Topic: Predator Performance Tune

[MyBigToy]

I purchased a used Predator to do some fine-tuning on my truck. My speedometer is off about 3 mph and I want it to read correctly. But I'm also tweaking the injector slope a little at a time and watching it. I've upped the timing in the low and mid-ranges but had to leave it where the stock Magnacharger tune was at high rpms due to detonation (with ZERO KR on the Predator). I've eliminated torque management and that made a huge difference. I'm probably playing with fire on a supercharged vehicle but I don't plan on making any major moves. I think, with a naturally aspirated truck, that if you make small moves and monitor for a good while you most likely will not get yourself in trouble.

That said, I agree with Main One and Bob on HPT.

[Main One]

Thanks MainOne, that's a lot of info to absorb and consider. Mine's an 04  so I think the engine is the same gen. as yours. I got the pred. to try to help it run a little better and a little more efficient. Don't have the desire to go the route that Bob and Yourself have done as I've got 4 teenagers at home and I have to have a daily driver. I don't have the down time to do the extensive mods like a cam or SC like that. I appreciate the help with the info on the LTFT's and I'll keep an eye on it trying to duplicate the original test conditions.

Wow! Four teenagers!  I thought I had it bad with 3!

Even if you don't stray to far from stock, engine hardware-wise, given what you have done/are doing with the Predator, you would probably enjoy working with HPTuners.

My AV is my daily driver, and is the primary vehicle for our family.  Right now we've got 3 vehicles for 4 licensed drivers, with the 20-year old's (only 2 teenagers now!) car pretty much just driven by her, for various reasons.  Of the other 2 vehicles, the AV gets the best gas mileage ('99 4x4 2500 Suburban gets 11 mpg), and gets the majority of use at our house.  The suburban and my AV both have just about right at 150,000 miles.

The longest the AV has ever been down for modification is when the cam went in (3 days - long weekend) with the torque converter a close second (2 days).  The longest we were ever without it was when I showed up at Bob's for a modding weekend and noticed an unusual sound, which was caused by a broken flexplate, which I had repaired by a local guy recommended by Bob, and due to that repair, was without the truck for a week.  (Wouldn't have been that long, but since Bob lives 3 hours from me, we waited until the following weekend to retrieve the AV.)  Since we've had to replace the flexplate on the Suburban as well, which had a stock, as far as we know as we got it with 100,000 miles on it 5 years ago, engine setup, I don't know whether the flexplate would have had to have been replaced had I not tweaked the engine.

[MightyMouse]

Thanks for the insight MainOne, I appreciate the knowledge!
I probably would really enjoy working with HPT, as I'm a network admin, but to be honest, the Predator has been pretty good for me, and I've been able to dial in my Av on a dyno to make sure I'm OK at WOT. I mostly use it to log data now, and make small adjustments based on the changing seasons here. My LTFT's change as the air temp changes, and, while I try to find a happy medium, it still needs tweaking after going from -20F to 50F in a matter of 60 days, and then to 90+F in another 60, and then back down, etc.
As far as being limited in the logging dept, it's not. I can hook it into my OBDII port and laptop at the same time, and run a log over many miles. It is read as a csv file, and with Office 2007, there isn't a limit on the number of lines, so I can get really good cruising numbers.

[Main One]

Hmmmm......

The Predator is more capable than I knew.......

Speaking of temperature affects on LTFTs, I'm currently trying to nail that down.  I'm currently playing with the temperature bias settings that control the relative influence between Input Air Temp and Engine Coolant Temp.  I've changed my input rather significantly, having made my non-functional Goodmark hood-scoop hood functional.  I found a ram air Trans Am HPTuners tune online and tried that instead of the stock tune, and am currently working to find the happy medium.  I seem to be getting it pretty good - for my last tune it looked like I only needed to address the 20-40 grams/second of airflow area (light load).

[KY_BOB]

The Predator is more capable than I knew.......

Me too.  It seems that they have come a long way since the one that I had.

[MightyMouse]

Diablo has come a long way with GM...in some cases...
I happen to be a lucky one that hasn't had issues. The same unit I have has been corrupted by the last 2 revisions they put out (luckily I left well-enough alone  ), frying PCM's, not reading calid's, advertising supported vehicles that really aren't, etc.
It does fine for my needs, but if/when I upgrade, it'll be to HPTuners.