2KnbmTA
03-01-2006, 09:37 PM
im having an arguement w/my friend right now because he says getting a programmer for his lifted truck would be better then getting a tune. i think a tune would be a hell of a lot better. am i right?
PCM Diagnostics & Tuning - tune vs. programmer
View Full Version : tune vs. programmer
superGMman
03-01-2006, 09:40 PM
hell yes you are, man.
2KnbmTA
03-01-2006, 09:41 PM
lol could you explain it to me? for my reference and his. what all can you to w/a tune that you cant w/a programmer
Patman
03-02-2006, 07:00 PM
lol could you explain it to me? for my reference and his. what all can you to w/a tune that you cant w/a programmer
With a tune you can get the air/fuel ratio perfect, as well as getting the timing set perfectly as well. Every engine is a little bit different, whenever you get on the dyno you'll see what I mean. The factory tuning ends up with some spots where the air/fuel ratio is too lean and some spots where it's too rich. And since it's different in every case, how can a mail order tune or a programmer know where to fix this? And every engine is going to respond differently to the amount of timing you put in, based on your altitude, type of fuel you're running and general condition of the engine and mods.
Also, a good tuner can not only tune it for maximum power, but can also make more power "under the curve" as well, making the engine more responsive in part throttle situations too.
In the case of an automatic LS1 vehicle, with a dyno tune you can eliminate GM's silly torque management, this is something you cannot do with a programmer.
You just have way more control over the situation when you get it dyno tuned. In a lot of cases you can find problems with the vehicle when dyno tuning. That happened to me twice. When I had my old 95 Formula dyno tuned, we found it was running extremely lean, and traced it to a torn elbow leading to the MAF. With my C5, the first dyno run found 7 degrees of knock retard, which was caused by my original spark plugs being gapped way too high (even with only 32k on them, the platinum pucks were almost all gone). So I changed all 8 plugs and immediately eliminated all the spark retard! I never would've discovered that without the dyno tune.
With a tune you can get the air/fuel ratio perfect, as well as getting the timing set perfectly as well. Every engine is a little bit different, whenever you get on the dyno you'll see what I mean. The factory tuning ends up with some spots where the air/fuel ratio is too lean and some spots where it's too rich. And since it's different in every case, how can a mail order tune or a programmer know where to fix this? And every engine is going to respond differently to the amount of timing you put in, based on your altitude, type of fuel you're running and general condition of the engine and mods.
Also, a good tuner can not only tune it for maximum power, but can also make more power "under the curve" as well, making the engine more responsive in part throttle situations too.
In the case of an automatic LS1 vehicle, with a dyno tune you can eliminate GM's silly torque management, this is something you cannot do with a programmer.
You just have way more control over the situation when you get it dyno tuned. In a lot of cases you can find problems with the vehicle when dyno tuning. That happened to me twice. When I had my old 95 Formula dyno tuned, we found it was running extremely lean, and traced it to a torn elbow leading to the MAF. With my C5, the first dyno run found 7 degrees of knock retard, which was caused by my original spark plugs being gapped way too high (even with only 32k on them, the platinum pucks were almost all gone). So I changed all 8 plugs and immediately eliminated all the spark retard! I never would've discovered that without the dyno tune.