Mail order tune, worth the risk or not?

[Texarkana]

I modified my vehicle in Feb of last year, and I’ve been itching for a tune since. It’s an 09 Buick Lacrosse with the 3800 Series III.

I installed high lift rocker arms and an after market intake insert. (Intake runners are a molded plastic insert, aftermarket one shortens runners for higher RPM HP)

In October I installed a Wizaired intake.

I’ve been looking into a tune since the first two mods, however due to the LS4 vehicles the majority of R&D for FWD W Bodys went into the LS4 PCM as opposed to 3800 PCMS. I only found one place that seems to be run out of a garage. Two guys listed as PCMPerformance.com that claim on their page to have done over 1000 mail order tunes for GM V6s and V8s since 2005.

I’m a bit skeptical. Word on the web is attempting to tune newer 3800 vehicles causes issues in sensors and the cluster gauge due to different coding and or PCMs.

Not only that I had to upgrade to 93 octane to get rid of KR after the rocker installation.

I emailed them with my concerns about them being the only ones who I found that can tune for my vehicle, KR concerns, the aforementioned issues after tuning and if a mail order tune could benefit the intake mods without real time sensor readout.

I got a response basically saying to fill out the order form and list all mods and they’d tune for it. Didn’t really acknowledge any of my concerns.

I’m wondering if it’s worth risking, they’re sending me a tuned pcm so I can swap back the stock if needed.

Topic

[Ian Williams]

I don’t know what the tunes are like for the US engines , I had a tune done on my Australian made 3.8 GM V6 , in a rear wheel drive Holden Commodore a few years ago , car now sold on but it was well worth it , my mods were , high lift rockers , big bore throttle body and intake , plus exhaust headers and full performance exhaust .
Basically a remapped PCM , took all of 15 minutes to install , the shift points on the 4 speed auto were a lot quicker and smoother and it was tuned for 95-98PULP , anything less and it would ping like a egg timer .

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[Jason White]

More than a couple people I know with later model GM’s have gone to these guys : http://pcmforless.com/ with excellent results. Many of them did their own tuning, did programmers, even did some custom tunes at tuner shops and ended up going this route and were very happy with the results.

[zero]

If you’re getting a mail order tune, it’s not going to be as good as a custom tune as the engine’s individual modifications can’t be taken into account. Then you’re going to have a permanently modified PCM, might not be that big of a deal since a used unit should be fairly easy to find.

Depending on the price, you could either search out a local tuner about getting a full custom tune. Although there’s usually some sort of PCM replacement involved, or a programmable interface needs to be added.

Or you could just buy a tuner yourself and flash at will without permanently modifying your car. They seem to be about $300 and up. Summit

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