5Star Tuning came through.

Ordered my SCT X4 with custom tunes a few days ago and it arrived today. Loaded up the 87 performance tune which included recalibration of the speedo for my 35's as well as get some power back.
Loaded it up and within 5mins of driving it was noticeable. Throttle response is better as well as trans tuning without being overly sensitive.
It was 500 bucks but worth it!

What did you like most about the transmission part of the retune? I wish I could keep it in sport mode but then upshift to 10th on light throttle by 55-65 but right now it hangs seventh.

I have an 07 so don't have the 10spd. Which is an entirely different animal, I have that trans in our ST of course but it's not tuned... yet lol. I have noticed the ST does that times, the learning algorithm isn't very good to be honest.

When 5 star sent you your Xcal files, were they ready to go or did they send you a "test file" first and want you to use it for datalogging etc.? I just waited for two weeks for them to send me a tune (I actually ordered 3 files) because they apparently only had one guy who was capable of attempting the setup for my situation and he was out of town at a convention representing the company. I pestered them for a few days reminding them the weekend was coming, and finally Friday as they were closing for the weekend, they emailed me a "base file" at 5:15 in the afternoon. It ended up the truck still didn't run right and they had locked out ALL my X Cal tuner options like idle speed, timing, speedo correction etc. Monday afternoon I finally got someone to respond back and they told me that's what they normally do, is to first send a test file to see if there's more adjustments needed, then once it's dialed in they send you the real version and unlock it.

I was extremely disappointed because I had to cancel my weekend plans with the truck and the boat. They knew my situation and I told them my new cam's required me to bring the idle speed up and timing at idle as well, or else it won't run in gear and surges badly in park. I said it's unfortunate their only guy was too busy to deal with my order and they said no, he wasn't rushed, he did it in a "timely manner"...... Really? I got a useless tune as they were closing for the weekend and he took away my ability to adjust the idle speed. I know they're known to be a good shop, but I had a bad experience unfortunately. I'm already going back to a different cam setup and hoping they can come up with a different tune, and hoping things work out better this time.

On a side note, I keep seeing people talking about HP Tuners. I know nothing about it. Is that something you have more control of doing your own fuel/ignition setup etc? The transmission shop I bought my converter from said they use HP Tuners to fix and recalibrate their customers transmissions. Some of the GM's were having problems going in and out of overdrive and locking the converter at the wrong speed etc, which caused the car to go to limp mode, and the tranny shops disable the converter lock at certain speeds to keep the problem from happening. I'd love to control my shift points at WOT. My X Cal won't let me.

joezek said:

On a side note, I keep seeing people talking about HP Tuners. I know nothing about it. Is that something you have more control of doing your own fuel/ignition setup etc? The transmission shop I bought my converter from said they use HP Tuners to fix and recalibrate their customers transmissions. Some of the GM's were having problems going in and out of overdrive and locking the converter at the wrong speed etc, which caused the car to go to limp mode, and the tranny shops disable the converter lock at certain speeds to keep the problem from happening. I'd love to control my shift points at WOT. My X Cal won't let me.

Click to expand...

The Company sells hardware and software that enables shops to tune various vehicle control systems, including ECU and TCU. Many shops can tune, but they use various third-party products to do so.

Oh ok, that's probably waay beyond what I should be messing with. The shop like the trans shop, or dyno place can plug in and change pretty much whatever they want to using HP. I know nothing about fuel maps, and what load it takes to turn off the torque converter lock during acceleration, or any of the other parameters. I'll stick with the SCT and places like 5 Star, just as long as I can make my own minor adjustments to fix the speedo for tire size, idle speed, shift points etc.

I had 3 pretty basic tunes on mine, 87 octane performance, 87 economy and 93 performance. Stock cams and no towing parameters. My X4 came with the tunes programmed in and ready to go.
Now ifi had cams or etc etc maybe it would have been an actual more involved tune and it would have taken longer.... idk. But at that point I would have used HP tuners, which I may use on my ST when the time comes.