Review: Black Bear Performance Tune

jimlem · October 28, 2009

For those in a hurry or who only care about the bottom line, I'll give it to you here. Those who are considering this and would like to know a little bit about how it works and what the experience was like, please read on.

BOTTOM LINE: Absolutely fantastic! You will literally leave with a completely different truck. No more pressing the pedal to floor hoping for a downshift when the power runs out, only to have to stomp it into passing gear for a few seconds and then have it up shift too soon and you do it all over again. It now instantly and crisply clicks into whatever the best gear is for what you're doing. And, now it shifts one gear at a time, no more slamming it 2 gears lower to make up for not accelerating on an uphill etc. You touch the gas and it GOES! It's always in the right gear and you get good positive, crisp & fast upshifts and never even feel a downshift as you slow down. If you want, you hold the pedal down and it'll fly right up to about 200 RPM below your new redline, shift up immediately in a fraction of a second and do it again for the next gear. Remember it's like "a completely different truck." Save the money you're dying to waste on throttle body spacers and aftermarket MAF sensors and put it towards this tune. At the risk of offending some people, you are truly foolish if you waste your money on that stuff when this is available. Read to the end, I will list my foolishness there and how it compares with this tune. More technical details at the end too.

OK gentle reader, here is my story (sorry I always wanted to write like Mark Twain) I was lucky enough earlier this month to fall into an open slot in Justin's schedule while in So. Cal. for a couple of days. We'd been trading email on wait times for a "cable tune", where he sends you a cable and software to connect to a laptop while you drive and then he tune's your PCM based on the recorded data. During this time, it came up that he'd be about an hour from me, on his next trip which was only a week away. I wanted to keep a backup PCM and he managed to get me one in enough time to install it before he arrived.

On the day of my appointment, I hit a surprise pocket of really bad traffic, even for always-congested So. Cal. I called and let him know I was running late and to take anyone he could early and I'd wait as long as necessary for him to work me in. I felt really bad about him working me in at the last minute and then messing up his schedule by running late. When I arrived about 25 min. late and found him, he very gracious and polite. He said not to worry about it he'd work around it. He told me where the restroom was and said take a minute to relax and get ready and then we'd start. He really went out of his way to make it a positive experience.

He setup his gear and connected to the OBDII port in my truck. He asked about any mods I'd made to the truck. Lest I forget, my truck is a 2002 Silverado 1500HD with the 6.0L and 4L80E. I've done a lot to my truck but for the purposes of the tune only a few things are important. I'd added a K&N cold air intake system, I recently had a local shop re-do the exhaust from headers in the front thru true dual pipes and Magna Flow mufflers out the back. I had previously had a Hypertech tuner installed but was now using a clean newly updated PCM provided by Justin. I had no trouble codes showing or stored and that + tire size was all he really needed to know. Before we even left the parking lot he discovered an anomaly in the MAF reading. As I understood it, basically my K&N system was flowing about 8% more air than stock but the PCM never learned it. Justin made a correction with a couple of key strokes and said now the PCM would be adding the appropriate amount of more fuel to match the higher air flow.

I won't spoil the whole process for those who are waiting for their tune, but I'll tell a little about how mine went. Justin had me do a series of runs at different speeds up and down a deserted street in this business park area we were in. He worked on RPM stuff for a while, new redline, making sure the trans would shift before the new redline, stuff like that. Every so often he'd have me park and shut off the truck, he'd do his thing, wait a few seconds and have me start it up again. Then we would drive somewhere else and he'd have me do various things, and we'd repeat the above. I did finally stop asking what every single thing was. It was slowing him down and he explained it all in the end anyway. So have a little faith, brothers. He won't make any big changes without talking to you first. Which reminds me, be prepared to tell him two things: which octane rating gas you want to tune for and how much torque mgmt. you want to remove from the trans. I don't drive my truck all that much (just turned 37K) so I opted for the 91 octane tune (highest we have in So. Cal.) when he told me it was worth another 15 HP. Justin went over the basics of the TCM (torque control mgmt.) system. I went with his suggestion of starting with removing 75% and for me that's been fine. You can have him adjust it to suit your likes.

I also learned my truck has an Abuse Control System (or some such nonsense). Basically some engineer at GM set ahead of time what "safe & sane" driving was for me and my truck (what arrogance). Whenever I tried to drive outside these parameters, this "nanny" would kick in and retard the timing or shut down fuel or whatever until it felt I was driving in a proper GM safe manner. Now, I don't drive abusively. I pay for my own trucks. I pretty much drive like the respectable, proper, almost middle-aged gentleman I am, so this was a real eye opener. I never wanted to abuse my truck but I also could not figure out how in almost 8 years, I had never once, even accidentally, spun the rear wheels taking off. Come on, a 364 cu. in. V8 with 4:10 rear end and an unloaded bed most of the time? I just assumed my GM Posi-Traction rear end was really, really good at its job. Well, after Justin killed Mr. Abuse Mgmt. that night, I learned my truck can indeed break the rear wheels loose at just about any time I choose. Like I said, you'll leave with a completely different truck.

