HPtuner, are there instructions that spell it out?

[Firebirdjones]

After using a lap top to tune and burn chips for my Iroc, and not really getting too far with it. Now I have an 02 SS and want a more simplified way of tuning. I have been looking at Diablo tuners but can't seem to get any comments on the little hand held tuner.
HPtuner seems to be the favorite among my searches, but again, this is another laptop tuner,,,,which I have found to be not very user friendly, with tons of tables, too many abreviations, and no explanations of what anything does.
Does HPtuner come with a book to tell you how to use it, what each function does and how it affects the car?
I don't want to sink money into another expensive tuning device that is complicated and turns into a big pile of electronic junk that I can't figure out. I thought a hand held tuner would be the way to go for a computer illiterate old fart like me, but not many out there offer much improvement over stock from what I read.
HPtuner sounds great, but I hate to ask tons of tuning questions on forums like this, seems everyone has a different answer for a question, my way is better than yours kind of thing. This is the problem I ran into when tuning my Iroc using tunerpro RT. I got sick of that.
Someone please tell me that HPtuner is not that bad. Anyone have pictures or graphs of what the screens look like? Is it easy to make sense of? Larry.

[anarchy99]

Hp tuners is just like the program you had for your IROC. There is no included book, but there are the hptuners forums and they were super helpful for guys like me that knew nothing about tuning cars with a computer. They have great help sections and some walkthroughs that show you screen for screen exactly what to change. My car is far from stock and I wouldn't have been able to get remotley close to it running right without HP tuners. Having said that EFI live is a great product also. Got to hptuners.com and see if you can get into the forums part, I'm pretty sure you can. The screen shots for all the tuning softwares look about the same, as far as different histograms and tables and such, it really just depends on you as to which one you go with.

[12secSS]

Here you go! Plus if you look through the help section, you will find some tutorials and how to properly tune your vehicle, with some demos as well.

http://www.hptuners.com/help/

[Firebirdjones]

Cool, thanks guys, it gives me some things to look at. I appreciate it. Larry.

[Firebirdjones]

Where do I need to go to get started? Prices etc?

[foff667]

http://www.hptuners.com/order.php

[Firebirdjones]

Thanks for the link,,,,you guys are great.
Hey what does "8 credits are included" mean? Does it mean after 8 attempts at tuning a car I have to buy more credits? I don't think I like that idea at all. Can someone clearify? Larry.

[anarchy99]

You need 2 credits to tune a vehicle with a standard tune. Anything like 2 or 3 bar tuning costs another credit to upgrade. Each additional vehicle you want to tune is another 2 credits. You start out with 8 though so it's more than enough unless you plan on tuning multiple vehicles with the same cable.

[12secSS]

One vin locked license is worth two credits, one credit is $50 so a vin locked license cost $100 per vehicle. Once you have a vehicle licensed, you can flash every minute of each day for the rest of time. You have unlimited flashing or tuning, once licensed. 8 credits can be used in a slew of combinations, as seen here:

http://www.hptuners.com/products/vcm...creditsfaq.php

[Firebirdjones]

Oh okay, so if I use 2 credits to tune my car, then I can tune my car an infinite number of times with no worries. I think I have that right?
Sounds good to me. Larry.

[anarchy99]

yes. You would only need more than 2 if you were tuning another car, or you wanted to add onto the type of tuning, such as 1 BAR SD tune, 2 BAR SD tune, etc.

[Firebirdjones]

Oh okay,,,,I just want to stick to standard tuning and change some of the simple things. Keeping the motor stock for quite a while. I don't plan on camshaft changes or anything major unless the motor gives me a good reason to go inside.
Basically looking to remove torque management, raise shift points on the auto, raise line pressure for snappier shifts, turn the fans on sooner for the 160 thrermostat etc...is this stuff easy to find in HPtuner and change it?
I may leave the perimeters on the engine alone for the most part (fuel and timing) until I get more comfortable with it, and baseline the car at the strip as well. Is the stuff mentioned above difficult to change? Larry.

[mrr23]

hptuners is a far cry from what you used to tune your iroc with. i had an 86ta and used tunercat with it. there was nothing with the tunercat. with hptuners, you can hover over the tab that you are looking at and a description will show up at the bottom. theere's even a help file with alot of info to read up on.

all that you mentioned is the easy stuff. and it's easy to find. i'll use this image from hptuners site to show you. in this pic you see the fans window open. pretty easy to change.



now, look across the top. you'll see HP OS, Engine, Engine Diag, Trans, Trans Diag, Fuel Sys, System, and Speedo. you click on those to open the windows to those parameters.

even the timing table is pretty easy. VE tables, under Engine is where most people get stuck at, like me.

[Firebirdjones]

That is great info, many thanks for that. Thats the kind of stuff I like to see. That looks so much more user friendly than the tunerproRT I am currently using. I wish there was a demo somewhere I could play around with, just to see what it looks like inside and how you move around to find things, if I felt comfortable with it, I would buy it tomorrow. Thanks again, Larry.

[mrr23]

to get an idea, you could download EFILive. i did that and still went with hptuners due to the better cost.

[Firebirdjones]

Okay. I guess you can do live tuning as well? While driving down the road etc...? Larry.

[mrr23]

with hptuners, yes.

[Firebirdjones]

Thanks for all the help so far guys,,,,I am sure if I buy this I will drive someone nuts with questions, what if? How do I? What does this variable do? LOL.
I am wondering something that may be a stupid question but.......Can you adjust or eliminate torque management with it? What section would that be in? Larry.

[mrr23]

yes. torque management is in two places. engine and, if auto, in the transmission section.

[Firebirdjones]

Hmmm, that sounds odd to me. Why 2 places? Do you disable it in both places? Larry.