Tuning tutorial...........

[Jeremy]

Ok so we all know to make the best of these cars you have to tune them. The optiuons we have are time consuming and expensive. Why go through the hassle of mailing off ecm/pcms and letting someone who has no access to your car guess on a tune?

What I am proposing here is, getting together all the tuning saavy guys/gals here and put together a write up explaining how to do this and what everything means.

This will help everyone out to where they can just purchase the tuning and logging software and get their cars tuned out perfect.

Cmon guys let's see what we can do to help out the community.

[JoeliusZ28]

Ive made the same observation dude - I hope to change that when I get my own car figured out. It seems like the reason no one wants to tune OBD1 is because there is no user friendly software suite like HPTuners for us.

I am guessing many of the major mail-order tune guys have designed their own software to streamline their calculations... and you would never see them giving their bread and butter away. you cant blame them.

[WilRace]

joel, i think between the 2 of us we can figure it out, we both use tunercats so we can just compare notes.

[Fastbird]

Guys, one of the reasons that there's not a real tutorial out there is because there's so many different techniques that people have come up with that no one wants their "Secret" getting out. It's a shame really because everyone could learn something from someone else.

Biggest piece of advice I've got it "small steps."

[JoeliusZ28]

joel, i think between the 2 of us we can figure it out, we both use tunercats so we can just compare notes.
I WILL figure it out by myself no matter how long it takes... but yea we can def compare notes to speed things up :)

[Jeremy]

Well sean, thing is there may be "secrets" but having people write up some helpful user info. Would be very valuable.

What I mainly meant is some basic instructions, formulas, and explanations of what everything means. There are a few different options out there for us LTx guys but most get confused when they open up the file.

Joel, if you could give any pointers or want to do a write up, send it to me at pontiacformlt1@hotmail.com and I will piece it together with stuff I get from others and I will try to get a sticky on it.

This goes for everyone else also. Email me your write ups/pointers/info and let's get everyone saavy :)

[Fastbird]

Well sean, thing is there may be "secrets" but having people write up some helpful user info. Would be very valuable.

What I mainly meant is some basic instructions, formulas, and explanations of what everything means. There are a few different options out there for us LTx guys but most get confused when they open up the file.

Don't get me wrong, I 100% agree with you, and you're working on a great idea with making a concise tutorial. The problem that you're going to face the most is getting said information out of people. I'll help in any way I can, but I'm no expert at tuning, just bits and pieces.

[JoeliusZ28]

agreed fastbird,

honestly I am 100% cool with people keeping their theories and secrets - Ive found their is plenty of conceptual info out there anyway. (usually based around HPtuners and OBD2) That stuff can also come from experience once you are comfortable with the controls. The challenge is getting all that done with primitive software, and I am not closed minded to writing some of my own calculators at this point.

Basically were trying to farm a field with a steam tractor - its a straightforward task, just our control system isnt as easy as turning a key.

[Jeremy]

Great that you guys are on the same page as me. Let's get some basics together to at least get the beginner started in tuning.

[MEAN LT1]

There are som epretty good sites to learn from as far as tuning goes. Im at work rightnow and dont have my tuning book with me but WHen I get home I'll post a few. As the above said its not hard to do you just have to know what everthing means and how to adjust it accordingly. Im VERY willing to share what Ive learned thus far. I gues I would call my self a above average tuner. The only thing I tend to struggle on is messing with the automatic stuff as you can do a whole lot in those tables. Im am pretty goid with part throttle/wot tuning via maf and all the other simple stuff.

[Z28pr0jekt]

There are som epretty good sites to learn from as far as tuning goes. Im at work rightnow and dont have my tuning book with me but WHen I get home I'll post a few. As the above said its not hard to do you just have to know what everthing means and how to adjust it accordingly. Im VERY willing to share what Ive learned thus far. I gues I would call my self a above average tuner. The only thing I tend to struggle on is messing with the automatic stuff as you can do a whole lot in those tables. Im am pretty goid with part throttle/wot tuning via maf and all the other simple stuff.


uh omg at your sig pic... is that your car, if so and you're in jax we gotta meet up

[JoeliusZ28]

There are som epretty good sites to learn from as far as tuning goes. Im at work rightnow and dont have my tuning book with me but WHen I get home I'll post a few. As the above said its not hard to do you just have to know what everthing means and how to adjust it accordingly. Im VERY willing to share what Ive learned thus far. I gues I would call my self a above average tuner. The only thing I tend to struggle on is messing with the automatic stuff as you can do a whole lot in those tables. Im am pretty goid with part throttle/wot tuning via maf and all the other simple stuff.
please post that stuff up!

what tuning book do you have?

[MEAN LT1]

uh omg at your sig pic... is that your car, if so and you're in jax we gotta meet up

Sorry,I cant take credit for that work of art in my sig. It was at the gathering in ATL last year and it its a beast. No reason why we still cant get up with each other. Im always interested in seeing running LT1's local to me.


please post that stuff up!

what tuning book do you have?


