38special

Black Magic

I do not know an answer to your question yet, but the manual tells of an adjustment to "shift firmness."

I am only playing around with "spark advance" or timing right now due to a tank full of 87 octane.

My Blue Heaven

No manual here, I got a pre-production unit early last week. Honestly had a sheet of paper in it that said download it off the web.

Until Diablo gets their stuff together I can't even upgrade my firmware. They say they're working on it, something about the loader,

I'm so happy with this product right now.
Chris

38special

My Blue Heaven

It might be faster to send it back for a new one.

Knock on wood, mine is working fine, but it was done in conjuction with the C&L CAI.

LilHog

I came so close to buying the diablo unit, the only thing that stopped me was the unit was out of stock at three different vendors. So it's the SCT unit that I bought and although I like the more functional diablo, SCT seems to have made a bit more progress with the tunes. For now anyway!

joeuser42

I got my Predator last night. It was very simple to install though it still made me nervous. It took me awhile of driving to really get a feel for what was different. I even stuck my factory tune back on, drove it, re-installed the performance tune and drove it the same way trying to figure out the difference.

I live on a winding country road so part-throttle response and low-end torque are what I notice most. Something felt different that I can't quite quantify in the 2000-2500 rpm range. It was like it wasn't as torqey when I shifted or I needed to depress the throttle more to get the same response. Not quite sure.

This morning I took my buddy, an autophile, for a drive and he could definitely notice a difference. I also figured out that it is breaking the tires loose now when I just mash the throttle in first or second at around 3k. FYI... The 4.10 gears help. I am definitely pleased with the performance gain above 3000 rpm. We took it for a run down an access road up to about 100mph. When I really opened it up through the first 4 gears I could feel the improvement.

I had 4 months to imagine what a %5 hp gain would feel like, but it took a day figure out what it really DID feel like, more WOT hp. I'm too cheap to put it on a dyno, so I hope someone else with a Predator does soon.

GarageLogic

Hopefully, I will be able to get mine on the dyno this weekend. For reference sake, my car is an automatic w/4.10 gears. I had been runnning a SCT custom tune on the car up until yesterday, when I changed it out for the Predator "91 Octane" tune. Seat of the pants, I can not tell a big difference between the 2 tunes. I will most likely be selling the XCalibrator, as my local tuner is a Diablo specialist whereas I had to send off to get a custom SCT tune for the XCalibrator.

IMO, both do their jobs very well, and it will ultimately depend on the person who tunes the car on how well it performs, not which unit does a better job of reflashing the CPU.

I will also be adding the JLT intake and Steeda underdrive in the course of my tuning.

I will post results once I have them.

O5GT

i noticed yours had the owners manual in it also

My Blue Heaven

What revision are you guys on? It's on the display when you plug it in.

My revision is v.8r6.

And THIS is Diablosports response to me about the versions:
"This is a reply to your question from 2005-02-28 14:52

CATEGORY: Predator
QUESTION: [05 Mustang GT and your brand new predator tuner. Last Thursday I took my car to
Dynosport in Licoln, Ne and Dan did dyno runs baseline and after tune. We used the 91 octane
performance tune and lost tq and hp across the board. I'm not so worried about that as he's
going to work on a custom tune for me. I do find it a little misleading to tout out of the box
performance though and it not work as advertised.

What do you consider a lightly modded engine? My engine had NO mods except HC trap removal and I
had a tank of 91 octane in it. I do have a 4.10 gear. From all the choices listed that's the
only one that fit. This weekend I installed a K and N replacement air filter.

What is of more concern is both my baseline and post-tune dyno graphs. As you can see in this
post http://forums.bradbarnett.net/index.php?showtopic=17163 and hl=
I've included my dyno sheets for you to view. There is a noticable tq/hp anomaly around 5k/90
mph and during all tests we noticed a slight lag at that point also.

When you dynoed your 05 automatic GT did you notice any thing like this around 5K/90mph in 4th
gear? I'm not the only one that this has happened to as you can see in my post.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and if you have any advice for me on getting better
results from my predator tuner I would apprectiate it.

Christopher

------------------------------------------------------------

ANSWER:
Dear Christopher ,

Your Predator is a beta version for testing. The 91 octane tune had 2 degrees global spark added
and air fuel was slightly leaner than stock. How can that cause horsepower loss? We have a new
production tool that has a new tune that involved 2 months of dyno development. In that tool we
have a tune that again, adds spark advance, leans the air fuel ratio and optimizes cam timing.
You may want to try it. We have feedback on many cars so far and all is positive. The lowest
gains with the 93 tune are 10-12 horsepower and the 91 octane tune is making 8-12 horse
depending on the dyno facility. It sounds like your car was cold when baselined and hot when
tested with the tune. Do your baseline at 188 on the ect sensor and then do your tuned pull at
188 and tell me what you see for horsepower. The tool will most definetly not cause a horsepower
loss. Please return your tool if it does, as it is defective.

Thank you for your interest in DiabloSport!
Stay tuned,
Scott, a proud member of the DiabloSport Support Team"

My Blue Heaven

Here are the dyno runs, 3 is last baseline run, 4 is first predator run. The car was hot on the 3rd pull, It had sat for at least 30 minutes before the predator run.

