Please take a moment and welcome PCM For Less to HummerForums.com as the newest sponsor!! YAY!! Please click their banner to visit their site and see what they can do for your ride!! Make sure you tell them that HummerForums.com sent you there!!

Thanks!!

~Amanda

 

Thank you for the warm welcome, Amanda! (and the great banner!)

We are excited to announce that we are now offering tuning for the H3. I have been sponsoring Coloradofans.com (colorados are a very similar truck to the H3) and our customers there have been thrilled with what we have been able to do for them. We have been in the tuning business since what seems like the beginning of time - chances are you may have heard about us already if you know anyone with a modified GM. PCMforless has also been featured in GM High Tech in just about half their issues every year.

At PCMforless we don't believe in false advertising, or incredibly expensive tuning. We have a great product to offer, and by keeping the price competitive, hope that you will let us give it a shot. And if you don't like it - we change it until you do or we'll buy it back!

We have the ability to retune the trucks for all sorts of modifications - but this is something that someone with even a stock truck can benefit from. We have an '05 trailblazer ourselves...we love it, but it had too much of that "big honking truck" feeling to it...you know - it didn't feel like it wanted to get out of its own way, shifts took all day, gas mileage was sub par. After playing around with our truck, we really fell in love with it...and hope that you will too!

Here at PCMforless we can also provide a core computer, just in case your truck is a daily driver and you can't afford to be without it. The core charge is $125, and is 100% refunded when we receive your stock PCM. You are more than welcome to keep the PCM and not receive a refund, we just ask you to please notify us so that we know how many cores to expect back.

Before we tune our core PCMs, we start with the latest calibration straight from GM. This means any computer flashes or updates that may have been done by your dealership are taken care of with us. These can be little things like flashes for a more accurate gas gauge, or a rough idle. In any case, after the PCM is freshly reprogrammed, we build our tune off of that file. Every file for each seperate truck is built from scratch based on your ordersheet.


What exactly am I getting for $199?

We are selling a complete tune for $199. These trucks are flashed, not chipped, so we are actually dealing with the entire PCM. We help put a little pep in your engine's step while changing timing and air/fuel setup. We make the transmission feel more performance oriented. We can also remove speed limiters, change idle, change tire size, etc to accomodate for all of your modifications. With our personal TrailBlazer, we have noticed an additional and realistic 2-3mpg. We see on average 10-14hp with our PCMs, and have dyno sheets available on our website (notice all of the newfound power under the curve!) Coloradofans.com customers have supported this gas mileage claim.

So what are my options for ordering?

1. You can send us your stock PCM up front. Fill out an ordersheet, make a payment, send in your PCM. When we receive the PCM we will tune it and send it back to you. Total cost, $199 + shipping ($15 priority, $30 express).

2. You can use one of our core computers. Fill out an ordersheet, make a payment. We will tune our core computer, send it to you. You install that computer, send us your stock computer (must be postmarked within 7 days). Total cost, $324 + shipping up front, and then $125 refund when we receive your PCM.

3. If you want to avoid needing a CASE relearn (see the next section for what that is), we also have a loaner program for an additional $50 (you will need to call us to order this option). With the loaner program, we first send you a PCM with a stock file in it. Once you receive it, you install it and send us your personal PCM. We will tune your personal PCM without doing the GM updated calibration - so that your CASE information retai

 

Here is some feedback directly from our truck customers:


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"OK Guys, So I've been in communication with Alvin for several months now waiting for him to finish the I5 and I6 PCM tunes, and this weekend I got two PCM's from Alvin - one for my wife's '05 Trailblazer, and one for my '05 Colorado Xtreme.

The tune for the Trailblazer is SWEET ! You can feel that the car is not laboring as much anymore as soon as you get behind the wheel. The car runs quieter, shifts crisper, has better acceleration, and is just better all around - great job ! (But Alvin has a Trailbalzer too so I was not surprised!)

The tune on the Colorado was geared more towrd performance. Like the blazer, you can feel that the truck is not laboring any more. The truck revs higher now before it changes gears and the shifts are crisp - you can feel them snap into place - no more lag. The car takes much less gas pedal to go the same speed now - and the increase in acceleration was very nice. I got on a straight away doing about 20 - pushed the pedal way down - but not WOT - the truck accelerated nicely until it hit about 4500 rpm, then my AEM started to growl, and I felt like I was being shot out of a cannon. The truck quickly went up to just below redline before it snapped into the next gear I was doing about 75 - and I had a big grin on my face. I'm running half and half right now - 87 and 89 octane - and I hope to see a little better performance yet once I start running straight 89.

Great job Alvin - I am a happy customer ! "

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"The truck runs much smoother, it has pickup it never had before, and it doesn't labor any more like it used to. The shifts are firm, but not annoying, and I noticed this morning on the way into work that once I get into the upper gears (auto transmission) I barely have to touch my foot on the gas pedal in order to maintain a speed of 60 mph now. It just keeps getting better! "

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"I ordered my PCM from Alvin last Thursday, and had it at my door the following Monday. Much to my happiness, it was an entire computer, not a chip or daughterboard to replace.

Even though the instructions are strainght forward, I managed to mess it up. i posted a PM to Alvin at 10:00pm last night (pacific), and he got back to me within an hour!!! I couldnt believe it.

I was getting the dreaded case relearn issue, and the vehicle wouldnt start. Turned out I wasnt trying to start the vehicle each "cycle", so I didnt actually complete the process per his instructions.

