According to the website, the Monte Carlo SS '06 IS listed, but under engine type it's listed as a LS2. Is it possible this is a mistake and this tuner won't work for our cars? Has anyone verified if it works?

http://www.diablosport.com/index.php...display&pid=63

 

call them to find out. best way probably

 

I will this evening...just wondering if someone had an answer while I was at work. =)

 

Just called. Yes they do support the LS4's. That must be a typo on the page. The question still stands, has anyone used one? Can you use the same device on more than one car or is it a sort of license type deal tied to the VIN like the HP Tuners? Do they have the capability to test for KR and such when playing with the timing?

 

Yes, the predator is vin locked to the car it has a tune in. It will still perform diagnostics/live data viewing on any OBDII GM vehicle. It can however be unlocked from one vehicle by removing the tune from the car, which unlocks and resets the Predator. And finally yes, you can monitor real time KR any time. FWIW the base tune in the Predator is worth at least 15rwhp, and will leave you hunting for drag radials...

 

know what your doing when you use this thing. its pretty technical

 

Ok I got the tuner. A couple bad things out of the box...

First of all, the instructions were not updated for the impala\monte\gxp. So all the instructions on which fuses you need to take out before installing the tune are off. I was able to locate a few of the fuses it asked me to remove. But some were not there. The diablo sport tech said it shouldn't be a problem when I called them about it. It's mostly to minimize any potential radio interference.

So finally, I went to try installing the tune and I get a weird error saying it cant find a certain config file. So after bullshitting with the tech on the phone for a while, he tells me that there are a few batches of cars out there with different configuration file names and they didn't include the right one for ALL of the different batches in this release.

SO...they're having one of their engineers make me a custom tune for my car and getting back to me on Monday.

One thing the tech also told me was that on some cars, the tune was making the car "surge" when entering DOD mode. When I asked him what he meant by "surge" he explained that it will almost sound like the car is changing gears when entering DOD mode... He said if the tune does it to my car to just flash back to stock and wait for the next update that they'll have out soon.

Thats all for now. I love it when **** works the way it's supposed to out of the box!!

 

They will probably get it all worked out. Newer cars and bugs to fix.

I do know if the transmission TCC duty cycle gets bumped up too much it does feel like the car if shifting gears when going into V4 mode. If you put the duty cycle at max it feels sorta like someone rear-ends you.

 

Diablo sent me a response finally:

Stay Tuned...

 

WOW, just this tuner will make it rear wheel drive??

Just funnin' ya man... I realize most of the cars on the larger forum are RWD...

Mike

 

LOL! My bad. It was funny seeing the Monte backed all the way in on the dyno!

 

Ok so I've been back and forth through email with a "second tier" tech and it's been pretty unproductive. I don't think he had very good communication with the first tier phone tech. After a while of going in circles, I asked him if I could just CALL him. Funny how second tier troubleshooting gets dumbed down to email transactions eh?

And he responded that he didn't have time and wanted to just go ahead and swap the tuner to make sure it's not broken. I was tickled at the "I dont have time" and gave them a little piece of my mind and asked them to pay for all the shipping for the ridiculous time wasted troubleshooting. Don't have time to help a customer?....Then pay for it!

Ugh. Anyways, they're sending a new unit. When it gets here I'll send back the old unit. I'll keep you guys posted. I know most of you guys are HP tuners, but there might be a few people interested in the diablo tuners.

 

Hey y'all. New to this forum here. Have been watching it for the last few weeks now but have finally registered to be able to join in the fun. I have an '06 M/C SS (Looks just like Kissmyss03's). Will get some photos and info up as soon as I get my last appearence mod done, the MPD hood. Will be soon. But wanted to chime in for HexxLS4's sake as I do have a Diablo Predator and have been using it for almost a month now; so wanted to throw in my two cents worth. First impressions, VERY, VERY noticable difference. The car feels stronger throughout all parts of the power band. On the highway or in town, when you hit that gas it is much livelier than it was before. Throttle response I think is a bit better as well. But the acceleration is much more aggressive, and you can feel it and tell it very easily. The biggest difference though is from a dead stop. Use to be coming off the lne the car would spin a fair amount and finally start to find traction between 10-15 mph. My first run off the line after the tune was completely different. Tire spin like you wouldn't believe! I was 20-25mph+ B4 the 'ol girl started for find traction. It was spinning so violently that even at 20mph the smoke was coming up past both the driver's and passenger's side windows. You can definately tell the torque mgmt. system has been disabled. And I think that is a big factor on makin the car feel faster; that torque mgmt. takes away a ton of "seat of the pants" power, and having it off is easy to see proof of that. I don't get the tire spin like I used to now as I have went to larger and stickier tires now (255/35/20 Nitto NT 555's) but the feel is still there. I did check it and the tune in my car was worth 17hp and right at 20lbs torque; just about what Diablo advertises.

