OK, I'm really debating to swap for a Westers now

LikeaRock14 · June 30, 2004

The truck does a d**n god job towing the new 5th wheel, but it jsut lugs a tad off the line, and has a harder time pulling up steeper grades. I'm reeeeeaaaaly debating whether to swap the JET out for a Westers tune or just leave it, since we should have a Diesel coming before the end of the year. I've towed the trailer a couple times, but when we made a different tow home, like 4 hrs, I noticed it really can lug going up those hills.

I'm thinking about having Lyndon just delete the Torque management all together, or as much as is safe, raise the redline a few hundred rpm's (right now it's like 4800 I think, 5200 or so would be ok, right?), and just tune it for overall driveability through town, since we use the truck for a lot of that. Gas kinda sucks too, esepcially when towing. (like 9-11 mpg!!! )

What do ya'll think? I've still got the stock chip up on the shelf, so I don't have to worry about the core charge. I'm just really starting to think Wester's is the only way to go...

snoman · June 30, 2004

Not much will be gained by winding 8.1 higher but removing torque management would help a lot and is no harm other than maybe some unwanted tire spin on pavement if you goose too quick! That 8.1 can make some serious low end torque when setup properly and pull well from 1500 to 4500rpm (something a Duramax with never do) If you change you mind and keep it and put a supercharger on it it would shame a Duramax easily with 500+ HP with little effort. You did not say what you were towing but 9 to 11mpg being good or bad depends on what you are pull and where!

Butch 02 Denali · June 30, 2004

Dolan,

9-10 mpg towing with a 454 is not bad. I have a 1990 chevy 3500 with a 454. When I plow with it (town streets) I get 4-5 MPG! Even around town without the plow on I get at best 10 MPG!

A wester's tune should get you at least 1-2 more MPG and quite a bit more torque and HP. And the best thing is the price you pay for the tune is a 100% credit toward the tune for the Duramax when you get it.

Butch 02 Sierra Denali

Machine · June 30, 2004

No doubt a Westers or Nelson tune will be an improvement over the Jet chip, but I would just wait until you get the new diesel.

Butch suggested you swap the tune once you get a diesel...but Westers credit won't apply to the Power Stroke you guys are looking at buying

LikeaRock14 · June 30, 2004

Yeah, I figured the Westers would do the job. And Snoman, it's a 454, not an 8.1

Same basic thing I guess. When my dad wne to shop for Dmaxe's the guy told him the 8.1 is just a bored out 454. Dunno if it's true...but w/e

I think it might be worth it anyways, even if we do end up with a Powerstroke, it'd be nice to have the chop anyways. My dad "claims" he's only going to tow w/ the new truck on long hauls, like over the Sierra's or if the truck goes out. But after one tow w/ the diesel, he'll switch. If we were getting rid of the Chevy, not the Dodge, then it might be worth waiting till we get the new truck.

I'll call Lyndon myself and see what he says, see what exactly he can do for the truck.

Colorado Kid · June 30, 2004

Actually the 8.1 has the same bore dimention as a 454, but longer stroke. It also has a remarkable number of changes, including firing order.

I'm surprised that 454s used torque management. I don't think I'd sink the money into a truck I only planned to use for less than a year.

I am tempted to look into a Westers tune for my '96 though, mostly because of some drivability issues. . . the ECM hold RPM constant when I let of the gas, which causes a jerk, or at least a push, when I engage the next gear . . . this also increases the work of driving in traffic as I need to push in the clutch and step on the brakes much more often than I did in my TBI '91 or in the '02 D-max. The thing just will not slow down unless it's going over about 50 MPH when the throttle is released. Maybe 10 seconds after the thottle is released it will cut power, or maybe it won't, so I end up driving rougher than I did at 15 years old, because I never know what it's going to do. GM dealer tech says this is an early OBD-II problem . . . basically the diagnostics keep track of misfires by tracking sudden engine speed changes, but bucking with a manual tranny can fool it, so they programmed it to keep enough throttle on to prevent torque reversals in the driveline. If Westers fixes the problem without making it flunk the sniffer check it'd be worth the bling to me. Added power would be gravy.

snoman · June 30, 2004

Dolan,
9-10 mpg towing with a 454 is not bad. I have a 1990 chevy 3500 with a 454. When I plow with it (town streets) I get 4-5 MPG! Even around town without the plow on I get at best 10 MPG!

A wester's tune should get you at least 1-2 more MPG and quite a bit more torque and HP. And the best thing is the price you pay for the tune is a 100% credit toward the tune for the Duramax when you get it.

Butch 02 Sierra Denali

I have a 2000 K3500 with a 8ft Fisher that sees a lot of duty some winter and I average 9 to 10 MPG with it plowing. I choose a 5.7 over a 7.4 for that reason.

snoman · June 30, 2004

Actually the 8.1 has the same bore dimention as a 454, but longer stroke. It also has a remarkable number of changes, including firing order.

I'm surprised that 454s used torque management. I don't think I'd sink the money into a truck I only planned to use for less than a year.

I am tempted to look into a Westers tune for my '96 though, mostly because of some drivability issues. . . the ECM hold RPM constant when I let of the gas, which causes a jerk, or at least a push, when I engage the next gear . . . this also increases the work of driving in traffic as I need to push in the clutch and step on the brakes much more often than I did in my TBI '91 or in the '02 D-max. The thing just will not slow down unless it's going over about 50 MPH when the throttle is released. Maybe 10 seconds after the thottle is released it will cut power, or maybe it won't, so I end up driving rougher than I did at 15 years old, because I never know what it's going to do. GM dealer tech says this is an early OBD-II problem . . . basically the diagnostics keep track of misfires by tracking sudden engine speed changes, but bucking with a manual tranny can fool it, so they programmed it to keep enough throttle on to prevent torque reversals in the driveline. If Westers fixes the problem without making it flunk the sniffer check it'd be worth the bling to me. Added power would be gravy.

