I had VA Speed swap my original 4.8/5-speed with a 430 HP LS3 crate engine and Tremec Magnum 6-speed. While the swap should have been fairly easy, what I got was far short of my expectations. I waited to post a review until I had all problems resolved. It took me a year and a half due to time constraints, but here's the short list in no particular order:
1. Trans output seal was leaking. I replaced it and it hasn't leaked since. ATF on the input shaft during installation would have prevented it.
2. Ground for electric fans was insufficient so the relays would just click and they weren't configured correctly in the tune.
3. The Corsa Sport exhaust they recommended was incredibly annoying. It was very raspy and not pleasant for those in or out of the truck. I added a Vibrant resonator and it sounds much better.
4. The engine would never warm up, but this one's on me. A BeCool 2-row radiator is simply too much radiator for the engine. I could never get the engine above 150F. The issue is that when I told Mario, he told me to put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator. That's a band-aid at best, not a fix. The correct fix was to use a factory 1-row radiator. It now runs at 195 degrees all day long, even on scorcher days with the AC on.
5. The PCV system was not connected correctly. They had a hose from the air tube to the passenger valve cover for clean air and dirty air from the valley cover to a port on the throttle body in front of the throttle plate. This provided no draw through the crankcase. I blocked off the air tube port, ran the throttle body port to the valve cover and the valley cover port to the top of the intake manifold where it's supposed to be.
6. The remote shifter they built isn't awful, but they could have put a little more engineering into it and made it a nice piece. While it does work, they used a welded-on bolt for the shifter ball to screw onto instead of using some bar stock. They could then have drilled a couple of holes to bolt on a stubby stick and I wouldn't have to have the shifter boot right up to the ball.
7. The tune was garbage. It wouldn't idle and stalled at every stop unless I feathered the gas and clutch together. Even then, the idle was never smooth. It stalled every time I had to stop until I figured out how to keep it running. When I called the shop to let them know and to see what we could do to fix it, I was told that they don't do tunes via email and I was basically out of luck. The reasons for the poor idle should have been caught by VA Speed.
a. A portion the O-ring between the throttle body and the intake manifold was out of the groove creating a vacuum leak. This should have been caught by the tuner by simply seeing that the IAC count at idle was 0. A smoke test would have shown where the problem was.
b. The intake manifold bolts were loose. They should have done a torque check after a few heat cycles, but I doubt that happened. Same thing with the header bolts - no torque check after a few heat cycles.
c. The fuel pressure was at 72 psi. Checking this should have been part of the startup process. I'm using a Walbro 255 pump and was using a C5-style filter/regulator. In the shop's defense, that's the setup that's supposed to work. Well, it didn't. They should have checked it and told me there was a problem. I replaced the regulator with an Aeromotive adjustable unit and a separate filter. Now the pressure is set at 58 psi and it idles perfectly smooth after a few more tweaks in the tune.
d. The fueling calibration was way off, partially due to the vacuum leak and incorrect fuel pressure, but also due to the fact that they apparently didn't do any road testing and logging. No daily driver runs at wide-open throttle all the time, so dyno testing can only do so much. Road testing and logging is the only way to properly dial in a daily-driver tune. For sure I'm no expert, but their tuner should go back to school.
There were other issues that didn't affect how the engine ran, like not reinstalling interior trim parts, cover off the ECU, and scratched doors on both sides. More of an annoyance than anything else but it speaks to quality and attention to detail.
And they didn't save the original tune that came with the truck before they started making changes. The original tune is lost and gone forever. I don't need it necessarily, but there's no reason they couldn't have saved it for me for my own amusement.
There's more to say but I'm running out of space.
The bottom line is, as always, buyer beware. Shops will talk a good game, but in the end, you're left with what you're left with. The folks at VA Speed are nice folks but I spent a ton of cash with them and I wasn't happy with the initial result. Workmanship is suspect and their support after the sale was unsatisfactory.
Out of necessity I can now tune my truck myself and don't need a shop. And if I did, I wouldn't use VA Speed. read more