Over the last couple of days I have been talking to several shops that are tuning Corvette's and the overwhelming feeling I had in talking with them is a universal feeling that they know almost nothing or next to nothing about the LT1 motor yet. It appears to me most of them are relying on their knowledge of the LS motors and assume that this won't be that different.

This seems completely nonsensical to me, the platform is dramatically different with VVT, Direct Injection etc. How do you know who to trust tuning these cars and expect that your not getting a half baked tune. Coming from the BMW world you pretty much know who the tuners are that can do this work Dinan, ESS, GIAC, Technique Tuning etc. Here it seems like every shop has a guy who is tuning.

Quite frankly it scares the hell out of me. My question is who knows this DME well, who is controlling it, and using all the factory parameters, or are people just doing Open loop tuning for dyno's? I don't want to start a war, but just want to identify people who know how to tune an LT1, and don't just look at this platform as a new LS platform. Am I right to be worried?

 

I agree with you regarding the LS comments. I am not worried though as I haven't read about anyone blowing anything up yet, even at 1000 HP. I think the tunes will only get better with time.

 

I have the opposite feeling with regard to some of the shops/tuners. Several of the actual tuners I've spoken with have an excellent grasp on the new ECM, and are getting great gains out of conservative tuning.

I think that there's still a lot more that will be found or tweaked along the way, but I certainly wouldn't be scared at the moment of using HPT to control everything. I don't believe you have to use the EFI/HPT combo anymore, either, which is great news.

 

I am not saying your not right, I am just saying the people I have talked to have inspired no confidence in me. That said I am brand new to this platform and was seeking local support or support from nationally known tuning platforms, I just don't know who the right people are that can support this car if your not in their vicinity.

This is one comment I got today from a Nationally know tuning source I would have thought would be working on this platform.

I haven't had anyone with a 2014 yet... I have done thousands of 1999 - 2013's over the years...

 

Why? It sure is not a matter of life and death. If you cannot afford problems leave your car stock. This engine is different but not unlike the ls engines in most instances. Shops like Veangeance absolutely know what they are doing with tuning. You think Dinan and foreign car tuners do not screw up...your not informed if you think that. I do not understand the mentality of wanting to take chances and at the same time wanting an ironclad promise that the chute will always open.

 

There is going to be some hesitation until they tune 5 or 10 cars and/or have time to do some "shop car experimentation."

The tune itself is not all that different from the LS motors. The biggest difference is how does Direct Injection affect best AF ratios and spark timing. Best I can tell, one will want to run leaner, especially with FI (much much leaner, in fact) and will need less spark timing for a complete combustion.

The trucks have been DI already, I have tuned a bunch of them. My Corvette isn't here yet so I haven't tuned one but I have looked at the C7 tunes and it really isn't different in how it controls the engine. Torque Demand systems are not new. We know how to work with them. DI has been out with the LNF, etc for a long time now as well.

So do tuners pretty much know what to do with the C7? Yes. Have they done a lot of it yet? No. How can you claim to tune 100 C7s when there are 30 in your city (gross example). Give it time.

 

Not trying to advertise, but give David at VR a call - he'll let you talk to Mike who is their tuner. He really knows his stuff on these.

Oh, and if you mean local tuners, then I completely agree. I don't trust anyone around here for doing the tuning - I'm just going to work on it with another tuner on here and go back and forth until we dial it in.

 

What scares the hell out of me is that tuners are taking new cars and making you their Beta client. As for the Euro tuners such as Dinan they actually match the manufacturers warranty, so do they make mistakes? If they do they pay.

In case you didn't understand the topic of the thread it is to gleen familiarity with who the tuners are that DO understand this platform, for a guy who lives in Wisconsin not NYC or Atlanta. I prefer not to ship my car 1k miles to get a header tune.

 

That's what I needed to know, they said they could remote tune.

 

Full disclosure - I'm working with Doug since I went with the ECS blower.

If I had gone with any other brand, I would have used Mike at VR. Their remote tuning is also excellent from the stories and experiences here. Also, the guys there are just awesome to work with. If you have HPT it's a breeze.

Too bad they're 8-9 hours away - I'd love to ride in the 1000whp C7.

 

Mike (our in-house tuner @ Vengeance PCM) has gone leaps and bounds beyond most on Gen V LT1 tuning. Give us a call, or shoot him an e-mail at mike@vengeancepcm.com and we will be happy to assist in any of your needs.

 

Bingo.

 

I think the Pfadt tune is pretty impressive as to what I've read about it.

 

From your posts, it appears that you're already running it...

 

I'll do this, just need a car first....best estimate is end of April.

 

Not yet. I have the cable but I'm waiting to install their tune in about a month when the weather breaks and the car is broken-in. They offer a free trial and always return calls and answer e-mails in a timely manner..That's important to me. I had a problem from another well-known tuner a couple of years ago and never got my calls returned.

 

This is the exact reason we purchased a '14 GMC Sierra, so we can experiment with tuning the new platform long before the C7 became available to the public. Also the reason we have our own project C7, by the time the first customer came around for tuning we were all set and ready to rock.

 

It should man. With all that money you paid fr that beautiful car, don't let them screw it up. Please enjoy as is the way GM built it.

I have wasted so much money and time over moding, and 99% was vendors screw up. Leave it alone or if you want more power , get a Z06 from the factory.

 

Clearly you went with the wrong vendors.

 

As far as some tuners go there are still hack jobs going on with cammed C5's and C6's. The car may run and even achieve a big gain on the dyno but all around drivability/efficiency may be compromised. The "rabbit hole" goes pretty deep if you've ever looked at tuning software. GM built a solid software to run these cars and their engineers put every table there for a reason.

With that being said we have good tuners and a few excellent tuners on CF advertising new performance packages with optimized tunes. My idea of an excellent tune would be having all associated parameters adjusted as GM would do them to accommodate headers, cam, blower, etc... whatever your mods are then sharpen the tune for optimized performance while not forgetting the safety/longevity factor.

When thinking of tuning software (I have HP Tuners) I sometimes draw a vague comparison to Microsoft Office programs that I use every day but definitely do not know every trick or feature available.
Just my $.02 and agreeing with OP that this is a new ballgame with C7 hardware and software on an expensive car that you cant trust just anyone with a laptop that has tuned previous generations. Do your homework and pray your tuner is OCD Perfectionist.