It's definitely not "Holy **** it's a lot faster", it's actually quite a bit like stock with a more acceleration across the band (much like what the dyno sheets show). It feels like about 60HP more. I doubt that the dyno is whacked because the readings on the stock truck are what is expected, although the A/F readings seem to be a little rich according to a few people. This could be the truck running rich, or the sensor misreading.

 

I'm very reluctant to attempt a reflash simply because the first time the shop did it, the PCM got screwed up and had to be taken to a dealer to be reflashed back to stock. In order to be flashed successfully with the Superchips unit all kinds of fuses need to be pulled (for OnStar and the like), the doors have to be shut, the DRL's can't be on, etc....I would rather not risk it. Besides, I think the Superchips flash did go down, so I doubt that's the issue....

 

if the bypass valve was open he wouldn't see that much airflow. looks to me like the blower is doing it's job. with that said all that is left is tuning.

it is way rich, not sure how much that will help. are you using good gas?

you need to atap that thing and log.

maf rate
timing
knock retard
02's

that would help alot in figuring this out.

 

Nothing less than 91 in the vehicle.

What does 'atap' mean, and how do I do it?

 

Fun Guy, when are you planning that trip too Magnacharger? I think you may have a PCM issue. You stated that the pcm had to be re-flashed by the dealer after a bad superchips install, this could be a problem.....who knows. I have felt un beliveable gains in every kit I have installed and the customer has been happy every time with the results. This tells me that there has to be something wrong in your installation or tune.

Where are you located?

 

Magnuson's head tuning guy is out next week so I won't be going there until the week after next (it is about a 3 hour drive from San Diego). The PCM had to be reflashed to stock before it could be flashed again successfully to the Superchips program, but I am pretty sure the Superchips tune took properly the second time around. How could the PCM be bad at all? Wouldn't a bad PCM appear as much more than a "little off" performance-wise?

When you say that you have felt "unbelieveable gains" in every kit you install, what does that mean? Did you measure the gains? Did you or the vehicle owners get dynomometer readings before and/or after the install? I heard and read about plenty of happy Radix owners before I made the decision to get mine, but I still wanted to inject some objectivity into the equation - hence my decision to get dyno numbers immediately before and after the install, on the same dyno machine.

After the install the shop seemed pretty pleased, and I have to admit that when I first stepped on the gas I really liked the results, but had I not gone to the dyno, I would not be thinking there is a problem. This concerns me. I would be saying "Yeah, cool, I got a blower, and it rocks!" but be oblivious to the fact that I got less than half of what I was told I would get. Makes me wonder how many other Radix owners out there are getting less than what they've paid for.



Although subjectively there is certainly a very nice increase in acceleration, especially right off idle, it is a far cry away from the 63% - 125% claimed by Magnuson (which would give me a minimum of 390 RWHP), or the 130+ RWHP claimed again and again by tbyrne (which would give me a minimum of 370 RWHP). I got only 300 ponies out of the deal, an increase of 50-60 RWHP. I may be having some problems with tuning, but who else is having the same type of problems and is not aware of them? I mean, sure, my truck goes faster, and there are no leaks or anything....so who would know?

I would really like to see some more dyno sheets on Vortecs with a Radix to see what is going on out there with everyone else. How can you be sure of what you're getting without measuring it? I mean, had I not gone to the dyno, I would be out there right now bragging about how I have more RWHP than a Z06, oblivious to the fact that I don't...

 

This is actually a legitimate thing to check Fun Guy. The airflow on the Radix kit pulls the air through the MAF before it sees that bypass valve. So, the computer could be seeing that there is a lot of air going through the MAF and be giving it the calculated amount of fuel to match the air. However, if in fact all of the airflow is not going inside the engine, this would definitely cause a really rich mixture. This is just something to check, I'm not 100%sure without being there to see it myself. Check to make sure all of the vacuum lines going to the bypass valve (black round thing on the right side of the blower) look to be secured. Start the engine and listen for any vacuum leaks around there -if there is a vacuum leak you should here a suction noise. It is worth a shot before you have to go to Magnuson.

Flyer: hey man! Here is a good page to bookmark for conversion http://www.bizinfogrp.com/unitofmea.html
The conversion from lb/min to g/s multiply by 7.560
For g/s to lb/min multiply by 0.1323
(off subject a little here) Flyer, there is a guy on here, 954RR who runs a Radix and a .212/.218 .522/.529 114lsa cam. Ask him how it runs man.

Oh ya, Fun Guy AutoTap is a program that used with a laptop reads all of the outputs of the sensors on the powertrain computer. It is like the TechII scanner you mentioned before. Here is their website though http://www.autotap.com/

 

If I was going to spend $200-$300 on monitoring software, wouldn't I just want to spend the $550 and get LS1edit?

 

There is kind of a catch here though as far as the cost and the program functions go. LS1edit is the ultimate tuning program for the LSx based engines, but it cannot do sensor readouts like the Tech II and AutoTap.
Pretty much a scanning program like AutoTap is run to diagnose what is going on and then edit is used to reprogram what was seen with AutoTap.
In short, you need both to tune perfectly. ...or just a buddy with AutoTap that will let you borrow it sometimes. Edit can only be used on one engine though.

 

FunGuy, I have a feeling that there is some installation issues or something going on with your truck. Have we dyno tested our radix trucks, no.....Have the customersm YES. They have seen as much as 400 RWHP in the 5.3. Please let me know what day you will be at Magnacharger, I would like to meet you there and see what they discover.