HP Tuners

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BerHntr

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I will soon have my engine in a running state and have yet to get the vats tuned out of my pcm. Initially I had planned on using backbear tuning but the more and more i researched. The more and more i liked the idea of being able to play with it myself. Not to mention i have a '10 Tahoe and a '14 sierra in my driveway both of which could use some tweaking. That's my wife's main gripe about her Tahoe is that it is slow, i tried to explain to her that it's considerably heavier than her previous ride an '06 Altima SER.

What are your guys thoughts on the matter? Can the average diy'r Pick this skill up? There seems to be an overwhelming amount of support on hptuners forum and on YouTube. Have any of you guys got it or used it before.
 

Christian Steffen

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Just take your time and do lots of reading, you should be fine to make changes. Depending on what all you changed with your engine, yours will require some time to retune the VE, MAF, timing advance, etc.

As far as your other vehicles go, I haven't looked at the tune for something newer like that, so I don't know how much more complex it is than the gen III stuff but I cant imagine its too bad. All you would probably do on those is reduce/remove torque management and maybe add some timing, unless you plan to do mods as well.

There is a learning curve, but I dont think its all that bad.
 

BerHntr

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All I did to my engine was swapped from dbw to dbc and added a tsp 224r cam and long tubes. Oh and decked the heads .025 and switched from dished to flattop piston to bump compression up on my 317 heads.

On the other vehicles you nailed it, probably just remove some torque mngmt from both and possibly play with the shift points (only when I feel comfortable to do so) on my sierra as it has a weird studder step when shifting from 1st to 2nd.

Ive watched several videos and done some reading already and it seems that a wideband o2 is recommended for tuning, is this something that you utilize and if so are there any recommendations or ones to avoid?
 

Supercharged111

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I say it's not tht difficult, bit I've taken a while to familiarize myself with the theory of tuning and having done a few it's real neat learning what an engine's needs are. It's also real cool to see the length the OEs have gone to to refine their powertrains to the extent they have. I have no regrets and after I do a few more things to my own rides I feel like I could do this in a professional sense to make money.
 

Christian Steffen

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^Supercharged is correct on all of that. Pretty much just gotta start doing it and you'll pick it up.

And yes a wideband is really nice to have, especially since you can't tune WOT areas with the narrow bands. You'll probably have to spend some decent time on it with those changes, but it should be fun.

And I have a PLX wideband, can't say anything bad about it. Just read reviews before buying.
 

90W7

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Absolutely buy Hptuners and get the pro version because you'll need to log WOT/Afr error % with a wideband. It's also good for general diagnosis and you could make money with it doing side jobs.

Like everyone said you just need to dive in and start learning. YouTube and forums are tons of help but when I was tuning my 5.3/4l60e in my 91 (cam/headers) I bought the Tuning schools GM beginner/intermediate course which taught me how to tune for the headers and cam.

It's nice because it's easy to follow and explains the whole process. It also comes with 1 year renewable support so you can ask questions and send in your logs/tunes and get feedback.

So having tuned my 91 and become familiar with software /process I've been tweaking my 13' Silverado and other side jobs for people for money.



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