Black Bear Tune??

[seattle gmc]

Im thinking about getting a Black Bear Custom tune for my 07 silverado 1500HD classic. The 6.0 in my truck feels very sluggish, unless i really put my foot in it. Driving around seattle is nothing but hills and inclines all throught the city and neighborhoods. I feel like like most of the time when i acelerate from a stop, i step on the gas but only get blaaaahhh. Is this just the nature of a 6.0?

I would like to hear your thoughts and experiences on a custom tune from Black Bear performance. Good, Bad, Problems you might have had? And overall difficulty of getting everything instaled and operating. I did spend some time on their web site looking through the faq section. Is something like this the best bang for the buck or is money better spent somewhere else?

I recently bought the the truck in december with 61,000 miles on it. The truck is is in good working order and i paid to have the truck looked at by two different gm dealers before i made the purchase, and each time everything came back positive.

Every thing appears to be stock, except i think the truck might have an after market cat back exhaust, as there is a bit of rumble (seems louder inside of the cab then any where else though). Everything looked oe when i was under the truck so im not quite sure. I average 10.2 mpg, which is almost intirely city. So if i were to get some added mpg that would be a bonus, but i kind of gave up on expecting my rig to give me any better mpg numbers.

[cleansquare]

Nice truck. Low miles for an 07. A tune will wake it up. Youll notice a big difference. Go ahead and have them remove all torque management, that 4l80e trans can handle it. The stock 6.0 is plenty of engine for that truck. The exhaust could be stock, and still have a little rumble.

Youll be hard pressed to tear up that truck. Ive had multiple 5.3's, heads and cammed, taching them out running 11-12 second quwrter miles in 4x4 extended cab trucks and never could blow em up.

My trucks were tuned by a friend with hptuners, ive heard black bear tunes, and wait4me tunes, and all those are basically cookie cutter tunes shipped to you, you send back your pcm....but they still make a difference on a stock truck

[Biscayne Stocker]

Just had a black bear tune done on my 01 2500 Suburban with an 8.1. Made a very big difference. Very happy with it. Justin was great to deal with.

Scott

[4Eyedtruck]

Been running my blackbear tune since 2011 zero problems Great service Justin does a great job and you will be hard pressed to find any bad review of his work when I first had mine done I installed a magnaflow and cold air intake and was getting 21-22 mpg compared to the 18 I was getting stock I've even had mine updated for my cam and headers and ory install last year no problems at all.

You will never get the mileage a 5.3 will with the 6.0 but the tune will help and if you don't want the mail order tune Justin can send you a cable out and you can datalog it with a laptop and send the file to him over email and get it set up better than just a mail order tune but justin tunes 1000s of trucks and travels and sets up tunes in person if their is enough interest in your city what I'm saying is his mail order tune is nothing to laugh at I've had several friends swap from their bully dog or hypertech to blackbear and notice a big difference over the handheld tuner be prepared to do a crank relearn for the new PCM I say go for it you won't be disappointed

[orngsikL]

i had a blackbear tune on my 08 5.3. Justin came to new orleans to do the tune. Myself and about 4-5 friends got tunes from him. No problems at all. Truck ran great. In person tunes are the best. I don't have any experience with his mail order tunes, but on a stock truck there isn't much to data log as a custom truck. Good luck. You'll be happy!

[69gmcc10]

I have an 03 1500HD and I love this truck. It was sluggish before I did some mods, but now it is awesome. I have a Intake, Exhaust and electric fans, but the best thing I did was a custom scan cable tune from Black Bear. More power, economy, but the biggest thing is drive-ability. Hand held tuners dont adjust torque management and in my eyes that is where Black Bear and others of there kind far exceed the hand held.

Economy-before tune, after tune
in town - 11.5 - 13.1
65 mph - 16 - 18
75 mph - 14.3 - 16.3

[seattle gmc]

Thanks for your posts and opinions. Can you guys describe the installation. Maybe post some pics. And describe how the crank relearn works.

I did email Justin, he suggested that i go with the standard tune, but he will need my vin number to check for sure. Im a little nervous about doing anything to this truck. Its my daily driver and its the niceset and most expensive vehicle i have ever owned so far. I really like this truck and don't want to do anything to it i might regret latter on. Plus all the technology these new trucks have, freaks me out a bit. If it was my 70 gmc i wouldn't even think twice about doing any mods.

[69gmcc10]

Take a deep breath, it is not going to hurt your truck. If you get a second pcm you will need a crank sensor relearn, it is a simple step by step procedure and if you go this rout you can always put in the original pcm if you dont like it or something goes wrong. I used my current computer and mailed it to him to save on the core charge of a second pcm. I got it back in less than 7 days and I didnt need to do a relearn because the computer was already synced to my truck.

[Tropical Snowstorm]

I've had two Black Bear tunes, one in my 03 SS and another in my 03 Z71. Both were great, firmed up the shifts, got rid of the torque management, cleaned up the idle, and lost the top speed limiter. Everyone else says they get better gas mileage, I never did but I also can't keep my foot out of things, especially once the performance is improved.

I actually bought a blower from Justin and put it on my 2006 Sierra, but I had it dyno tuned locally in Atlanta. He's a good solid guy that stand behind his product and is straight forward, he has quite a good reputation on the newer truck boards.

The only thing to be prepared for is the wait, it will take about a week or so for them to respond each time. It's just him and his wife if I remember right, and they stay covered up with work.

[4shongo]

Had two of my trucks done by Black Bear (Justin) and he does awesome work. Unbelievable difference verse stock. Great choice! Crank case relearn is done with a Tech II programmer at a dealership. I have heard charges from $25-$75 depending on the dealership. Takes them about 3 minutes to do!!!! I gave a guy $20 and he came out and hooked me up!!

[BossHogg69]

Justin (Blackbear) did a datalog/custom tune on my '05 GMC Sierra 1500 ccsb 2wd - at the time it only had a K&N fipk and dual exhaust. It really woke the truck up. Then I added long tube headers, took off the cats, and put in a Comp LSr 265 cam with a Yank 2600 stall. He tuned it again for free and it runs awesome. Still gets 17mpg on the highway @ 75mph.