unlock the Predator and get with a local CMR tuner and they'll have you dialed in in no time.

 

 

Hey Mike, thanks for the reply! I researched that, but there are only 2 guys within a 2 hour radius of Boston that work with your software. One of which has the software and has never tuned a GM before (comforting) and the other guy just does it on the side and has weird hours that are tough for me to work around. I can't install the supercharger and then drive over 2 hours to southern CT, risking blowing a head gasket or something worse...

 

Financially I couldn't justify it either, it's $150 to unlock the tuner, then the 2 guys wanted $400 for the tune, plus they'd only do it on a dyno, so they'd charge me dyno time which is $100/hr. Not to mention my time lost. It just didn't make sense in my case..

 

Luckily, the Seller said he'd reimburse me for the cost of unlocking the tuner and my friend with a similar application will buy the tuner off me cuz he just lifted his truck and needs to change the tire size for the speedo. So It looks like I'll come out on top

 

Too bad Diablo couldn't unlock their tuners without wiping out custom tunes. Seems like it would be as easy as any password reset on any computer product. It's got to be possible since Justin saves all his tunes on backup computers to be cautious, in case a customer has issues.

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