Well,,,
Since I have had both, I can now comment... There are virtues of both units, and drawbacks...
Here's my experience with my particular units on my 1500 Z71 Avalanche, and it may be totally different from yours so no flames please... ?
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The Diablo I had didn't have a clue during the 1-2 WOT shift... I tried 8 or 9 combinations of settings (Firmness, Time, and on both T/H and Regular) ... It shifted like a lazy Ford Maverick ... The oem 1-2 shift without the Predator was A LOT quicker and firmer without even being in T/H ... The 2 to 3 and 3 to 4 was crisp though at WOT and partial throttle ... I had Version 1.03 ...
The Hypertech has shifting down-pat ... Crisp at WOT and partial throttle in ALL GEARS ...
ADVANTAGE: Hypertech (due to the flubby 1-2 on the Predator)
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Predator is all 91-93 octane or nothing ... You can't run the unit period if you don't run 91-93 octane...
*** Simply dialing back timing or adding fuel on the Predator only covers WOT, and not partial throttle tuning, which is where I ran a lot of knock retard while trying 87 octane ... (I had no Knock retard with the 87 octane at wot anyways; it was under lugging conditions at partial throttle where the 87 fell short, which is where the manual fuel and spark won't help you) ... Also, I will say, as an alternative, you can have Diablo or RWTD send you an oem file to upload to the Predator to allow 87 octane, but then you lose the 93 octane file, and if you want to run 93 tuning, you need to get the file again from them... You can only have 1 "tune" file per unit according to James at RWTD ...
The Hypertech gives you 3 tuning options... Stock, 87, or 93 octane tuning ... All in one unit ... If you want to just keep the stock tuning, you have all the other features to play with... Diablo comes canned with 91-93 only, and their tune is a required upload...
ADVANTAGE: Hypertech
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I tried to use Diablo's partial throttle upshift adjustments (speed vs. load) and saw no improvement at loads of 20% all the way to 50% ... It did hold each gear a smidge longer above 50% load, but it was barely noticeable ... Hypertech does not adjust partial throttle shift points, so here even though it wasn't significant, I have to say:
ADVANTAGE: Diablo
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Let's talk "kick-down" ... It's when you floor it, and the truck drops to the lowest safe gear for passing power... We all know what this is... The Diablo DOES increase WOT upshifts, but the kick-down does not increase at all ... You still get oem kick-down points... The Hypertech adjusts both... If you add 7 MPH on the 2-3 upshift, you also get that 7 MPH increase on kick-down... Example: Stock, if you floor it at 69 MPH, it will drop all the way to 2nd ... If you are going 70 or above, it will only drop to 3rd, and man is it slow moving in 3rd at 70 MPH ... With the Hypertech, adding 7 MPH to the 2-3 shift, I can floor it at anything below 77 MPH, and it drops to second, and lunges... Nuff said... I guess you could manually select second with the gear shift, but the Hypertech takes the guess work out of it ... So,
ADVANTAGE: Hypertech
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Diablo is married to the first truck it programs period... You are comitted to it for life... Hope your av's buyer wants a Diablo ... Hypertech can be re-used on another truck, or be sold later to another user ... Bad hit for the Predator ...
ADVANTAGE: Hypertech
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The Diablo has excellent diagnostic capabilities, even though it runs real time data at a slow read rate ... It runs real time data about 1 second behind, so if you have 9 degrees of retard in that second, you might catch it on the down slope and it may show you only 3 or 4 ... The KR needs to be under the timing line in the display, not all the way at the bottom... You cannot look at KR along with other related readouts like timing advance, coolant temp, etc... They need to put KR up where the other stuff is, not below O2 sensors that take up 4 lines alone ... ?
...The Predator Checks and clears DTC's ... Hypertech is a lame duck for diagnostics, as it has none ... Even though the Diablo's screen needs re-organizing, along with some speed, it gets the nod here ...
ADVANTAGE: Diablo
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My Diablo hung 4 times ... The 6 Hypertechs I have owned never have once ... But, the Diablo easily regrouped when it was powered up again... I will say, it never hung in the middle of an upload, restore, or back-up ... It hung with "script errors" only when I tried to modify the tuning ... I also had 2 errors that said "time not elapsed" or something like that ... I followed the instructions to the letter, as they were on my lap ... You can't blame this one on me ... The Hypertech manual is a little better than the Predator's ... I felt like I was on Sesame Street while reading the Diablo manual ...
ADVANTAGE: Hypertech
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Diablo has much broader ranges of adjustment and fine tuning ability ... You can adjust firmness from +25% to -25% all in .25% increments... The diablo truly shines here ... It is the same with RPM shift points... It allows 10 RPM increments... Hypertech firmness is on or off ... But the Hypertech even though it is on or off, on is near perfect ... The Diablo also allows you to adjust WOT spark timing and Fuel Enrichment, a big thing for tuners on the dyno trying to tune WOT for max power output ... Hypertech gives you 3 tuning options, but you get what you get, unless you send it back to Hypertech and they give you another tune file ... Big time winner to Diablo
ADVANTAGE: Diablo (Big Time)
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Diablo offers a max speed shut off of 125 MPH, Hypertech offers 128 MPH ... Not a big deal, but 3 MPH is 3 MPH ...
ADVANTAGE: Hypertech
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Price: Average retail pricing... Diablo = $425 ?....
Hypertech = $340 ... Both offer a Lifetime Warranty ...
ADVANTAGE: Hypertech
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This is all I can think of right now at 3:45 a.m. ... If you guys think you can add to this, let me know ... My personal "unbiased" opinion is that the Predator is an extremely talented unit, but has some issues that need worked a little, at least in my unit ... The Hypertech, on the surface or in ads may seem pretty basic, but once you experience them both, the Hypertech does it all well, and only falls short of the Predator in diagnostics, and finer tuning adjustments...
I didn't run either of them side by side on the dyno, but remember, they both offer 93 octane tuning, and recommend a cooler stat ... Is it possible that a mass produced programmer FOR the masses which the manufacturers are in direct competition, that recommends 93 octane for their best "canned" tuning can outshine one another? ... The 5.3 comes pretty close to perfect tuning from the factory, and I would think Hypertech's 93 tuning will be very similar to Diablo's 93 tuning ... There's really no mystery to uncover here, it's the same things tuned in the mapping ... ie, max timing advance for 93 octane common pump gas without pre-ignition... They both tune incrementally throughout the power band ... So my guess is, if you don't plan on playing around with the Predator's manual timing and fuel feature while on a dyno, the Hypertech is probably close if not very similar with it's canned 93 tune ...
Take away the Predator's diagnostics, and the WOT spark and fuel dyno tune ability, and the Hypertech edges on it ?... IMHO ... ?Again this was my observation on one avalanche with a single diablo, and 2 hypertechs ... So, don't assume my findings are the norm, as trucks, and environments vary... You need to decide what's important to you in a programmer ... ?
BTW, I'm back with the Hypertech, and for now am content with it's performance, and abilities ...
11H