Question for all the tuners out there!

[Steve Cole]

Here is the question. If I take a bone stock 2005 5.3 and replace the manifolds/single exhaust with headers/dual exhaust and install a cold air intake, should I have the computer re-tuned or is that not enough of a change to worry about? Thanks!

[69gmcc10]

I am not a computer tuner, but I have had tunes done on my trucks.

A tune will always be the best bang for the buck. Regardless if there are any mods done to a truck or not, I would always advise someone interested in a tune to get one. A good tune from a reputable person/company can increase your driving experience (mpg and power) just by making some adjustments to the ecm. When you change the parameters of air flow on your vehicle with an intake, exhaust, cam or product of the type, they will not be optimized without informing the computer something is different.

Personally I would save the $$$ from a cold air intake to pay for the tune and just replace the stock air filter with a direct replacement AFE dry filter. The volume of the stock intake was designed to meet the needs of the 8.1, so it has plenty of capacity in stock form, the filter is just a little restrictive. But if you really feel the urge to drop some coin on a CAI the AFE Momentum GT seems to be a solid performer as doe the AEM Brute Force, others seem to have little benefit or require more tuning to optimize them according to a recent Black Bear Performance intake test.

let us know your progress, have fun!

[Steve Cole]

Wow, great advice! I agree with everything you said but I should have mentioned that this is for a swap into a 68'. My reason for asking is the place doing my harness is also doing my PCM re-flash but it is basically just removing the un-necessary so it will run. If the engine were bone stock with no mods, this would be all that is needed. I was trying to determine if after it is running , if I needed to take it somewhere to get a second tune.
Thanks.

[Project86]

to be on the safe side I definitely would have it returned but as mentioned above I would look into a dry filter vs a cold air intake.