Tune
Pro
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 682
Likes: 0
From: Miami Florida
funny, no one EVER jumps in on these types of theads and produces any factual information about their OWN experience. it's always "check with another...", "i thought that....", "there was a post...", "someone told me....", "my buddy said that his friend told him that...", "check all the other forums and you will find that...". 
100% right on the money!
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,246
Likes: 5
From: West Coast
Thousands of people read this forum every day. Many have tuned their cars. Could you please point out a post that states an engine or anything else was damaged due to a tune, and who did the tune so we know it's not just more BS?
Whenever anyone has a complaint about something they bought for their car they post their story here and they warn us about the vendor. I've been reading this forum for years and I've never seen a first hand account of any such tuning disaster.
Whenever anyone has a complaint about something they bought for their car they post their story here and they warn us about the vendor. I've been reading this forum for years and I've never seen a first hand account of any such tuning disaster.
Don't be naive in thinking that one can post something about a tune gone bad. There are politics involved here. I love the forum but it is highly regulated and filtered. If you don't see that, you need to wake up.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 7,610
Likes: 12
GM engineers incorporate a lot of safety measures into the factory "tune" on the engine and transmission. These are meant to protect the drivetrain from excessive abuse, premature failure, catastrophic failure. When you remove or change these parameters, you start opening Pandora's Box.
When you tune, you void your factory warranty.
TUNE = VOIDED WARRANTY - Now, if you want to lie to GM and deceive them, that is your call. Just don't expect GM to fix your car after a tune was installed.
If you are OK with possibly losing $10k on the engine, another $5k on the transmission, then you have passed the greatest hurdle. If you can't afford to lose $15k or more, then DO NOT TUNE.
Lastly, people have lost engines and transmissions due to a bad tune. If anyone says otherwise, they are lying. Bad tunes will cause the A6 to downshift into a lower gear when it is NOT supposed to. The LS3 does not like spinning to 10,000 RPM.
An incorrect tune can lean out the LS3 engine causing it to detonate at high RPM's. A knock sensor is REACTIVE and a motor that detonates while at 5,500 RPM can do some major damage. Torque Management has a purpose.
You get the point???
When you tune, you void your factory warranty.
TUNE = VOIDED WARRANTY - Now, if you want to lie to GM and deceive them, that is your call. Just don't expect GM to fix your car after a tune was installed.
If you are OK with possibly losing $10k on the engine, another $5k on the transmission, then you have passed the greatest hurdle. If you can't afford to lose $15k or more, then DO NOT TUNE.
Lastly, people have lost engines and transmissions due to a bad tune. If anyone says otherwise, they are lying. Bad tunes will cause the A6 to downshift into a lower gear when it is NOT supposed to. The LS3 does not like spinning to 10,000 RPM.
An incorrect tune can lean out the LS3 engine causing it to detonate at high RPM's. A knock sensor is REACTIVE and a motor that detonates while at 5,500 RPM can do some major damage. Torque Management has a purpose. You get the point???
LBear, I love ya man, but whenever a tuning thread appears you tell ghost stories.
Thousands of people read this forum every day. Many have tuned their cars. Could you please point out a post that states an engine or anything else was damaged due to a tune, and who did the tune so we know it's not just more BS?
Whenever anyone has a complaint about something they bought for their car they post their story here and they warn us about the vendor. I've been reading this forum for years and I've never seen a first hand account of any such tuning disaster.
There are always people who spread urban myths, but let's hear about the tuner that screwed up a car. If it had ever happened we'd all know about it.
I'd like to see these reports also.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 6,359
Likes: 163
From: Concord NC
Did you mean this unmodded Barneephife:
Vararam VR-SC1R, LG Motorsports G5X1 cam, Comp 21 spring kit, Comp pushrods, ASP Underdrive pulley, LG Pro Longtube headers, Borla Stingers, 160 thermostat, LG 1/4" Aluminum tunnel plate, GL T-1 Sway bar kit with bushings and quite end links, LG Bilstein Coilovers, MGW Shifter and ****.
