DiabloSport tuning?

[red and black]

Has anyone ever tried this brand to enhance performance. I think for me it would be quite academic since they list 1999 and up. For some reason they exclude the 1998. Is that because of a lack of a port to download or reboot a tune?

I had one done on my other car, a Saab 2.8 (Holden/Caddy engine), and it was very satisfactory and for a few hundred dollars took it from 280 to 320 (nominal) horsepower. This was mostly done by allowing more turbo boost, How do these tunes work on normally aspirated cars?

 

[Hib Halverson]

Has anyone ever tried this brand to enhance performance. I think for me it would be quite academic since they list 1999 and up. For some reason they exclude the 1998. Is that because of a lack of a port to download or reboot a tune?

It's likely, only the Diablo Sport people can answer that question.

I had one done on my other car, a Saab 2.8 (Holden/Caddy engine), and it was very satisfactory and for a few hundred dollars took it from 280 to 320 (nominal) horsepower. This was mostly done by allowing more turbo boost, How do these tunes work on normally aspirated cars?[/QUOTE]

I would not expect near that much of an increase. In a practical sense, with a stock LS1 you might see 5% improvement but only in cool weather and only with premium fuel. In warm weather, you'll probably get more knock retard than you'll get improved performance.

Regarding the Saab...if you want from 280 to 320 horsepower, that's nearly a 15% improvement. Did you actually see that in dyno test results or is that what DiabloSport's marketing information suggests?

 

[red and black]

Thanks Hib. The fellow who runs Vermont tuning has done the dyno thing on it which is why, especially with turbos reacting to heat and altitude as variables, I and they refer to it as nominal not absolute, at the wheels horsepower.

However, I will say that the performance could be really felt as a push back in the seat. The 2.8 all wheel drive cars are heavy to begin with and are 3,788 pounds with a half tank of fuel. The car really needed that boost in horsepower and it was quite disappointing in stock form.

I stay away from the hype that surrounds the K&N type that just enhance the noise of the turbo since the gain is only, after speaking with three of the providers, perhaps one hypothetical horsepower that may or may not show on the dyno. In my case, now the boost gauge goes well into the red and that's how they they get the gain, the potential is already there waiting.

What you say, jives with what our local Jersey shop, Paramedics, said, that these were not worth the money but that there were one or two ram/scoops that would compliment other mechanical and traditional modifications.

 

[747jock]

Superchips Cortex

Has anyone ever tried this brand to enhance performance. I think for me it would be quite academic since they list 1999 and up. For some reason they exclude the 1998. Is that because of a lack of a port to download or reboot a tune?

I had one done on my other car, a Saab 2.8 (Holden/Caddy engine), and it was very satisfactory and for a few hundred dollars took it from 280 to 320 (nominal) horsepower. This was mostly done by allowing more turbo boost, How do these tunes work on normally aspirated cars?

I bought the Superchips Cortex tuner for my C5 vert because it was a newer technology tuner than the Diablo Sport, but I have to say it wasn't worth the money. It achieved a negligible increase in performance on my LS1. Same thing happened when I downloaded Superchips' program for my 5.3L Silverado, except I also saw a marked decrease in gas mileage and my truck didn't like regular gas anymore. Considering what I had to spend on the unit as well as the programs, I felt I wasted my money. I took my C5 to Carlisle in August and had Kooks Headers installed as well as a $125 computer tune by Car-Tek, and THAT made a real, seat-in-the-pants difference on my car, without hurting gas mileage. (I averaged 25.4 mpg for the entire trip from Newport News to Carlisle and back, including a couple of hours of mountain driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway.) So, based on my experience, I'd recommend passing up these cookie-cutter computer tunes like Diablo Sport and Superchips, and instead get your car in to a shop that gives you a custom computer tune that optimizes your car as it is currently equipped. Even better, if they can tune it on a dyno, you'll be way ahead of those pre-canned "tunes".

 

[Bob Chadwick]

I used the Predator on a Dodge Daytona Hemi and saw a noticeable "seat of the pants" improvements. I think this was because the Hemi is tuned to run on regular gas and one of the tunes was for super. The other issue I saw was with shifting of the automatic. The shifting became much more crisp and aggressive. With the Vette already running super and tuned for it, I suspect that any performance improvements would be minimal, if at all.