LS1 Diablosport tuning recommendations

[DomiNATE]

Hi guys,

 

This fuel injection stuff is new to me... I'm trying to get my car's fuel injection/computer checked out before Ocean City Maryland cruise weekend this weekend but I'm about out of time.  The car runs ok but it's not 100% and I want to at least have it checked out.  

 

The motor is a stock 99' firebird LS1 and the previous owner gave me his Diablosport Intune.  I tried to mess with it a weekend ago but didn't really get into it.  

 

I spoke to a local shop Friday and apparently a newer guy answered the phone and said they could plug it in and check out it.  I get there today and he's not there and the owner tells me it's not that simple, says they sell diablosport but they don't really tune them, more into HP and SCT (Brands I guess).  He says if I know the computer's serial number that helps and they'd need three days to get a new map built.  I don't know if I need all that right now but just wanted it to get checked out.  

 

I couldn't find my Intune tuner before I went there which didn't friggin help but then of course I found it immediately when I got home.  

 

I think I'm going to try and mess with the tuner myself again.  It looks like you can do a ton of stuff with it but it was a little hard with the small screen.  I immediately hit an acronym I didn't understand last time i messed with it and I only have a quick start guide, I'm going to get in touch with Diablosport soon and see if there is a glossary or more detailed instruction manual and ask them if they know any shops that actually tune rather than just sell their product.

 

Does anyone have any Diablosport experience or know any shops in Maryland that might be able to help me out?  

Either way I'll post any progress I make.  Take care fellas.

 

P.S additional reading if you want.

 

My fuel injection experience is limited to my 2010 Ducati Hypermotard 796. Years ago I installed a full exhaust on it and purchased a Bazazz piggy style back ecu for it (like a power commander). Well that turned into a crapshoot.  The Bazazz units apparently don't talk well with the stock Siemens computers on those bike's, I needed to get my ECU reflashed for it to work together which is what I thought I was avoiding.  A new fully tunable dedicated ECU is twice the price which is why the piggy-backs are attractive but after reflashing the ecu and you're spending the same money anyways so I screwed myself.  I went back and forth with my shop and Bazazz and got annoyed with Bazazz and ended up telling the shop (Ducpond) to pull off my tuner and send the stock ECU to Redline in Virginia to get a flash and dedicated map installed on it for a similar exhaust, the bike has run pretty well ever since.

 

Anyways I don't think or don't know if I'm in a similar situation to my Datsun's ls1 right now. Why does it matter if I go somewhere who can or can tune Diablsosport stuff.  Is it something with the car's OBD port that's now proprietary to the Diablosport tuner?  I thought any shop would be able to plug into my car and check out the fuel injection.  I'm a bit confused obviously but I'll learn this stuff soon here. 

[RebekahsZ]

Others will know more, as I have never done any tuning myself. But, as I understand it, the Diablosort will allow you to store a number of "tunes". So, if you are going on a long road trip, you can install your "best gas mileage" tune, if going drag racing, you can install your "max power" tune etc. But, I don't think you really use the Diablosport for the actual tuning-it's a storage and transfer device-like a thumb drive for your laptop to install a new exec file. You need to go see a tuner for what you want. There are guys who do that service using a dyno and there are guys who do it just driving down the street. Those with a dyno can show you the actual output of what was done, but those guys have a lotta money invested in their shops, do they are gonna be more expensive.

 

I don't have a Diablosport. My LS swapped Z actually made more peak hp with a tune from a tuner who I just boxed my ECM up and mailed it to him. Later, a local dyno tuner got 2hp less (when compared to the base tune from the mail-off guy), but he found 15 more lbs of torque, both at a lower rpm. He then later for free, modified the ramp up on my drive by wire throttle deal which made the car a lot better on an autocross track. The initial tune with wiring harness mods (which were poorly done) cost me $500. The local tune was $500. You can do much better price-wise nowadays.

 

My LS swapped truck is my daily driver and tow vehicle. It has a max power tune. I wish it had a gas mileage tune, because it is very smelly at idle and gets poor mileage. But I think the tuner and I didn't have enough of a conversation about what I needed. You need to tell them what you want.

 

When I build a turbo motor for my car, I don't know if I will need a storage device, like the Diablosport, or multiple computers, because I hope to have 600hp, 700hp and 800hp tunes available for the event. I'm worried about driveline durability and I have a soecific mph goal-I wanna try to achieve that goal it with the least hp possible, and at higher hp levels traction becomes more of an issue. If I can reach 200mph at 600hp, I won't push to 800, but I want 800 available before I leave home.

Edited May 16, 2017 by RebekahsZ

[ihiryu]

I myself use HP Tuners for the LS cars.  

 

The reason why people don't like to use the Diablosport (DS) is very simple.  They charge shops for the software, and the tuning software costs is expensive.  2000 if I remember correctly.  With HP Tuners, you pay for credits per car, but software is free.

 

So for newer LS cars, it will set you back 2 credits, which is $100.00.

 

As far as tuning goes, HP Tuners uses PE and Lambda, very simple setup, and can do MAF and Speed Density (where it uses the onboard MAP sensor).  

[DomiNATE]

(Sorry on my phone) Rebeckah you are right about the diablo handheld storing tunes, it will actually let you build and modify them too. I messed with it a little but decided not to install anything new because i immediately hit acronyms i didn't recognize. Either way i'm not going to do it myself for the first time. In reality this diablosport tuner was free but i'm not pressed to use it. It's possible the previous owner got it because of its flexibility, i think he wanted to do as much as possible himself. I think he maybe installed a stock tune and modified it himself.

 

Rebeckah you mailing away your ecu was the same thing that i ended doing with my motorcycle. Worked out pretty well for me. I think i found a shop that can help me out in a week or two that's close by. Can't get it checked out before ocean city MD cruiseweekend but it should be alright. Not totally sure if the car is just going to throw codes or if it actully has a less than ideal tune but we'll see in a couple weeks.

 

Ihiryu and rebeckah, the first shop i went to explained it the same about the HP credits vs the diablo software, it just sounded foriegn two days ago, much better now that i can read what you typed. I'm not sure what software this new shop will have but that would be interesting to see if an economic and racey map could be built and saved, not sweating it though since it's a stock motor. It does have like 2.5" headers into 1 3" pipe out the back, that's about all the mods to the motor as far as i know. The car does have the exhaust sniffers so i feel like it shouldn't be too complicated.

 

Thanks a lot for your experiences. I'll let you know how it goes in a couple weeks.