Let me be more clear, its a notebook that I keep all my notes in when I tune other peoples car. I keep all my formulas, injector constants, flow rating at xpsi, What the cars that I dyno tuned made and so fourth. Sorry didnt mean to mislead you guys. :doh:

[JoeliusZ28]

its OK - I have recently started a document just like that myself. I figured it was necessary at the very least.

[hyperzone]

Very interested. I have AutoTap and LT1edit. I've only tuned out codes and adjusted very minor stuff. I need to get a wideband to really get into the meat of it. I'm in St. Augustine and feel like nobody around here has LT1's or cares to get into tuning them... Breath of fresh air seeing you Jax guys. :)

[landstuhltaylor]

Very interested. I have AutoTap and LT1edit. I've only tuned out codes and adjusted very minor stuff. I need to get a wideband to really get into the meat of it. I'm in St. Augustine and feel like nobody around here has LT1's or cares to get into tuning them... Breath of fresh air seeing you Jax guys. :)

That's because St. Augustine extremely boring. All the people I knew down there were into trucks and ATVs. Vilana sucks, especially the Villages.

[94YellowTAGT]

here is one site with some good info on it
http://www.lt1pcmtuning.com/tips.php

[HottestZ28]

I am very interested in this thread as I want to start tuning. I need to change my program to M6 as it was a A4 and I just installed 4.10s and need the speedo calibrated. I want to get a handle on the tuning before I modifiy the engine.:metal:

[JoeliusZ28]

if anyone wants to talk tuning feel free to hit me up on aim. Im no expert yet but its easier to talk about than just read all the time.

[Red on Red WS6]

I can understand experts that make there living on tuning not wanting to give advise. But hell message boards are for helping each other out. I have been using TC OBDII for a couple years now and I am always still learning things. My best advise I can give is don't get in a huge hurry to be an expert tuner because it is not going to happen without starting simple. I have been reading stuff for years and tuning as a hobby every now and then for friends. I will be glad to share some info. I have all my tuning stuff on my laptop and will post some stuff later.

[Red on Red WS6]

here is one site with some good info on it
http://www.lt1pcmtuning.com/tips.php

That is a great site with a bunch of good info. Thanks for the link.

[tbird31]

MEAN LT1...that vette was BEAST ASS!

on the subject of tuning i'd love to learn how to tune my own car. a good friend of mine is a very well known LS1 tuner here out of charlotte, and i'm also good friends with the guy that tuned my car. it just takes time...eventually i'll find some. wouldn't hurt to have something to help me along though.

[94YellowTAGT]

That is a great site with a bunch of good info. Thanks for the link.

No problem. I need to get started this winter on mine tuning knowledge.

[JoeliusZ28]

if anyone wants to shoot the shit about tuning, hit me up on aim. Im going to be studying this stuff until spring and hopefully ill have a good enough grasp on it by then to be successful at it.

[94YellowTAGT]

I might take you up on that. I need to get some more mpg out of the TA. I should be getting around 27 at least on hwy.

[Fire67]

I've been working at my tune for a couple weeks now for a little each day or so. I'm happy to report that I'm finally starting to get some decent power out of it and my A/F ratios are getting in line.

I had tried this with LT1edit and couldnt get even close. With this FAST XFI system, the tuning is going nicely. The ability to log and tune realtime is absolutely beautiful. And to log then lay the log data over the tables really makes it easy to identify weak spots.

I was thinking that I would have to enlist the help of my favorite pro tuner for WOT tuning on a dyno, but I got so confident with the Base VE and AE tables that I've started tuning on low boost on the back roads around my house. So far so good!

[JoeliusZ28]

IMO you cant beat a good street tune. Ive seen cars tuned to dyno good numbers only run slower at the track than the street tune they had before. Of course, that arguement can be made both ways though.

Honestly I think we just need some better (more powerful) software to work with like what Fire 67 has with FAST XFI. Obviously real-time isnt possible, but better software is.

[Fire67]

Better software is possible, but not likely. The LS variant cars are getting cheaper and ever more popular nowadays.

I've had both good and bad dyno tunes on the stock PCM, couldn't get a decent one at all with the new motor. I'm a firm believer in a good street/track tune, but I will never knock a dyno tune on a good load bearing dyno. Not a simple DynoJet that only allows 1 specific load on the tires. That only lets you tune WOT, and you'll never get the same load as you do on the track. There are some dyno's out their that weigh your car, takes a drag coefficient (sp?) into account, and can vary the resistance to the tires to simulate actual drag strip runs. Even the launch.

[Fire67]

So after 4-5 tunes, I've got my base VE table fairly squared away. I'm getting decent A/F ratios and the timing seems in line with were it used to be on my car with the stock ECU.

How do I go about tuning my base timing maps? I do not have a knock system, so I'm wary causing damage. I've been seeing 7-8psi on my logs around 5000rpm (I intended to stop it at 4000 but it was climbing too fast), and do not hear anything odd with the motor. But it's so damn loud that Im worried that I won't hear the detonation.

I was told that if it's on the dyno, we could watch for a short change in color of the exhaust to indicate an incomplete or early combustion event... But I'd rather keep doing this on the street. Is there a rule of thumb as far as total timing to be looking for at specific rpm and boost levels?