The other day, I read several posting about tuners. There were many responses about which one to buy and how they loved there tuner company or hated the previous one. I know some of you guys have started out with one company and after some time changed to a different tuner for many reasons. Could you guys post up your actual experiences as it relates to our engines / transmissions, for the reasons why you changed from one tuner to another. Some examples I had read about stated people felt like their trucks were louder and smoked more using a certain tuner. What I didn’t see in the postings were what was louder, (injectors, cylinder, etc, or more details about the smoke).<O</O
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I am not trying to tuner this into “Who is the best tuner company” etc. I am trying to get a better understanding as to if I go with one company verses the other what issues I might run into with each one.<O</O
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I haven’t made up my mind as to which tuner company I will use yet but I think I’m getting close. <O</O
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Thanks, Brice<O</O

 

There isn't a right or wrong way to "do" tuning....

but there are only so many quirks/nuances that a customer should have to deal with.

I've seen a lot of the stuff out there and I am surprised that some places are still in business and still get good reviews.

 

The only "advice" I can think of is don't settle. Stinky's chest is puffed up pretty good right now, yet anybody could go from a stock truck with low miles to my well-worn truck and not notice any substantial difference - until they put more weight on their right foot. If done "right" the truck can have good road manners for the occupants, yet let you know a beast lies within when you poke at him. There are smoky tunes, hot tunes, hard-shifting tunes, twitchy tunes... but none of that is necessary to get more performance (to a point).

If your truck isn't 100%, no tuner will look good... except the one that figures out what's wrong with your truck and finds a way to compensate for the problem. This can make a bigger mess than what you started with.

If you're wanting horror stories about tuners, many members have them... but keeping it quiet is a courtesy we pay to the tune providers. Sometimes the horror stories are not the tuner's fault, and there's little to gain by stirring things up when many members have no problem with the tuner one would bash.

Maybe if you searched and found instances of traded tuners, you could PM for feedback. No guarantees, but some might be willing to share.

 

As Tugly said, don't settle - these trucks have a lot left on the table in terms of power from the factory. I started out driving my father-in-law's 99 F250 and loved the power it had. Pulled his 30ft fiver a few times with it, and a 24ft boat and enjoyed every minute. That was a bone stock truck. (he just traded it in - only 65K on it ).

I bought my '00 with an Edge/Attitude device that fooled the PCM into calling for more fuel, etc. and it was a lot of fun, but I had to get out of the pedal due to high EGTs when pulling the pass at 19K GCW. There was no transmission adjustments either. Also, my truck was not 100%. That's the first thing before a chip.

Upgraded from there to a DP F6 tuner and gained more power with less smoke, and transmission shift strategies that have really improved drivability. It's been a progressive learning experience that probably will not end here.

I wouldnt worry too much about getting exactly the right one, as tuners will work with you to get it right, or you can sell it and recoupe some money towards another chip.

 

Good info just for comfort reasons. I guess for me is to get the truck to a 100% first.

 

I ran DP for a while, now have PHP.

DP was fine.
PHP is fine.

I like the new DP Infinity, but dont want to switch back again, or pay for more tunes.
There are differences, none are deal breakers or deal sealers for me.

If you have done your research, I am sure you can find some issues with each. If you want to know why I switched to PHP from DP, do a search for DP. You will see a recurring theme with one particular problem DP had.

Has it been fixed? Maybe.
Do I know enough to look at tunes and find out? No.
Do I even know what caused it? No.
Do I want to chance it and find out? Not one bit.

I never had any problems with DP, but decided, if there is any truth to the story, I dont want to become a statistic.

 

Thanks for the response guys,

Tugly, I am not looking for horror stories about tuners. Not in anyway trying to start a match about which one is better or worse. I total understand that some people are going to think that a certain tuner messed up their truck when their truck was not 100% to begin.

I'm trying to get a better understanding of some of the reoccurring quirks about certain tunes/tuners and the way they program. I'm trying to be more informed before I make this purchase. As a few have stated, "Don't settle". I asked this question because after searching many threads I started to notice certain things about certain tuners (good and Bad). Not a lot at this point but some. I don't want to be that guy who buys snake oil because someone has snake oil to sell.

Again, I am just trying to figure out what I might or might not see before I purchase either one.

Thanks for the help.