We wanted to post a short note just to annouce that our 2003 Lightning tuning R&D sessions have been completed, and to publicly thank all the people involved in making this project happen.

Thanks especially to Ron Durham for his cooperation & assistance with our 2003 Lightning tuning R&D sessions over the past 10 days or so. Ron kindly drove his bone-stock 2003 Lightning all the way from Texas to Florida, where we flew down to meet him & do the tuning R&D and modifications in one place, in a lengthy thrash to check tuning in many different states of modification & configurations. We started off tuning the bone stock truck (and had access to other '03 L's to check the tuning on), and then took it thru each stage of modification, from simple intake stuff to the various pulley sizes & boost levels, with stock exhaust, then with our complete exhaust setup (long tubes, high flow cats, X-pipe & dual mufflers, etc.), with and without breather caps, the Factory Tech valve body, etc., in numerous different configurations. About the only things not tested were a set of fully ported & prepped cylinder heads & a bigger blower, both of which are coming very shortly.

Some very interesting things were learned in these tuning sessions, different from some of what we've seen even in the 2002 Lightnings, proper tuning in the 2003's is a bit different from other model years.

We also want to thank Jake Lamotta of Lamotta's Performance (and Jay & Billy, thanks guys!) for hosting us during this time, and a very special thanks to Superchips Inc, & especially Dave Cain at Superchips for spending the entire period of time with us getting all of the tuning in all the different configurations done on the spot exactly as we wanted it, checked, tested, checked again, dyno tested, track tested, street tested, etc., and all the data we needed. It was quite an ordeal, but thanks to all these people and more, we got virtually all the data we were looking for.

What's the gist? For those just looking for a standard performance program on a stock Lightning, at very safe A/F's (11.4:1 final), on bone-stock 2003 Lightning we gained 24.0 horsepower to the rear wheels, and this was consistent. The lowest gain was 21 hp to the wheels on one red 2003 L that had 500 miles on it. So with just the Superchip, and not so much as a K&N air filter or anything else, another 24 hp to the rear wheels (and 30+ lbs./ft. of torque) was gained, which equates to almost 29 hp at the flywheel. We left it very safe, though we did take the tune all the way up to 12.8:1 and with more timing at one point just to see the results if we pushed, we left it at 11.4:1 A/F & with a bit more additional timing that could still have been added if someone wanted to run on the edge. A very safe tune with 24 more hp. gained. Pushing it for max timing & 12.4:1 A/F's, we can gain upwards of 30 hp to the wheels, but that will require at least 93 octane to support (meaning west coast L's couldn't sustain that on their 91 octane premiums). Obviously we have to provide safe tuning for anywhere from 91-94 octane at the pump across the country, so safe was what we were looking for in terms of the basic performance programs, which was easily accomplished, and from there we can do whatever anyone desires, for just about any state of modification.

So just a quick post to annouce Performance Products now has tuning available for the 2003 Lightnings in just about any state of modification, and to say thanks very much to everyone involved!

Our bests to all,

 

Thanks especially to Ron Durham for his cooperation & assistance with our 2003 Lightning tuning R&D sessions over the past 10 days or so. Ron kindly drove his bone-stock 2003 Lightning all the way from Texas to Florida, where we flew down to meet him & do the tuning R&D and modifications in one place, in a lengthy thrash to check tuning in many different states of modification & configurations. We started off tuning the bone stock truck (and had access to other '03 L's to check the tuning on), and then took it thru each stage of modification, from simple intake stuff to the various pulley sizes & boost levels, with stock exhaust, then with our complete exhaust setup (long tubes, high flow cats, X-pipe & dual mufflers, etc.), with and without breather caps, the Factory Tech valve body, etc., in numerous different configurations. About the only things not tested were a set of fully ported & prepped cylinder heads & a bigger blower, both of which are coming very shortly

Just curious, did Mr Durham get to keep all the mods that were used on his truck? You know, for his time and usage of his truck.

 

Yep, Jake (Lamotta) and Dave (Superchips) both rock!

Glad you had a good time down in Florida Mike!

joe

 

SWEEETTT, Thanks for the info. Now can we get a superchip that you can change on the fly? Will something like that be coming out in the near future?


VINNIE

 

I got to keep the parts...but you gotta pay to play...LOL. I did get a pretty good deal, and I liked the idea of my truck getting dyno tuned...no detonation for me


Rocks

 

let me know if you want to experiment on anything else involving long tubes

anywhere in the midwest i'll bring the truck, you bring the free long tubes

 

Thats great Rocks, and like you said, you got it dyno tuned

 

thats tight you gots to keep the parts!!!!!!!!!