HPP III Questions

[Chief]

Well I've taken the plunge and bought 11H's HPP III. My question comes down to this. Sure I can tune in more performance with the HPP III but I have two goals I want to achieve:

Goal 1: Programming for daily driving use.

I'm not happy with the soft shift I want to firm things up but not to the point of whacking myself in the head with a 2X4 everytime it shifts. I would want to firm things up in the 1 - 2 and 2 - 3 shift, and the 3 - 2, 3 - 1, 4 - 2, 4 - 1, 2 - 1 shifts, while leaving things pretty close to stock or at stock for the 3 - 4 shift. Can this be done? What settings are folks using?

Also want to change some shift points. I'm very frustrated with my Av that at 35 MPH if you floor it it goes to 2ND and kind of lugs along. A kick down to first if you go to WOT in 2ND up to 38 or 40 MPH makes more sense to me. A kick down to 2ND at 50% to 60% throttle feels pretty reasonable to me. Is this something I can achieve with this kind of precision? Again what settings are folks using?

What is the operational redline of the stock 5.3 liter V-8. It seems to shift around 5,500 RPM - impressive for a small block V-8. It sure sounds like it's being pushed hard in that range also. Is this the functional redline or is it higher? At what point am I pushing the engine just to darn hard? 5,500? 5,750? 5,900? 6,000?

With the Magnaflow I installed and the reduction in back pressure with drop in torque can/will the HPP III compensate for that. Or does the provided power modifications for 87 octane gas over it anyway?

Goal 2: Stronger performance for off-roading.

Here is what I'm thinking. If I can dial up more HP with the HPP III why can't I do in the other direction, do tweaking that will get me more usable torque at lower RPM and changing shift points to accomodate the requirements when off-roading. Basically my thinking is if I'm going to go off-roading for the day I would dump the above performance profile and then put in a new one that was more oriented to low RPM, low speed driving where a firm down shift at the wrong moment could have really bad results. Has anyone done this kind of setup? What settings have you used? Is it possible to dial up more torque specifically and move the power band lower in the RPM range with the HPP III - or is that going to require even more tuning?

Any help on this appreciated!

 

[11H]

Chief,,,

You have some good questions... I'll try to get them all here...

1. The Factory Rev limiter on a 4x4 1500 should be 5,900 meaning, if you hold the truck in Low 1 and hold it to the floor, that's where the PCM cuts the fuel... On a "drive by wire" av (2wd Z66 with traction control, it's lower...) ?The 4L60 can spool to 6100... That's your limit ... I have a Z71 with 265/70/17's and 3.73 gears and I set the rev limiter at 6,000... And my shift points were set as follows:

1-2 = +2 MPH (shifted at about 5920)
2-3 = +9 MPH (shifted at about 5890)
3-4 = +9 MPH (never ran it that high to see where it shifted, but calculated about 5800)

*** These were autotap results, as the oem tach is WAY OFF ... It can't keep up with the engine in first gear LOL...

With the Hypertech, these upshift settings will also apply when asking the truck to downshift ... She will drop down into first if you stomp her at about 33-35 MPH... And she'll downshift at 75-77 into 2nd if you stomp it... But remember, these are roughly the limits at which it will downshift, so you need to stomp it to the floor quickly, or it won't react... Also, in your sig, you have a 4x4... If you have 3.73's, use these shift settings as they provide the best acceleration times... If you have 4.10's it has been discussed already, and you might want to fiddle with shift points...

The programmer will allow you to run the rev limiter to 6200, but I wouldn't run it that high... The only purpose to running higher shift points is to not have the motor drop too far out of the power band into the next gear... Anything over what I give above is a waste, and wear and tear for no reason...

As far as "power tuning" ... The hypertech is pretty basic and straight forward... you either select 87 octane tuning, or 93 octane tuning... Either power tuning will give you a little boost of off-idle torque, but it is not adjustable for certain RPM ranges... I will tell you, if you run the 93 tuning, in the summer, you might get some audible pinging, and might need to change to NGK TR55 plugs... Even some have had audible pinging at 87, but rarely... Since you have done exhaust, that's usually the cure...

The Hypertech should fill-in some of the lost throttle response down low, again, 93 tuning is the greatest chance for that...

To finish... The Hypertech is a yes or no machine... It asks you questions like:

Install Engine power tuning: Yes
87 or 93 tuning: toggle between 87 and 93
adjust engine rev limit: toggle between 5,800 - 6,200
adjust shift points: toggle all points individually between +1 amd like +18MPH
Adjust shift firmness: on or off
Adjust for other than stock tire height in 1/4" increments
Adjust for different gears: gives selections
Adjust if you have installed a shift kit:
Adjust top speed limit: up to 128 mph

Among some others...

The custom tuning you are wondering about could only be done with LS1Edit and a programming guru... Or a PCM tuner like Z Industries, with some dyno time either way... The Hypertech is a mass produced programmer for the masses that has to be engineered with some sort of cushion if you will... A hypertech might not extract the maximum programming potential of the pcm, and YOUR PHYSICAL VEHICLE, IT'S CONDITIONS, AND MODS, but it comes closer to it than any other programmer in my opinion... Here's a little pic of what the Hypertech will do for your power curve with either 87 or 93 tuning... The HP numbers look a little high for an AV, but it is the 5.3 in the chart:


It does look like the tip-in torque gets a healthy boost, so it should help your magnaflow a little... Hope all this helps Chief... Also, almost forgot... The Hypertech will firm up the shifts about 20%-30% ... It won't be wrenching by all means... So your off-road experience won't suffer with the harder shifts... Besides off road, I usuall manually select the best gear for the intended encounters anyways, so I don't know how this would affect you...

http://www.hypertech-inc.com/jpegs/2000gm5.3L.jpg


11H

 

[Avalancher]

Another significant difference in custom programming is the removal of torque management. After installing headers I could feel three significant surges around shift points when the timing was being retarded, the actual shift, and then retarding being trimmed back out. With custom programming I get solid, single-surge shifts.

I still use the HPIII to adjust shift points, top speed, rpm limit, and tire size.

Remember, you can use your tow-haul when going offroad. That would probably help to achieve the offroad performance characteristics you mention.

 

[cjindustries]

anyone miss with the shift points on the hypertech programer? want to know what the best would be to set them at?
this would be the +2,+3,+4,+10 on the 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th gears?

 

[Setemflush]

http://www.chevyavalanchefanclub.com/cafcna/index.php?board=17;action=display;threadid=7862;start=msg111154#msg111154

 

[ckayakwa]

I'm strongly considering doing the following mods to my '02, Z-71, w/3.73 gears: 6"RCD lift and going to 315s.

Question RE: Hypertech III - Would it bea cost effective mod when added to above setup?

What would you recommend the "program" to be given the above mods??

I understand that the III will only correct for up to 34" tires?? What are the implications for problems??

Thanks a bunch!