We have figured out transmission shift management, and we will be expanding more into the transmission tables each day. Hopefully, when Stage 2 tune is finished, we will have a great 11.7 car that is still running under 20 lbs of boost.
Your profile says you're 28? LOL! The other "Tork" guy with hardly any posts, which started this thread, is 48. I'm just curious.
LoL, I am 48
Thank you.
I agree with everything in your post, but the part about street tuning.I mean, this thread... There's some useful things here, and some obvious jump-to-conclusions defensive and passive aggressive jabs going on... obviously...
But if you must know, tuning is more skill than it is hardware. I've known people running HPTuners tune their own cars on the streets better than a dyno tuning shop doing it for 20+ years. If you have the aptitude, spend the time, run tests, and have the scientific method down better than just a hunch, I think you (as in anyone) can tune a car. Tuning is the same as racecar drivers: it's 90% tuner; 10% hardware.
Whether you do this with an ECU tune or a piggyback chip won't really matter as much as it seems. There will be advantages to both (for example, the ECU tune is able to manage parameters not normally accessible "externally" via a chip simply altering values, but the chip can be removed with little evidence left behind [though, keep in mind, there is ALWAYS evidence, ALWAYS), but at the end of the day, a finely tuned ECU or chip is capable of "safe" power. One will edge out the other in one area, and another will have abilities the other cannot. I have always found that a skilled tuner is the key. One of my older cars had a canned tune in it from a one-man shop guy that was basically a nobody, but it was LOADS better than the "big company" one that not only had some terrible tuning behaviors, but a terrible support team that instead of trying to fix the tune turned to bullying me into returning it.
Soooo, what I say to this is that it's not what you pick, it's who you're picking it from. Go for an ECU tune, or go for a piggyback. But pick the vendor that seems to be demonstrating actual extensive testing/skill in what they're doing.
Granted, someone might say, "but all of the vendors seem to know what they're doing!" and/or "the car hasn't been out long enough for us to find out who's what!", but I can tell you right now that if you spend the extra time to look closely, you can tell where different vendors' interests lie. They all need to make money, such is the way of business, but the manner in which they present their product says a lot about their view of the car and its owners.
Happy tuning/chipping!
I agree with everything in your post, but the part about street tuning.
Tuning with pre-made map indexes via COBB, HPTuners. UpRev, Diablo, SCT, BullyDog, ect... the work has already been done. Maps have been give priority, maps have been sorted, and have been verified and tested. Do you want to know what all those companies have in common? They all have a dyno
I agree that a very large % of it is skill, but when doing tune development with no map index or DAMOS file, its is imperative to have a dyno. Its a must, in order to see whats happening inside the ECU real time with each change. You cannot watch the laptop on the street and if you have someone else driving, if there is a problem in the live data, by the time you have reached over to hit them in the arm... its to late.
I tune with COBB, Diablo, SCT, UpRev, GIAC, REVO, AEM. MegaSquirt, Link, ect and that format of tuning has verylittle trial and error. When starting with nothing, its all about data collection. The test, fail, test fail, test, success and repeat over and over and over until you have sorted the proper maps, and transfer files.
I can buy HPTuners and all the maps are present, all the maps are labeled. The maps have critical information as to what they do. Hell, they even have a file sharing system with pre built tunes.Hmmm? You can just buy HPTuners. There's nothing in it. You have to run your car, look at the maps/logs you took, and basically tune the whole car from scratch. Sure, the programming part of gathering the data is there for you, but you still have to learn to look at the mapping, and fine tune it all yourself. It's not a canned tune situation at all. There are people who buy it, and then spend weeks learning about it online and asking the pro tuners for help, and there are courses out there to help train people on how to tune, and some of the more dedicated LS folks would take a tuning course just so they could do it for themselves.
Having said that, that was an example of me watching someone on the street take the time to tune something themselves rather than let a shop (which many LS tuning shops use HPTuners specifically FOR) do a better job. As the saying goes, "no one will care about your car as much as you do".
Of course, this is where, as a business, you could really make your money. If you write an "HPTuners" application for the Lamdba II engine and whip up the necessary brackets/wiring, you could be rolling in the dough as tuners start buying your program and hardware to tune clients' Stingers, etc. Of course, I'm keenly aware of how difficult that actually is with newer cars, but hey, you're a step closer than anyone else right now other than Korean tuners who basically don't come here (so we really don't know how much farther they likely are, considering one of them already managed to fit larger turbos).
Oh, and larger turbos mean nothing without resultsHmmm? You can just buy HPTuners. There's nothing in it. You have to run your car, look at the maps/logs you took, and basically tune the whole car from scratch. Sure, the programming part of gathering the data is there for you, but you still have to learn to look at the mapping, and fine tune it all yourself. It's not a canned tune situation at all. There are people who buy it, and then spend weeks learning about it online and asking the pro tuners for help, and there are courses out there to help train people on how to tune, and some of the more dedicated LS folks would take a tuning course just so they could do it for themselves.
Having said that, that was an example of me watching someone on the street take the time to tune something themselves rather than let a shop (which many LS tuning shops use HPTuners specifically FOR) do a better job. As the saying goes, "no one will care about your car as much as you do".
Of course, this is where, as a business, you could really make your money. If you write an "HPTuners" application for the Lamdba II engine and whip up the necessary brackets/wiring, you could be rolling in the dough as tuners start buying your program and hardware to tune clients' Stingers, etc. Of course, I'm keenly aware of how difficult that actually is with newer cars, but hey, you're a step closer than anyone else right now other than Korean tuners who basically don't come here (so we really don't know how much farther they likely are, considering one of them already managed to fit larger turbos).
Transfercase control is active in the ECU, but a tune is not required to disable it. There is a fuse under the hood that can be removed to take the car from AWD to RWD. Just pull it for RWD mode, and install it for AWD mode. Doesn't trigger any check engine lights and takes 60 seconds to do.
Yes, the octane and ethanol maps will adjust inside the ECU. It will only allow up to E30 because it doesn't have a flex fuel sensor. Anthing higher than 30%-40% will trigger a check engine light.
A decade ago? Oh good lord, massive changes from then till now.
