I found a bunch of posts that say they do the same thing blah blah blah, but I don't see how carputing is still in business charging a lot more money and locking their software to one vin. Usually in instances like this, carputing will either go out of business or adjust their prices and policies.

I was about to have a buddy of mine add my vin to his LT1 edit account for 100 bucks, but if I can order Tunercat for 70 bucks I figure I might as well save myself 30 bucks if they will both do the same thing.

I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance before I order Tunercat, but either way, I will order LT1 Edit or Tunercat today. Thanks.

 

Tunercat for OBDII is $380. Look at their price page.

 

But for that price you will be able to use it on an unlimited number of 96 and 97 LT1s and that includes the F-Bodies, Impalas, and Corvettes.

 

Exactly.

This will be my first time tuning a car from scratch but I am very familiar with engine design both mechanical and electrical and I know what the terminology means. I just need to do a little more reading and get some hands on experience. It seems like a lot of people think tunercat is easier to use, but then LT1 edit seems more organized and easier to understand based only on what other people have said. Any insight on that???

 

Tunercat is cheaper and unlimited. I would go that route. I wish it was around when I needed it. I had to fork over $500 for LT1_edit a few years back.

 

I just purchased a used laptop with the tunercat software. Tunercats customer service has been great to me already. I needed a few updates and they had no problem fixing me up even though I didnt buy it new directly from them.

 

I'd go the tunercat route. The unlimited VINs and price should be your primary selection critera. You never know when you might need an extra VIN. I wish i had them.

Up front LT1 edit is more attractively packaged from a initial "information overload" standpoint. They use a windows looking menu. That's why I went the Editor's route.

A friend showed me Tunercat a while back. At first glance it had more programing features but in a less attractive looking package (the programs are listed, not a window).

Big deal, now my hands are cuffed to one VIN.

 

Not to steal this thread, but I have the same question about which software. Because now you can only buy Tunercat for OBDII from Jet with a higher price and the unlimited vin's are gone. Which is the better choice?

 

After buying tunercat, I now see that they both do the exact same thing. LT1 edit vs. tunercat is like comparing windows to dos. Tunercat is not dressed up but the functionality is great! LT1 edit is a bit more user friendly, but once you get into the thick of the tuning it doesn't matter that it's user friendly or not. In fact, I think that tunercat will help you get a better grasp of how everything interacts because you have to put in effort to figure it out.

That said, get whichever one is cheaper or has a better value for the price.

 

Carputing lowered the price of LT-1 Edit for obd2 to 450.00
for one car and 100.00 for each additional license.
www.carputing.com
I paid 550.00 for mine a few years ago.
After waiting for so long for obd2 unlimited Tunercat it's now gone in 6 months and more expensive than LT-1 Edit.
With it's Windows interface I'd go for LT-1 Edit over Tunercat.
Just my personal preference.

 

Tunercat IS WINDOWS based... always has been

 

I used the windows/dos thing as an analogy (a pretty bad one). I did not say that Tunercat was DOS based, because it's not as Highlander pointed out. Honestly, I have seen both programs in action... and now that I have used both and tunercat even moreso, I prefer tunercat because it stresses function over form and it's less expensive (for an OBDI guy like me anyway). If you can't tune a car without software with an oversimplified interface you shouldn't be tuning a car anyway... IMO, LT1 edit is sort of a missing link that bridges the gap between a dyno tune and a hypertech bringing the dyno tuners ability into a home near you. I'm not knockin it by any means, like I said before, they both do essentially the same thing with only minor differences. For me however, a simple user interface (which is now useless to me since I know where everything is in tunercat) was not worth an extra 160 dollars.

 

When I got mine it was all that was available for 96-97 OBDII so I never had the chance to use Tunercat.
Now that I've had it for a few years I've grown comfortable with it.
Just reflashed the pcm for 2 degrees more advance across the table due to the 9.75 compression from the Trickflow heads.
May still tweak it some more after driving it a while.

 

True... ls1 edit came out before tunercat OBDII. A long time before actually...

2cub I am curious, how do you like that cam you are running right now?

 

Not very many people have used both, so you won't get many hands-on comparisons. I have gotten the impression that LT1edit is better documented. Tunercat is very much a figure-it-out-yourself thing. (I use tunercat.)