Silverado Tuning Devices and Throttle Enhancement: How They Work

Modern Silverado pickup trucks no longer use a cable actuated throttle system. Instead of the gas pedal being connected directly to the throttle body via a cable, Silverado trucks now use an electronic throttle-by-wire system. When you depress the gas pedal, a corresponding digital signal is sent to the ECU where it is analyzed and then the ECU decides how much and how fast it will actually move the throttle blade (which is controlled by an electric motor mounted right on the throttle body). This is akin to aviation behemoth Airbus’ design philosophy – all pilot inputs are sent to a flight computer, are verified to be valid and safe to execute and then a control surface is moved accordingly. If the computer does not like the input or deems it to be too excessive, it simply won’t allow the entirety of the action to pass. This is actually an extremely safe approach to aviation, but jumping back into Silverado territory, leads to a delay in throttle response.

Simply put, Silverados are programmed with a progressive throttle rate, of which we are at its mercy. If you depress the pedal by 25%, the computer may evaluate the situation and only actuate the throttle blade by 12.5% thereby severely desensitizing the pedal (these are not actual numbers, but rather a depiction of what is happening). When you jam the pedal to the floor, the ECU will take a few seconds to completely open the throttle body instead of an instantaneous reaction. Like the aviation world, for most drivers this is a safe and better option but for those who want a more direct connection underfoot, this situation is simply no bueno.

Installing a throttle enhancer fixes this issue by restoring a linear throttle rate. When set to maximum sensitivity, a throttle enhancer will scale throttle actuation to match pedal travel, resulting in near instantaneous throttle response and a much less sluggish truck. If this turns out to be too sensitive, the neat thing about these throttle enhancers is they can be dialed between stock and instantaneous response by simply turning a knob.

Furthermore, throttle enhancers are almost always stackable, meaning you can still access the OBDII port and run a custom tune with one of these devices installed.

Having looked at a tuning enhancer, let’s turn the page and examine a Silverado handheld tuner. As briefly mentioned above, a handheld tuner is a grossly more encompassing performance machine.

Connecting to your Silverado via the OBDII port, a handheld tuner will alter the factory programmed software in order to produce a vastly higher performing truck.

Performance wise, most Silverado tuners come with two or three pre-set or staged tunes that will alter the ECU parameters to fit a certain profile. Performance mode, economy mode, and towing mode are the three most common profiles. The first will alter the fuel, ignition and timing settings in order to boost horsepower and torque above stock levels. Depending on the aggressiveness of the tune (which varies by manufacturer), a new performance profile can increase engine performance by as much as 25 horses. Throttle sensitivity will see an improvement as well, and the overall result is a faster, highly responsive vehicle.

An economy profile will dial those same parameters back in order to save fuel. To be perfectly frank, no tune is going to reach hybrid like fuel economy and to spend the money on a handheld tuner solely for an economy tune is a waste of money.

With that heart to heart finished, the towing profile is one that many Silverado owners will like. In this case, the ECU is reprogrammed to favor production of torque, which is essential for heavy towing. It is very similar to the tow/haul function that Chevrolet incorporates from the factory, but in this case is taken to the next level.

If you thought the above is all that a handheld tuner can do, you are sorely mistaken. In fact, handheld tuners do so much more than bump horsepower and torque. They offer the capability to change transmission shift firmness and shift points by each individual gear.

Throwing a set of larger tires is an extremely popular modification for Silverado pickup trucks, and a handheld tuner can correctly recalibrate the ECU and speedometer to match the change in diameter. If you decide to change the differential gears, a handheld tuner can specify to the ECU what the new ratio is and subsequently adjust the speedometer and odometer to measure correctly. If your Silverado has been or will be decked out with further modifications such as a cold air intake or cat-back exhaust, a handheld tuner will have an option to select these mods and further tune the ECU to make even more horsepower and torque.

As is Cesar Millan to dogs, a handheld tuner is a computer whisperer to your Silverado. If any dash lights have illuminated, a handheld tuner can plug in and read the associated trouble codes. If that isn’t enough and you really want to know every detail down to the instantaneous fuel trim level, these tuning devices can access basically any sensor that runs on 5 volts or less. This means throttle position, engine RPM, coolant temperatures, fuel pressure, fuel trim levels, manifold pressure, engine timing and much much, more are all available to be read live, logged and graphed afterward on a computer. Tuners truly do provide a data-based look inside of your engine.