Hand held tuners for the 1998 model year...
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 86
Likes: 1
From: Holiday, FL
Hand held tuners for the 1998 model year... Why am I having such a hard time finding any kind of hand held tuner for a 1998 F body? So far the only one that I can find is the Hypertech Power Programmer 3, and the stuff that I have read about it says that it's not so great. Other companeies like Diablosport, Superchips, etc only list 99-02. What gives?
The market demands products for the newer cars where has cars like yours and mine are now getting older. I have a Hypertech for mine but got it for other reasons like fan settings, shift points, tire size, etc. I also set it to the performance tune and it did run a lil better than stock so in my case I was happy for what I paid. Thats said, most guys don't like them and would rather take that money for a hand held and add some more money for a full dyno tune which can cost $200-500. However one alternative you should consider is a mail order tune, where you take your PCM out of you car, mail it to a tuner and they send it back "upgraded" One such tuner is FROST and just search around here for his info, he charges $125 and has gotten a lot of good reviews for his work. It really all depends how mild or wild you car is and exactly what your looking to do.
You do have other choices. Go with a full-on tuning solution, such as EFILive or HPTuners. This would require a computer (most use a laptop) and some study on your part. Upgrade the PCM to a 99 or newer, which would open up a whole plethora of solutions, including real-time tuning. Or settle for the HPP3, which will do the things listed previously, but the tune is useless.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 86
Likes: 1
From: Holiday, FL
Thanks for the info there, guys. I was looking at doing the Hypertech specifically for when I decide to put a set of 3.42 gears in the car(upgrading from 2.73). The car is not a full out drag car or anything, my finacee drives it to school everyday. I have just the basic bolt on stuff as seen in my sig. I would like to get the rear 02's tuned out, and maximize my a/f ratios. I just can't afford a large downtime with the car because she needs to drive it 50 miles a day round trip. If I went and put the gears in without recalibrating the ECM, the tranny would shift all weird and I don't want anything bad to happen to it. Guess I will just have to wait and get everything done at the same time. Thanks again!
