Would you gain any significant power from a quality dyno tune after header installation on an internally stock motor? Just curious if anyone else has had some experience with this.

 

If your car hasn't had any tuning before it would be a good idea. I have heard that the good tuners can get 15 hp at the wheels on a completely stock LT1, with a good intake and exhaust setup you're likely to see more. With a good dyno tune you can put some more onto that.

As cheap and easy as it is, you can't go wrong.

 

when getting your car dyno tunned should you have to do it whenever you get something else done to your car like getting the heads and intake ported?

 

You'll deff. want to do it when you start getting into heads and intake porting. As stated, you can't go wrong with a good tune. Lots of power can be pulled out of your car if done right.

 

I dyno tune and build motors for a living, and in my opinion, it is not necessary after headers, basically because it is after all the combustion events in the motor. But If you do anything to increase airflow into the motor, such as seriously upgraded intake system, or ported heads, it is necessary because the extra air will lean out the mixture, while FI cars are pretty good at dealing with this and do run a relatively high AFR to begin with, so that detonation does not becocome a problem, anybody who does alot of performance driving should get a tune done...They are expensive though...$800 and higher...

 

Regardless, some good tuning can get more hp out of a stock engine. Every engine is a little different, and GM doesn't have time to individually dyno tune each one, does it? At this point it's not neccessary, but at a minimum it's a good learning experience. You can get a very nice quality cable from akm cables, a decent tune from several people, and if you want to take it further there's do it yourself tuning available. The prices are cheap, and the install is certainly easy. People that have gotten their vehicles tuned say throttle response is improved, some even say that annoying rumbling in the exhaust after letting off the gas is gone if you have a loud exhaust. And the risk is that you might only see 10 hp at the wheels.

I'll make sure and back up this info with my own experiences in a few weeks after I get mine done. It's next on my list, along with some miscellaneous items.

And as far as real dyno tuning goes I wouldn't bother with that until you've got at least a good heads/cam combo. The price on that is pretty steep.

 

Ion (Madwolf on the board) gaurantees 13 hp on a near stock tune. If I'm wrong on this, please chime in.

I think thats a pretty impressive gain and well worth it. He's not too far from me and I plan on having him do a tune for me after I get all the problems delt with on my car.

EDIT: This isn't even with a dyno tune. I would say stick with a basic tune until you get into head work and cam.