[wingchunsifu]

Hi everybody I'm new to the forum and just thought I'd share a little tuning experience I've had with my Camaro [s].

Last September I ordered and built a black Gen 6 1SS with magnetic ride and duel mode exhaust manual tranny. Traded in my black, 7 yr old 1SS Gen 5 manual on the deal. Delivered in October, loved the car of course. However I was not happy with the throttle lag everyone complains about here on the forum. Couple of years back I tuned my 2012 Jeep Laredo X Grand Cherokee Hemi [my daily driver] with a Hemifever tune from Sean Powell through a Diablo in tune I2. The difference over the factory tune and the canned Diablo tune was mind-blowing! I never realized how under tuned factory vehicles are, tuned obviously for the common man [and woman]. The Jeep has not been dyno'd but it feels like I Jumped from 360hp to 400hp with high performance shifting from the tranny and NO throttle lag. This year when Diablo came out with a second license for their tuner that would work on another manufacture I decided to buy one for the 1SS. So I tuned the car with a custom diab lew [Lewis Eaton] tune. The improvements I felt were more response and noticeably more torque and power. Still a little throttle lag remained, unfortunately. But happily, that nasty "skip shift" was gone. Bottom line I would recommend the custom tune. And its true what the custom tuning buffs say, "If you really want to feel the difference a tune makes, drive the tuned car for a while then reinstall [re flash] the factory tune back in suddenly the car feels sluggish.

Fast forward to last week. I traded in my 2017 1SS with 5K miles for another black 2017 2SS auto [yes I took a little financial hit]. Because, being old school I was stuck in the "manual is better" mode. I had to face reality. Manual transmissions are an anachronism. Yes you might be more connected to the car...but it slows the vehicle down compared to an 8 speed tranny run by a computer so fast, it could govern a spacecraft. And the big reason; if your an athletic guy who's had more than one orthopedic surgery...you realize its real tough to drive a manual when your in a cast or brace during recovery. One knee injury or a right [not left] shoulder injury and you're f****d. Not impossible perhaps depending on the area of immobilization , but not fun to drive anymore. Also I wanted the amenities of rear camera radar and blind spot monitoring along with the rest of the creature comforts that come with the 2SS like the Bose speakers etc.. Anyway, I just installed the canned Diablo tune with that disgusting AFM turned off. The Camaro is a dream to drive and I find the transmission quite intuitive, especially now that there is no AFM getting in the way. With their canned tune there is less to nil throttle lag and it does feel a little peppier. So with the prior knowledge of how effective a CUSTOM tune is I ordered and am waiting for the diab lew tune to arrive. Lew did warn me, however that the Auto transmission on that car is NOT tunable [at least i guess with the in tune i2]. But I'm sure I'll get a few more horses out of the motor. Will keep you guys updated if anyone is interested.

PS: as a side note, I work in law enforcement for over 20yrs and cop cars [also called RMP's] come "Tuned up" from the factory with the police package. These fat, heavy laden cruisers shift hard and jump off the line with no throttle lag. Disconcerting that a tune or "Police package" with heavy duty everything is not part of an option code when ordering a car.

[KILLA BEE]

I seen the Diablo tuner its a good price and says it comes with 5 custom tunes. Nice!

[L99BEN]

Originally Posted by wingchunsifu

Fast forward to last week. I traded in my 2017 1SS with 5K miles for another black 2017 2SS auto [yes I took a little financial hit]. Because, being old school I was stuck in the "manual is better" mode. I had to face reality. Manual transmissions are an anachronism. Yes you might be more connected to the car...but it slows the vehicle down compared to an 8 speed tranny run by a computer so fast, it could govern a spacecraft..

I went the other way around and traded my 1SS A8 for a 2SS 6M. I had bought both slightly used with very low miles that already took the initial hit, so didn't get bent over to hard. The trade value of the 1SS was awesome and the price of the 2ss was crazy low, so win win.

The A8 has the advantage from a stop/drag strip and shifts faster but the manual noticeably feels a bit faster/punchier in each gear from a roll to me as well as everyone that has been in both Camaros.
I didn't trade for that reason, however. The tremec in this car is way more fun to drive (to me) and the rev matching is amazing. The slow responding noisy (clicky) paddle shifts were annoying to me.
Not saying either transmission is better as that is subjective. The 6m meets my needs/driving style better and I never go to the drag strip anymore. Knees are health and traffic is rare on my commute.

To each their own, but I do't think a tune alone is worth it in this car. the LT1 is NOT cheap (lookin at $10k+ if not covered). If you must tune, I'd go with the e85 tune for respectable gains or supercharge.
The diablo tuner has always claimed to be "stealth" but up to you if worth risking.

Nice numbers from E85 tune here:
http://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=508544

[wingchunsifu]

Those are good numbers from the E85 tune. I do agree the manual does feel faster and meaner then the automatic. The rev matching feature is awesome. I wish my Gen 5 had that. The break-gas pedal configuration on that car made doing it the old fashion way next to impossible. I haven't paddle shifted the new Camaro yet.

So my 2SS auto is fully tuned with a dab-lew tune. I know many people have mixed reviews about the diablo tuner from "Great!" to "It bricked my PCM!". My personal experience has been very favorable [after the long learning curve it took me to learn it!]. The car accelerates smooth as silk with more HP and torque and even the shifting feels better, although Lew says the transmission is not tunable. But I'm guessing that is because the AFM is turned off. I liked the tune on my 1SS manual and like it even better on the 2SS. And it was easy to restore the factory tune with the skip shift back on before I brought the vehicle to the dealer for a trade in.

[L99BEN]

Originally Posted by wingchunsifu

Those are good numbers from the E85 tune. I do agree the manual does feel faster and meaner then the automatic. The rev matching feature is awesome. I wish my Gen 5 had that. The break-gas pedal configuration on that car made doing it the old fashion way next to impossible. I haven't paddle shifted the new Camaro yet.

So my 2SS auto is fully tuned with a dab-lew tune. I know many people have mixed reviews about the diablo tuner from "Great!" to "It bricked my PCM!". My personal experience has been very favorable [after the long learning curve it took me to learn it!]. The car accelerates smooth as silk with more HP and torque and even the shifting feels better, although Lew says the transmission is not tunable. But I'm guessing that is because the AFM is turned off. I liked the tune on my 1SS manual and like it even better on the 2SS. And it was easy to restore the factory tune with the skip shift back on before I brought the vehicle to the dealer for a trade in.

Interesting. Is the dab-lew tune just a canned diablo tune or custom where they go over your datalogs and tweek from there?

I don't know about for the A8 but I picked up two 10th's from the transmission tuning alone (before changing stock engine tune) in my old 2014 mustang gt.

[wingchunsifu]

No diab-lew tune is a custom tune, like the hemifever tune for chrysler. They both require you to install the canned diablo tune then email them the tune files. Then they send you a custom tune tailored specifically for your vehicle/mods if any. You then download their tune into the device from your computer them into the car's PCM. They have you drive for 100 miles or so, send them the logs and they tweak the final tune if necessary. Its pretty cool and has most tuning parameters