raptor888

hi all. i keep reading about custom and canned tunes and i realize that custom tunes are better but can a customer not try to make his own tunes by changing the shift points or whatever else is involved with these programmers instead of paying someone to do it for u. meaning could u not try a setting and then take the truck out to see how it feels and make a another change until your happy with it. I thought that was one of the benefits of this tuner or would i need to go to the livewire to be able to do this. this is all new to me which i'm sure you's can see but what all is involved in making my own tunes and would i need other tools besides the programmer?

Buck

I think u may want the Livewire to acomplish what u are going for...but Im not sure. Im not one of the tuner gurus on here. They will chime in

blackbetty

livewire has the same features as far as tuning as a xcal3, the only difference is the price and the ability to watch 6 pids at once


a pid is a diagonstic file such as the coolant temp or intake charge temp

LovetheTide

With any tuner you can make your tunes "custom" by changing the general aspects of the tune. But, when you buy a "custom" tune from VMP or Troyer they go in and change every aspect, making the best performance for your truck, and one that is not harmful in anyway to the motor. They do things that you can't do with just the Xcal by itself.

blackbetty

well some people have done harm with a "custom" canned tune

if you have the money and have a local shop, id go buy a tuner and dyno time from them and have them set you up...best way to go

i have the live wire and would of rather gone with the xcal3 to tell you the truth

raptor888

thanks for the info. i have alittle bit of money to spare but there are no dyno's in my area. i am considering of perhaps having a custom tune made up. So i'm guessing these guys make up the tune, email it to me and these tuners come with a cable that i plug into my laptop and transfer it to the tuner? Also do you's have a rough idea what these guys charge for a custom tune?

LovetheTide

They generally cost 60 bucks a tune.

blackbetty

where are you from

wxmcpo

If you purchase the tuner and the custom tunes from either Troyer or VMP then your Xcal III or Liverwire will come preloaded with the tunes. They will also email them to you so that you have them for future use. Unless they need to send you the tuner so that you can read your PCM code from your truck. In that case you just keep the tuner, they email you the tunes and you download them onto the tuner via a program such as liveload.