Custom Tune ??? for me????

**LETHALxLS1** · 04-12-2007, 10:20 AM

I have a 98 z28 and my question is would a custom tune be worth doing on my car(stock except mti lid,msd wires)??? Should I wait for a tune untill after I get headers and cat back exhaust?? Could you also tell me if a tune would clear up my rough idle? What exactly is done on a custom tune and what is a normal price?????

**rajiv1998** · 04-12-2007, 10:44 AM

Id say wait for the headers and exhaust. Really there is no reason to tune it right now. Your a/f ratio might be thrown off a bit but not drastically. Get a regular street tune which would be about $200 give or take a few $. You dont need a dyno tune because you dont have a H/C S/C or anything like that. During tuning they use EFI live, HPtuners, LS1 edit... to tune ur computer. A basic street tune shoud cover fan setting, shift points, AF ratio, etc...

**LETHALxLS1** · 04-12-2007, 10:47 AM

Thanks for the info!!!!--mike

**Anthracis** · 04-12-2007, 12:45 PM

with the limited mods you have now, i'd wait on the dyno tune.

Get the dyno tune after you do major mods like hearders, cam, heads, etc...

For now, you can do ok with handhelds like the hpp or diablosport II or something like that.

dyno tune is around $500.

**Ridinfilthy** · 04-12-2007, 06:42 PM

depending on what they use to tune the car, chip or handheld tuner, you have to buy one of them to store the tune on so it can be anywhere from
350 to 700 dollars

**LETHALxLS1** · 04-12-2007, 06:57 PM

They use HP tuners at the place here in Tampa I go to get my work done at. I dont plan on anything but bolt on mods until I need my motor rebuilt.
Headers,cat-back,Ls-6 intake,underdrive pully problably. I just think it would be more feasable to put internals in while the motor is out. I guess HP tuners is pretty good right?

**Anthracis** · 04-13-2007, 02:48 PM

yep...or ls1edit.

**LETHALxLS1** · 04-13-2007, 04:49 PM

Thanks everybody for the info. I guess I could have done a search but I always forget to do that for some reason. Thanks for not saying "why didnt you do a search" hahahahahah!!!!

**rajiv1998** · 04-13-2007, 06:34 PM

given the option take HP tuners. Its newer and right now is the best tuning software available. Yeah i know bigstuff is good to but iv heard thats for a big tuning job.

**LETHALxLS1** · 04-13-2007, 06:47 PM

Thats good to hear cause my shop uses HP tuners. I wish I had that software myself ( just to see what my air/fuel was like) maybe it could give me a idea whats up with my rough idle/surging- but its like $450.00

**Killer_bluebird** · 05-05-2007, 09:15 PM

Here is my .02.

Our cars even is stock from can benefit from a good tune. Heck even flashing a vette tune is an improvement as GM engineers got a bit lazy with the fbody tune. With that said. I would talk to your shop. Most shops when you get a dyno tune just tune for power and don't get into the more time consuming aspects of tuning. After my cam I payed a shop $450 to dyno tune my car. They tuned WOT and idle and that was about it. My AF ratio was good at WOT but the driving manners of the car where not very good at all. Most of the tuning was done with Spark and PE. My RAF, VE and MAF were untouched.

I bought HP tuners and recently a wideband. Now my VE is dead on and MAF dialed in and driving manners are great. It took some studying and a lot of playing around but if I where to do it over again I would save the $450 and use that later to do a dyno session to sqeeze few final drops of HP out of the set up. Or replace my clutch since the extra power is killing it!

My advice to you if you can get a street tune for cheap do it. If you don't mind learning more about the inner-workings of your car's computer you can get HP tuners little more than the price of a hand held. In the end it will be cheaper as you will never outgrow the tunning package. The same cannot be said for handhelds. If none of the above are your bag, keep it stock and wait after your mods then get a tune, but communicate with your tuner to see all that will be done and talk to other tuners and shop around. You may have to pay a bit more for a good thorough tune but in the long run it is worth it.

**LETHALxLS1** · 05-05-2007, 09:22 PM

I know all people are different as far as how fast they learn but is HP tuners really hard to learn? I am no computer genius by no means. I actually just got a computer a little over a year ago. Do you think HP tuners could be to complex for me? Thanks

**Killer_bluebird** · 05-06-2007, 06:30 PM

You can look at this demos to get an idea. It is not hard just complicated. You will need to get firm understanding about how the computer manages your engine using the various sensors. As long as you take the time to read through the information and go slow you'll be alright.