After initially thinking the power of the V8 was good, I soon became disheartened with the lack of low down grunt that I was expecting. This has been a frustration with all of my cars as I don’t require top end, I want the bottom/mid range shove in the back you can use every day.
To help solve this I searched the LS1 Forums (Australian forum dedicated to the LS1 V8) for likely solutions. One that was mentioned over and over was the success people had had with a Mail Order MAF tune from Chipmaster, a popular Western Australian tuner. For $400 with a money back guarantee this tune sounded like just the ticket to give me what I wanted, at least until I got the funds together to go further with the mods.
Before and after the Mail Order MAF Tune.
Along with the tune, Daniel from Chipmaster suggested swapping back to the standard air box with a 2-hole mod, as he has found that it will flow better than the K&N Air Charger system. So with this done, the above dyno sheet shows the before and after effects. The power difference isn’t huge by any means although it is noticeable, but the air fuel ratios are way safer (in the 13s rather than 14s, more fuel = lower number) than the stock Holden tune. Therefore, I recommend this mod to anyone that doesn’t plan on doing major mods to their car, especially if you have an auto and want a harder gearshift. I gained a bit better fuel economy from this tune which is always a bonus.
Fitted at the same time was a RipShift that should be on the mod list of any later model Commodore with a manual gearbox. This excellent piece of equipment changes the sometimes difficult second to third gear from a pain to pleasure by locating exactly where the third gear gate is. When I first got my ute even moderately fast second to third changes were difficult because it would either hit the side of the gate or miss the gear entirely. No problem anymore. Highly recommended.
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