Unfortunately I've grown tired of trying to get my giac tune to work properly with my car and have decided to bite the bullet on the $3500 tune and get rid of giac. If anybody has a giac tune and wants a free flash loader, let me know and it's yours.

On the bright side, I'm looking forward to getting a custom E85 Protomotive tune with new injectors and a 5 bar FPR. My local shop (P3 Autokrafte) will be working with Todd Knighton to get the car up and running again. Will post updates on the E85 conversion once it's done.

 

$3500 for a tune? 😮

 

Yep, and I know, ouch! That was the price for the tune with some extra options added like the race gas profile. Unfortunately when I contacted giac they said they only do off the shelf tunes and don't even offer a service to do a custom tune based on my cars datalog. I wish I knew to ask those questions back then. :-(

 

Well that's sucks. So what are the advantages to go GIAC if any of at ether basically old news when it comes to tuning?

 

GIAC makes good, reliable power for cars with straight forward bolt-ons. When the setups start to get custom and really high power their tune starts to fall behind many of the custom options.

We had GIAC on our 997.1 car with simple mods (exhaust / headers / intercoolers) and it was fantastic. Car drove like stock but went like stink. It wasn't the most powerful or quickest turbo on the road, but it was quicker than stock by a good margin.

I had GIAC programming on my Audi A4 turbo for 265K miles without issues. When I sold the car it still had the original turbo on it to boot.

So they don't make the most power out there but if you want a set it and forget about it tune with good power it's a great option.

 

^^^ This. When I first got the tune and just had an exhaust, it was a solid tune with no problems. The other bolt-ons I added matched what the Champion Motorsport car had since I knew GIAC did the tune for them (intercoolers, plenum, TB, headers). Unfortunately, the stage 2+ tune added to my car actually slowed it down and even with race gas, the pump tune was running better than the race gas map. I have all the data needed for a custom tune, they just weren't interested in working with a regular joe like me. Too bad, but I'm looking forward to the protomotive tune and E85.

 

BTW, the flash loader is now spoken for.

 

Wow. Looks like it ran perfectly with that many miles on a tune.

 

Maybe I am a little dense but why would anybody in their right mind pay $3500 for an off the shelf tune when you can pay Kevin $950 for a custom tune that he will adjust for free as you change the mods to the car? Plus, you have the ability to data log if you buy the data log unit for a bit more. And, you don't have to take the ECU out of the car to reflash it.

 

Easy, I was new to Porsche back then and didn't know much about all the tuners, but I knew Wright Motorsport who was local and had been working with GIAC for a long time on the IMSA/Tudor circuit, and that's who they recommended. I decided to go with the local, well established shop rather than a bunch of strangers on a forum. Even on the forums GIAC got great reviews and back then they were doing custom tunes. Forward wind 3 years and I've done more upgrades than I expected and their tune no longer fits my needs. I wish I would have known then what I know today, however back then it was a safe company/tune and met my needs at the time.

edit: BTW, I have no idea who "Kevin" is, but that's what I mean. I just bought a new car and I could trust it to some guy on the internet named Kevin for a discount or I could go with a well respected company in WMS and a tuner that was well regarded in GIAC. Hmm, you decide.

 

I kind of agree with you Nuclearfishin but, Kevin is the real deal.

A buddy of mine bought his custom tune for his 996TT and it really performs at the track. I lost the cost of a tune in the past with my same car and it cost me $3500 (maybe a little more.) I couldn't even give it away at the time. I also couldn't run E85 with my stock injectors. Are you changing out yours?

Since, I went with Cobb. Been great thus far.

 

Kevin of umw is in the process of tuning my car I need to get my upgraded intercoolers on before I send him final logs to tune the car perfectly

 

^ It would be interesting to hear what difference the ICs have on the level of tune that kevin feels is OK...keep us posted

 

Yes, upgrading injectors and going to a 5 bar FPR. My shop is working with Todd Knighton at protomotive to get the car up and running. Based on many other reviews of proto here, it looks like the E85 upgrade works really well. Will keep the forum updated.

I did a quick google search and found them. It looks like their last webpage update was Feb 2006 and they have no 997.1 info. From the sounds of it he gets excellent reviews, but not knowing a lot about Porsche tunes 3 years ago, the lack of info would have scared me away.

 

If you are upgrading injectors, why go to a 5 bar FPR? The ID1300s will provide all the flow you need while not going above the OEM fuel pressure ( I have ID1000s and only got close to their safe maximum at 660 whp on the factory turbos and E85). Fuel pumps flow more at lower pressures, and while it may not impact your fueling needs with stock turbos airflow rates, it still heats up the fuel more, and puts more wear on the pumps. YMMV.