Hypertech Results

C & A s Dad · June 4, 2008

Please do not beat me up for buying a hand held programmer. I fully understand a custom tune by practically anyone would offer better performance results than a hand held unit. I made my decision based on my needs and decided not to go with a custom tune.

With that said:

I installed the Max Energy this past weekend in my 02 Yukon XL 5.3L 4.10 gear. I use an Interceptor Scan gauge to monitor trans temps when towing and it also has a Perforamance monitoring feature. It will record 0 to 60, 1/8 mile and 1/4 mile times. I had never tried this on the truck so I did so last week before installing the Max Energy. I made 2 runs before and 2 runs after the install and took the best of each test for my comparison. The run without the Max Energy installed was in the late afternoon on a day when the temp had dropped to 89 degrees. The run with the Max Energy was on a day when it was 96. Not sure how much of a difference this makes. Both runs were on the same road, same 93 octane fuel, same tire pres etc with no other changes made to the truck. The only other mod to the truck is a True Flow CAI System.

Settings on the Max Energy are:

Premium tune, 5500 Rev limit, +100 RPMs on 1-2 shift, +200 RPMs on 2-3 and 3-4 shifts, Shift firmness set at 1(lowest) of 4 levels.

Before:

0 to 60 8.65

1/8 mile 10.71 at 69 MPH

1/4 mile 16.29 at 85 MPH

After:

0 to 60 8.65 No change at all

1/8 mile 10.41 at 70 MPH A .3 sec and 1 mph gain

1/4 mile 16.08 at 86 MPH A .21 sec and 1 mph gain

I did not think the times were too bad for a 5,000 lb grocery getter.

No huge gains on paper. The truck does rev quicker without doubt. It simply spins up quicker and pulls harder in the 2,000 to 4,000 range. Even with the shift firmness on the mildest setting, I really like the feeling of it not dragging into the next gear. It is certainly not harsh, but more defined. I also monitored my knock retard loading the engine and spinning it up under acceration and it never moved from 0.00 with no ping at all.

I will have my camper hooked to it on July the 3rd and this will be the test. I will see if it helps anything with the towing.

I have checked the mileage with one short run of approx 150 miles but I will not share this # yet. The run was almost all hwy at 65 or less and the MPG using gallons and miles driven, not the scan gauge, was far better than anything I had ever gotten before. I fully realize you cannot calculate accurate MPG on one fill up. I have really good MPG records so I will report any MPG change after 6 to 8 fill ups.

BigJayDogg3 · June 4, 2008

Nice report. Now you need to update your signature!

C & A s Dad · June 4, 2008

Thanks for the reminder on the sig.

Sorry the post was so long but I did not want to leave out any info if possible.

Schmids5.3l · June 4, 2008

Sounds good, any tuning in the shift department is better than stock!

C & A s Dad · June 5, 2008

I spoke with a Hypertech tech guy today and he recommended I move my rev limiter up a little more. When I had made my passes I felt it drop off just a little in the 1 to 2 shift. This was because I had the rev limiter at 5500 and it was just barely bumping the limiter when it shifted. I moved it to 6000 but left my 1-2 shift increase at 100 Revs over stock and the 2-3 and 3-4 at 200 over stock. He said I could pick up a little by moving them out a little further but hey, who am I going to be racing in my Wife's truck? Also, the shift points only affect WOT and I do not need that towing my camper.

I will have to try it again to see if I pick up anything from the rev limit change. I really doubt it because it barely skipped on the 1-2 shift when I had it at 5500.