I am not going out of my way to shoot people down. I am simply trying to help from my past experiences. I see posts on here about lug nuts and oil changes. When it comes to tuning, you can destroy your investment with a mail order tune. I lost a motor due to this fact and was very gun shy with my next mods. No two cars are the same. One may come of the line and dyno 7 hp different than the next one. Nascar matches pistons, tires, all kinds of stuff for optimum performance. By purchasing a tune, you are assuming that the tune that they are basing it off was......identical to your motor (not going to happen), running the same fuel (doubtfull), and a good guess with your mods. Someone within an hour or so from you can dyno tune your car and you can see safe numbers. Long live your vette please?

 

oh man, I hope this isn't your last post. or you'd better have a big star wars defence.

 

I don't care what people say. I just hope I save someone 6 large, and yes mine ran great for a while too!

 

were your past experiences with LS-_ generation motors? Did you deal with major tuning shops in your past experience?

BTW...GM delivers our cars with a one-tune-fits-all methodology too!

Just curious!

 

I love these threads that obviously aim to start verbal violence. Interesting goal, and they usually say, "Just trying to help, but..."

It's all good, I guess.

 

Yes they do, a very conservative tune which has been tested extensively against all production variations and different driving conditions.

Any performance tune narrows the safety margin designed into the stock tune. To show big gains (and that is what sells tunes) the margins can be shaved very closely. Then production variations, different driving conditions, etc can lead to destructive events in the engine when local gas isn't quite the same as was used in the car on which the tune was developed, altitude is different than where the tune was originally developed, average temperatures are higher than where the tune was developed, etc, etc, etc. If you've done modifications that are different from those on the car for which a tune was developed, these can very quickly push you into a dangerous situation too.

To get big gains from a tune, the tuner has to know exactly where the safety limits are for a particular car. He can't do that through the mail. He can do that through actual on car testing. But because he is narrowing the safety margins, even on car tuning carries a risk, when you drive the car under different conditions than the ones existing during the testing.

If you are willing to accept more modest gains, the tuner can leave bigger safety margins. Make the tune mild enough, and even a mail order tune can be safe. But it is always better if the tuner can test on the actual car.

 

Wise advice from my experience. Be wary of any tuner promising huge gains, and inform yourself what should be a realistic gain before your tuning appointment. I'd take a modest gain to preserve reasonable safety margins any day...

 

Agreed, which was where I was going to go next. I would expect that highly respected shops that do mail order tunes would leave a bigger safety margins.

 

Well...this is apparently a continuation of the verbal sparring that was had with Chuck CoW. I think now I will say...

IB4TL!!!

 

[QUOTE=shopdog;1560802750]Yes they do, a very conservative tune which has been tested extensively against all production variations and different driving conditions.

Any performance tune narrows the safety margin designed into the stock tune. To show big gains (and that is what sells tunes) the margins can be shaved very closely. Then production variations, different driving conditions, etc can lead to destructive events in the engine when local gas isn't quite the same as was used in the car on which the tune was developed, altitude is different than where the tune was originally developed, average temperatures are higher than where the tune was developed, etc, etc, etc. If you've done modifications that are different from those on the car for which a tune was developed, these can very quickly push you into a dangerous situation too.

exactly!

and I did not start the thread to bring on issues. I lost a lot of money due to ignorance on the situation. I am trying to pass on reason. There will still be people who do it anyways. I did. My dad told me not to jump the bike ramp and I did it anyways. Everyone has to get bloody knees sometimes.....or empty walets
To get big gains from a tune, the tuner has to know exactly where the safety limits are for a particular car. He can't do that through the mail. He can do that through actual on car testing. But because he is narrowing the safety margins, even on car tuning carries a risk, when you drive the car under different conditions than the ones existing during the testing.

 

Sure, go fly on an airplane that has two engines vs. four. What is your point? the 'safety margin' is much less with two engines (debate even more with prop vs jet or turbo prop) yet people hop on the express flight and do not think much of it.

What I am trying to point out is that usually the more risk involved the greater the gain. One just has to pare down the odds to their favor and roll with it.

 

I just went with COW and what made me do so was his commitment to a safe tune. You might not feel an additional 5-10hp but you will feel it when your car goes lean and fries a part. To me it isnt worth it, 5-10 hp is nice but not peace of mind safe.

 

To each his own but I would never do a mail order tune. Seems kinda like buying a mail order bride. Sure you've seen pictures but you never really know what you are going to get until it shows up at your door!

I've only had my C6 two weeks but had every other american later model sportscar(nothing else compares). The only way that I have ever had any of my cars tuned is on a chasis dyno with wide band O2 sensors so you can properly adjust your A/F ratio. Many ponies are available with a smooth and consistent A/F! JMO Let the flaming continue.

 

Who did the tune and are they standing behind it?????

Also Huck, I saw that your car had a supercharger. You were using a mail order tune for a forced induction car???

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...14&postcount=4

I thought it was dyno tuned. What happened exactly?

We have seen some of everything on this forum. Lets leave that one be.

Good move, but do know that you can run into the same problem even with a dyno tune.

I have a mail order tune (Charlie RPM Motors) as well, but have some prior experience tuning and have my own copy of HP Tuners so that I can scan and log just what my car is doing. If I am getting into trouble, I have a better chance of knowing it.

While most of his post is true, the part in red is not necessarily true.

I sent Charlie scans and logs via email for his examination. Several logged runs under a variety of conditions. He made adjustments to his original mail order tune accordingly, emailed those back to me, and I reloaded these adjusted tunes with my own HP Tuners. While my car was on the dynojet, with wide band, over 2K miles away, I had Charlie on the phone as well, with both myself and the dyno operator, and Charlie helped me with fine tuning other parameters.

But no, I agree with Shopdog in that a canned mail order tune, with no provision for adjustment, is taking a bit more of a risk.

And thats a large part of the problem with the mail order tune. They are usually locked using one method or another and as such cannot be fine tuned.

 

You're completely right! Anytime you start modding your car you are just opening another door for potential disaster. When I had nitrous on my 99 cobra I used to tell everyone it was like doing a really hot chick with an STD. You know you shouldn't do it because its bad but damn it sure is fun

HP tuners is pretty impressive. I have a buddy that just installed an X3 cam in his LS1 SS camaro. Pretty muched got the car to idle great and drive good with just some baseline info.

 

Any car at anytime can have problems whether it has been tuned, modded or still stock.......

 

I would get a tune just to get rid of the one second lag time in the accelerator pedal. Is there a way to ask for that and that only to be changed with a tune?