OK let me wrap up my review. The last part we worked on was hard acceleration. Keeping the pedal floored and making the trans shift at the highest RPM Justin set for it. This was done under the guise of "Getting on the freeway." Unfortunately the damn So. Cal. traffic is almost 24/7 rush hour traffic. What should have been 2 or 3 runs to check and adjust his settings turned out to be twice as many and even then by the time we were reaching the shift point we were going so fast that I'd end up having to back off to keep from hitting the guy in front of us. In the end, Justin got all the data he needed and as I've already said, did a fantastic job with my truck. The point here is that by the time we'd done all these freeway runs and were heading back, we had been working for about 90 min. It seemed like 15 min. to me but the clock doesn't lie (unless GM did something to it too). For those still not getting it, the guy ended up spending almost 2 hours working on my custom tune. For that, I can't say enough nice things about Justin. He never complained about the time or late start. Never looked at his watch. He had infinite patience with my questions and changes. The guy is the salt of the earth. Quiet, friendly, helpful and even though he's probably forgotten more about tuning these cars than we'll ever learn, he was never cocky nor boastful. He let his laptop and tuner do the boasting and, that you'll enjoy.

Before we parted company Justin gave me the re-cap of all the changes he'd made. I can't remember all of them as many were pretty obscure. I tow a camping trailer and he told me one of the fixes he made was that stock, pulling my truck & trailer up a long and / or steep incline that the PCM will require me to keep the pedal floored for 60 seconds before helping me out by going to "open loop" where instead of trying to keep the air/fuel mix at the perfect amount by reading the o2 sensors and TPS and MAF sensor etc. it finally just gives me all the gas it can so I can keep moving forward. I never even knew about this but I know it's damn near impossible to keep it floored for 60 seconds. You're either in too high a gear and will end up stopping and rolling backwards or so it feels sometimes. Or, it downshifts and redlines and you don't want to hold it at redline for that long. Anyway, he programmed it so it will immediately enter open loop at full throttle instead of waiting the 60 seconds. That's worth the price of admission right there. Justin told me he'd turned on the option for electric fans in the PCM, even though it was never offered in '02. He set the on/off temps in the PCM for whatever he tunes the newer trucks to. He was honest about going to electric fans maybe only offering a modest HP increase but said many people felt the throttle response was better and worked well with all the other improvements from the tune I mentioned above. He told me to email him if I wanted to do it and he'd get me the necessary wiring harness and help me find a guy on ebay who had good fans at a fair price. A couple weeks later I did just that. Justin found me an excellent source on ebay for the OEM fans and sold me a completely finished wiring harness made for my truck. My year truck had no electric fans so the harness has a different configuration than ones that came with it. It was all self-contained. 4 wires to hook up, no drilling, cutting or messing in the fuse box. Everything went together in a couple of hours without a single goof or false start and worked the 1st try (a rare occurrence for me). Did the fans make a huge difference? Not like the tune itself did, no. I've literally only had them in for 2 days and have driven to the store and gas station only. I like the way it feels, it may be a bit more responsive but I'll need some time to say for sure. I like the fact that one of the two elec fans can move 10X the air my old fan did. It sucks your shirt right into the grill. I think they'll go good with the tune and help for towing.

You get much more out this tune than the sum of all the parts I listed. You get an overall better driving vehicle that you'll feel immediately. You get to spend an hour or so with a guy who can teach you a lot more than you already know about your truck (for most of us). I went through 3 exhaust systems, several intakes, and an expensive Hypertech tuner. Through all of them, I kept waiting to feel something. Once in a while I'd convince myself I did feel it (you have to when you've blown that kind of money on stuff) but the truth is I never felt anything compared to this tune. Start with this tune 1st and then worry about the little add ons if you still feel you need them. I don't know nor have I anything to do with Black Bear and I met Justin for the 1st and only time the day of my tune. I've already bought every option and part his company sells so I get nothing out of this review. I am writing it because I was impressed and thrilled with my truck afterwards. Learn from my mistakes and you'll have a lot more cash in the bank for other things if you start here.

EDIT: I'd forgotten to mention that Justin keeps your custom tune data and info backed up on 2 separate PC systems and an off-site storage system. If you ever change tire size or anything else requiring a re-program or want to change your octane setting or maybe the TCM settings, he'll do it free for as long as you have the truck. He said he'll make any changes or updates I needed, as often as I needed, just for the cost of shipping the PCM both ways. Can't beat that. In 4 years, I never once got Hypertech to answer an email (or their phone) let alone post a software update.

Edited October 30, 2009 by jimlem

66nova · October 28, 2009

I'll have to be honest. I did not read all of this, but I got the idea. Congrats on the tune. It will only get better as you drive it.

Now you can see what all of us koolaid drinking Black Bear addicts are talking about

txab · October 28, 2009

Darkanion · October 29, 2009

Like Robert said, I didn't read it all, but got the jist of it... Congrats!

