Possible incomplete tuning? or incapable tuner?
 

I have a 2000 Silverado 5.3l and I am confused on the way I had it tuned. I did a cam swap last september/august, I put in a TR220 220/220 .556/556 112LSA. I already had LTs, cat-delete, CAI, and full exhaust before doing the swap. I finished everything not long before I had to go off to college so I quickly found someone to tune it and I took it to a guy in Tulsa, OK, the place was called Vang's Dyno Performance and some buddies of mine who had had him tune their cars said he had done pretty good work so I didn't think anything of it. When he first dyno tuned it he got as much power out of it as he could and it dynoed at 298rwhp and 303rwtq, he said he could get more out of it but he read quite a bit of knock so I had to fix that then come back, he also said that prevented him from being able to turn the idle down to where it should be so it idled at about 1150 when I left. I fixed it all and went back and he put it back on the dyno and did a couple pulls and then unstrapped it and told me that he was able to turn the idle down to 950, and after that it dynoed at 299rwhp and 310rwtq. I wondered why thats as low as he dropped the idle and why it didnt make more power and I asked if there was still knock in the engine and he said "No not at all, the first time it registered like 6% knock and this time there was 0."

So my question is, if it has 0 knock now, why was he unable to turn the idle down past 950? That is still pretty high considering before I did anything it idled at like 650-700 if I remember correctly. Also, shouldn't it have made more power than that? Atleast over 310rwhp?

Yea I would think another 50 horsepower at least. Knock has nothing to do with idle. If you have knock at idle, then you have other issues that need to be fixed. But he told you he couldn't turn the idle down because he was too lazy to tune idle for that cam. How long did he have the truck for and what kind of changes did he make?

Is there any way for you to post the tune up here so we can take a look.

He didnt say if it was knock at idle, just knock and that I should get plug wires and change the fuel filter, I did both and after that was when he told me there was no knock.

The first time I took it he had it for like 4-5 hours I think, the second time only like 1 hour. Im not sure how to tell what changes he made, I have no experience with tuning so I dont know what to look for.

What would I have to do to be able to post the tune here? Like I said I have no tuning experience so I'm not sure what to do or how to do that.

You would have to find someone with software that could pull the tune off your truck and then you could post it up here.

I didn't know if the tuner would have a copy of your tune or not.

You think he should make 349rwhp off of a 2000 5.3 with just a TR220? I thought it would be close to the 310 that the OP hoped for. :confused:


OP,

What type of dyno does he use?

I guess not. I thought the 5.3's made around 350 with cam/headers/intake without cats. But looks like I'm wrong. I would still like to see the tune though.

This was from 6 years ago. I think this truck got up to a little over 320 rwhp after adding a CAI. I always wonder why people around here say you will lose low rpm hp and tq with anything biggier than a 212/218 cam.
https://www.performancetrucks.net/fo...y-dyno-360357/
We routinely put 224/224 XER 114 lsa cams in 53 trucks now with just headers and a CAI. They are usually in the 335 rwhp range. I idle those trucks around 675-700 rpm with stock converters. You should be able to idle a 220/220 cam as low or lower.
Wheel and tire sizes can effect dyno #s by as much as 10-15 rwhp.

Sounds like he just didn't want to time low rpm idle and idle transitions, which is the hardest thing to tune.

from what i read it should make 310 to 320
299 is way too low

I'm not for sure, I think it said DynoJet but I dont remember exactly.