Once I did, it fired right up. From the start, I have restored computer function. I have had 2 reflaches from the dealer based on computer-related issues. This seems to have cured those problems, so even with no performance improvenments that would be worth the price.

I havent driven it much yet, but the improvement is noticable. It wont roast the tires, but it pulls harder from the light, and the "quickened" shift points are great...not jarring or anything impractical for a daily driver.

I plan to get it out on the highway this holiday weekend, so I'll post again. So far I am EXTREMELY impressed with PCMforless and my purchase."

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"I installed mine on Saturday and I noticed a difference in the truck right away! It is much more fun to drive now. I got about a half a tank of gas on th new PCM and it seems to have improved my gas mileage, but I won't know for sure until I fill it up. The truck feels lighter because of the tune, it doesn't take as much pedal to get it to move. I am very happy with my experience with PCMforless!"

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[i]"I ordered my PCM Friday and got it in today. Install was easy and only took a few minutes. The security relearn took the longest, but was still only about ~40 minutes with me giving it extra time to sit.

The truck idles smooth

 

Sounds good Kelly...But there is some performance differences and other things that are specific to the H3 and should not be compared with the Colorado/canyon engines..

In all of your write-ups above, it makes no mention of the H3..Can you address this?

Also there is no mention of actual Dyno numbers (at the wheells or flywheel? As it is right now there is a 61% loss in the drivetrain to the wheels) and the areas the PCM that is mapped differently..i.e., octane requirements and options...timing changes at what temps and octane, transmission shift pressures changes if any, etc.


Thanks, I'm not trying to be a pain..but when someone askes me how the HP improved, I want to be able to site numbers and not just impressions from the seat of my pants.

 

I realize there are differences, but it's not like comparing it to a corvette or something. This is our first H3 forum to sponsor, so instead of coming here offering no experiences with past customers, I posted comments from colorado folks since that would be the closest thing to your application.

What else would you like to know that is specific to H3s?

Here is a link to our dyno sheets - obviously the power is to the rear wheels. We had an H3 stop by last week for a street tune, but since his was AWD we were unable to get him up on the dyno.

http://www.pcmforless.com/index.php?...howcat&catid=8

Not sure exactly what you are asking here...we offer tuning for any kind of gas you want to run, 87, 89, 93. Dual octane tunes are fine with us- however we won't tune to span the three octane ranges because we don't feel it is worth the risk (how the truck actually has to show knock to drop into the lower octane table). We don't have an option for the customer to decide on timing, we make that decision ourselves based on what we have experienced. To be honest most of our customers would not know where/how to add timing appropriately anyway, and if they did they would not be calling us to order As far as shifting goes we offer a few different ways to do it - 0 which is no change, 1 which is a slight improvement in firmness, 2 (what we recommend to most daily driven trucks) which is a noticeable difference, great firm/quick shift without being excessive, and 3 for those people who perhaps like to race/enjoy being tossed around in the truck

I understand...however, consider this. The H3 is not a 500hp monster (not the stock ones, anyway) while we are able to offer a peak hp/tq gain, a lot of what we do is part throttle, under the curve type of changes, that really wake the truck up in every day driving situations. We feel like that is what makes us different from other companies (and the fact that we cost half the price). We could claim to gain 30 peak hp like some other tuners, but how often are you really turning the truck up to hit the rev limiter, vs the time you spend just driving around? I want to feel gains everywhere, not just at 6,000 rpms. That's all that we are about - tuning that is good for everything...that's why we stand behind it and will buy it back if necessary (have yet to take anyone up on that offer).

Thanks for the questions.

 

Sorry..without a AWD/FWD dyno machine you are shooting in the dark based on what the colorado could do..unless you can document the improvements by a certified AWD dyno testing company, it's just a guess...

Anyways, I'm not trying to insult or be confrontational to you in anyway...but just being the devil's advocate..Because others are surely asking themselves the same questions.

thanks for your reply

 

We find that with most of our truck customers, they are interested in how the truck drives, and only occasionally in dyno numbers. We offer to dyno tune some of our local street/mail orders, usually the response is the same, they enjoy the better driveability/performance so much that a dyno number is unimportant in their eyes. I feel the same about my personal cars. When I talk about my vette I might mention how much power it makes, but on the other hand I doubt that people care if my Trailblazer makes 2XX

Regardless, thanks for checking us out.

 

Its understandable that without a dyno you can't really measure true gains, however that doesn't mean they arn't actually made. I know a thing or two about the Mitsubishi Evolution and the Evo community and one of the most popular things that people have done is have their car road tuned by Dynoflash (Al Friedman) with great success, that is often verified by later dyno runs. Also, I'm not sure if this is still the truth or not, street tunes have been praised for better drivability over dyno tunes in the past.

Either way, welcome to hummer forums Kelly and Amanda. I'm happy to see that you are offering us an affordable solution to get our trucks tuned

now for the real question..... WHO WANTS TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE FIRST?

 

Thank you Cerberus. Amanda owns this forum, I don't think she needs a welcome She's the one that put me in touch with all of the information for sponsoring.

 

doh!! [:@]

Dennis, take it easy man... try not to jump all over Kelly (no pun intended, get your minds out of the gutter!!!)

I might be interested in doing this over the winter months & going to an AWD dyno to get some numbers (I'd take the option to do the core exchange & dyno both by taking advantage of your 7 day grace period)