Can i run a race tune?
 

Hey guys,
mods to my truck are in the sig but currently im running a street tune. I have stock head studs and my concern is that if i run a race tune im gonna be blowing stuff up. Any thoughts? Thanks!:pca1:

you can run it, BUT you gotta watch your foot

I really dont wanna blow the head. im sure if my foot goes to the floor itll blow. so if i decided to put some heavy duty head studs in, should i be in the clear to run a race tune?

Can you run it? Sure. Will it last? Who knows. I've opted to leave my race tunes for racing, @ the track. At least race tunes with full converter lock-ups.

It's too tempting to NOT get on it all the time for me, so I don't bother with the hot tunes, at least not at the moment. Once studs and new gaskets are in, it's game on.

It's not like you're going to blow gaskets the first time you put it to the floor, and even when you do it's typically not a major failure, you'll still be able to get the truck home and what not. I've driven almost an entire year pushing coolant out before.

papachuck was running a race tune on his 03 as his daily driver and on stock bolts with over 100k on his truck last I knew, maybe he'll chime in.

It seems hit and miss though. I don't have the self control for it, and I know that now!

I had a race tune for a daily driver, in hind sight, it was more work than it was worth. The tune would want to, well, race if you gave it [I]any[I] throttle. Generally, I keep my foot out of it below normally operating temps, and a race tune that goes from idle to redline quickly, it became bothersome.

At any rate, I am running SRL from Gear Heads now and really like it for a daily driver.

I still run extreme race daily, for about half of almost 200000mi. Self control is an issue but I found I developed some after buying two sets of new tires in one year. The shifting takes some getting used to.

If tires were the only thing I'd have to buy from running a race tune all the time, I'd buy tires in bulk.

If I could find cheap used ones Id do that but never had any luck. $1300 to $1500 gets old in my checkbook. Dont get me wrong I still drive it hard, I just take off easier....most of the time.

These pro-comps I have now are the first NEW set I've bought. It's like my 6th set of tires, and I'm not even at 100k miles yet...

It's the other things that break that gets old haha

Thanks for the advice guys! yeah i found after i won my first race i couldnt help myself from a decent sized burnout. im dying to run a race tune and i think im gonna just go for it and buy the studs and get them on. Then its game time and time to save for tires and a trans! :c:

No need to save for trans unless you plan on doing some serious injector/turbo upgrades, these transmissions are STOUT. They'll hold 500 rwhp all day long. They're holding more than that behind 6.4's...

You'll need more than just the studs themselves... :c:

So yesterday i actually did run the race tune for a little bit but i kept it at about 25lbs of boost when i got on it. Shifting is MUCH different, but im tempted to really see what it can do. Im waiting on a guy to buy my other truck before i do head studs but i sure am tempted to give er!

When running WOT, my boost is actually a touch lower than stock with this tune. If you roll into it with the converter locked (always is in a race tune) it will build boost pretty good. The shifting feels way different because of the converter lock up real early. They say with it like this, you should only drive it like a grandma on the street, or full out. No in between. I destroyed a stock torque converter in mine DD'ing the race tune, but I've been told I can be hard on parts like that. 3rd gear full throttle burnouts, and boosted launches at red lights don't aid in torque converter longevity.

So if i run a race tune i should be babying it or well, racing it? A bunch of my friends say that they dont think ill blow a head gasket with the race tune on, but im unsure. i also found it kind of worrisome that the name of my race tune on the SCT tuner is called coolant leaker....

If you can load the race tune and not give it a romp just to see what its about.....well your a better man than me! I take it you bought the truck and it came with the SCT? If that is the case its a safe bet the previous owner has already done that. Its like when you meet a girl and she is fricken awesome in the sack....how do you think she got that way? Plenty of truck have blown gaskets with no programmer. Do you know who wrote the tune?

IDP wrote the tune. and if i load the race tune and give it one romp just to see what its about do i have a good chance of breaking something or not?

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and yes i did buy the truck with the tuner

it shouldnt hurt anything to give it a few good romps... i beat the hell out of mine w/out studs:rocking:

I run Erics race tune every day and have for years, I say give it a try. :c:

What kind of horsepower/torque are you guys pushing?

Erics Extreme Race should get you around 420ish HP at the wheels and I believe around 750 TQ give or take.

i dyno'd 430hp and 832ft/tq with the medium street tune on.

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Im wondering what you are pushing with your truck. just as a comparison

I have never had mine on a dyno. I know that dyno numbers can be a little sketchy depending on the type of dyno and the guy running it. I think for our tranny you have to have the tune written to keep it out of overdrive. Like I said I dont have first hand experiance with that so some body else that knows will have to chime in on that.

No way that's right. A full out race tune with converter lock is only good for 420/430 rwhp and high 700's tq (760-790ish).

I dyno'd 466/772 with mine back when it was 100% bone stock and just a race tune, I know it wasn't right.

A street tune should be more like 375/650-700. Still pretty quick, but not a race tune. The converter lock-up makes a big difference.

Where did you dyno?

Again, I'm one of those guys with no self control to NOT romp on stuff, which is why my 3rd set of headgaskets is leaking coolant. Take it from me, if you don't have self control, and you don't have the money to do headstuds now the correct way, put the street tune back on.

OK, so i did decide to run a race tune last night just to see what she could do and danngggg i spanked a cummins. i put the street tune back on and shes still running good.

It was dyno'd by huckstorf diesel

I bet those dyno numbers are for a much hotter tune than the street tune. I've seen similar numbers before (still high).

The best way to measure HP is to run it at the track. Far more accurate.

Ok, i mean i have the dyno sheet, idk why the numbers would be so far off but what do i know

Well an SCT only holds 3 tunes, so it's possible you didn't get all of the tunes the previous owner had. I have probably a dozen tunes saved on my desktop, but again the SCT only holds 3. So you got whatever 3 were on there when the guy decided to sell it right?

There just isn't enough fuel to do more than that... the max one of these trucks is going to do with stock injectors is the 420/430 range. Those are all out race tunes, not street tunes. Dyno's lie man.

Who knows how it was run too... who knows if it was in the right gear, if the right tire size was implemented, etc... really tough to say. Doesn't really matter anyways, what matters is how you like it on the street! :c:

Ive got the SCT SF3 so i believe it holds 3 custom and 3 pre loaded tunes. But anyways, i love the truck, and she loves to go! trying to keep my foot out of it but what fun is that?! :c:

I basically ignore the fact that they'll hold 3 canned tunes, because once you've got custom's they're useless and you shouldn't be using them.

You CAN'T keep your foot out of it, I know. The perma-grin is awesome. Wait til you try a boosted launch...

VERY fun as well! thanks all for the help and comments!:c: