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NEW Kennedy ECM

D

DennisG01

Member
Messages
524
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7
Location
Allentown, PA
Been a while since I posted, but I've been pre-occupied with some other stuff - mainly, boating. BUT, there's always been good discussions on here about ECM's, so I thought I'd share my experience with a new Kennedy Tune.

A couple years ago I tried both a Kennedy and Heath. Very close - the Kennedy was just a bit better, though, and that was the one I went with. At the time, Wester's was actually doing the tune to Kennedy's specs (I think the same was/is true with Heath?).

Now, Kennedy does his own.

So, I took off to do some 0-60 times and then hook-up my boat and go to the hill that I always use to do this testing. It's 1.1 miles and I go flat out from a standstill. I try to keep everything as much "apples to apples" as possible - even starting at the same EGT each time.

Well, all I've got to say is... WOW! What a difference. Keep in mind I'm not comparing the stock tune to a custom tune. I already had a very good tune.

0-60 times were an average of 1.95 seconds faster!

The towing test was impressive, too. My final speed jumped from 60mph to 68mph. Dropped 13 seconds off the elapsed time. EGT's did go up to a max of just under 1200 (about 1100 before), but I would expect that. With the "normal" towing of this boat, I did not approach 1200. It was only during this test of "pedal to the metal" for 1.1 miles that it did.

Shifts are nice and firm - very quick. Very pleased with that, as well. He changed the glow-time parameters and I noticed it does start better.

Just wanted to share! I am VERY impressed!
 
Matt Bachand said:
Now a factory wastegated turbo is a requirement of this tune?
Click to expand...

No, it's not a requirement. But, a better turbo than stock will liven this thing up even more and put this 18:1 to it's full potential. I've got about 14psi max right now, and, as everyone knows, that's just too much for the stock turbo to handle efficiently.

The new turbo is going to happen... just not right now.
 
You need to put more boost in than 14 psi. Trust me on this. I have been running 25 psi on my motor for over 40K miles now.

I crept up to that number and the difference from 14 up to 25 is BIG. And with an intercooler, the power is awesome.
 
Chicago TDP said:
You need to put more boost in than 14 psi. Trust me on this. I have been running 25 psi on my motor for over 40K miles now.

I crept up to that number and the difference from 14 up to 25 is BIG. And with an intercooler, the power is awesome.
Click to expand...

Oh, I absolutely 100% agree with you! Just can't do it with the GM-8. Priorities at home dictate money goes other places, right now, that's all. I can't wait to see what this thing will really do! The turbo is my last major "piece of the puzzle".
 
DennisG01 said:
Been a while since I posted, but I've been pre-occupied with some other stuff - mainly, boating. BUT, there's always been good discussions on here about ECM's, so I thought I'd share my experience with a new Kennedy Tune.

A couple years ago I tried both a Kennedy and Heath. Very close - the Kennedy was just a bit better, though, and that was the one I went with. At the time, Wester's was actually doing the tune to Kennedy's specs (I think the same was/is true with Heath?).
Click to expand...

How long ago & which tune of Heath did you run, at one time he did a tow tune only, then with so much demand for "performance one" he came up with HP-4, so to be a true apples-to apples I'd think before we can say 1 better than other it would have to be current production of both vendors vs each other, ALL are better than than what came with the truck actually I'd like to see a Wester-Heath-Hypertech-KOJO-Kennedy-BD-SSD test it would take some serious coinage to buy all those programs & have dyno time to run them, and then I'd like to see an open road test as dynos do not really load up a truck like real world conditions do.

Oh, fwiw Wester does not do Heath's tunes.
 
Turbine Doc said:
Oh, fwiw Wester does not do Heath's tunes.
Click to expand...

Thanks - I never really did know if he did or didn't. Did Heath always do his own - ie: "in-house"?

The Heath and Kennedy tunes I compared back to back a few years ago was before Heath separated his tunes into Tow and Performance. So I had the only tune he offered (but, IIRC, it was the newest version... not completely sure on that one). If his newer "tow" tune is better than the one I had previously, I can't comment on that. All I can comment on is that, at the time, the Kennedy was slightly better at holding the EGT's down while losing nothing in the performance category.

But, as I mentioned in my first post, it was only slightly better. Meaning, back then, it wouldn't have been worth shelling out another $500 if someone already owned the Heath.
 
I'll send you my Wester's and you can put it in your truck and see how it compares. You send me your new tune and I will let you know it works in my truck?
 
Chicago TDP said:
I'll send you my Wester's and you can put it in your truck and see how it compares. You send me your new tune and I will let you know it works in my truck?
Click to expand...

If anyone with a Heath, Kennedy or Westers chip wanted to swap for my Engh chip for OBD1 I would be willing to test it for a month or so. I have extra stock F Vin chips that work great in my truck, so the shipping overlap is not really an issue.
 
Chicago TDP said:
I'll send you my Wester's and you can put it in your truck and see how it compares. You send me your new tune and I will let you know it works in my truck?
Click to expand...

We may have to do that, yours a 3:73 final ratio ??? Only "bugaboo" is the theft deterrent learn since we both have a 98 that should make it easier to do the learn. It will be a GL4 which has not been tweaked to match the better flow of a non WG yet, I don't know if that will make a difference.
 
buddy said:
It was a noticeable gain for me to delete EGR intake and use an L65 EPROM vs the L56 EPROM. Then the performance tune was a another big gain.
Click to expand...

X2 :thumbsup: L56 program is pretty anemic friends don't let friends run with L56 if at all possible :nonod: I stumbled across the basic performance gain with S to F PCM when going from a very early attempt at reflash.

I wanted a good PCM core rather than use mine as I still had some warranty left on my truck & IP in 2000 when I 1st started my 6.5 power quest efforts, and I did not want to have to splain it in a warranty situation being a non GM PCM.

The F program was almost as good as that 1st generation reflash which peaked at 76mm fuel and upped boost limits only; it had no improved shifting or timing advance curves, so in my mind with nearly similar driveability I passed on the $600 plus core BD wanted for their "performance" tune which I believe was a Hypertech origin. So I sent it back, ran the F PCM I had found at a junkyard; plus they had not done their homework on theft deterrent and it was causing erant codes for theft deterrent.

Ran thru several iterations of Heath PCM until finally going HP4 when it was released.
 
Turbine Doc said:
We may have to do that, yours a 3:73 final ratio ??? Only "bugaboo" is the theft deterrent learn since we both have a 98 that should make it easier to do the learn. It will be a GL4 which has not been tweaked to match the better flow of a non WG yet, I don't know if that will make a difference.
Click to expand...

I have my Westers out right now. Wanna exchange via PM and set-up a little spread sheet test, i.e. EGT, 0-60, IAT . . .?
 
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