Really enjoying the "new to me" SS and have been reading a lot about the various tunes. I would like to tune mine, but have some reservations and questions.
I would like a safe tune that is very driveable in normal traffic. In other words, not an extreme all or nothing type of tune.
I had a GTI that had an APR Stage 1 tune that added a lot of power, but was still very smooth and controlled. It was so smooth that I never turned it off.

My auto does not have the vacuum pump for the brakes. I have read that makes a difference in the tune as well.

What octane does the Trifecta tunes require? 93 is available here, but I think it is harder to find in some places.

For those of you who have tunes that can be turned on and off, do you normally leave them on or off in daily driving?

Thanks in advance for any insights.

 

Trifecta tune is what you want. Kicks in when you want it to. Contact CJ Krause on the Forum.

Boydie

 

Love mine with Trifecta. CJ is a few buck more, but the personal service is well worth it.

 

private message sent and thanks guys

 

good to know you tune will need mine done soon because adding the stage 1 without the gm tune.

 

you definitely do not want to drive it w/o a tune and the tmaps added. have you had problems w the tmaps on your SS sdto want to change them
personally i would just do the tune and not add the tmaps which is what we did on Vickies Auto SS

 

No tmaps, just tune, on mine

 

Spoke with CJ on the phone last night and have got the Trifecta "canned" tune on order.
Looking forward to getting it installed.

Thanks CJ

 

wanna have the extra boost. have the harness and the tmaps. gonna get the tune then install everything prob.

 

Take it from someone that's been done the toon road.

1. before having the gm tune installed buy these from crate engine depot
Cobalt, Solstice, HHR Stage Kit Harness Adapter 19212670H

I had so many issues with the crimping and soldering of the wires, when these came out I bought a complete new wiring harness and had the dealer install it with these adapters. Obviously you won't need a new harness unelss you let the dealer cut the wires.

2. ask the installer to turn the bottom t map sensor around so it doesn't hit the air cond. compressor. This usually works for most and for me fixed a big issue of shutting off under power. I put in the turbo tech top motor mount, had the ic moved up slightly and it still hit. We turned the bottom t-map around so the contacts faced away from the air cond compressor and it has run great.

3. Not a knock on trifecta, though I didn't have the best experience with both my impala ss and my hhr. The first impala ss tune turned off the fans so it overheated and vince's response was "oh yea, we made a mistake on this a while back". I would have assumed I'd have been given a warning when he found out. He did send a new tune, but I never found it stable so I just took it out.

With my hhr ssI mapped it twice and had two tunes from vince and they both were spotty. For a period I couldn't get any response and I think Vince just kind of moved on off this platform, so I removed the trifecta tune and bought an HP tuner kit and have contacted a custom tuner. For the the gmtu tune is now much more reliable than the trifecta tune.

4. Get the turbo tech racing motor mount. At first the steering wheel will feel buzzy, but in a few months that goes away and the car performs a lot better with a more direct feel and less torque steer.

5. When you have the gm tune installed have your dealer (find a good dealer) check the weak points of this car. First is the Plastic IC end connectors as they can easily crack, second is all the pressured plastic piping. Also have them do a test of the high pressure fuel pump as that part has a high failure rate.

For tuning it's not just raw power, but usable power. There are a lot of cars with less power to weight ratio that run quicker than the HHR SS. That's why I suggest a good custom tuner like James Hagerman where you can make decisions of exactly what you want, like raising the torque management, kicking the fans in sooner, more torque low down, or at the high end.

IMO