Have a chance to buy an unlocked SCT tuner for my 96 GT with bolt ons, my question is are they really worth the money or would it be better spent on other performance parts ?

Thanks,

 

I'm surprised no one has answered this. But yes, if you have bolt ons, the best way to take advantage of them is to tune your car according to your mods.

 

It's a good place to start but don't expect much out of the canned tunes that come with the tuner. They're OK but I doubt you'll be clicking your heels at the performance gains. Hire somebody local with a good reputation and have him put it on the dyno while he do that voodoo that he do. You'll be much happier with the results.

 

What he said.

Although I dunno if I'd spend money on an actual dyno tune, you'd probably be looking at $3-500 there. But you could contact Brenspeed, Steeda, Bama or there are many reputable others out there who could email you some tunes for about $150-ish.

I would expect next to nothing from the pre-programmed "canned" tune that SCT programs the device with.

 

How much is it, could be worth it just for reading codes

 

If your car is bone stock then I would be less hesitant about going with a mail order tune but if you have mods then I think I'd save up some additional acorns and hire somebody local and put it on the dyno so they are working with your exact setup and getting real time, ground truth results.

They are great for reading codes and for monitoring your systems. That's all I use mine for anymore.