Best 6.0L tuner/tuning

[ikeG]

A friends dad thinks another 20-30 hp will help greatly towing his camper(I agreed). But this is a truck that I will never see again, so I want to know what is worthwhile to flash without logging or creating reliability issues, etc. I'm assuming it's a custom tune from a tuner using EFI or HP but if a box tuner will give decent results I may steer him that way. Less assumed liability for any problems, tuning related or not.


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[zakkb787]

In that case I’d just go with a PPE then. Ease of disconnecting if something goes wrong.

 

[duramaxzak]

When I was looking to tune my 04' 6.0l gas (but never ended tuning) Black bear was seemed to be the one to go to.

http://www.blackbearperformance.com/services.asp

 

[Bdsankey]

In that case I’d just go with a PPE then. Ease of disconnecting if something goes wrong.

PPE doesn't tune GM gas engines, just duramax. OP is talking about a 6L gas engine.

When I was looking to tune my 04' 6.0l gas (but never ended tuning) Black bear was seemed to be the one to go to.

http://www.blackbearperformance.com/services.asp

^ Black Bear does killer work. A friend of mine tuned his truck with a Diablo Sport InTune with custom tuning from DiabLew. Picked up noticeable power, economy, and wasn't horribly expensive/easy to use.

 

[ikeG]

Figured black bear would come up but I was hoping someone would recommend a box tuner lol. I was trying to avoid another hand to hold. Thanks guys

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[Mike L.]

I run a Banks on my GMC 6.2. Don't think you're going to see 20+ hp on naturaly asperated engine.

 

[duramaxzak]

To get any power out of the handhelds, you usually have to go to 93 octane....

 

[Chevy1925]

To get any power out of the handhelds, you usually have to go to 93 octane....

this...

and he wont be seeing any return on the extra cost of 91 or 93 octane with the upped timing.

IMHO, stay away from black bear. I had friends use them twice. each time, he was quick to get them the first tune but there was issues (one had tcm tweaks that were all screwed up, other had the truck stuck in open loop the whole time). trying to get an updated tune was like pulling hens teeth. They waited upwards of 6-8 months before finally getting their trucks straighten out and that was just for 1 tune! if they needed more updating, it would have been a nightmare.

that said, i really dont see another 20-30hp from a tune only. AFR tweaks make very very little change in power and timing is really about all you can do. Even still, you are playing the fighting game between the knock sensor and how much timing you can actually have. lots of places like to add a bunch of timing and let the knock sensor control it. crap way to do it since the sensor can yank 4-8 degrees of timing soon as it sees knock. If its a good tune, he might notice some torque pick up in the bottom end with more timing but doubt it will be noticable with a trailer on it.

he would be better off with a cam and tune or heads and tune. that would give him a nice bump in power he will feel and be great at pulling.

 

[zakkb787]

My bad guys. Didn’t read the title well enough.

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

I 2nd avoiding blackbear. I flashed a truck for somebody using blackbear's tunes. It was a pretty healthy built lq4 with a procharger. He had it running afr's of 16:1 during warmup, horrible stumbles, wouldn't shift out of 2nd at wot, and SLAMMED into lockup(I offered to data log it, but he said he didn't need to). Took me a few hours to find and fix all the trans tables so he could get on it, but it was only making low 400's for power (pretty disappointing for a built/boosted 6.0l). After a few months of being ignored, he paid a tuner to come in and tune it on a local dyno. Truck picked up over 100hp with just tuning to 586hp at the wheels and was now driveable.

That said, depending on the year, there could be quite a bit of power to be had with tuning. The early lq4's were only 300hp in 1500hd+, but the same exact engine was 325hp in suv's. The lq9 had 1 point higher c/r with flat top pistons and was rated at 345hp. Many have pushed the lq4 right to the limit of the stock injectors with just tuning, exhaust, and intake(right around 390hp is about all the stock injectors are good for in them). So without knowing which 6.0l you're dealing with, it's tough to say what gains can be had.

 

[Dozerboy]

I have heard a lot of bad about back bear aswell. I haven’t seen much about handheld tuner results. Seems like everyone goes with custom tuning anymore.


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[Rancelot211]

567-207-4159. Give him a call his name is lucas. He is local to me and does very good work. I had him tune a 4.8l for me and it was well worth the money. We picked up quiet a bit of power and mileage was up as well.

 

[PureHybrid]

567-207-4159. Give him a call his name is lucas. He is local to me and does very good work. I had him tune a 4.8l for me and it was well worth the money. We picked up quiet a bit of power and mileage was up as well.

He have a shop? Dyno tune performance came to mind

 

[N2BRK]

as long as everyone is sharing bad experiences with Black Bear, I'll temper them with my good experiences where I've installed Justin's tunes in friends' rides:

2001 1500 4.8 - FASST Intake 102mm, built trans, etc. Emissions deleted. Great tuning. Asked for logs and tweaked same several times. Very happy. Added a Procharger and retuned. Everyone happy, including all 4 neutrals in the 4l60, LMAO.

2011 1500 5.3 with 6-speed auto - excellent tuning and followed up with logging. He replied back quickly and tweaked the tune slightly - extremely happy.

2016 Chevy SS - big cam, headers, beehive springs, intake, exhaust etc. - great tune. Super happy. Again, logged and sent back and no need for tweaking tune.

2011 Yukon XL 6.2 with 6 speed - WOW! Awesome tune (his wife has one, so he must have spent time dialing this in). This big girl is an animal.

2007.5 1500 with 5.3 and 4l60 with corvette servo - another excellent tune and never bothered sending back a log, lol.

Tralblazer SS with 6.0 and headers - I think he was like 390 on the dyno, but it's been a while.

I think that there's two major things going on with the happy gassers I've installed his tuning on. First, any of the trucks/cars with a tip-in delay feel like they pick up tons of power because the engine is more responsive to input. The second is the transmission tuning helps a lot as well. You won't see Dmax sized gains, but you will get a lot more responsive and crisp feeling behind the wheel. .

Good luck in whatever you go with!

 

[Rancelot211]

He have a shop? Dyno tune performance came to mind

Hartsel performance & tuning llc. He is very good. We seen around a 60hp gain and 25 ft lbs i believe. The transmission shifted alot better also. He does alot of g8s around here. Way better then blackbear. He has people coming from 3 states over so he much do something right. He does have a dyno at his shop. Can either have him dyno tune it or just a road tune. I was very impressed especially for a gas engine.