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Originally Posted by camcojb
oh, I don't know.............. 5000 things running in the background, shut off the O2's and they still affect things, sportsmen vs pro key, hate that TAU deal (or whatever it's called). Every dealer in the Sacto area that I knew of has dropped them, as well as a dealer I know in the Bay Area.
I've tuned FAST, BS3, Gen VII, Holley 950 Commander, Factory GM LT1 with a prom burner, GM gas and diesel computers with HP Tuners and EFI Live, Ford Lightning computer with SCT Racer Pro, MEFI 4, and probably others I've forgotten.
By far the Gen VII was the most frustrating to get up and running really well. Actually I couldn't get things perfect for a friends Procharged small block so he paid two Accel dealers several hundred dollars each to tune it; both tunes were way worse when they finished with it, in fact one of them made 700 rwhp but you couldn't even drive the car back on the trailer to get it home. Had to load my tune back in (maybe I'm better than I think!  ) After all that my buddy sold the Gen VII and bought the old FAST unit, immediately ran 100% better. It probably had a more suitable base tune in it, no other reason, unless there was a previous install issue with the Gen 7.
I am not dissing the system, it's more than capable. But I'll stand by my statement that it's much tougher than any other I've listed above to get tuned, at least for me. I'm just a hobbiest, not a pro, but I have a fair amount of tuning experience with n/a, twin turbo, blowers, diesels, etc. I know Accel had huge issues initially with EMIC's being awarded to people that should not have been able to get them, but there's still some pretty good tuners back then that gave up on that system.
Those two dealers I mentioned above dropped that system long ago, and these guys have been tuning for a long time. I've heard that the Accel has been "dumbed down" so maybe what you get now is not nearly as quirky as what I tuned. My experience was from when it first came out several years ago
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I agree to a certain degree Jody. Years ago Accel had a guy that liked to spend time in Ca. He opened a lot of "dealers", too many, guys had no idea. I run into that here in Florida too. I've redone many of other guys work, some of it boggles the mind in what they were thinking. I know Greg Weld had the same issues.
But for the record I'll put it against anything for drivability, hands down. I've done some BS3 and FAST as well, not impressed with either one. I've done back to back against Holley 950, in my and the dynos comparison, night and day difference.
Most don't know what to do first, that's a big problem. I had a great teacher at Accel, needless to say that helps. And as far as initial setup if it takes me more than a few minutes then I've done something wrong, it's easy as hell.
The "dumbing" down system is the Thruster. Has alot of the same stuff as the Gen 7 but you use different software to access it, very capable system and real price competitive with anything else out there.
And also for the record, a lot of the "self-tuning" stuff isn't. I have lots of proof of that. There's still a lot of fine tuning that needs to be done. There are posts where guys are still fooling with it for weeks.
And just remember, this last EMC was won by an Accel Gen 7. Not only best peak hp but best average hp and torque from 2500-6500, right where you drive it. I think that's something that should at least be mentioned.
Hope this helps, thanks.
Mark