flash tuners

[txoutlaw69]

i been thinking about getting a flash tuner so my question is . is it worth the money

[KMdef9]

Nope, PM frost.

From what I've heard, he does a better job than any tuner can. Search through the tuning section.

[4thGenTA]

not worth it!

[DOCJHH45]

I got a used Diablo predator for $180 on ebay... it made a very noticable difference and its a nice diagnostic tool. Not worth $400 for a new one though.

[4thGenTA]

surprise it made a difference, and one that you could actually feel....

[Zinergy]

surprise it made a difference, and one that you could actually feel....

Predator tunes work, just not as good as a mail order and or dyno tune. And the mail order is cheaper and better and dyno tune is about the same but much better which is why the predator tuner is kinda silly concept.

[0rion]

This is opinion so take it as such.......

Look at your tune just like you would any other modification. You need to first determine what your goal is and go from there. Do you plan on staying stock, slightly modified, or heavy mods such as heads/cam? If you're going to stay stock for the most part a predator could work for you. There is a slight bit of flexibility with them and they go pretty cheap used. That's about the only scenario that I see a predator working out for someone. Once you get into mods such as headers and up you need something a little more flexible. Frost has done enough of those that he can mail order tune without having the car in front of him. Once you get into heads/ cam type mods though you really need to either take it to someone that can have the car in front of them or purchase the tuning suite and learn to do it yourself. There are varying degrees of when certain tuning options work out better than others. I would see what your end goals were and use those to determine how you want to go. Don't necessarily go by where you're at now because you'll just be spending money twice for tuning.
I will say that for $125 Frost can give you a tune that's superior to a handheld even if you're staying stock. You have to also watch some of the predator tuners because I believe at some point they stopped giving people an option to remove the rear O2 codes. Again, just opinion.

[rel3rd]

I will say that for $125 Frost can give you a tune that's superior to a handheld even if you're staying stock.

I agree 100%.

Last Monday my buddy brought over his mildly modded 5.3 engined truck. His only "tuning" was done via a handheld Hypertech Power Programmer III. For $350+ (cost of the programmer) he got a very generic "93 octane" tune. All they did was add 5* timing across the board for that particular "tune". Truck was a dog IMO. I have nowhere near the experience of Frost, although he has graciously helped/advised/tweaked tunes for me in the past. That being said, as a hobby tuner starting from scratch on this truck, I was able to get it running much stronger (even on 87 octane), shifting much better, and fuel trims much closer to being "right" (in just a few hours of street tuning) than that handheld ever had a chance to.

Like already said (and proven many, many times), FROST can easily out-tune any handheld programmer out there without ever even seeing the actual vehicle. He's done enough LSx powered vehicles that once he knows the mods, he knows exactly what needs tweaking for best results, and for a measly $125, you cannot beat that deal, period.