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.