After thinking it over and listening to Sherm',I'm tossing around getting a tuner for my car.
Sherm' will be doing the tuning - he WAS one of the guys who helped design the car and used to do the tunes on his son's S/C'd Cobalt [300+ HP].
That leaves me confident I'll get a good tune that won't go BOOM!
I've noticed in my reading on the net' that there's more than one tuner available and it looks like *maybe* one of the players has dropped out.
Sherm' suggested the HP Tuners suite,as did his son.
What's out there?
What are the pros and cons of each?
I'm kind of wondering why there's no sticky for this subject?
Oh well,fire away guys,I'm listening.
Please school the "old man" here.

-- Mon Jun 21, 2010 9:58 am --

I just found this thread while surfing:

http://www.3800pro.com/forum/general-te ... 3800s.html

Any thoughts?

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

The Hptuner is a little spendy and then to TOP it you have to pay for the credits for your car. The HPTUNER rocks the tuning world in my opinion. I use both the Hptuner and the powertuner and the only reason i use the powertuner is its free and my powertuner can write to 05 gp's. What did Sherm use to tune that cobalt?

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Member #393

Dave's Hocus Pocus Tuning of South Dakota

I *believe* it was the HP Tuners tool.
I heard about the credits for your car business.
It looks like they have a "Pro" version.
Is that unlimited cars usage?
That Powertuner,I'm guessing you still need a patch cord to the ALDL port?
Where do you get that?
I don't mind paying for a tuner if it keeps my car from going BOOM!
IIRC,there's a vendor for HP Tuners about 20 minutes south of Sherm' in Belleville Michigan.
I'll have to ask if that's where his son got his.

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

The Pro version is not unlocked for all cars its just allows you to unlock other cars other than GM. the power usually comes with everything needed to connect to your laptop other than a USB to serial. if Sherm is using a Hptuner pay him 100 bucks to unlock your car on his tuner and let him work his magic.

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Member #393

Dave's Hocus Pocus Tuning of South Dakota

Good Lord!
Are these guys for reaL?
Buying credits for a a fixed number of vehicles?
I guess you could unistall it,clean the registry and re-install when you run out of credits.
I'm not sure if that fancy patch cord stores any info though.
You could clear the laptop and the cord might have a record.
If I buy this one,you can BET I'll be working on a hack to get rid of the credit system.
I've always been a firm believer in "if I buy it,I'll use it as I see fit".
What about Eddie's Tiny Tuner [IIRC]?
Does that run alone or is it needing another program to run with it?

-- Mon Jun 21, 2010 10:09 pm --




His son sold his to a buddy when he put the Cobalt back to stock.
If he still had it,you can bet that's EXACTLY what I would do.

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

The Tiny Tuner uses the DHP tuner interface if i recall. i just use the powertuner program as its what im used to. Yeah Hp Tuner depending on the car is 100 for JUST one car and 200 for that complete year of car.

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Member #393

Dave's Hocus Pocus Tuning of South Dakota

These guys are pirates!
I just checked out EFI Live's website.
You've gotta' be kidding me.
They're more money.
I guess it's all down to whatever the market will pay.
I figure for $500 or so,I should have a wide open tuner for say all GM cars that are supported.
It's not like they're supplying the laptop.
Sorry for the rant.

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

the powertuner is supported for most 97-05 GM 3800's and does not require credits and usually can pick one up for around 250-350 bucks.

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Member #393

Dave's Hocus Pocus Tuning of South Dakota

powertuner on 2005 PCM's you need to do a full write everytime. This isn't good because there is a risk of bricking the PCM

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2006 Grand Prix GT

And also pull the radio fuse out thats in the glove box.

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Member #393

Dave's Hocus Pocus Tuning of South Dakota

I'm guessing that if you use their tuner,it's a good idea to keep a spare PCM around just in case?

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

100%
I have my 2006 stock PCM in the trunk incase the 2005 PCM gets bricked during a write.

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2006 Grand Prix GT

So it looks like [so far] that HP Tuners is the only viable option?

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

yup

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2006 Grand Prix GT

Pro Version gives you the ability to connect 5V sensors to it, like an WB O2 and have it display on the screen. Pretty handy IMO since you should be using a WB to tune, that's why I bought it.

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My Mod List

I just did too.

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

Good choice, and you can register 4 cars with the credits that come with it. Might help recoop a few bucks that way and doing CASE learns tht you can do to any GM the scanner will read.

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My Mod List

I bought this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... 0547304617

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

I just read where the 2005 computer needs a total reflash whereas the 2004 can do partials?
Is that info correct?

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

Yes.



That goes for any tuner, not just the PowrTuner.



My PowrTuner has that connection as well, and it didn't cost me any extra money.

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3.5" MPS, 1.84 Rockers, 3" DP, Frt PEM, 39lb Injs., PowrTuner, Wizair
14.07@ 98.85mph 2.180 60'

Yup. The DHP was overall a better tuner, in my opinion. There are pros and cons to each, but I LOVED my PowrTuner.

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One Big Ass Mistake America

I'm curious:

I see things like MAF scaling,cylinder by cylinder fuel correction,ignore input compnents available for the '05 computer.
Do the Series 2 3800 engine computers have these features built in?

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

With every year, GM added more and more tables to their PCMs.

From Charles Beyerch, the creator of the PowrTuner:

The 98 grand prix has ~3,570 parameters. (3,568 to be exact)

The 04 grand prix has ~4,800 parameters. (4,784 to be close to exact).

The 05+ GXP has ~18,000 parameters when you factor in the TCM AND the ECM.

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3.5" MPS, 1.84 Rockers, 3" DP, Frt PEM, 39lb Injs., PowrTuner, Wizair
14.07@ 98.85mph 2.180 60'

Interesting info,nut I'm still curious about my original question:

Can you turn off sensors on the earlier versions,compensate for lean cylinders,do VE with MAP only,etc.?

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2005 GT owner [Non S/C] with a "big DIC".
Two years later and I still love the car.
Thanks Pontiac...Bleen is keen!

Looking at the avaliable 04 tables:
Sensors - would be controlled in Fault_Reporting and Fault_Type
Lean Cylinders - would be the Injector_Skew_Percentage_Table
VE- I don't have in the version I have, however, I do think that it's in the last software version that I never installed.

Here are some screen shoots of the avaliable tables in the version of PT that I have.

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3.5" MPS, 1.84 Rockers, 3" DP, Frt PEM, 39lb Injs., PowrTuner, Wizair
14.07@ 98.85mph 2.180 60'