Thread: Getting a tune done.

Where would I go to get a tune done? I have read these forums and everyone is talking about getting a damn tune!

Would I have to find someone who has a tuner? Or just buy a pcm?

I live in NW Chicago suburbs. My car is stock beside CAI and... thats about it.

For a basically stock car, like yours, a PCM would work fine. The mods mods you have, the worse an Intense or similar PCM would be. Every mod that you put on your car, even changing t-stat or air filter, will change how that car will run. And one tune is only best for one configuration. So the further you take your car from that configuration, the worse your car will run. Sure, places like Intense, DHP, and ZZP setup their PCMs so they run "okay" on most vehicles with the most common mods. But your car will run no where near as good as it can run with a custom tune.

So if you are planning on leaving your car close to the way it is now, then an off the shelf PCM from ZZP or DHP would work fine. But if you plan on doing any future mods to your car, you are going to want a custom tune.

To get a custom tune, there is a couple ways. One, is to send a list of your mods and specifications of your car to someone with a tuner and lots of experience. They will then setup a tune on a PCM that should run well with your car. But it doesn't always. And even if it does run good, if you decide that you want to put on a different DP, or add headers, your car is going to probably run worse and you will need to pay to have that person send you another custom tuned PCM.

You can also take it to somewhere that has a dyno tune. With this, they will put your car on a set of rollers, drive the car, but stay in a stationary spot, and tune the car. Cost of this is usually high since the equiptment is costly. And here again, if you change something on your car, that tune isn't as good as it could be.

By far the best way (in my opinion) to tune a car is driving it on the street the way you normally do, or at the track, if that is where you normally drive your car. On the street, with a laptop and a tuner, you can tune your car to the way you drive, in the area you drive, in the weather you drive, with the gas you use, etc. The problem here is that you need to know someone with a tuner (for our cars, either a DHP PowerTuner or an HPTuners), or own your own. As you know the initial cost to buy a tuner can be large. So someone local to you might want to charge you to spend the time to tune your car. But I have found, that even though it is costly, I have saved money by buying my own tuner. I can change whatever parameters I want whenever I want. I have a tune specifically created for when I am at the track. I have a tune to get excellent fuel mileage (I get an average of 28mpg, and 34 on the road). I have a mechanic tune that totally won't let the car drive over 30mph or 3000 rpms for if I am getting tires on or something and I don't want them to drive it much. And on and on.

So my recommendation in the end, is to buy your own tuner. And if you know friends that have similar GM V6 cars, you can tune them as well. I personally tune 3 cars with my DHP PowerTuner. I tune my GTP, my wife's Malibu, and my dad's Bonneville. So it has more than paid for itself.