hi, i have a 04 c5 zo6 and am pondering whether or not to get the predator for my car, is it worth the 300-400 dollars??? Thank you

 

For 500 you could get a very good dyno tune. Unless you have no access to a dyno it is not worth it. Even then I would go with a mail order tune from a reputable place before I spent that much on a hand held.

 

my thoughts exactly or what im thinking about doing is getting hp tuners and read tutorials and try to learn myself, granted it wont be as good as a dyno tune but very helpful nonetheless

 

NO DO NOT DO IT! lol. Those canned tunes are crap, get a good dyno tune.

 

After personal experience on over 100 cars with handheld tuners, in personal experience, I highly recommend Diablosports Predator. I use one all the time as well, in my own car, which made over 600rwhp. If your car is stock,..or near stock, I STRONGLY recommend one, as it'll open your eyes to a whole new performance bug.

As far as having a CUSTOM DYNO TUNE, I agree, nothing like a custom tune, for THAT car, on THAT day. But, say you go get a custom tune,....and your driving....and one day you have to go back to the dealership for whatever reason. Lets say, a tech there see's a bulletin,...which involves a PCM re-calibration.....and he does it, cause it;s a legit bulletin, and another way for him to get paid. So, he reflashes it. What do you think wil happen to that custom dyno tune you spent 500 bucks on?.... gone, thats what happened.

With the predator, you could easily return your car to stock, at anytime. For warranty concerns....or maybe your selling the car. You can then, resale the returned to new predator, if you wanted.

Did I mention data logging? Ha....can't tell you how much I use my live data function on my predator. Just about everynight I go racing.

Got trouble codes? Well, you can check, and clear trouble codes at any time. Can't tell you how handy this tool is to me. And, I actually have full access to a TECH II at any given tuime,...but I still choose MY predator.

Storngly recommend them, not only for there product but, they're customer care and the people that are there, trouble shooting and building custom tunes. Whats that,..they do custom tunes?........

Yes.

Hope this helps.

 

i think predator,hypertech and all those devices are junk

 

I thought we could check and clear codes using the buttons on the dash? At least I know I can on my C5 As for the reflash at the stealership, that would suck if your tune got deleted. I would hope the dyno tuner keeps the file so you could just go back and reflash it for free.

 

You can. But, how many of us remember that sequence? Can that read real time data as in what your O2's are reading/sweeping? Does it show knock or timing retard? How about IAT's? Just curious but, no vettes of mine offer that. Sure, you can buy another program and install it on your 1300 dollar labtop but, not everyone can enjoy that luxary.

As far as a tuner having your tune on file...thats hit or miss. The problem is, your relying on another human being to bail you out of a possible problem. I will never forget the times that we have been on a dyno, with a customers car, and they want to have it RETUNED because they do like there other "custom" tune for whatever reason....and, in the middle of trying to get into the PCM,...it ends up being locked.

Then, try getting a hold of that person to get the unlock code. Ha. Have fun with that. Some people just CAN'T make it to a dyno, or hey can''t afford it, or they simply don't need to spend 500 bucks....or they simply want to log some info... you cannot beat the price of the tool and what it does. Not sure how many the rest of you have used them but, I haveused hypertec, superchips, and the predator. By far, the predator is the most user friendly and easy to use.

Not to mention, mine was submerged in some water for a good amount of time,...I dried it out....and the bastard still works.

In my experience, it's a great tool, and priceless when I have a probelm with my car on a LATE friday night.....and the only fix is a reflash. Which takes me a few minutes,...and I am back in action.

Everyone says they "suck"....do me a favor and tell us all why. I have told you all my real life expereinces with the tool(s)....and why I am a believer.....tell me why they suck and the reasons behind that.....other then they "suck".

If you follow the instructions on the little screen...it's pretty straight forward and simple.

 

my buddy uses one on his mustang and loves it, along with another buddy who uses it on his srt-8 jeep thats full bolt ons withh nitrous

 

Why most people think they suck is because there is minimal gain with them and with a dyno tune you can usually get more pwer to the wheels. Everything you stated is true and valid and I also have access to a tech 2 and my programmer. I would rather use a tech 2. Just something I am used to since working at the dealer. 90% of the people on this site are going to disagree with you saying to get a dyno tune because programmers are junk and people are going keep saying that until the programmer companys can step up and compete with a dyno tune with ls1edit,hptuners,or tunercat etc. That is like snakes, everybody hates snakes but there is this little percentage that knows some snakes are non-poisonous and like snakes and have them as pets. MY personal thing is to get EFIlive or HPtuners and play with the tune yourself and ask questions on here tuning section. Try and learn more about the computer side of you car. We all know enough about the mechanical side so dig in the computer and see whats in there. We are all willing to drop major dollars on heads,cams,and headers. Just drop some of it on a tuning system. Just my .02

