04silverZ06

My Z only has a Callaway Honker - would it be worth the money for a full out dyno tune?

PeteZ06

If youre planning other hp mods in the near future then no.. Wait until youre done with those so you're not needing to retune the car for every mod.

If no other mods planned then a custom tune is one of the cheaper mods you can get.

Usually good for about 15hp/10tq

sean.b

+1 to ^^ and to elaborate a little:
if you're doing this in such a manner that you yourself can go back and change the tune (such as buying hptuners) or a friend is doing it, OR you have no plans to ever change the stock power, then absolutely. it's the single biggest bang:buck you can do, other than porting/polishing, and this wont take 2 weeks of free time to do.

if you're paying to have it done and have plans to do other parts later on, and absolutely just cant sleep another minute knowing the car isnt tuned, then maybe look into a mail order tune. mail order tunes (or diablo over the net tunes) tend to be "meh" in my opinion for anything BUT stock. being stock you can get pretty close, unless you live in high altitudes or something that'd throw it off.

4XLR8N

See post #42 for details on my experience...

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...project-3.html

The only mods to speak of are a Callaway Honker CAI and a B&B Tri-flow cat back.

Livernois will retune it for free if I have them perform any additional mods (headers, cam, etc.). However, that is not in my plans.

$ spent per hp gained, it probably isn't the best bang for the buck...but from a driveability perspective, it is great. Automatics can benefit even more.

sean.b

being as it tends to gain 10-15rwhp, for (at least around here, so ill base it off that) $250.. what else is a better bang:buck other than porting and polishing the heads? maybe the intake, but then the argument could be made that the zip tie mod vs intake vs tune bang:buck.. tune's pretty quick/easy/painless with good gains

not being pedantic, just keeping the ball rolling for educational/productive sake.

04silverZ06

The tune at a popular local shop is $550 - that's about $37/hp based on a gain of 15hp.

sean.b

holy sh**. well at that price it's definitely not a great bang:buck. before i'd do that i'd just buy hptuners pro for $100 more and do it yourself. a basic stock tune without any widebands being bunged in can use narrowband to trim back afr, and just bump up timing 1-2 degrees and see decent enough gains/throttle response. and you'd be ready for whatever mods later on if you want to tune it yourself, which honestly isnt THAT hard to do. may not get 100% of a seasoned pro, but taking my street tunes for further dyno tuning, the good local street tuners have managed to get 95% of the way there.

04silverZ06

That's why i'm hesitating - if it was half that price it would be done lol.

sean.b

you could always see if some local corvette club/car club/friends/etc want to split the cost of an hptuners harness. i did that with 2 local guys, and i know another guy in our FB group did the same. the initial purchase is good for 4 cars. if you're 100% bone stock, you can just browse for pre-canned tunes on their repository or watch your o2 sensors for their amount of trim, and dial it in that way. you wouldnt want to do that if you did head/cam/fi/etc, but for bone stock, its pretty safe.

just food for thought. for $550 i wouldnt dream of doing it on a stock car.

Brock63

You could do a mail tune with East Coast Superchargers (ECS) for $140 or find someone to do a STREET TUNE which is usually around $250...until you add headers and other things later and need more.

That is my plan...for my Vararam, Powerduct, etc....then after I add headers, ported throttle body....will do a more extensive tune.

JeremyGSU

I'm with others. If you plan on doing more mods then no, otherwise yes.

When I bought my '04 Z it only had a tune in it. I added a Vararam and dyno tuned and picked up 10hp. However, it felt like I picked up a lot more.

Tuning is more than just peak hp. They changed my throttle response, power under the curve, etc. It felt a lot better than it did before even with so little change in power numbers.

troyguitar

383/362 plus increased rev limit to 7k with dynojet tune, stock '04Z with vararam. Cost $600 for the tune+vararam, gained 28 whp from 355 stock plus a few mph in 2nd gear for autox with the increased limiter.

Sox-Fan

I owned my car all of 4 hours before I pulled out the laptop and tuned out the skip shift stuff. Tuning the car can more than just moooar! horsepowers!!!

Drivability is also really important. As troyguitar and JeremyGSU mentioned, throttle response, power under peak, more rpms per gear, fan operation, all of that can make the car so much more pleasant to drive without adding any horsepower.

It's not a straight $37/hp equation, it really isn't.

Roddy13

Depends on what you are after. If your like me I only plan to do the basics on my Vette... CAI, and an axle back exhaust... with this I'll get a Daiblo tuner and get a customer mail order tune. I expect 20-25 ish extra horspower overall.. probably about 10hp from the tune, and better driveabilty and throttle response. I already have an intune 1000 daiblo unit so makes sense for me.

bikeriderga

Anytime you change exhaust and intake, you are going to need a tune.

Dyno tune is not required, but I know that my 03 Z06 threw lean codes with just Vararam and from XPipe back Corsa exhaust. A hand held tune should be sufficient for Intake and exhaust changes until you plan on more mods.

Dyno tune most efficient, but probably not worth the 500-600.00 it will cost until you add headers or XPipe and Cat Back Hi-Flow exhaust.

rjwz28

Exactly; tunes help everything

If you are not planning any more mods, get it tuned now. If you are planning more mods but it will be a while, get the tuner to commit to a $100 retune after you add your headers or whatever. If you plan on modding over the next couple months, wait until after to tune it

C5Dobie

Just tune is a good mod all around, totally worth it IMO - but if you're going to do it may as well add a legit CAI as well such as vararam as the LSx vehicles respond very well.

I would never advise anyone against getting a custom dyno tune followed up by a street tune - proper way to do it and you'll have the most gains/smoother idle, better overall - I would advise against getting a handheld tune especially if you do plan on adding more mods down the road. Waste of $$$ IMO - and I've done both, and gained considerable amount of rwhp just going from can-o-tune (diablo predator) to custom dyno tune w/ no other mods done.

04silverZ06

I'm thinking of swapping in a Magnaflow X pipe as well if I get the tune while it's at the shop.

PS - not to derail this thread but the Honker is supposed to be one of the best CAI's available for the C5.

Ludeaem

Is it safe to rev to 7k on stock valve train? Also how is your power curve past 6500? Your post seriously spiked my interest.

Edit: So after some research it seems like a beefier timing chain (from LS2) and changing valve springs are two points to consider if you go this route. As with anything on this forum, its disputable haha

rocknroller

Definitely worth it for me. Mostly stock Z with just a Blackwing CAI. Made 364 HP for base line but was running almost 20% rich. After a few more tweaks ended at 384 hp and 371 TQ.