Again, the tune wasn't the problem with his blown up engine. And I seriously doubt it was the sole reason he was denied warranty work.
Vararam VR-SC1R, LG Motorsports G5X1 cam, Comp 21 spring kit, Comp pushrods, ASP Underdrive pulley, LG Pro Longtube headers, Borla Stingers, 160 thermostat, LG 1/4" Aluminum tunnel plate, GL T-1 Sway bar kit with bushings and quite end links, LG Bilstein Coilovers, MGW Shifter and ****.
Again, the tune wasn't the problem with his blown up engine. And I seriously doubt it was the sole reason he was denied warranty work.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 6,359
Likes: 163
From: Concord NC
funny, no one EVER jumps in on these types of theads and produces any factual information about their OWN experience. it's always "check with another...", "i thought that....", "there was a post...", "someone told me....", "my buddy said that his friend told him that...", "check all the other forums and you will find that...".
And it's a fact that the tune may very well have not had a thing to do with the failure,but they will not do any Colombo work to find out if it did or didn't.
As many have stated,the chances of a tune by a reputable tuner causing a problem are slim,very slim.But it's a 100% certainty that if you have a running gear problem on a tuned car you are on your own as far as repairs are concerned.
Administrator
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 67,445
Likes: 1,972
From: Chattanooga, TN
CI 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12
Wounded Warrior Escort '11
St. Jude Donor '03 thru '26
NCM Lifetime Member
NCM Sinkhole Donor
I personally know of 6 such cases of a tune causing a catastrophic failure. There have been many such posts but anytime someone posts a thread about a tune gone bad. That post/thread gets deleted by the forum police immediately.
Don't be naive in thinking that one can post something about a tune gone bad. There are politics involved here. I love the forum but it is highly regulated and filtered. If you don't see that, you need to wake up.
Don't be naive in thinking that one can post something about a tune gone bad. There are politics involved here. I love the forum but it is highly regulated and filtered. If you don't see that, you need to wake up.
I can think of a number of instances where someone posted about somebody else's car that they heard might have had a blown motor because of something a vendor did. Moderators remove those threads because it amounts to little more than rumor-mongering.
On the other hand, if someone here had direct information about a blown motor issue on their own car with a vendor, that's another story.
I'm not aware of any situations where anybody's motor was blown because of a tune. If you know somebody whose motor blew after a tune, then tell them to start a factual thread about it as per Forum rules:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/foru...-disputes.html
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,006
Likes: 157
From: Springfield MO
I call
I can think of a number of instances where someone posted about somebody else's car that they heard might have had a blown motor because of something a vendor did. Moderators remove those threads because it amounts to little more than rumor-mongering.
On the other hand, if someone here had direct information about a blown motor issue on their own car with a vendor, that's another story.
I'm not aware of any situations where anybody's motor was blown because of a tune. If you know somebody whose motor blew after a tune, then tell them to start a factual thread about it as per Forum rules:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/foru...-disputes.html
I can think of a number of instances where someone posted about somebody else's car that they heard might have had a blown motor because of something a vendor did. Moderators remove those threads because it amounts to little more than rumor-mongering.
On the other hand, if someone here had direct information about a blown motor issue on their own car with a vendor, that's another story.
I'm not aware of any situations where anybody's motor was blown because of a tune. If you know somebody whose motor blew after a tune, then tell them to start a factual thread about it as per Forum rules:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/foru...-disputes.html
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 6,359
Likes: 163
From: Concord NC
I call
I can think of a number of instances where someone posted about somebody else's car that they heard might have had a blown motor because of something a vendor did. Moderators remove those threads because it amounts to little more than rumor-mongering.
On the other hand, if someone here had direct information about a blown motor issue on their own car with a vendor, that's another story.
