I am about to buy a 2002 Camaro SS. The guy selling it has all the bolt ons and a cam (MTI C2). It needs to be tuned, however. I was wondering if I would be ok with just getting a mail order tune, or if I should drive it to Thunder Racing and get it dynotuned. I also don't want to lose a lot of mpg because it is tuned to get every bit of hp out of it possible.

Here is a list of the work done to it:

SLP Cold Air, Shaner TB (S2), TB bypass, NGK TR6 (.050), Grot headers w/ 3" Y-pipe and Random cats, O2 sims, cut-out, Magnaflow muffler, ASP Crank Pulley, 160 thermostat, cam (224/224 .581/.581 112LSA), 918's, titanium retainers, cromoly pushrods, SLP double-roller chain, ARE oil pump

 

if you possibly can, go with a real dyno tune. the tech can do his job more effectively and dial in your car more accurately if he's actually working on your particular example rather than a general description.

 

A tune off a non load bearing dyno such as a Dynojet is a waste of money.
The engine management (PCM) does things by time, it also averages functions such as the fuel trims.

There are 23 fuel trim cells, each is used depending on the engine load and RPM. the values of all these are set as one average long term fuel value.
When using a dyno the engine only uses about 4 or 5 of those 23, plus the effects of idle, part throttle, braking, shifting, lifting off gas pedal, different weather temps etc are ALL not seen during a dyno pull.
Add the fact the engne is never really driven like on a dyno, the drum of dyno can be hundreds of lbs less then car/driver thus engine does not get to a true 100% load and if it does its less then about 10 seconds.
A simple change to a custom CAm lets say with a 112 LSA will lose or shift vaccum thus ALL engine conditions including cold start need to be tuned and that cannot be seen on a dyno.

You add that all up and the fact is just the drive home from a dyno and the other fuel trim cells are used will delute the fuel average that was tuned while on the dyno.
Most dyno tunes are like hookers, pay, get on and get the hell off within a few minutes where a true custom tune takes at least 2 hours to do.

The PCM is time based meaning the O2s are only responded on once a second, the fuel trims only once every ten minutes thus if you make a tune change on a dyno you really need about 40 minutes of drive time for the PCM to relearn after the tune changes and that is never done on a dyno which is only about 30 seconds long.

I can go on but in short 90% of the tunes I do are from cars that were 1st dyno tuned and within a short time the car performed worse then the stock GM calibration.

I have tuned hundreds of LS1/6's via owner mailing me the PCM but for best case they also send me a recording from a testrun of about 10 miles while a PCM scanner was recording everything the powertrain did and thus I am custom tuning as to what each engine is doing and the tune then covers everything from engine start, to every engine condition I mentioned,
plus its tuned for the real world, not some dyno queen numbers.

The PCM is a dyno, its used for torque management so via a PCM scanner and street or track driving the true HP and Torque is known.
--

 

How much do you charge? Also do you have a thing that you can send me on a core charge to get a pcm reading?

Anyone have a rebuttal to this?

 

Not sure of the policies for this forum so you can email me in private and I can give you the price for a custom performance tune.
I only have the PCM for one day, I do not lock the PCM as others do.

Yes I do have a black box you simply plug into the ADLC of car, go for a drive and it auto traps everything powertrain did and then mail back to me and thus I know exactly what the tune requires.

 

How much do you charge to tune it through the black box? My email address is alex0486@bellsouth.net