Mayfieldsa1 · October 29, 2009

That makes me want get mine done faster now! Hopefully the live tune in memphis will go down jan 9,10. I can't wait, I feel like a kid waiting for christmas to get here!

gave20 · October 29, 2009

Cliff notes: Get the freakin' tune you won't regret it. Don't ask about handhelds, or other so called "tuners". Get a black bear tune;

----------------

Now playing: Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness

via FoxyTunes trust us.

Bill in Niantic · October 29, 2009

HEY!!!!

ANYBODY IN THE N.E.?

I am hoping a live tune will be happening in CT.

chakis24 · October 29, 2009

HEY!!!!

ANYBODY IN THE N.E.?

I am hoping a live tune will be happening in CT.

me too. although not until autocal comes out so i can avoid the whole pcm swapping and so i can have a few different tunes "on tap"

jimlem · October 30, 2009

HEY!!!!

ANYBODY IN THE N.E.?

I am hoping a live tune will be happening in CT.

me too. although not until autocal comes out so i can avoid the whole pcm swapping and so i can have a few different tunes "on tap"

What is autocal? Haven't heard the name.

Just FYI there is no absolute requirement to swap PCMs. I wanted to keep an extra in case some helpful dealership updated mine w/o asking. When I had received the 2nd PCM (he sent it already programmed for my VIN & tire size) I asked if he really cared which we programmed & which I put up on a shelf. Justin recommended I use his so he could program the re-learn on it (only done once) which would make it just like my stock one as far as the rest of the truck's electronic systems were concerned. Other than that, he didn't seem to care.

MS3DALE · October 30, 2009

Another satisfied Black Bear customer

txab · October 30, 2009

HEY!!!!

ANYBODY IN THE N.E.?

I am hoping a live tune will be happening in CT.

You need to keep bumping the thread for your area to find interested people

chakis24 · October 30, 2009

What is autocal? Haven't heard the name.

Just FYI there is no absolute requirement to swap PCMs. I wanted to keep an extra in case some helpful dealership updated mine w/o asking. When I had received the 2nd PCM (he sent it already programmed for my VIN & tire size) I asked if he really cared which we programmed & which I put up on a shelf. Justin recommended I use his so he could program the re-learn on it (only done once) which would make it just like my stock one as far as the rest of the truck's electronic systems were concerned. Other than that, he didn't seem to care.

http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=103670

jimlem · October 30, 2009

What is autocal? Haven't heard the name.

Just FYI there is no absolute requirement to swap PCMs. I wanted to keep an extra in case some helpful dealership updated mine w/o asking. When I had received the 2nd PCM (he sent it already programmed for my VIN & tire size) I asked if he really cared which we programmed & which I put up on a shelf. Justin recommended I use his so he could program the re-learn on it (only done once) which would make it just like my stock one as far as the rest of the truck's electronic systems were concerned. Other than that, he didn't seem to care.

http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=103670

Thanks. That's really interesting and great idea. A place like BB Perf could really expand w/o having to have a minimum number of people sign up for a certain city or meet. I'm a little confused by Jenna's post in the link. The red text says it's for a shop to buy and send out to their customers but in her own note below the pic she talks about customers buying or owning their own (which would be fine if they're not too expensive) so they can update or re-program remotely. I'll definitely want to trade my spare PCM for one of these. Now I understand the reference in the earlier post about keeping multiple tunes on file. What a cool option to have. Thanks for the info.

Anyone have updated info or prices yet?

Mayfieldsa1 · October 30, 2009

Just curious if your gas mileage increased? I also have a 1500hd, but with the 3.73 rear?

jimlem · October 30, 2009

Just curious if your gas mileage increased? I also have a 1500hd, but with the 3.73 rear?

I'll let you know. I just put my 2nd full tank in since the tune. I'm afraid the first full tank was pretty much wasted on "testing it out." It's been such a blast to step on it and have it really LAUNCH that I just gave up and played around until the 1st tank was gone. Even though I really horsed around seeing how fast I could do 0-60 or trying to chirp the rear wheels, I did end up with about the same mileage as when I just putt putted around on the old tune.

I'm sure it's capable of getting the approx. 2 - 4 more MPG that they told me was average for most people with my engine etc. I say that based on the fact that NOW, to take off from a light or get on a freeway or cruise at 40 MPH on a local street, I truly only need to press the accelerator a fraction of what I did before. Also before, for me anyway, I seemed to have to give it a lot more gas to get up to and above the speed I wanted and then back down to exactly the MPH I wanted and then it would fall off and need more gas to get back up to speed. Sort of hunting around trying to stay focused. It was always worst between 35 and 40 MPH (the most common speeds around my house). It just never seemed to be at the right RPM or something. I have a feeling it was due in part to the Hypertech tuner I had on it, because friends with the same stock setup never complained as much as I did about that. Now, however, it just cruises up to 40 MPH with just the smallest amount of throttle and stays right there.

Come to think of it, it was easier to drive the 1 day I had it back to stock w/o the Hypertech while waiting to go to my BB tune appointment. SLOW but more accurate anyway. I think I must have really messed up some trans settings with the Hypertech. I didn't know what I was doing and got no help from them. Anyway, I'll post a real answer when I can back it up with numbers but for now, it feels as if the better MPG are possible.