I'm not aware of any situations where anybody's motor was blown because of a tune. If you know somebody whose motor blew after a tune, then tell them to start a factual thread about it as per Forum rules:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/foru...-disputes.html
I can think of a number of instances where someone posted about somebody else's car that they heard might have had a blown motor because of something a vendor did. Moderators remove those threads because it amounts to little more than rumor-mongering.
On the other hand, if someone here had direct information about a blown motor issue on their own car with a vendor, that's another story.
I'm not aware of any situations where anybody's motor was blown because of a tune. If you know somebody whose motor blew after a tune, then tell them to start a factual thread about it as per Forum rules:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/foru...-disputes.html
I've only seen the one I referenced on here. And I'm here each & every day,so unlikely I'd have missed one. So the odds are really small that a compotent tuner will muck up our cars.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 6,457
Likes: 297
From: corpus christi Texas
IMO - Trouble with most tunes (tuners) is, the engine is tuned for numbers. This is what the customer demands (higher numeric hp) so that's what the industry gives them. The car ends up answering to the dyno machine instead of real world driving conditions.
If the customer comes to the tuner with "how much hp can you get me?" or "I want max rwhp." Then that's what tuners try to do, give you high numbers on the machine.
Then there's another category of tuner: the one's that track their own cars. These guys seem to do things much differently. They're not concerned so much about impressive numbers but more focused on their car being set-up for specific driving conditions.
When I see them tune my car, they have their computer plugged in, do some tuning, get in the car and drive it, come back and do more tuning, get back in the car and drive some more, come back and tune, etc. It's not about a number so much as it is performance, although my numbers are pretty high also.
How this is achieved with a mail-order tune is something I can't appreciate. The "one size fits all" approach has never appealed to me I guess. Sorry, nothing personal to any vendors here that sell mail-order tunes.
If the customer comes to the tuner with "how much hp can you get me?" or "I want max rwhp." Then that's what tuners try to do, give you high numbers on the machine.
Then there's another category of tuner: the one's that track their own cars. These guys seem to do things much differently. They're not concerned so much about impressive numbers but more focused on their car being set-up for specific driving conditions.
When I see them tune my car, they have their computer plugged in, do some tuning, get in the car and drive it, come back and do more tuning, get back in the car and drive some more, come back and tune, etc. It's not about a number so much as it is performance, although my numbers are pretty high also.
How this is achieved with a mail-order tune is something I can't appreciate. The "one size fits all" approach has never appealed to me I guess. Sorry, nothing personal to any vendors here that sell mail-order tunes.
Instructor
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 133
Likes: 0
From: The Woodlands Texas
I asked the shop manager at my dealership what he thought about tunes. They promote a performance shop that does them. Talk is cheap, but his response was that a decent (my word) tune is not going to hurt a car and it isn't a question they ask. However, he said if you came in with a rod through the block and had a tune - forgetaboutit. I just had a Chuck CoW tune and boost. It was a computer and a sniffer in the tail pipe. Drive, look at the numbers. Adjust, drive and repeat. I never heard Chuck mention HP in the context of his tuning. He certainly never did with me. After he finished the tune, I asked him what he had modified and he pulled up the parameters and should me, line by line (and there were a bunch)and told me why. I should have taken notes. Again, nothing about HP. He did the CoW booster at the same time and that is such a dramatic change, I have no idea what his standalone tune did from a seat of the pants perspective. Two guys at the Vararam event tracked their Z06's. One is a HDE instructor. My guess is reliability counts for a great deal with them. I guess the best thing to look for are examples of people whose cars have cratered after or because of a tune. I've not seen that re Chuck and god knows people on this forum aren't bashful about expressing their opinions. There are a few who would never be accused of being Chuck promotors (search "Stat"). I have yet to see a complaint re his tuning. No one saying my car blew up. He didn't give me enough HP or he gave me too much.
Intermediate
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 43
Likes: 0
From: Coquille OR
I did the borla cat-back, intake, low temp thermostat.....and just today got the computer back the CoW tune and took it for a little spin. WOW! What a difference! it seems like a whole different car..... Wow! Wow and wow is all I can say! It is amazing!
