Canned tune or black bear?

njk4o5 · August 22, 2019

i could care less about my truck being any faster i just want it to shift right

1SLOW1500 · August 22, 2019

i could care less about my truck being any faster i just want it to shift right

I understand and that is fine. But power is important. These new tunes in the vehicles are nothing like the old LS stuff. It is torque based. So what ever power toy have you then build of that to control the trans.
So stock I still say unlock the vin and tune the whole truck. Your option on how far you with to go with that. But the trans can be cleaned up and shift better. It does help with afm/dod disabled. And the power enrichment(pe) all in.
I am confident in Black Bear also he can set it how you wish.

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njk4o5 · August 22, 2019

46 minutes ago, 1SLOW1500 said:

I understand and that is fine. But power is important. These new tunes in the vehicles are nothing like the old LS stuff. It is torque based. So what ever power toy have you then build of that to control the trans.
So stock I still say unlock the vin and tune the whole truck. Your option on how far you with to go with that. But the trans can be cleaned up and shift better. It does help with afm/dod disabled. And the power enrichment(pe) all in.
I am confident in Black Bear also he can set it how you wish.

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yeah well paying $500+ to make it shift better doesnt sit well with me. my next truck wont be a chevy if they keep this terrible stock trans tuning up

1SLOW1500 · August 22, 2019

yeah well paying $500+ to make it shift better doesnt sit well with me. my next truck wont be a chevy if they keep this terrible stock trans tuning up

I agree if I paid that much and it unlocked the truck so it can all be tuned I would tune it all. And bad news buddy it gets way more expensive and more trans concerns to come.
There are some better transmissions out there in other brands. That said my 8k trans is perfect now.
But known the device can do many vehicles maybe your next truck also..

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sam hain · August 30, 2019

Since I have 37k miles of warranty left I didn't want to do a full reprogram of the ECU, I bought the range disabler. Used a coupon code and got it for $189 shipped. Drove to work this morning and the truck is so much nicer to drive now. Feels like it gained some HP (probably didn't but seat of the pants feels that way). Shifting is also better.

Tim McMullen · September 6, 2019

If your vehicle is still under warranty you may want to think twice before you get a tune. GM can see how many times your vehicle has been tuned as described in TSB 09-06-04-026O. Neither Black Bear not Diablo has rebutted this claim since I posted it a few months ago.

Beyond the TSB and warranty issues, you are putting your $20 to $50 thousand vehicle in the hands of someone you more than likely will never meet and someone who has no skin in the game other than the promise to provide the service that you paid for.

Good luck with getting the money that you paid for the tune back if you are not satisfied with the result let alone the costs of repairs if the tune breaks your engine.

Just as you would strive to achieve good favour with a surgeon who is about to cut into your heart, you should also strive to attain goodwill with the person who is tuning - essentially cutting into the heart - of the very expensive vehicle that you depend on for your livelihood.

If you catch the custom tuner on a bad day or if you somehow offend him/her maybe the tune that you get will not be optimal and maybe your pistons will melt.

If your pistons do melt, what recourse do you have? You can hire a lawyer, open a court case and spend money that is better spent on other things. In the end, you lose. You lose your time, your peace of mind and your money because you will never recover the costs. Because we are competitive creatures, the sour taste of this loss will remain with us for a long time.

I have had dealings with Diablo and with Black Bear.

Lew who does custom tunes using the Diablo tuner seems to provide a good tune based on your vehicle mods and your desires. He is responsive to changes that you request and his response is almost immediate.

However, you should NEVER tune your vehicle on a Friday or on the weekend with a Diablo tuner. If for some reason your Diablo tuner bricks your ECM, there is no one available at Diablo to call.

They go home on the weekends.

When they come back on Monday, they will fix your broken truck but by then, you had to call in for a day off or had to hustle a ride from someone – both ways - or maybe even lose the job. This condition may have changed but when I was working with Diablo, they were not there on weekends and my ECM was bricked a couple of times.

Working with Black Bear, I thought that they provided custom tunes based of the data files that you sent.

With Diablew, I sent in maybe three or four data files and Lew adjusted the tune based on data.

With Black Bear, I sent a data file, received a tune and that was it. There was no request for another data file. There was no fine tuning based on previous tunes. Finally, they told me that the tune they sent was based on a dyno tune for a truck similar to mine. When I asked about various aspects of the tune, they said that was the way it is. Essentially, they sent a canned tune.

If anyone is interested, I have an Autocal that I will sell for cheap.