You might try a Hyper Tech tuner as you can easily resell it when you sell truck. I resently added it to mine and gained about 1mpg around town. (I went from about 12 to about 13 around town with A/C on whenever truck is used.

Butch 02 Denali · June 30, 2004

Machine,

Wester's absolutly does tune for the Powerstroke, and the Cummins too. The full price credit apply's to any tune for any vehicle, car or truck, that he has develpoed a tune for. A friend of my friend just got a Powerstroke tune. The Ford tunes can have an optional 3 posistion switch with 3 seperate tunes to select from, pretty slick! He got stock, towing and 100+HP performance. You can pretty much select the HP level you want, but 100 is really about all the stock tranny will take. he was very impressed with the HP and now gets almost 5 mpg better mileage when towing his Bobcat around!

Colorado Kid,

I know exactly what you mean. I had a 98 ZQ8 Sonoma 5 speed a few trucks ago. It would do that flair every time I shifted and made it hard to shift smooth unless i took a second or two to let the clutch out in the next gear. I tried a Hypertech but it didn't do a thing for the T/M or the shift flair. Of course the dealer says "it's normal". I sold that truck long before I knew of custom tuners like Wester's. Yes he can cure that, I remember someone posting about that and how much better it was after the tune!

Butch 02 Sierra Denali

snoman · June 30, 2004

For the 500 bucks and Westers costs you can get a software driven ECM tuner for a laptop and tune any car you want, anyway you want. In my book the Westers is NOT worth it and may not even be around in a few years too and if so upgrade credit is worthless. Also I got my HyperTech 3 tuner off of Ebay for about 1/4 the price of a Westers too!

Butch 02 Denali · July 1, 2004

Each to their own Snoman. I'm glad you've had good luck with Hypertech. I've got 2 Hypertech's sitting on my shelf that are as good as paperweights to me!

I gained 1-2 MPG around town, 3-4 MPG on the highway, and 8 tenths in the Quarter with a Wester's tune, to a 15.3. The best I could do with the Hypertech on max setting running 93 octane was 15.9 with 1 MPG LESS gas mileage.

Westers has been doing custom tuning for over 18 years now, what makes you think he would not last???? Last year he did custom tunes on 50 new black Burbs for the US Secret Service, even the US Govt goes to him for tuning!

Software for your laptop to tune with , like LS1Edit costs $550 and locks to one VIN, you cannot tune multible vehicles with it. You can buy additional PCM tuning ability for $150 per vehicle. Updates are $100 per year. And you really do need to know what you are doing with these tuning programs or you can really do some damage. If I had MUCH more free time than I do, I'd probably give LS1Edit a shot myself.

Butch 02 Sierra Denali

mmayo · July 1, 2004

A buddy of mine got the 87 oct Westers tune for his K2500 crewcab 4x4 w/ 6" lift/35's and gained 3 MPG! He also said that it really woke the engine up!

snoman · July 1, 2004

Each to their own Snoman. I'm glad you've had good luck with Hypertech. I've got 2 Hypertech's sitting on my shelf that are as good as paperweights to me!
I gained 1-2 MPG around town, 3-4 MPG on the highway, and 8 tenths in the Quarter with a Wester's tune, to a 15.3. The best I could do with the Hypertech on max setting running 93 octane was 15.9 with 1 MPG LESS gas mileage.

Westers has been doing custom tuning for over 18 years now, what makes you think he would not last???? Last year he did custom tunes on 50 new black Burbs for the US Secret Service, even the US Govt goes to him for tuning!

Software for your laptop to tune with , like LS1Edit costs $550 and locks to one VIN, you cannot tune multible vehicles with it. You can buy additional PCM tuning ability for $150 per vehicle. Updates are $100 per year. And you really do need to know what you are doing with these tuning programs or you can really do some damage. If I had MUCH more free time than I do, I'd probably give LS1Edit a shot myself.

Butch 02 Sierra Denali

I would love to see a Westers tune on a emission test. On the software tuning, it is easy to hack past the VIN marriage on computer based tuners as it is not a big challange to do. I know one way that would always work without even trying it. 500 is too much for a Westers in my book anyway you cut it. Also I never use 87 octane even without a tune in anything I own except a 79 J20 with a carb and 8 to 1 compression.

LikeaRock14 · July 1, 2004

Westers are emissions legal, if they weren't Lyndown prolly wouldnt send them to California.

I'm starting to think that instead of doing my sound system this summer in my car, I'll wait and I'll but the Westers Tune and then do the stereo this fall/winter, whenever Christmas comes, lol.

I'll be calling Lyndon within the next couple weeks to discuss it with him

snoman · July 1, 2004

Westers are emissions legal, if they weren't Lyndown prolly wouldnt send them to California.
I'm starting to think that instead of doing my sound system this summer in my car, I'll wait and I'll but the Westers Tune and then do the stereo this fall/winter, whenever Christmas comes, lol.

I'll be calling Lyndon within the next couple weeks to discuss it with him

I question this because if you radically change performance you can change emission too. Maybe they "pass" maybe not but they are surely higher. GM have spent a lot of money emission certifiing it engines and I will bet Wester has spent little if any in that area. I am not singling them out but I would love to see someone take a truck and test emisions with each brand of ECM reprograming software. It would probaly never happen though because it someone failed it could put them out of bussiness not to mention the potenial of fines.