My initial tune thoughts

[TurboEd]

I loaded the 93 performance tune.

Ok, I get it now.

It's one of those things I had to experience myself to understand. I won't be keeping this tune loaded, because I personally don't like it. But its a personal preference thing.

I now understand the "wakes up the truck" comments. If the truck was an animal, I'd say it overdosed on coffee beans and it's "fidgety". I'd use words as "restless", "aggressive", "chomping at the bit". I was spinning the rear tires at every light without even trying. It surged a lot. I probably need to drive it a bit more to let it "learn", but it's just not something I think I will like long term. It doesn't go into 6th gear when I'm cruising at low speeds. It likes to hang on to lower gears longer.

None of this is "bad". I'm just 46 years old and I've gotten the drag racing bug out of my system many moons ago. This is just not what I want for my truck. But I can see why so many people like it and rave so much about it. It's actually a lot of fun to drive for a little bit, but as a daily driver it would bug me. I'm more of a soft ride kinda guy.

I'm trying the 93 performance soft after this, which if it shifts like the 87 perf soft I think I will like it. Need to see the mpgs to see which one I will settle on.

Exactly. See? Per87 is nothing like Perf93. I like Perf87 more but it is down on power. Very curious about your Perf93 soft.

 

[Madcowranch]

I loaded the 93 performance tune.

Ok, I get it now.

It's one of those things I had to experience myself to understand. I won't be keeping this tune loaded, because I personally don't like it. But its a personal preference thing.

I now understand the "wakes up the truck" comments. If the truck was an animal, I'd say it overdosed on coffee beans and it's "fidgety". I'd use words as "restless", "aggressive", "chomping at the bit". I was spinning the rear tires at every light without even trying. It surged a lot. I probably need to drive it a bit more to let it "learn", but it's just not something I think I will like long term. It doesn't go into 6th gear when I'm cruising at low speeds. It likes to hang on to lower gears longer.

None of this is "bad". I'm just 46 years old and I've gotten the drag racing bug out of my system many moons ago. This is just not what I want for my truck. But I can see why so many people like it and rave so much about it. It's actually a lot of fun to drive for a little bit, but as a daily driver it would bug me. I'm more of a soft ride kinda guy.

I'm trying the 93 performance soft after this, which if it shifts like the 87 perf soft I think I will like it. Need to see the mpgs to see which one I will settle on.

LOL. I'm 46 too and I love that shit. To each his own though.

 

[TurboEd]

You senior citizens... 46 years young here

 

[The Macf]

Glad that all of this is coming to light. I will be installing my headers and 93 Perf tune from 5 star. Can't wait.

 

[pat247]

You youngsters trying to act all grown up, I think I'm in my second childhood, 91 performance tune from Livernois and loving every drive.

 

[Jordan@Apollo-Optics]

I think it's one tune for all octanes, but you do need to specify an octane in the options before you write the tune and fill up accordingly. No? Like the SCT tune, it's only one tune but before you program, you need to set some options and one is octane.

I'm not 100% sure on how tuning works so this could be slightly off-base, but from what I understand, the main difference for running 93 or 87 is how much timing the motor is given. More timing needs better octane fuel. Generally a "93Perf" Tune will have more timing than the "87Perf" tune. If the tune is written correctly, though, the 93Perf tune should be able to be loaded 100% of the time, whether you run 87 octane or 93 octane shouldn't matter. The reason you would want to keep the tune for the higher octane tune loaded is because the maximum timing allowed is higher than on an 87 octane tune. Having the 93 octane tune always loaded, and assuming your knock sensors and other engine sensors are active, will allow the engine to pull timing if it senses knock or other irregularities in your tune, thus saving your engine from possibly grenading.

 

[TurboEd]

An NA engine is more forgiving on detonation. Yo never want detonation to occur and you do not want the system to constantly detect detonation and retard timing for lower octane fuel. It's just an important safety or "failsafe" of sorts. One predetonation too many and the engine may go. Even if your truck detects it and retards timing you will be grossly underpowered. You can safely run 93oct on the 87oct tune but a performance tune assumes you have better quality fuel and will run significantly more timing. A more ragged edge tune if you will. That would make running 87oct on a 93oct performance tune somewhat unnecessarily dangerous. Again. An NA motor is usually not crazy compression ratios and more forgiving. But NEVER try that on a boosted or nitrous application or you will pay dearly.

 

[ZBoater]

Ok, so I tried all four. 87 perf and perf soft, and 93 perf and perf soft. My impressions.

My favorite shifting strategy is the one from the 87 perf soft. The 87 perf soft and 93 perf soft seem to have different shifting strategies. It's like 93 perf soft and 87 perf "softer".

An example - on 87 perf soft I can cruise at 40mph and the truck will shift into sixth gear. On 93 perf soft, sixth gear will never engage under 50mph, doesn't matter if I'm coasting or not.

Compared to the 93 perf, the 93 perf soft is definitely "tamer", but still has a little bit of spunk. 87 perf soft is the one I like the best because it's the smoothest most conservative shifting. It's a personal preference thing.

Not sure if it's my imagination or not, but I could have sworn the 93 tunes gave me a deeper growl out of the exhaust. Or maybe it was wishful thinking?

In any case I'm checking to see if I can get the 87 perf soft shift strategy with a 93 perf tune. That would work for me. I'm also going to give the SCT canned tube a try just for giggles.

 

[TurboEd]

Case of beer says you like SCT better. Lol jk.

 

[ZBoater]

The SCT canned tune is not half bad. It's one tune that came preloaded on my tuner. When you select it, you can then change options like the octane, gear ratio, speed limiter, etc.

The shift strategy is very similar to my 5Star 87 perf soft tune. Very mild. I like it. But I can see why those seeking a more "aggressive" shifting strategy would not be satisfied with the canned SCT tune.