EFILive Battle of the Bands...TUNA WARS!

[Hot COCOAL]

OK no more B.S or screwin around here!

This thread is all about head to head, same truck same set up and hopefully same day challenge.

Or just for fun you can bring your tuner fight here.

With the question being more frequent and common than a runny nose at an elementary, i figured i would start this thread.

The real reason though is right here....

Yup, two auto cals from two of the more well known tuners in the U.S as of right now.

Not to discredit any one from the forum(cuz their popularity is growin) like ridge runner(tony) kory willis, bobo, dannville and many others im not totally familiar with everyone
Sorry

This is the place to speak up. So bring it!

In the next few weeks i am going to provide direct comparisons of preformance from ATP(rob) and duramaxtuner(nick) in dyno #'s 1/4 mile time, possibly sled pull, towing and overall street manners as measured by me.

If anyone has something they would like me to look for, just ask.
I'm planning to buy a v2 after x-mas, probably from yet another tuner, who i will ask to provide a set of tunes as well. Then i will be able to log all three and give more scientific hard data.

Oh snap, this will be a good one!

 

[Alliance1289]

Subd. This should be interesting.

 

[Hot COCOAL]

:thumb:This is not a "better than" comparison, well not meant to be anyways, or a bash fest.

I will tell you now, both these tuners create a fantastic tune! They are both very very powerful and fast, and have enough tq in the race tune to push the rear end of my truck out at 70mph! On 35x11.5 tires(285/75/18)
With that being said, both tuners tunes are very differant, and for that reason will appeal to different people for different reasons. I just want to find out what attributes are different and most desirable for me, and i figured i would post my findings and reasoning for all to see.

What i have noticed so far:
Power is amazing on both, no clear winner on the butt dyno
Rob's race and street tune seems to allow the turbo to build up and hits harder, leaving a puff cloud of soot,(which i would think would benefit on the dyno and staging at the line) and then runs some haze @ WOT
Nicks tune seems to pull a little earlier, and steadier, leave almost as big of puff as robs when the turbo lites and seemingly leaves the same amount of haze @ wide open throttle(his tunes feel like they might benefit for towing and sled pulling)
Rob's tune, the engine sounds quieter at idle and cruise, but smells more when idling
Nicks tune @ idle and cruise the engine noise is more pronounced, but doesn't smell as much @ idle.
I'm not sure if this has something to do with timing or injection event pulse width or what, I'm still learning and plan to take an efi live tuning class as soon as possible.

Please everyone...don't get your panties in a bunch here, both sets of tunes totally rip! I cant tell a difference in power, other than robs tune kinda feels like it gives ya all of it at once, and nicks kinda run into it.

I'd like to hear of others who have had the opportunity to run multiple tuners tunes on the same truck, if there is anyone who will speak up? Thanks!

 

[PureHybrid]

The way you describe Rob's tunes sounds like my tuning from Danville. I think Mark tends to fuel the engine harder in the upper RPMs to help keep the smoke down while driving in town, helps with drivability, and engine longevity. For whatever reason, with the Danville tunes it smells different than before when you rev it up and puff a little cloud. Buddy of mine had an 05 CCSB Chevy with Danville tunes and it smelled the same, he dubbed it "Broviak smoke" :angel:

The other tunes I ran were from my neighbor, he had access to the Duramax tuner files that Nick sells. I only ran one tune from Duramaxtuner that was supposed to be a max effort stock turbo tune, it ran like azz. Took a trip and only ran his "race" file for almost 300mi and got 17.8mpg :roflmao: Turbo came up slow, smoked too much, lots of fuel knock, seemed to be very streetable in the lower RPMs though.

Mark did dyno my old tunes for me, to do a back 2 back comparison before he loaded his files. Stock did ~305, a tow tune from a member on diesel place did ~390, and the Duramax tuner file did ~460hp. I didnt run my other files, one was a valet, and the other was an econ tune so I didnt bother having Mark run it. After some EFI magic from Mark, truck still ran just under 310 on stock, and my new race file did ~530hp :woott:

I was thinking about trying some files from Ridgerunner, but I dont have a spare ECM to send him during the black friday deal

 

[blk smoke lb7]

How about a comparision with 2 suporting Vendors?:thumb:

 

[Hot COCOAL]

I am planing on buying a v2 from a supporting vendor soon :thumb:

 

[DBUSHLB7]

I think that if the tables were opened up and the tune was looked at, you will find the tunes are going to be written very similarly. Once variables like bigger injectors, multiple/larger turbos, etc are introduced into the equation the tuners touch will become more obvious. IMO the "test" would be better done on a different pickup. No offense coco and I applaud your curiosity and desire to lay out the truth/results for new guys to make up their minds on tuner choice.

 

[bluessmax]

I think that if the tables were opened up and the tune was looked at, you will find the tunes are going to be written very similarly. Once variables like bigger injectors, multiple/larger turbos, etc are introduced into the equation the tuners touch will become more obvious. IMO the "test" would be better done on a different pickup. No offense coco and I applaud your curiosity and desire to lay out the truth/results for new guys to make up their minds on tuner choice.

x2, not taking away from stock trucks... but everyone will like 1 tuners style vs. the other... I think a truck with say 100% over injectors would really be a good test. Not taking away from your by any means, but any tuna could write a tune for that. Where knowledge shines is on big sticks IMO. What you get out of the box (autocal) is basically tunes that the tuner feel are safe for your truck and drive great for the average guy. If you were to call the tuner and say "hey, i want more fuel on the bottom" or something along those lines they should be able to put it the way you want it. At the end of the day, if this is a comparison of what you get out of the box without calling the tuner for revisions then thats cool and i think is a cool thing, however, if someone is a real tuner then you should be able to call them up and request however you want your truck to feel and they meet that demand.