38special

I ran a tank off at 87 octane with 5 degrees off my global spark rating. Worked fine.

I now have a tank full of 93 octane with all settings returned to c&l tune base lines.

Now I will note any differences.

wild stray

In other words, they don't have a clue either. I would consider sending the tune back and asking them for their "new, improved" version.

Blk05GT

What device does your tuner typically use? It sounds like he is not that familiar with the Predator. If he is more comfortable with SCT then get that or else find a tuner who specializes in Diablo. The person doing the tune is more important than the device itself.

38special

Dyno'd my car today.

275 RWHP

281 RWT

My Blue Heaven

You got a manual or auto? Going to post your sheet? Did you dyno it pre-mods for a baseline?

Chris

38special

My Blue Heaven

Did not have the time or the money to run a baseline. I was technically working and did it between appointments.

My car is a 5 speed Shifter.

I wanted to know what it did with the mod. Each mod, that I do, I will dyno it seperately.

Besides we all know, now what a stock GT gets on the dyno. I pm'd Lee at C&L about the numbers and he told me that Diablosport got almost these same numbers with their test vehicle, it was an automatic though.

elvism

mark, these #'s are low with these mods. 275hp/281tq?in FF&MM magazine jdm tested there gt and got 267hp/293tq. heck i have a automatic and dyno 254/268 tq and with my tuning and mods-sct,pullies and removal of trap got me 32hp/41tq to 286hp and 309 tq. JDM did my car... mine is an automatic which has less hp/tq compared to a 5sp on a dyno. go back and tell them to double check.just want to make sure your getting most out of your mods.

38special

elvism

What types of dyno's were these folks using? There are several types, and I thought I would go with the type that hooks your hubs right into the dyno. When I put underdrive pullies on her I will go get another.

The only down variable was that my car was pretty warm from driving 60 miles earlier. I am happy with the results. The dyno guys were impressed. They also told me why their dyno was a better measure than other dynos. They really thought that the other dynos inflate the true hp and torque.

When I take her out on the fastway, I feel real differences in 3rd and 4th gear, so I am still happy.

SixtySix

Mark, good way to NOT fall into the numbers trap

My Blue Heaven

Wow, other dyno's inflate the numbers?? That means my mustang stinks even more than I thought it did. How uplifting for me.

I'm also surprised to hear a dyno company thinking that their dyno is the best/or better than all the rest.

The BENEFIT of using a DynoJet is that they are pretty much accurate across the country with other dynojets. So if I get 255 here and someone else is getting 259 you're comparing apples to apples.

By you using the dyno that you did we can't really compare our cars to yours. And by not having a baseline pull, which I understand you couldn't, there's no way to tell what gains you made over stock for anyone interested in the product.

The upside is that now you do have a baseline as you make mods you'll be able to see your gains against your first run.

Sixty Six, as far as not falling into the numbers "trap", if it weren't for the numbers, be it hp, tq, 0-60, 1/8, 1/4, top speed, gas milage, whatever, we'd never mod our cars to try and make them better, and to me that just doesn't seem right!

Chris

SixtySix

Gee, I seem to remember a time when I owned a 66' Mustang 25 years ago. I had it balanced and blueprinted including performance headwork, and Edlebrock Torker manifold, Holley 4 Barrel, Tri Y header's into 3" exhaust, a Crane cam.... I think that's it, it's been awhile.

Point is I did all this without a dyno. I had the work done, the engine shop had an off car dyno (flywheel) that they put all their engines through and I came out with 360 HP at the flywheel. I was happy

People have been modifying their cars for decades before widespread availability of Dyno's became a reality. They just used common sense.

When I'm ready to get my car tuned I'll do a single pull for a baseline.

I'll tune it using a default Predator tune, myself. Then I'll wait and collect parts, a JLT intake, and complete exhaust replacement with shorties, high flow cats with x-pipe, and maybe an IMCO axle back.

Once I have all that stuff, I'll install the JLT, tune it myself with my predator, drive to the shop, have the exhaust work done, have it custom tuned on the street, and then one final dyno pull. That's it. Done. It's just a difference in the way I approach it.

The tuner I'm going to use is more than reputable. He's an engine builder and head specialist. I aksed him about my approach, and he agreed wholeheartedly. He thought I was right on the money in NOT investing on a custom tune until I made more serious changes to my airflow with both intake and exhaust. Which I'm going to do all at once and record my gains there.

Any good tuner, mechanic or whatever it is you call them these days will tell you that the numbers by themselves don't mean a thing. It's the difference in the numbers that tells you something.

To each his own....happy modding

Darn, I just had to respond to this:

That's the trap! IMO a fools game. be concerned with the difference in your own numbers, not someone else's. Just because 2 cars use dyno jets doesn't make it apples to apples at all.

I guarantee you if you and I did identicle mods and had identicle cars, we'd see as much as a 20hp difference. If we dyno in the summer, my numbers will blow chunks because of the extreme heat that I have. If we do it in the winter it may be tighter...and that's just one of many variables that are out there.

.38 special feels it where it counts...in his buttocks. Butt feel alone means at least 15-20 HP