Just as a dope fiend needs bigger fixes because he adapts, we need more power, more speed, more noise, more testosterone as we adapt to the tunes and mods that we apply to our vehicles. The exhilaration we get fades and we need more. However, there is a limit. There is a line that we cannot attain much less cross because of the limitations of our equipment and of our wallets.

Bottom line: Is the short lived exhilaration that you get from a custom tune worth the potential cost of repairing your truck on your own dime?

Maybe a better option would be to buy an old truck on eBay or Craigslist and then have at it. Install 10 inch lifts, big tires, noisy exhausts, crate engines and anything else that you desire. Change the gears in the differentials, get an awesome head unit and amp and expend the creative energy that stirs you to change things. This way, you decide on the amount of risk you will assume, not some bureaucrat from GM nor some stranger who proposes to make your vehicle better with a tune.

In the end, we end. All that we have thought, all that we have felt and all that we were ends with us. Our trucks will pass on to someone else who will have little respect for our modifications. Our friends and families may miss us but will move on through their lives with their own thoughts and desires. We will become memories and finally we fade into the vapor of time with no more record of our existence than the dates on a tombstone.

Tune your truck or do not tune your truck – in the grand scheme of time, it is a small thing.

g2full · October 29, 2019

On 9/5/2019 at 9:28 PM, Tim McMullen said:

Working with Black Bear, I thought that they provided custom tunes based of the data files that you sent.

With Black Bear, I sent a data file, received a tune and that was it. There was no request for another data file. There was no fine tuning based on previous tunes. Finally, they told me that the tune they sent was based on a dyno tune for a truck similar to mine. When I asked about various aspects of the tune, they said that was the way it is. Essentially, they sent a canned tune.

If anyone is interested, I have an Autocal that I will sell for cheap.

Right off of their website -

Tuned computer or computers will be mailed to you to be installed. Using the scan cable, you'll be able to link the new computer(s) to the vehicle and perform a follow-up log file. We'll review that log to ensure that all is operating as it should be.

So this didn't happen? Reason I'm asking is depending on the outcome of my trucks' dealer visit I will be tuning out the AFM. (Now that I'm pretty sure it's caused me engine damage)

Also, I might be interested in that Autocal. According to your location you aren't that far from me.

truckguy82 · October 29, 2019

Blackbear travels across the country and does street tunes. That’s what I did and I highly recommend it.

Snowcamo · October 29, 2019

Blackbear travels across the country and does street tunes. That’s what I did and I highly recommend it.

Really? Whats the cost?

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truckguy82 · October 29, 2019

5 minutes ago, Snowcamo said:

Really? Whats the cost?

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$300 for the tune, and if I remember correctly $300 for the handheld/license

Justin sat in my passenger seat with his laptop while I drove.

Snowcamo · October 29, 2019

Oh wow. Id thought it would be less expensive if he did it in person. I wonder if he can do the tune without having to purchase an auto cal. Ill drop them a line.

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truckguy82 · October 29, 2019

7 minutes ago, Snowcamo said:

Oh wow. Id thought it would be less expensive if he did it in person. I wonder if he can do the tune without having to purchase an auto cal. Ill drop them a line.

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Yes you can, that’s what I did, I bought it like a month later. Just buy it. Can’t modify the tune or take it back to stock without it.

Frankielozano214 · October 29, 2019

14 minutes ago, Snowcamo said:

Oh wow. Id thought it would be less expensive if he did it in person. I wonder if he can do the tune without having to purchase an auto cal. Ill drop them a line.

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Had a dude in Arlington did mine with his labtop for 140$ also turned off my afm, he was on the passenger seat while I drove then he drove After took awhile tho

Edited October 29, 2019 by Frankielozano214

Snowcamo · October 29, 2019

Yes you can, that’s what I did, I bought it like a month later. Just buy it. Can’t modify the tune or take it back to stock without it.

Well I plan just to have it tune like a basic tune in a sense where AFM is turned off. Maybe a little bit more horsepower transmission shift points and that's really it. Oh and adjustment for tire size. Nothing else really I don't plan on going back to stock ever. Actually the truck will stay in the family it'll be my everyday work truck as is now. Besides I can't spend too much money on having fun. I got real priorities ahead in the future going to make me more money.

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Snowcamo · October 29, 2019

Had a dude in Arlington did mine with his labtop for 140$ also turned off my afm, he was on the passenger seat while I drove then he drove After took awhile tho

Right on I'll have to hit him up and see what he can do for me in my situation.

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