Hey everyone. I was just wondering if anyone here has put their LT1 through a dyno tune. I am planning on doing mine after I install a couple of things.

Is the dyno tune bad for the motor ? I read that the dyno puts a lot of stress on the engine. I certainly don't want to install some mods and drive the car 100 miles to get it tuned and have it break on the dyno. I was considering purchasing a hand held tuner online. I'm not really sure what direction to go here. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks everyone !

 

The dyno does not stress the engine any more than you do when you put the pedal to the floor. How good the tune turns out, depends on who is doing the work. IMO the hand held things are a waste of money.

 

Only internal engine parts really need a break in. Even that is less then most people think. If the car is high miles you may want to think twice about the Dyno. If there is a weak spot in your motor or trans you will find it. If this is your daily driver and you have no back up and you are not 100% sure the internals are solid you my want to wait till you have some back up plan. Course I would give you the same advice if you want to take your car down the 1/4 mile for a pass or two.

 

Hmm... maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the LT1's ran a non-burnable ROM in the computer - so any new tune would have to be re-burnt as a new chip or have an add-on controller, rather than "just a handheld".

It's not like the plug-and-play LS1's that I'm familiar with, anyway.

 

That only applies to the 93 models which require a new MEMCAL chip, 94 and newer are programmable using editing software.

 

Thanks everyone for your input. I am certainly a little concerned about taking the car to put it on the dyno. I am just not sure if it's worth it. But I do plan on modifying the car and trying to make it faster. Here are the mods I am planning on purchasing. CAI, 52MM TB, new Spark Plugs, and Plugs wires, and an ORY. I'm not sure about the TB. Can a basically stock LT1 run a 58MM TB ? Or does it have to be 52MM ?

Here is the tuner I was going to order online.

http://www.lmperformance.com/2506/2.html

or

http://www.lmperformance.com/2418/2.html

I am not sure why there are two tuners for the 96. This number is on the second one. Not too sure what it means. 30027

Thanks everyone !

 

Ah - nice to know. I have a copy of EFI Live for my car, and it didn't list any pre-LS1 cars, so I wasn't sure.

As for NOT dyno-tuning a car, that can have issues if you mod, too. Sometimes, certain mods can affect air/fuel ratio (mostly FI and nitrous), and if you don't tune for it, you can get bad detonation at WOT.

Personally, if you are worried about grenading an engine from just dyno tuning (the pulls are much shorter in general than a full 1320 - and are in one gear only), then you should be just as worried about any WOT runs on the street, too.

 

you can get email tunes, send back datalogging and have a tune done specific for your car for a heck of a lot less. Your mods don't really justify a $400 or more dyno tune. of course you could always go for giggles but I like $$$$ and using a professional and data logging, vs the dyno tune, you may give up 5-10WHP. So, is $300 worth about 5HP ???

 

I own the Hypertech you linked to above for my '94 LT1 and am pretty satisfied with it, I believe the 30027 is just a part or model number? Nothing too significant. I'd like to get mine dyno tuned at some point but not till I'm happy with all the mods I plan on putting into it, the dyno tune is like a final step when you have everything you want already that way you dont run into complications later on when installing new hardware after the tune, or atleast that's the way I like to think about it.

The Hypertech hand held you can tune as you go as many times as you want, undo or return to factory settings. I think it's a decent little tuner compared to the other ones out there, but that's just my opinion .

 

@ imalixZ28 I was thinking the same thing about the hand held tuner. At least when I purchase it I have it, and I can re tune the car whenever I want to. As opposed to a 350 dollar tune every time I change the mods. I also understand what you are saying about the tune being a final mod. I think I will just hold off on the dyno tune for now. Maybe I will purchase the hand held.

So I read the mods on the sticky thread about budget mods. Where can I go after I do the CAI, TB, ORY and spark plugs ? What are good mods to do next ?

Thanks !