My friends brother wants to "tune my 01. He claims he can tweak another 20-25 hp.

He is an engineer at NASA, so he really is a rocket surgeon.
He has a 67 camaro with a built up ls1 he claims puts 385 to the wheels with ls2 heads, cam, headers etc...

He says my 01 "only" puts about 300 to the rwhp, and he says they run them rich.

I don't have money to buy a new motor if he over tweaks it.

Can he really make it a safe increase, or is it pushing the edges to try to get more?

I don't race, I'm 60 years old. I just like the car as it is, it seems pretty strong as is and I would hate to hurt it by trying for a few more hp...

I guess the question is, can he do more harm than good, and if we do hook it up, are there certain things I need to tell him not to do?

Sorry for the long winded post.
Cheers

 

He's right, about 300 to the wheels, my 01 when stock put 291 to the wheels...

I'm questioning another 20-25 rwhp with just a tune on a stock C5 though - maybe someone more knowledgeable will chime in on that.

And yes a bad/wrong tune can cause an engine failure...

Kinda with 8vette7 - you already answered you're own question I believe....

 

Leave it alone. A lot of leaned out cars end up with a broken #7 piston. My tuner is very cautious on the mixture and he even did one pull on the dyno leaning it out just to show me it didn't make a huge difference. Also, next time you go to the dealer (if you do) and they flash the computer you will lose the tune.

 

Just curious, why #7 piston and not another one?

 

That one runs the leanest so when you further remove fuel it will be the first to let you know. If you do a search on #7 piston either here or with Google you should get a bunch of hits. Here is just one example: Link

 

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I had a tuner tell me he could get maybe 15 HP. He had a dyno machine and the computer program to do it correctly, I assume. Wouldn't take the chance on screwing something up. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

However, there are lots of beneficial things he can do.

Tell him to lay off the "tune", but to change the fan turn-on temps, calibrate the speedometer exactly to your tire height, kill the skip-shift or firm up auto shifts and change shift points. There are more non-tune settings in the mix, just search the forum :-)

 

Thanks for the info.

 

and change that 2 mph cut off.

 

All good things mentioned above. I believe you also answered your own question. These cars are tuned rich from the factory to save the engine from detonation and causing broken engines. You can pick a little up from a tune, but without modding not a huge thing. Others have mentioned good things to change w/o changing the tune that would be good. One of the things I changed was the Throttle % to go into power enrichment. GM set that way too low. With all the hills around here that was a good fuel savings changing that setting. There are different things he can do to help out your car without changing the tune.

 

I'll be the dissenter here and say let him tune it. He's got experience tuning his own LS1. He's probably going to making Power Enrichment less rich and maybe add some timing. Could also do the things mentioned by smartadze.

 

I had a buddy of mine use my EFI Live and he gave me one of the best drive way tunes after my heads and cam mods that I seen in a LONG TIME..

 

I am also an old dude, up on you by three years , and find I have enough power at the wheels for my abilities, which include lack of desire to get into high skill ownership situations. Also, more power means more fuel. I already have crappy gas milage ( driver caused) with more power than I need, why stress the engine just to get more of the same.

He might be a rocket engineer, and the smartest guy in town, but he is out of his field here. These types of decisions are trade offs, with my trust going to the engineers working for GM.

I don't know your friend, but some engineers excel at the craft , while having little common sense in other areas. If you talk to enough of these guys , you know what I mean. He could be thrilled with the idea of change and exploring and that's it. You might not be as thrilled with exploring or change when it happens to your ride.

Unless he would help with any damage, I would only be a cheerleader for work on his car, not mine. His power claims are crazy town, which is never a good start, which leads me to think he is not reality based in his expected results. Without a logical result planned, how could it be possible to achieve it, additionally, without any engine damage in the long run.

Let the guy experiment with his own toys, then bring it up again in five years, if it is still something that is not now a topic of embarrassment.

Perhaps the engineers in your town are more normal, I have a lot of aerospace guys kicking around here. Most are fine, some have fine engineering abilities at the expense of other functions, as a blind pianist might. Those are the guys to keep off your car.

 

This is all that you need to know.

All tuners had to start somewhere. Some never learn the right way to do it, and on the flip side of that, a lot of backyard tuners are really, really good at it.

You have indicated that you are not in a position to find out.

 

leave it as is you wont notice 25hp. But as someone said do the fans, 2mph cutoff etc etc.

 

Some backyard tuners can get quite a bit out of a stocker. I fooled with tuning 18,19 years ago on a 87 GTA that I built. If he has been tuning on his own car he probably knows what he is doing. You said it yourself , the car already has much more than us old guys need. Leave it alone, but asked him to show you what he does. It's pretty interesting. I had a 16 year old son back then, and I had a fuel cut off at 65 mph in one chip. He didn't say a word for quite a while, then said one day. Car ain't very fast,is it dad. It was a lot of fun playing with that old car.

 

While his power claims may be off, I'm sure he knows how lean is too lean. If he knows how to use the tuning software, and he uses a wideband, it's pretty hard to mess up. Although you won't gain much on a stock engine. Just tell him to be conservative and leave it a little rich, and I'm sure he can safely squeeze out a few more ponies.

 

You could always try a mail order tune like ECS or Frost. They aren't as effective as a dyno tune where they have the car that can give them feedback, but you'll be safe dealing with a reputable tuner. Ford Truck guys do this all the time with their Ecoboosts.