Novanutcase

Here in Cali we only have 91 octane so the kick in the pants difference is unnoticeable. Why pay more if you're not going to feel or need it? Now......if I'm going to be pushing the car hard then, Yes, higher octane but that really only makes a difference when I go road racing and then I use the track gas which is 100 octane to prevent pinging!

John

Novanutcase

So you feel that a custom tune would be a waste? From what I can see the XCAL2 is going for around $380. Bamachips will do the custom tunes long with the XCAL for the around the same price. Are you saying that whatever tune other than the canned ones will yield me no difference in performance? Do you feel that with the light mods that will be on the car that tuning will not yield an appreciable HP boost?

John

oxfordgt

Bamachips is selling you an xcal with their canned tune. Its not a custom tune. Most places you will have to buy the tuner (if you dont have one already) for around $400, then pay for the dyno time and custom tune which is about another $200-$300.

You might get 10hp if your lucky but I wouldnt expect much

2000GT4.6

+1

The only way this could not be true is if something is just really throwing off the a/f and your stock tune is acutally costing you a ton of power. the only real way to know is to get it on a dyno and see what it puts down, but more than likely you are fairly close already.

contentsunderpressur

+1 A canned tune is almost never acurate. How could it be? They put a tune from another car in a tuner and send it to you. Ever car is different and the ONLY way to get your car performing to its max is by putting it on a dyno and having a good tuner watch the graphs and tune the car. Other than that, your just getting a rough estimate.

Novanutcase

Hmmmmm.....sounds like a tune would be more beneficial if I was going FI. Maybe I'll hold off and just do the light mods for now without the tune and wait until I go FI!

John

Stone629

Automatics need a tune period. Not for the HP increase, but in order to get the shift points and pressure to your liking. Canned tunes are an absolute waste. It's a generic tune with no relationship to your car. People that claim LTs are a waste probably didn't Dyno tune after the install. When you put stuff on your car like exhaust and LTs without a tune, you'll get some gain, but it takes a tune to maximize your bolt-ons. Full boltons with a tune should get you close to or around 15-20rwhp. To some it's not worth it, to some it is. Tunes give you alot more than just HP and TQ gains like an improved powerband, better shifting, rev-lmit changes, lots of stuff. Get a few more mods before you tune it to get the most out of your tune and your mods. If you are done modding after a TB and CAI, that's fine, tune it then. Or if you are planning on going all out with mods, wait awhile. A dyno tune is worth it whatever your mods, especially with autos. JMO

P.S. I know you don't have an auto trans, just using autos as an example.

I G Joe

personally even if its a small gain with full bolt ons... its best to tune your car because your ecu doesnt know that it has exhaust or an intake and it still running the factory maps. therefore not giving you the full potential of your mods. personally id rather spend the 300 or so on a nice tune to get my monies worth out of my mods and take full advantage of them. get better MPG and have the engine running how it should.

2000GT4.6

The only thing I could disagree with is that you don't nessicarrily need the car to be tuned on the dyno to get a good tune. So long as the person you buy the tune from is experenced and they know exactly what is done to your car they can easily tune it without ever seeing the car.

MPH tuned my car and it has never been there. I sent them a list of my modifcations and even with n/a cams and full boltons (not to mention 10 PSI of boost) they were able to tune it perfectly the first time.

in other words, if you call them about a tune and they ask you to list your mods so they can "custom" tune it to your car your probably OK, so long as you trust the tuner. Tunes on a bolton only n/a car are pretty simple, just tweaking the stock tune really, and if your tuner has experence it shouldn't be that hard to get it within a few WHP of max.

1fstblckgt

Go F/I first.