considering HP tuning myself... but scared

[JoshuaGrooms83]

well my car is at that point in its life where im at my physcal limit of modifiying it without requiring a tune for everything i do. my latest install soon to be of a rearmounted turbo will be my undoing lol but i know tuning will be my biggest make or break. was wondering if its worth it t get it and "play" with my cars mind or should i let train professionals do it lol i have a slight understanding of fuel/air/spark/timing what have yeah, but never have applied the theory. call me a bitch but im a bit scared to f it up. even though ive already passed he point of no return when i had it tuned once by frost already
(which still runs rich but im thanking you for that no since im getting it turbofied anyway lol)
im thinking of running with it but still not sure.

[0rion]

sissy.....



just busting your balls. First let me ask you how you know it's running rich? Any answer except " that's what my wideband shows" is a wrong answer. That's a huge key to tuning your car....you have to have a solid way of showing adjustments and for that a wideband is your best option. I would never discourage anyone from taking up tuning their own car. As long as you have basic computer skills and enough desire to learn it then go for it. You just have to realize going in that there's a huge learning curve and a ton of reading/question asking involved. It takes time.....a lot of time. I say go for it as long as you're willing to spend the time reading. There will be tons of things you can play with to get familiar with the process.

[pajeff02]

Highly recommend Greg Banish's books and DVD if you want to learn how to tune it yourself. The HP Tuners forum is also a good source of information, although I have found the crowd there not as willing to help out a "noob" as on here. Still, it does make for educational reading.

[35th-ANV-SS]

How much more critical is it to have the tune spot on with a turbo set-up as opposed to a N/A car? Any real differences in the actual tuning aspect of it, or is it about the same just getting all the numbers dialed in?

[0rion]

the principles stay the same......you're just working with a 2bar map and the timing and fueling are a lot different. I'm not sure a turbo set up would be one you'd want to cut your teeth on. You'd want to get a good understanding of the software for sure before going in that direction.

[JoshuaGrooms83]

well i know its a little rich from frost in the first place lol. he said he kept it on the safe "rich" side when he sent me my PCM. Im also ony making 301rwhp with every possible bolton without cracking open the block when a camaro with just about the same mods made 334 rwhp.

but for tuning, im pretty competant in compters, so i think i might go for it and just take it one step at a time. ive just never seen the program before so i dont know what to expect other then whaat ive seen in the hptuner stickies i run across.

[My00Z28]

if you want to see whats HPTuners is like check out there website.... they have a demo you can download right on the front page!!!!

[Firebirdjones]

well i know its a little rich from frost in the first place lol. he said he kept it on the safe "rich" side when he sent me my PCM.

Safe rich for an N/A setup would be say......12.5 or maybe as high as 12.7. That's my idea of very safe and I'm willing to bet Frost is in that area of thinking as well. But it's no where near what a turbo setup would require. That would be more in the realm of 11.5 to 11.8 or so for best power. Much leaner than that under boost and it's asking for trouble, especially pump gas.

Just tossing that out there, I wouldn't throw a turbo on there thinking your N/A rich tune is enough for boost.

I also agree with Orion, I wouldn't cut your teeth on a boosted application. I'd play around with the car in N/A form for a while first.

[JoshuaGrooms83]

i absolutly agree with you that my tune is nowhere near turbo ready, even for a safe N/A application.
ive been actually thinking of sending my spare computer for a tune for a safe turbo tune. then get it dyno-tuned here. I bought a spare PCM awhile back so i could send it to frost and have it tuned while i could still drive my car. i could do that again with a turbo friendly tune. i still would like to be able to tune my PCM myself.

[35th-ANV-SS]

Safe rich for an N/A setup would be say......12.5 or maybe as high as 12.7. That's my idea of very safe and I'm willing to bet Frost is in that area of thinking as well. But it's no where near what a turbo setup would require. That would be more in the realm of 11.5 to 11.8 or so for best power. Much leaner than that under boost and it's asking for trouble, especially pump gas.

Just tossing that out there, I wouldn't throw a turbo on there thinking your N/A rich tune is enough for boost.

When I'm in boost, my Wideband is steady at 11.7

[Firebirdjones]

i absolutly agree with you that my tune is nowhere near turbo ready, even for a safe N/A application.
ive been actually thinking of sending my spare computer for a tune for a safe turbo tune. then get it dyno-tuned here. I bought a spare PCM awhile back so i could send it to frost and have it tuned while i could still drive my car. i could do that again with a turbo friendly tune. i still would like to be able to tune my PCM myself.

My hats off to ya for wanting to do this on your own. I'm the same way and I hate computers. But I dove in. I have tuning knowledge from doing it on classics and race cars for many years for myself and others, the computer was a new twist for me though.
With alot of helpfull people and some patients, it'll get easier.

I've always been of the mind set that anyone planning to own one of these cars for the long haul should have the software to go with it. Once out of warranty you are stuck with a big pile of electronics. The software is great for so much more than tuning. Logging and diagnosing trouble codes is a huge part of why I wanted the software too.

[JoshuaGrooms83]

definatly. i have a very limited basic knowlege on fuel and timing and what have ya. lol just enough to get me in trouble but yeah, ive tryed to do just about everything myself on my car. I think ive only had couple things done on my car that i couldnt do due to lack of equipment or proper tools.
i wouldnt mind it either as a diagiosis tool as well.

[maxim]

i have the gre3g banish tuning dvd's if your interested...