cubs1

iTrader: (4)

Hi guys! Just got from the NMCA Race in Bowling Green KY. I ran my car for the first time in the True Street Class. I ran a 13.5 @ 104 mph in a stock 2002 Z-28. Well I do have a lid on it.But I didnt think that was too bad.

Heres my question. Is it best to buy a hand held tuner or buy the program to use a laptop? What all can you do with these things? And would you need a shift kit if you had the programers?
Thanks

98RedBird

iTrader: (77)

Having a shop dynotune it is best and they do it with a laptop and use LS1edit or a program like that. However, I would wait until you get a few more mods before I'd invest in that. They usually run about $400, so use it wisely. However if you can find a shop that will tune it for free and make adjustments after that initial payment then it could be a good investment. Some find quite a bit lost power from a tune alone...

Tony @ MPH

iTrader: (20)

I respectfully disagree that there is a clear-cut "best way" to do it. We have sold a ton of tuning software (EFILive) to customers who are very happy with doing it themselves. I will admit that the fact that we sell it can make us "biased" but wayyyyyy before I sold tuning software I was using it solely as an end user and was very happy with it.

I found air/fuel problems that professional shops who did my original tune didn't correct for properly and found that my car ran differently on the road than it did on a dyno. Many Dynojets do not load a car like it would be loaded in the real world and many tuners simply tune your car for a horsepower dyno number, not for real world drivability.

There are also a ton of shops that understand this and do the right thing and do tuning on a load dyno or do dyno tuning and then road tuning, but for the average guy who wants to learn how to tune or is not near an awesome shop, I'd say EFILive and an Innovate wideband is the way to go.

More info on these products on our site.
http://www.mphparts.com/prod/01-V1-LC1.html

cubs1

iTrader: (4)

Thanks. I drive the car a lot for work so I dont want to go to radical with it. I got 28 mpg driving to the drag strip which was 6.5 hrs away.And then got 20mpg while I drag raced it and drove back and forth to the Hotel.Pretty awesome.
So what could I do next that wouldnt kill my mpg?

02silvaZ

iTrader: (12)

you need a road tune with efi live and a laptop, like said above, dyno tunes are done to post a number but without load it isnt as good as it could be

98RedBird

iTrader: (77)

Maybe I was unclear. I really didn't mean it the way that it came out. I was trying to be as general as possible in my statements. I am sure that there are individuals out there who are fully capable of tuning their own cars and doing a very good job. I wasn't trying to insinuate that there wasn't I was just saying that for the average LS1 owner taking it to a shop and having them tune it is probably the best option. By shop I mean any one of the sponsors, others, etcetera....

Sorry for the misunderstanding.