 

Agreed! You can get more out of your car with a indepth tunning software like HPtuners for example. Don't buy it......Your better than that

 

Well, I see both sides of this argument, but bottom line is, there is nothing wrong with the Predator tunes.
I would venture to say that those who have referred to it as crap have never tuned a car, likely have never opened any tuning software, they are basing this off what the guy selling them a $500 custom tune for a stock car told them....lol.

The Predator can also grow with you as you modify the car...you have a certain amount of adjustability built in to the tool, plus the option of having any of our CMR dealers build a custom tune for just about any application (like V-series' 600+rwhp C5).
I had a dealer up north last week finish up a 850rwhp Procharged 402, flashed with a Predator. Customer could not be happier.

If the OP has any specific questions or comments on the Predator for the 04 Z06, feel free to post up, PM me, or shoot me an email.

Thanks
Mike

 

LOL, try telling a SRT8 owner that the Predator is no good!
We are the only game in town for those cars, and suddenly those guys can actually make their 426 strokers and head/cam cars run properly!!
They have accepted the full benefits of our software, and have put it to great use.

(did I fail to mention that we tune the quickest/fastest 05-up Mustang as well, and it has made over 1000 rwhp on the stock PCM using our CMR software and a Predator?)

Thanks
Mike

 

I'm a SRT8 owner and I still haven't yet decided on buying your product or waiting for your competors to come up with the alternative.

 

I fully understand that BUT,...again, not everyone is THAT into modifying or has the cash to do that. No everybody can do a heads and cam swap, and not everyone has the money to DO a heads and cam swap. So, it woud make sense as a great product to have for the people that are in a different situation. And as Mike said,...the tool can grow with the capability of your car.

 

What exactly has you sitting on the fence?
Wait till next week when BJB from the Cherokee forums gets his beast tuned, they are expecting at least 800rwhp on boost, then a 300 shot on top.....
There have been no actual limitations to the PCM tuning on those cars.

I also know that another very respected member of this forum who recently bought a GCSRT8 is using the Predator with a custom tune for his cam only setup (hint, hint), and has been nothing but pleased with the results.

Thanks
Mike

 

Well I'm not on the fence, I'm down here on the sofa with my laptop tunning my car! I just haven't had good experience with the hand held units so I think I will wait for a laptop OBDII passed tune not a hand held tuner.

 

I would like to know more about how the predator can grow with my car. I never knew it had that capability.

This is my view of programmer vs. tuning software so don't beat me up about it just educate me a lil better since that what we are here for:

Programmers are good for mostly stock cars they wring out about ten horses at the wheels in most cases. The prices of them are usually 400 to 500 bucks.

Tuning software such as efi live is 650 bucks and can be used on cars with stage 3 heads and crazy loping cams to tune and tune stock cars also and its only 150 bucks more.

If we all have 500 to drop on a programmer we all should be able to find another a 150. Since we are all on the internet we all have computers to connect to the efi live and see what were looking at on a computer screen instead of the 3x3 screen on the programmer.

Tell me that a predator can tune 248/254 630/630 lsa110 cam and i'm sold on it. We can all agree here that were into saving a buck or two

 

The Predator does not necessarily have the capability built in to tune a big cam like that, but we do offer custom tuning through our CMR dealers.
You bring them the car and the Predator, they strap it to the dyno and have at it.

V-series techs car has a Thunder TraK cam in it (by no means an easy cam to tune for) with AFR 205s, a Fast 90/90 and a Procharger (soon to be TT), and it is all tuned with our CMR software.
One of our regional sales managers has an 06 GTO with a built bottom end (stock cubes), heads, cam and a F1 Procharger that will be making over 700rwhp through the A4 once the tranny gets rebuilt...

 

Well, at least you are comfortable!
I will assure you that we are at the top of the game in Hemi tuning.
You dont even have to run our canned tunes, there are quite a few shops doing custom tuning on these vehicles and making great gains.
Hate to say it, but the wait for another tuning option has been going at a snails pace...is it just the fact that you need to use the Predator as the passthru device?
Our flash process on the Hemis has been solid as can be, not a single case of a damaged or unrecoverable PCM, no matter how much stoopid stuff people manage to do!