Hey folks,
Well the last stage of my truck is done. I sprung for the Corsa intake and exhaust as well as the 5 star 91 performance tune and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. I started off with the intake and exhaust and with just those two mods the truck seemed the breathe a bit better. When I say breathe I mean the truck didn't seem to run out steam as easy in the rpm bands like it did stock. I drove the setup for 2 weeks to let the truck adapt.
Next step was the 5Star tune with 87,89,91 Performance tunes (optimized for intake and exhaust) and 87,89 TOW tunes. Let me tell you with the tune the character of the truck has completely changed. It's hard to explain really... in stock form the truck felt strong but almost like you needed to poke and prod it to get it moving. Also you felt all of its 6k lb curb weight. With the new engine mods the truck feels as if it wants to leap from a start like its lost a few hundred lbs and just wants to run. It pulls hard all the way to redline. The transmission tuning from Mike @ 5Star is near perfect. When your on it the transmission always seems to stay right in the powerband and shifts are always FIRM. However when just cruising around the shifting is never intrusive. I've only had the tune for a 1 1/2 days so every once in a while I get a harder than ususal downshift. I believe in a few days and with some miles under my belt the adaptive strategy will well...adapt!
Also another benefit was now my Corsa intake noise went from a slightly annoying bellow from 1.7k - 2.0k rpm part throttle tip in to now a nice roar. I already did some work to the intake to reduce resonant vibration by dampening the box/lid/bracket assembly but it did not reduce the bellow...the tune got rid of it completely.
However, one thing the tune didn't do was increase the volume of the Corsa Exhaust. I knew getting into this exhaust that it was one of the quieter ones out there without any drone. But I've gotta say that at times I believe it's quieter than the stock exhaust. I think I'm going to build a straight pipe to replace the resonator to see if I can get a little more volume out of it. Hopefully still have no drone. Do you think I'll need to get another tune when I do this??
All in all I'm tremendously happy with the outcome of these mods. Truck runs stronger than ever and I have no problems laying a patch of rubber in first and second!! Not that I condone such things
