A6 transmission upgrades?

[agentbiker]

I'm a newbie here, but have heard nothing but good about the forum. I have a 2013 2LT RS and i'm very satisfied with the performance and handling. That being said, I'm considering doing some Autocross, and my only issue is with the slushiness of the up/downshifts in sport/manual mode. Are there any tunes that deal directly with the shift timing? This is also low mileagea daily driver.

[rozarioorlan]

A transmission tune will definitely help with shift firmness and can even change shift points as well. As far as options you can go local dyno or Overkill. At this point for these vehicles I only recommend these two because you are getting a tune that is created specifically for your vehicle.

[agentbiker]

I've been reading up on everything I can to get info. There seems to be a lot of difference in opinion on an "off the shelf" tune. What all does the Overkill tune help with? The only mods I have done are a CAI, and and axle back performance exhaust. I'm really baffled by how much those mild mods have helped. The sound difference is phenomenal too.

[DSX_Camaro]

Overkill isn't really off the shelf perse, your initial tune kind of is but you'll datalog probably twice at least so he can get it dialed in properly. The tune is mildly transformative - transmission, timing, change to your preferred octane (87 / 89 / 91 / 93 / e85 if you spring for that package). List goes on. I'd say you should look into the Overkill 80mm TB, some high flow cats or catless downpipes if you aren't privy to emissions testing, and a good transmission cooler.

[rozarioorlan]

To be fair, I think the only tuning options are dyno, Overkill and Trifecta. Trifecta is a “canned tune” meaning you just send them your parts and they send you one tune back and hope that it works well. Not that they are a bad company or their tunes are bad, but there’s no way to really tell how well the car is running on your end or if there is room for improvement. At least that’s how it was when I had it years ago. You also had to pay for the initial tune and pay for any retunes.

Dyno is pretty much the same way where you pay for an initial tune and pay for any retunes in the future. The biggest benefit to that is if you have a good tuner you can get a lot out of your car and have it running exactly how you want it, see what’s happening and know how much power your car is making. If you get a bad tuner or someone who doesn’t know what they are doing, it can be bad.

Overkill, in my experience, is the best all around. You pay for your initial tune and then get free retunes for life. Say you wanted to just tune now to get a little extra power and left it at that. In a few months or so you get some other parts and install them. You would just have to record your cars data (with something included in your tune purchase) and send it over to Overkill where he’ll check what he can improve on and see you a revised tune for free. I think I’m on my 8th tune because I kept getting new mods and wanted to change small things here and there to get the car running how I liked. He also developed a few parts of his own for the car which of course he knows the most about and can tune the best for. Here is the link to see everything you can get offered and can answer your question specifically http://getoverkilled.ca/lfxcamaro.html .

You have just started with mods as well so you can expect a lot more power if that is something you are interested in.

[agentbiker]

The Overkill does sound like the best (smartest) deal. I'm an old school drag racer. Built engines for a living, but that was before everything was controlled by computers. lol. So yes, I would like to get every ounce of hp out of it, without hurting drive-ability. I originally purchased the MBRP muffler delete kit, and it was great at WOT, but otherwise sounded to much like a rice burner. So I added the 3" Yitamotor Custom Performance mufflers (single chamber). They make it sound more like my '68 RS. I guess another question would be how does the tune effect fuel mileage? Granted, that would change depending on the amount of hp you can pull out of it. Most everything i have read tells me that there isn't much hp to be gained over the factory LFX? Are there significant gains to be had?

[rozarioorlan]

Any good tune will definitely help fuel economy as it’s making the car run more efficiently. At the same time it depends on gas you tune for, 89 octane would probably get better economy but wouldn’t gain as much power as a 91 tune, where as if you tuned on E85 you would be getting a lot worse MPG but the power would be noticeably better. There would still be a slight improvement even with a stock LFX especially with the transmission tune. Which with automatics you should be getting an ECM tune (for power) and transmission tune for shift firmness and shift points.

I’d say in your case if you tuned on 91/93 you could expect about a 10-20hp gain while still improving your transmission issues. Your intake would really be the only power adder now as axle backs really do nothing more than improve sound on this car and can reduce weight with lighter mufflers. However if you added more mods in the future you can expect more hp. A lot of us with full bolt ons and E85 are making a little over 300whp so there is room on the table.

[agentbiker]

I think you've talked me into the Overkill. I will probably start next with the 80mm TB, and the intake and spacer because that should make a significant improvement in the low rpm torque. That's the only area that seems to be lacking. Shift points and timing in the tune should be a big help to me. I did order a nice catch can setup. Have you had a noticeable amount of blowby? From what i have read, the LFX can have crankcase pressure.