Is HP Tuner overkill for my needs??

[ranger-rick]

I am completely new to tuning and to be honest I don't plan on being big into tuning or tweaking. BUT I want to get the most performance out of the Pentastar v6 without completely tearing it down and adding a super charger or turbos lol.

I bought the SXT with a Mopar CAI. I added a MagnaFlow Catback (mostly for some sound lol). It was impulse buy lol. Price was right. Excellent condition. Low miles. My daily driver was an F150 and wanted a summer car. Couldn't find a hemi that wasn't old, lots of miles or beat to snot. I was looking at other V6's and the SXT came on the market.

I do like it. Decent gas mileage. Insurance isn't expensive and it has a cool factor lol. As is, the performance isn't bad.

What I have learned is that no matter what I bolt on (without invest several thousand dollars) performance gains will be minimal (or so says the hemi owners). I am not looking to make quarter mile burner but want to do whatever can to maximize what I have.

I wasn't going to go with HP tuner route and thought a diablo might be less "involved" but HPtuners appears to be more "flexible" but I am still concerned it might be over kill for my needs. At most I might do BBK TB and ported upper/lower in the future. Upgrade the coil packs etc.

[LilSick]

that 8 speed benefits greatly from a tune

so does any VVT smog motor that was programmed with efficiency and emissions as the primary concern

[ranger-rick]

True. Makes sense. The shift points do need improvement and the transmission has untouched potential. Most of those 8 gears go unused. I hadn't thought about the "smog" limitations imposed on the engine. Sorry, I am sort of old school lol. back in the day we would just remove any 'environmentally friendly' restraints and readjust the carb lol. Now, tripping O2 sensors is a concern

[04silverado6.0]

You probably are not going to make huge gains in actual hp output. The transmission is where you will see the difference. I have tested the diablosport on a 5.7 hemi and it lost about 12hp compared to stock. I might have gained 7-10 over stock on that car.