I have about 400-500 dollars that i am willing to spend on my car, Im thinking im gonna get an aeroforce scan gauge, and i was wondering what you guys would recommend that i get. My current mods are listed in my sig. im thinking PCM maybe? also i would probably wait until after i get the gauge in to order anything else, because if i have lots of KR i would replace plugs and wires, but i think they are relatively new from before i bought the car.

Is 400-500 your full budget forever, or just for "openers"?

If the latter, my vote for the first expenditure would be a tuner.

I'm right there with him. You can gain plenty of power by tuning alone. I bet Hans would be third in line to agree.

by all means Its not my full budget. I am just starting with this right now, well not really starting, as i have done a couple small mods, but you get the point.

What kind of options do i have for a tuner?

you have the HP Tuners or the DHP...

while they both give you the ability to Tune your Car there are certainly differences between them

when selecting a specific tuner, its something that you need to do your homework on

The basic breakdown is this:

If you're going to tune exclusively OBDII GM V6 applications, go DHP PowrTuner.

If you will be tuning other application(*) also, look at HPTuner and see if they support it.

Based on what I've read and researched a tuner (as well as any vendor'* pcm) will not help you much on a bone stock car.

I'd reccomend something along the lines of the level 1 intense Kit , then do the tuner thing.

However before you put anything on the car invest in a full tuneup, plugs, wires, fuel filter, o2 sensor.

After a good tuneup you can throw in a pulley, intake etc.....Much beyond that your PCM will need some help to fully utilize your mods. Even on a mildly modded car tuning seems to help a bit. However bang for the buck initially is going to be a pulley, intake, and a scantool.

However for $150-$250 more or so you can get a tuner which does everything an aeroforce will and you get a bin file included with the purchase so you can flash your PCM.

I disagree with Hans to an extent.
First, if you know you're going to mod beyond the Level 1 kit in the future, IMO a tuner should be your first (or very nearly first) purchase, so that you can learn to tune in a "safe" (i.e., stock-ish) environment.
Second, there is quite a bit that can be done--even stock (or near stock)--to unlock power with a tuner.

Bear in mind also that tuner == scantool; so by the time you've bought a good scantool and a vendor PCM, you've spent about what a tuner costs, and have bought far less functionality / flexibility.

I will heartily agree with Hans on this: get all your mechanicals and safeguards done first (full tune up, aluminum LIM gaskets, etc.) before you start modding...

ok I am going to start researching these two tuners, so i can learn a little more about them. But what you guys are in general saying is that i should skip the aeroforce all together, and just get a tuner and do a full tuneup? I have yet to read into the DHP tuner, but i would probably go with that one since i would only be using it on my bonne. Do i need a laptop for this? also am i understanding correctly that i can scan for KR with the tuner?

EDIT: ok i started reading and i answered a couple of my own questions. I see it will scan KR and such, and i do need a laptop (or a desktop computer in my car..impractical) I dont have a laptop, but i could work that out i think. This thing sounds sweet!

actually regarding what I said about it not being good with a stock pulley...You can increase the timing with a stock pulley over the 15* and get power that way....something that is often forgotten. However other settings are not as critical until you physically add more mods.

Rogue did a great post regarding timing + power + boost.

You can get away with a $200 laptop and buy a new battery for it and you will be set.

If using it on a $200 laptop I'd reccomend a fresh install of windows and install nothing but powertuners