Just my .02:thumb:

 

[adeso]

People forget that these are not canned tunes, you are getting a base line tune. So really you would have to drive it, log it, run it at the track then talk to the tuner about what you want out of it. Most big name tuners will not write you a really hot tune, b/c they still want some safety in there tune. They are taking their best guess at what you want. So to make this a true EFI test, you really should give the tuner feedback on what you want with some logs and see what that tune is like.
For custom tuning you really can't expect the best tune you can get out of the box the first time, that isn't what EFI was made to do

 

[MACKIN]

What I see here is basically him talking out loud and what runs best on his truck his set up. What is to be gained here ? Bets me unless you have the same set up same day same conditions!

 

[SSchmi5519]

Just wrote a huge reply, and tapatalk crashes.....

Yeah its cool tapatalk I'll just go fck myself.


Sent from my iPhone.

 

[Chevy1925]

Just wrote a huge reply, and tapatalk crashes.....

Yeah its cool tapatalk I'll just go fck myself.


Sent from my iPhone.

you cant tune anyhow so your input doesnt matter

 

[Mike L.]

x2, not taking away from stock trucks... but everyone will like 1 tuners style vs. the other... I think a truck with say 100% over injectors would really be a good test. Not taking away from your by any means, but any tuna could write a tune for that. Where knowledge shines is on big sticks IMO. What you get out of the box (autocal) is basically tunes that the tuner feel are safe for your truck and drive great for the average guy. If you were to call the tuner and say "hey, i want more fuel on the bottom" or something along those lines they should be able to put it the way you want it. At the end of the day, if this is a comparison of what you get out of the box without calling the tuner for revisions then thats cool and i think is a cool thing, however, if someone is a real tuner then you should be able to call them up and request however you want your truck to feel and they meet that demand.

Just my .02:thumb:

I totaly agree.
I had a custom tune done by Tony for my LB7 that took 2 days to do. I was in my truck on the phone with Tony and told him the changes that I wanted and he would email them to Guy at SoCal. By the time I got back to Guys shop he was waiting in the driveway with the laptop. We did this for 2 days and got it perfect for me and my truck. I ran this tune for 6 years and could not find a better tune and believe me I tried.
This doesn't mean I disliked all the other tunes I tried, but they were not dialed in for me and my truck. I had guys drive my truck and most loved the tune but some did not because of my touchy throttle which is what I asked Tony to do.
If you really want the best tune for you and your truck, you will need to get together with your tuner and spend some time with him to get it perfect for you. Every truck is different and every driver wants something different to suite him.

 

[Jscherbs]

As said previously nothing beats a tune that is written with a bunch of seat time. From the initial base tunes flashed at the beginning of the session to the final versions the truck was night and day different. It acted like a completely different truck.

 

[Hot COCOAL]

I have a dyno appointment for Dec. 5th on an awd 2000hp/2000tq capable dyno.

I am also gonna get a go-pro to mount to my headrest post to watch gauges, til i decide to get a v2.

Judging by the responses, i guess there is less interest than i thought, oh well, im still interested to see some results

These auto cals have been calibrated for built transmissions and the 4094, but, Im still running stock fueling, i will be getting injectors at some point and will have them (auto-cals) calibrated at that time.

I appreciate almost all the posts so far(MACKIN????) And understand what I'm comparing for tunes is pretty straight forward tuning, i see some fun and benefit in this even if no one else does....
Onward and upward, i pursue this task undaunted.
Remember as long as the thread lives, this will be a progression of testing as my truck evolves, so this will be more interesting as time goes on, and take into consideration i purchased this (my first duramax) on black friday last year, bone stock with 118k miles, and have gotten to where its at now in this last year, who knows what i will be able to do in the next year.

 

[mpeters0991]

Don't knock him for trying to help newer guys decide who they may like better. I'm interested in what kind of difference you find:thumb:

 

[Slammed2007Lbz]

I dont think this is so bad considering this is kinda what the tuners and efi live focused on with the auto cal tuning. Thats the way i get it anyways pretty much a custom canned tune. So the comparison should be accurate if you have a truck with a 4094 and same mods as Coco

 

[adeso]

Run a log for the tuner first-they are really guessing on how strong your CP3 is on a max effort stock fueling tune. taking base tunes without at least on hack to see how your mech parts are is just seeing who got lucky guessing the CP3

 

[Hot COCOAL]

Adeso, good point, hadn't thought about that.
I will run some logs, i would like to know how things are doin.
I did drop rail pressure (p0087 or somethin like that) on a wot run, happened at 130+mph, top speed of the run was 137 and i let off immediately when i saw the engine light come on and then checked and cleared the code, it hasn't happened again, but i haven't gone that fast again either.
I made the mistake of porting both rail fittings, so i bet that has somethin to do with it, i am running the ppe shim though.

 

[Harbin_22]

If you don't want to melt your pistons, I would never do 130+mph again. Really asking for bad stuff to happen. Long time to load the motor that hard.