Is that all based on what you heard? Man, I was gonna quit this thread but I have to clarify a few things first.
blackfang said:
Canned tunes are just that. The predator is a canned tune that is very conservative. Why? Because they are not vin specific. They cover a range of cars UNLIKE SCT's Xcal/Xcal2. Half the tuners who tune them probably do not know what mods or what the owner wants. The SCT Xcal's are vin locked and they only work with that ecu code of that vin#.
VIN locking has nothing to do with how the tune matches the car. VIN locking locks the device to the car, regardless of what tune is loaded on the device, canned or custom, conservative or aggresive.
blackfang said:
My tuner I talked with before he tuned the program asked 1, what was the ecu code of my car, and two, asked what mods I had and what would features I would like such as, my limiter what degree for my T-stat set at, O2's on or off, what kind of fuel octane, egr delete or not, etc.
If you sent your tuner results of a dyno run with a/f ratio readings, then it is possible that the tune you got was actually customized to your car. That's one advantage the Xcal2 has over the Predator. The dealer can make fine adjustments to the a/f mixture based on your own car's dyno results when you initially purchase the device. That's when it becomes a true custom tune. Otherwise, setting the speed limiter, fan on/off temps, timing advance per octane used, egr on/off, O2 sensor on/off, etc. are just tweaks that any Predator or Xcal2 user can do. Yet SCT dealers do those basic settings for the new buyer then calls it a "custom tune". Welcome to creative marketing! You're basically at the same point as a Predator owner who changes those same settings, yet the Predator was sold with a "canned tune".
blackfang said:
In addition they completely re-write the timing and fuel tables UNLIKE the Predator. Predators either do it globally or in set ranges. So why add 3* of timing throughout 900-4500 rpm when you only need 2* at 3500 rpms? Heck some of the Predators are too lean and not the right timing. When you compensate it with fuel it screws up under load. Now you have a non adaptive tune.
"Globally" is not clearly defined. The Predator adds a percentage of timing in two ranges. Not fixed degrees like a mechanical timing advancer would do. The Extreme Tune software does the same thing as the Predator such that it adds timing in ranges but also has an option for adding a fixed bias advance. An Xcal2 dealer *may* do a complete rework of your timing table using the Pro Racer Package during your initial purchase but that is highly unlikely. Not unless you provide them with datalogs beforehand. The Xcal2 has a little bit more flexibility in adjusting timing. I just don't agree with your statements here.
blackfang said:
The Xcals come with a 3 tunes from a tuner who has set them up to what he feels would be a good tune for that person. He might get that idea from talking to the owner of the car.
SCT retracted their statement on the initially release ad. It *can* come loaded with 3 tunes but it's up to the individual dealers/vendors to load those tunes. It does not come preloaded with 3 tunes from SCT. Not all tuners/vendors provide 3 tunes. The initally release ad said it would come with 3 tunes. Not true.
blackfang said:
The Extreme tune prgram allows the customer(me) to load other tunes from other people and tuners onto my xcal. It allows me to experiment with different tunes. All they have to do is email me the tune file, then I load it into the Xcal or make any of my own adjustments.
So if I have a tune from JMS and I later on decide to get more mods and I want to try a tune say from Andy at Modular Powerhouse all I do is load the tune he emailed me.
Exactly! The device is the method of loading a tune onto the car, regardless of where it came from or who wrote the tune. It also gives you limited adjustability. The Predator does this too.
blackfang said:
It also gives that customer ways of adjusting each of the 3 different tunes to the conditions at the time, i.e running a nitrous tune at the strip, changes of altitude and weather, etc. Not everyone runs a nitrous tune off the nitrous while normal driving. This allows them to adjust each one without having to send it back.
Yes, but the Xcal2 isn't quite there yet. A tune sent to you by the vendor is either set up to be adjusted or tweaked on the Xcal2 device, or on your home computer using the Extreme Tune software. Not both. You can't tweak it on your computer, load it up on the Xcal2, then make more adjustments there. That capability is still coming down the pipe.