Custom Tune Instead Of A Programmer?

superjim · December 23, 2007

Howdy all,

Over the last couple of years reading forums, I have seen a lot of posts saying "GET A CUSTOM TUNE" and a lot of posts saying "GET A HANDHELD PROGRAMMER."

My question is...... what are the advantages and disadvantages of each.

My son has a Diablo Sport Preditor and loves it. It has done some great things for his truck, both power and mileage wise.

I agree that custom tunes are good, but if you have a late model truck and take it back to the dealer, and the PCM gets flashed with some new update, don't you lose the custom tune and have to pay for it all over again?

With a handheld, you would always have the latest tune you had put on it, and if the dealer wiped it out... it would just take 5 minutes to reload it as soon as you got home.

I have never owned either one .... but I am in the market for one and would like some opinions on the pros and cons of each.

Jim from Texas

Lances07Z71 · December 23, 2007

Well to answer your question,You need a handheld to get a custom tune.The shop uses your handheld to hook up your truck and thier software to alow them to custom tune your vehicle.It's best to get a handheld tuner that shops in your area use,if you don't then when you want a custom tune then you would have to buy the one they actually use.

I've had alot of tunning done in the past on my Cobra and I will never just use a over the counter tune again.Every vehicle is different and yes some of the over the counter tunes are decent but you run the chance of running to lean or to rich and cause alot of problems in the long run.Now you will hear that these Company's have done thousands of tunes and from thier exp. they have come up with a awesome tune that you can just download and enjoy,but you won't be 100% safe and will not see your vehicles true potential without a custom Dyno Tune.

An example for you is when I had an over the counter tune from one of the top Mustang Tuners in the country I thought it made the Cobra run awesome but I decided to get it Dynoed to see what kind of HP I was pushing.The first run on the Dyno was to check out how good the tune was that I had and I was very surprised to learn that it was running very,very rich and only put out about 410rwhp and 412rwtq.After a few more dyno runs and a custom tune it made 456rwhp and 458rwtq.The only thing that was changed was the tune.

superjim · December 23, 2007

An example for you is when I had an over the counter tune from one of the top Mustang Tuners in the country I thought it made the Cobra run awesome but I decided to get it Dynoed to see what kind of HP I was pushing.The first run on the Dyno was to check out how good the tune was that I had and I was very surprised to learn that it was running very,very rich and only put out about 410rwhp and 412rwtq.After a few more dyno runs and a custom tune it made 456rwhp and 458rwtq.The only thing that was changed was the tune.

Lance,

A quick question for you ... Is this possible?

If I had a top of the line HPTuners handheld setup... and wasn't satisfied with what "I" could do to it..... I could have it Dyno tuned and then save the tune to my handheld, thus always having it and being able to reinstall it if the dealer ever flashed my ECM?

Jim from Texas

omegafiler · December 23, 2007

If you have a car going to the track often and/or have a good dyno shop nearby, that'd be the way to get your custom tune. HPTuners also works, but that is custom tune software that runs on a laptop. You either need to know what you're doing, know somebody who does, or be prepared to do a whole lot of reading.

Otherwise, companies such as Wait4Me will offer you 3 custom tunes on the SCT handheld. It's the best of both worlds since you can easily go back to stock whenever you want to do. Just search the forum for Wait4Me and SCT, or just go to their website and give 'em a call.

VMax2007 · December 23, 2007

This site is a great source of info for tuning:

http://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/fo...splay.php?f=161

Here is a thread I started regarding a Nelson custom tune.

http://www.performancetrucks.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=407712

I have to run now, but I will post more on this later today.

Lances07Z71 · December 24, 2007

Lance,

A quick question for you ... Is this possible?

If I had a top of the line HPTuners handheld setup... and wasn't satisfied with what "I" could do to it..... I could have it Dyno tuned and then save the tune to my handheld, thus always having it and being able to reinstall it if the dealer ever flashed my ECM?

Jim from Texas

Yes,if that is the handheld tuner that the Shop uses.They are all saved the same way on your tuner.You can always unload and upload back to stock or another tune.Unless you have alot of exp. doing a tune I would'nt try and do it myself.

superjim · December 26, 2007

Thanks to everyone for all the information.

I have two vehicles I am wanting to tune.

A 2006 4.3 V6 that I hope to get a little better fuel mileage from.

Also have a 2006 Cadillac Performance Sedan that I want to play with and try to get a little MORE Performance from.

Lance, thanks for your insight and your experience with tunes.

VMax... you are gonna make me do a lot of reading.

Omegafiler... I will check out the Wait4Me site.

Jim from Texas

Wires · March 30, 2008

Thanks to everyone for all the information.

I have two vehicles I am wanting to tune.

A 2006 4.3 V6 that I hope to get a little better fuel mileage from.

Also have a 2006 Cadillac Performance Sedan that I want to play with and try to get a little MORE Performance from.

Lance, thanks for your insight and your experience with tunes.

VMax... you are gonna make me do a lot of reading.

Omegafiler... I will check out the Wait4Me site.

Jim from Texas

I have a 2008 Denali with the 6.2L. First off, I was all for the handheld (rather just muck in the garage vs taking the truck somewhere and have them muck the same). It came with the Preditor installed. Ran it for a week, then took it back to stock. I really didn't see much difference between the 91 tune and the GM stock tune. Everyone says "get a tune". They mentioned the Westers tune, and when google pulled up their site, and it was only 2 hours from me, it became a no brainer to try.

Took 1/2 hour for him to reflash the tranny and engine computer (remove the torque management).

Took it out, and wow, what a difference. That TM really butchers power. Hands down, best $500 every spent. Before, it felt like I had a 3L with a giant turbo. Started soft and one it reved up, started to pull hard, and then powered died off at the sigt points. Now it pulls hard right off the line, and the tranny shifts are crisp (no more granny shifts).

The biggest gain I noticed over stock or Preditor is part throttle response (which is independant of TM). Before, it seemed to labor up slight grades, to the point where it would downshift into 5th and then start to pull again. Now, it loses the laboring part, and doesn't downshift as much. Mileage went up too. I'm getting 2+MPH more on the highway with the Westers tune (most likely because of the better part throttle response).

And, according to the fuel trim values, the Preditor was running 4% rich, which supports the post above.

I've played on both sides of the fence, and I'd definately to the tune again, versus the handheld.