Ah yes, the DOD "surge." Yes it is there and, yes, it is quite noticeable. How often does it happen and what is it like? Well, to answer the 1st question, just go out driving and set your info center to the 4cyl/8cyl mode and watch how often it changes, that's how often it happends. What's it like? Well, think of driving down the street and totally taking your foot off the gas and coasting, then just quickly "blip" the gas to push it down maybe an inch or so and that's what it's like. It changes the rpm by 800-1000rpm, but it's just up and back down instantly (hence like "bliping" the throttle) and it's over until the next time. And yes, it does get kind of annoying. I have been in contact with Diablo and they are "feverishly" working on a fix for this but one problem. They are using a number of "test subjects" with some custom tunes they have come out with to fix the issue, but the people aren't getting back to Diablo with the results in a timely manner. So, I am going to become another of these "subjects" and will be receiving one of those custom tunes here shortly and will be trying it out. And believe me, I will be giving them feedback as soon as I can. And for those of you who may have or are looking at possibly getting one of these tuners, they don't offer a reprogram for the tranny as of yet. It is on the way, Mike from tech support tells me, and it will probably be 30-45 days out yet.

Well boys and girls, that's about all I know on the Diablo stuff for right now. For those who have been wondering about it or have been curious, I hope this was somewhat of a help. Down to brass tax, do I like the thing, you bet! The performance difference is VERY, VERY noticeable! As I said, the car is much livelier and accelerates with much more authority now. The torque mgmt system being bypassed is also a big, BIG boost as well. As soon as they get this DOD surge figured out (and they will) and get the reprogram for the tranny, this will be quite a piece of equip.

 

Personally i wouldn't want to get rid of all torque management, i want to save my tranny and TC for a good 80,000 miles. Beating the hell out of your transmission and axles without torque management is just asking for stuff to break.

It is your decision, and if you love it awesome, just not my cup of tea

 

Thanks for chiming in with your thoughts and experiences gulfstreamcpt. I'm glad you volunteered to take on a new tune to try out for us, as per our chat today. Something i think is being missed here is the fact that these tunes are developed from scratch, and have to please ALOT of different people. I hear alot of flack about the Predator being 'limited' in its abilities as opposed to some of the tuning software out there (HP, etc.) but what good is that stuff to anyone with limited/no tuning experience? The tunes provided by Diablosport are safe and powerful, a combo that not even some of the so called professional tuners have come up with. I think if some of the guys on these boards knew how much timing was in their car, they would bug out. But back to these LS4s, as gulfstream said, the power is unquestionable, is there a small bug that needs to be fixed, yes. And it WILL be fixed.
The people at Diablosport are constantly going above and beyond to try to please the customer, and patience is your best friend here.

 

The Predator doesn't remove all of the torque mgmt., just enough to make sure it stays out of your way.
[B]Stay tuned...

 

Speaking of timing, the W body application is quite different than other current gen LS motors like the 5.3 truck and 6.0's. High octane timing maps are almost +10 degrees over non-W body apps for these LS motors under WOT. Looking over some custom tunes for non-W body motors, I can see timing boost/changes to get more power, but the W bodys already are running in these modd'ed timing ranges under WOT from the factory already. The W body's main issue is getting KR, they are already on the edge stock. I think the main power gainers possible are fueling changes as the timing already seems spot on.

 

If anyone using a Predator is seeing ANY knock on an otherwise stock car, please let me know...
I do however doubt it!

 

Does Predator remove timing from stock? You will see KR on any stock 5.3 car WOT in 3rd gear beyond 4K RPM. Cool, Predator de-tunes our cars!!! LOL

 

100 percent agree. I've had to take a degree or two out of the timing table in spots, to get rid of my KR.