BEEN THINKING ABOUT INSTALLING A POWER TUNER, LIKE SUPER CHIPS. ARE THESE THINGS WORTH INSTALLING?

 

No, You'd be better off getting a custom dyno-tune. They are not cheap, but you will inevitably gain a nice chunk of power. A&A Corvettes and LAPD both have good tuners.

 

Hey Dave
just to elaborate on this a little. Eventually i plan on getting mine dyno'ed. Do most shops also dyno-tune it? I guess that should be one of my first questions for them, ugh?
and what exactly can they do. It's amazing that they would be able to find that much more power, and why didn't Gm do it in the first place?
thanks

 

This is a question I have been working in my head as well. I am thinking about buying a predator becaue I know a local place that does dyno tuning with a predator. I am wondering if the out of the box tune will help my A4 or not.

 

Rich,

Most dyno shops will tune, but personally, I wouldn't let just any shop tune my car. It takes experience and of course, knowledge of the LS1 operating parameters to get the most out of a tune. You could gain up to 20 RWHP with a good tune. GM mass-produces Corvettes and every one gets a generic program that leaves the air/fuel ratio a bit rich (for safety). Without any mods, the average C5 owner will stand to gain some additional HP (up to 10, possibly) with tuning. With mods, more is there to be had.

Fright88,

I have seen a guy use LS edit immediately after having his car dynoed. He made a few adjustments and the next dyno run showed a 10 RWHP increase. However, This guy probably had quite a bit of experience. An amatuer could easily destroy his engine by changing the wrong thing. LS edit and Predator are very powerful programs; you must treat them with caution.

 

Ohh I wouldn't try to tune it myself. I was thinking about using predators stock tuning and letting a pro handle my dyno tuning. I just need to find someone local trustworthy. Everyone I ask doesn't seem to know any.

 

So short of taking the car and having it strapped down to a dyno, and having someone who really "knows" wave their wand over it, money spent on one of these "power tuners" such as the Predator or Hypertech is really just a waste of $350? For those who have used these, how much can you realistically expect to gain with the programming these things offer? I know their advertising says "18-21 hp on an LS1" but I know 99% of advertising claims are total BS - I still remember folks promising 10 hp from a throttle body airfoil for C4 Vettes and the reality was more like .5 hp on a built engine, at redline.

Anyone ever used one of these programmers and had before and after dyno pulls to see how much one of these will really net you on a nearly stock C5?

 

Yea those programmers scare me, and will definately leave it up to the pros when I get it dyno'ed.
I think all the HP ratings for these after market accessories are inflated.
One way to really find out is to have the car dyno'ed after every upgrade, NOW that would be expensive, but atleast we would know what we actually got from it.

 

WHAT IF I BOUGHT A PREDATOR, AND USED THE DRAG STRIP AS MY DYNO,

 

As I mentioned previously, I witnessed a guy reprogram his ECU to gain 10 RWHP in back-to-back dyno runs. Sometimes an air/fuel ratio change is all that's required, although setting a too-lean condition can melt pistons. Again, you need to know what you are doing.

A drag strip may be a good way to test if you are very close to perfection. However, without an A/F readout, you may also melt pistons by the time you reach the end of the strip. At least on the dyno, you can shut down at the first sign of trouble.