Hey guy's wondering if a hypertech III for my 95 z28 6 speed is worth the money? Whats the +'s and -'s. my friend wants $150 for it ,sale's for 299+ on-line.
thanks JEFF

 

no, it really doesn't allow you do do much, and will only work on one car, for cheaper you can buy tuner cat and an ALDL cable and do everything that a HPP can and if you want to do the reasearch you can start learning to tune your car. The HPP obly really helps to adjust your speedo for gear/tire changes, control fan temps, and adjust shifts, all that and everything else can be set with tuner cat

 

^^ I agree. That programmer is a waste of money. Go get a tuning book, software and cables and do it yourself. Much easier and your not limited to certain things you can adjust.

 

Most will post that its a waste of money etc. Though most of them probably never owned one and are only reiiterating what they read...I had one on my old bolt on 97 and felt an instant sotp gain...If you do a search you'll see a post where someone spoke to Ed Wright about the HPP and he said that there pretty much dead on w/ there tunes...W/ a bolt on car ofcourse.

 

They are great for new guys that keep changing things and dont want to keep redoing a mail order tune. You can change lots of stuff besides the tuning. Like the Rev limiter,top speed limiter,shift firmness, shift points, tire size,gear changes,fan settings, engine tuning, etc. Very good deal for 150. When you get the car to the point your done building or go overboard then Dyno or mail order tune is a must.

 

AChotrod is right, Its good for stock and a few bolt ons,,but after i had trans rebuilb & 3600 stall we could not get the shift points right,,then i did cam and had to get custom dyno tune. until you do alot of mods they work ok.

 

I had one for years while my car was basically stock with a few of bolt-ons (CAI, 52mm TB, catback, underdrive pulleys) and all the free mods. For an auto, it was nice to be able to move the shift points. AFA the tune, I took it to the track to test. Made two runs with the tune, removed it and made two more runs. Absolutely no difference in either E.T. or trap speed.
So, if you need the other features, go for it. If you are looking for a tune, I suggest you look elsewhere. Since you are OBD I, I would jump on Tunercat and get a real tuning system from the get-go.

 

Yea I also tested back to back runs w/ and without and noticed almost no differance at all...not sure maybe it was a torque increase but I definately felt a big gain in something.

 

I had a HPP for my 96 S10 4.3L. I know this is a different motor but the only thing I noticed on that car was a little better throttle response. The truck was an M5 though. On an auto being able to move the shift points / firmness would have probably made more a of SOTP gain than what I saw.

I used to use a Superchips handheld tuner on my T/A and it is an A4. I can't say I noticed any major difference in power though but the shift point changes were nice. I don't know how Superchips tune compares to Hypertechs, though. That being said I quit using it and now am waiting on my mail order tune from pcm4less to come back.

If my car was OBDI, I would have gotten an ALDL cable and had one of the mail order tuners (mad / pcm) send me the tune via email. Then I could use that as a starting point and fine tune it specifically for my car. This would still cost about the same as spending the $150 on the HPP.

 

I also didn't notice any difference at the track, but throttle responce was better, i'm the one who talked with Ed Wright, he indeed said some good things about the hypertech & does recammend it, if you have bolt-ons & like to change things around like gears/tires/shift points ect., the hypertech is fun & handy, just make sure its for your year vehicle, i'm thinking its just a matter of OBD-I or OBD-II programs, mine was for a 96-97 LT1 F body OBD-II, i sold it hear awhile back, but pulled the program OUT of my car, sold it to a guy with the same year car, i haven't heard anything yet, i'm sure he was able to download the program on his car, i was told they will work from car too car, as long as the program has been taken out of the car it was in (as it needs to read & memorize the Vin), then your good to go, the one i sold was 4 yrs. old & worked great, so for 150.00 bucks you can't go wrong.

Ed Wright also did some testing with hypertech on cammed cars, he found 1 miled cam that worked great (on M6 LT1s) with the hypertech, but he did recammend if you do go beond bolt-ons, get a difference tuneing softwear. He wouldn't even take my money when he found out i was running the hypertech on my bolt-on, M6 LT1, thats an honest guy i'de say .

 

Back in the day He told me the HPP was good to me also, and I waited untill I cammed the car for Him to tune it.


BTW I have a 96 HPP 4sale!

 

Why not put that money towards a mail order tune?

Guys in here are recommending it but have found 0 gains at the track, just a "SOTP" feel... which is worthless and more like a placebo effect than anything else.

I picked up a solid 1.5 MPH from a pcmforless bolt on tune back in 2002.

 

Be cause if you keep changing things a HPP is a fast way to get it done untill you really need a tune. You have to keep going back and forth with a mail order tune.
I dont think the power tuning is worth much but everything else is. Add stall change shift point, add gears then fix the speedo, change from 16 to 17 or 17s to 18s fix the speedo, add a low temp stat and adjust the fans etc. you bought a car that is governed at 115 change it to 255 etc. They really are worth it for a bolt on car while you continue to work up to the point you need a real tune.

 

"Exacty" The Hypertech is more useful then people give it credit for, sure it may not be a POWER tuneing device, but you have so many other things that you can change @ the push of a finger, with a mail order tune if you want to just change shift points, it'll cost you 50.00 bucks plus shipping if you don't have the software, my car came with the factory 115 limiter on it, last 2 times @ the track i was missing that HPP, the only reason i got rid of it was i wanted to run nitrous, so i went with a Madtuner tune, now i'm thinking of another route (503 cam), so i'll be sending my PCM back here shortly .lol.

 

I've never had to tinker with my car's settings that much to worry about it... and I've gone through more setup changes than most.

 

Thanks guy's, i didn't expect a response like this but i think ive made up my mind and offered him 75 dollors and he said ok, can't go wrong for that.I think the only thing it's going to benefit me is im putting 4.10's and a 160 t-stat for now.thanks again for all the help.. JEFF

 

It will work great for that!!!!

 

Years ago I tested one with some bolt ons....CAI, 52mm, underdrive pulleys...and the Hypertech gave me 9 RWHP on our dyno.

 

Absolutely correct because I personally dynoed a LT1 impala SS before and after and he was expecting a big gain cause he felt a good SOTP pick up. It lost 4.7 RWHP and 1.3 TQ. Turns out he felt the changed shift points.

 

I agree with AChotrod, every thread i go to this guy has something posted. He must be a genious lol