MattG
01-28-2010, 03:14 PM
I finally found a tuner that made my LS7 run the way I always wanted it to. Ed at https://www.virginiaspeed.com/ really came through for me and I feel like we should all share which tuners have come through for us!
After 3 different tuners had their way with my car (some with better success than others), I can finally drive my car without it stalling or surging anywhere near idle (not to mention Much more Power).
There are many tuners that can post some big numbers (they are all over the place on LS1Tech.com), but with my experience the difficult part for tuning an LSX Pro Touring car is getting the drivability right.
I have a combo that I thought would be straight forward to tune, but proved to be vary challenging in the end. I found that just because someone can tune a new gen. Corvette, it doesn't mean they will be able to tune the many different combos that we come up with when we put and LSx into an old car. There are so many differences in computers, sensors and power combos that a tuner must really know the finer points in tuning.
I don't have my original dyno graph to show, but with a Much larger cam (243/253 on 113+3 .650 lift) my car only managed 500 rwhp and 475 rwt. I was very dissapointed to say the least and the drivability was poor. I then changed to the Katech Torquer cam to gain more torque and drivability (220/244 on 110) and got a retune. More torque for sure, but still didn't idle well and proved to be very difficult to manage.
Now to Ed at VA speed. He came highly recommended to me by a couple of local guys and by following him on LS1tech.com.
Ed discovered some key issues in the computer right away that no one else had seen, and ultimately discovered that the MAF was not working correctly.
Here are the results:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/Dyno-1.jpg
I drove the car home 3.5 hrs and picked up 2 mpg (23mpg at 70mph, Ford 9inch w/3.70 gears and t56) with 50 more hp than before, WOW!
At 70 mph I can cruise with the cruise control on with zero surging (never had a problem with that anyway) and when I come to a stop regardless of how I do it, it settles in at an 850 rpm idle.
First and second gear are a major exercise in throttle control and after 3 years of frustration, I FINALLY enjoy driving my car!
Hope this helps someone, and maybe we can make this a sticky to make finding a Good tuner easier for everyone around the country.
Thanks and lets hear about everyones tuners they trust,
Matt
After 3 different tuners had their way with my car (some with better success than others), I can finally drive my car without it stalling or surging anywhere near idle (not to mention Much more Power).
There are many tuners that can post some big numbers (they are all over the place on LS1Tech.com), but with my experience the difficult part for tuning an LSX Pro Touring car is getting the drivability right.
I have a combo that I thought would be straight forward to tune, but proved to be vary challenging in the end. I found that just because someone can tune a new gen. Corvette, it doesn't mean they will be able to tune the many different combos that we come up with when we put and LSx into an old car. There are so many differences in computers, sensors and power combos that a tuner must really know the finer points in tuning.
I don't have my original dyno graph to show, but with a Much larger cam (243/253 on 113+3 .650 lift) my car only managed 500 rwhp and 475 rwt. I was very dissapointed to say the least and the drivability was poor. I then changed to the Katech Torquer cam to gain more torque and drivability (220/244 on 110) and got a retune. More torque for sure, but still didn't idle well and proved to be very difficult to manage.
Now to Ed at VA speed. He came highly recommended to me by a couple of local guys and by following him on LS1tech.com.
Ed discovered some key issues in the computer right away that no one else had seen, and ultimately discovered that the MAF was not working correctly.
Here are the results:
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2010/01/Dyno-1.jpg
I drove the car home 3.5 hrs and picked up 2 mpg (23mpg at 70mph, Ford 9inch w/3.70 gears and t56) with 50 more hp than before, WOW!
At 70 mph I can cruise with the cruise control on with zero surging (never had a problem with that anyway) and when I come to a stop regardless of how I do it, it settles in at an 850 rpm idle.
First and second gear are a major exercise in throttle control and after 3 years of frustration, I FINALLY enjoy driving my car!
Hope this helps someone, and maybe we can make this a sticky to make finding a Good tuner easier for everyone around the country.
Thanks and lets hear about everyones tuners they trust,
Matt