Tuner Options

[Brawndo_99]

Hey all,

I’ve been running a Black Bear tuned PCM on my 99 Tahoe for the last year with their traditional tune. I loved the tune, but have had some issues after requesting a retune due to a gear/tire size change to adjust the speedometer. The Speedo recalibration caused my shift points to decrease, no longer downshifts at speed with throttle input, and shifts are softer than before the tune. Sending the computer back and forth is getting tiresome and I’d like to know what other options I have.

Keeping the stock ECU, what other options exist for tuning? What have you had good success with?

Thanks!

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[L31MaxExpress]

HPTuners

 

[Moofus02]

0411 swap

 

[Brawndo_99]

HPTuners

Is there a guide on tuning these PCM’s with HP Tuners?

0411 swap

I’ve seen this mentioned. Is there a base tune near-stock most people find works well?

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

Again I have nothing of value to add to your threads, but I like your flex in the pic.

 

[BeXtreme]

Is there a guide on tuning these PCM’s with HP Tuners?

It's pretty simple for what you are trying to do. HP Tuners and EFI Live are the main players for GM tuning software. Black Bear uses EFI Live, but HP Tuners would be your best bet for personal tuning. If you are only wanting to mess with the trans portion, you can download the BlueCat tool for free and get a pretty good basic shift schedule right off the bat. Adjusting the tire size is also simple. There are many youtube videos out there on tuning with HP Tuners and the HP Tuners forum is also a good resource. Tuning the stock PCM will be very similar to the 0411 tuning.

Alternatively, you can do the 0411 swap and free software tuning for 1/4 the cost of buying HP Tuners. It will take significantly more time and learning/struggles on your part to do the 0411 swap and tuning, but some people like that. I personally have done both since I couldn't open source tune my 2011 anyways, but I have an 0411 swapped L29 and use both the free software/tool and HP Tuners alternately on them. You have to use an express van OS for the 0411 swap unless you convert to CNP also.

 

[Brawndo_99]

Again I have nothing of value to add to your threads, but I like your flex in the pic.

Thanks! I was finally able to get some miles under it and test it out. Did pretty well! It’s a bit tippy on some off-chamber stuff but I think some improved shock valving will help. Heading to Moab next week so I hope it stays rubber-side down!

It's pretty simple for what you are trying to do. HP Tuners and EFI Live are the main players for GM tuning software. Black Bear uses EFI Live, but HP Tuners would be your best bet for personal tuning. If you are only wanting to mess with the trans portion, you can download the BlueCat tool for free and get a pretty good basic shift schedule right off the bat. Adjusting the tire size is also simple. There are many youtube videos out there on tuning with HP Tuners and the HP Tuners forum is also a good resource. Tuning the stock PCM will be very similar to the 0411 tuning.

Alternatively, you can do the 0411 swap and free software tuning for 1/4 the cost of buying HP Tuners. It will take significantly more time and learning/struggles on your part to do the 0411 swap and tuning, but some people like that. I personally have done both since I couldn't open source tune my 2011 anyways, but I have an 0411 swapped L29 and use both the free software/tool and HP Tuners alternately on them. You have to use an express van OS for the 0411 swap unless you convert to CNP also.

This is very helpful, thank you!

Is BlueCat part of the HP Tuner or is that a separate thing? I’m very green to tuning EFI, most of my time has been spent around carbureted vehicles.

 

[BeXtreme]

Thanks! I was finally able to get some miles under it and test it out. Did pretty well! It’s a bit tippy on some off-chamber stuff but I think some improved shock valving will help. Heading to Moab next week so I hope it stays rubber-side down!

This is very helpful, thank you!

Is BlueCat part of the HP Tuner or is that a separate thing? I’m very green to tuning EFI, most of my time has been spent around carbureted vehicles.

Bluecat is a free tool that is separate from HP Tuners. You input your specific vehicle options into the tool and it generates the shift and pressure tables for you to copy and paste directly into the HP Tuners tables. It gives you a VERY good starting point to then fine tune your shift tables from. It takes everything into account including vehicle weight, engine HP, torque converter stall, how long you want shifts to hold, engine redline, wheel size, final drive ratio, etc... to generate the values.

Here's a thread on the HP Tuners forum discussing it. There are screenshots and a download link as well, but I'm not sure if it still works. A quick google search will usually result in a source for the file... it is a very popular tuner tool.
https://forum.hptuners.com/showthread.php?50653-Using-the-BlueCat-trans-tool&p=404202#post404202

 

[Cadillacmak]

Thanks! I was finally able to get some miles under it and test it out. Did pretty well! It’s a bit tippy on some off-chamber stuff but I think some improved shock valving will help. Heading to Moab next week so I hope it stays rubber-side down!

This is very helpful, thank you!

Is BlueCat part of the HP Tuner or is that a separate thing? I’m very green to tuning EFI, most of my time has been spent around carbureted vehicles.

I did the 411 swap and HP tuner. You pay more for HPT but the amount of help from this forum, HP's, and youtube tuners is worth it, so many people use it there is a vast amount of info out there. When you own the tuning method, all you need to learn is one thing at a time and then drop that tune in. You can have all the tunes you want, and drop in what you want, when you want.

 

[BeXtreme]

It's worth noting that because you have a '99, HP tuners will work on your original PCM. This would let you get familiar with it before any possible 0411 upgrade in the future. You will need credits to license a PCM though. Most tools will come with credits on it(2 is pretty standard) and then you use those credits to license the PCM. So if you bought an MPVI3 with 2 credits, you could license your original PCM and do unlimited tuning for ever on that one PCM. When/if you swapped to an 0411 PCM, you would need to spend another 2 credits($50/credit, $100 total) to license the new PCM with whatever OS you want to run on it. You pay the licensing fee when you write to the PCM, reads and scanning is free.