looking for help to tune a 2005 1500hd 6.0 liter

[mikeoaks350]

Hi, Im new to this. I have always had Bryan at pcmforless do my tunes on my corvettes and camaros. I hooked my hptuner pro to my 2005 chevy 1500hd crewcab 4x4 6.0 liter to change the tire size on it. I put 285/75/16 tires on it. Other then that the truck is 100 percent stock. I would like a tune to get better gas mileage, and better shifts. I don't want to tear my tranny out either. I don't plan on racing the truck or dogging it all the time. Its pretty much a daily driver back and forth to work and occasionally pull my trailer with vette on it. I looked at a tune bluecreek posted for a 2006, but when I installed it on my truck it idled rough so I put the stock one back on it. If anyone can help with this I would very much appreciate it.

[93camaro_zzz]

First off, you should never just flash someone else's entire tune into your vehicle. That tune was for their vehicle, and is 100% going to be wrong for yours. What you need to be doing is looking at parts of their tune, and maybe choosing certain parts of it to replace in your tune.

But anyways, I have a 03' 2500HD LQ4 and I pretty much had the same problem as you. I have been fiddling with some of the tune to get better gas mileage. Mostly the trans settings will help out quite a bit. Our OLFA tables are already at 1.00. Unfortunately we have big @ss trucks and they are doomed to get horrible gas mileage. lol

[WS6FirebirdTA00]

As posted, canned tunes not taylored to your setup can be a dangerous thing to try.

The best option is to read stickies and research, tayloring the tune to your vehicle based on actual logged data.

Research what has worked well for other with safe tranny setting and tune the fueling tables with a wideband. That is a good start then you can mess with spark and repeat fueling adjustmrnts as you continue to learn.

FYI - I typically see 2-3 mpg increase in trucks setting up the PE to give enough fueling and not be so lean so 1.00 isn't always best.

[mikeoaks350]

Thanks for the info. But Ive always built my cars and let a tuner do my pcm. So pretty much , I don't know what PE means. And far as not putting a tune on without a data log, I always do that when I build my cars til I get to a dyno, never had a problem with pcmforless doing it. Im sure there are bad programs out there for vehicles. But like a Diablo, Predator, or Hypertech there is certain adjustments you can make without it having to be specific to a certain vehicle. I will start researching the places you said to learn more. I will also let Bryan know that your program has gained 2-3 mpg. When I get mine done maybe you and I can do a compare and see what differences we have. I use a aem wideband with my zo6 but don't really plan on buying one for this truck. My zo6 runs 6.80 at 115, that's where my performance money goes. Thanks again!

[gn2beatu]

PE is the enrichment table based on when the AFR changes by RPM and can be adjust by KPA as well. If this is your first time tuning, do two things. Google every table your dont know what is and read on it by adding hptuners to the name of the table. After you gen an idea what each table does, then, post a thread with where you live, asking for a mentor to help you in person. If you dont understand the tables, the mentor is just going to think your not trying to learn and wont want to help as your then basically asking for a free tune. Allot of people help others for free, I do when local. Others you may have to pay a small amount for their time, its worth it if you cant find a free helper.

Its hard with trucks to get good MPG, most of the ones I do average 15 mixed. 12-13 city and 17-19 hwy and allot of that depends on weight and tire size as well. By delaying PE by kpa and RPM you will keep the truck at stoich longer and save a little gas. But sometimes thats not always best either, as in if your going up a hill 13:1 may be a better choice for peak torque. Adding timing in the hwy range helps, as does playing with the trans shift points and TCC settings to lockup eariler under light load to keep the RPM down. Dont do it so early as to lug the engine, then you will just have to step on the gas harder which defeats the whole purpose. Its a fine line, and thats why you need a mentor. G/L

Open loop tunes leaned out to 16:1 to 16:5 in light load hwy speeds in the trucks dont seem to help at all like it would in a light car, so save your time and dont even try.

[mikeoaks350]

Thank you gn2beatu. I do pay a tuner to do my work and since Ive used him so much its now 100 bucks per tune. But I would like to get more knowledge of it just because its basically the only aspect I haven't messed with. I will do as you stated and start learning the definitions. Far as finding a local guy probly not an option where I live in Southern Indiana,lol. I don't have all that much freetime, but I will continue to learn as time is permitted with work etc. I really like what you were saying about the locking the torque converter up. It does seem to hold out to long (55mph) before it locks. I do have wide 33 inch tires.

[WS6FirebirdTA00]

The best thing with learning what is what, is that you can optimize your tune for your setup.

I would just borrow the WB from the Corvette if you can. Do the truck as a once and done and you will be good. Even if you don't tune it yourself, feeding a tuner information based on what the car is doing will help out a ton. Without logging and making changes based on that, you are potentially leaving a lot on the table. The bottom line is "good" is all relative. I have tuned a lot of cars where guys thought their tune was good, but I had buddies that thought there was a lot to be had and offered to pay for my time if they didn't notice a difference with a more detailed tune. Every time the cars left with the bar for good being much higher, realizing what was left on the table with the old tune.

No knock at anyone that does mail order stuff or saying it was my tune specifically. My point being that having real data on the car and adjusting the tune based on that data is the only way to ensure the car is running at full potential.

[mikeoaks350]

Yes you are correct. After I build a car I put the program on for my specs, then I take a data log and then send it back to him. Might have to do this several times to get optimum results.