Anyone tune their own car??

[cobrabrouk]

Im currently stock, just bought a KB 2.8LC so I'm going to be installing it with some supporting goodies. How bad of an idea is it to try and tune this myself?
I've never tuned a vehicle, I'm under the impression that I can learn and do anything but if this sounds insane please sober me up. I was planning on installing a wideband, bdx or sctx4 tuner and going from there. I plan on doing lots of research and learning combustion engines and tuning before tackling this. I have the will to learn and I feel confident about it but please if I sound crazy let me know.

 

[01yellercobra]

A few of us tune our own cars. It does take some learning. The biggest thing is being patient and not getting greedy. I'm glad I started tuning my car. It taught me a lot about it.

 

[maxrider]

What software do you guys use? Im looking at doing it myself as well.

 

[cobrabrouk]

Is all you need is a wideband and tuner or what?

 

[Revvv]

I tuned my bikes when I raced. I basically used the track as my dyno. I collected data with each pass.

I may eventually purchase the SCT software to do all of my own tuning again.

Sent from my [device_name] using the svtperformance.com mobile app

 

[01yellercobra]

What software do you guys use? Im looking at doing it myself as well.

Is all you need is a wideband and tuner or what?

I use SCT software. And yes, you need a wideband for watching A/F during WOT.

 

[cj428mach]

Its hard to recommend sct because binary editor is so superior. The nice thing about sct is you can buy the prp setup from lasota racing along with his base tune.

 

[gt347mustang]

Whatever you do don't get hptuners for anything before 2005, the Datalogging is horrible.

 

[MG0h3]

If you've never done it at all I'd suggest something like quarterhorse like CJ mentioned. You can sorta look over your tuners should a bit that way.

I wired in and tuned Megasquirt on my old turbo fox and there was a lot of anxiety lol. Spent so much freaking time just on that.

This time around I just paid 04sleeper and super happy.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

you can also consider adding a J&S safeguard which pulls timing in the event of detonation - if you make a mistake it can save your motor

 

[MalcolmV8]

If you want to tune your own car and learning I'd highly recommend you start with Binary Editor and a Quarter Horse chip. You can purchase the package from coretuning.net

The huge advantage over SCT (there are many) is that you can tune the car in real time as the engine's running. This is huge when learning and trying to figure out what various misc changes do because you can tinker with them on the fly immediately. Trying to get your idle to simmer down or tip in transient fuels working etc. you can make quick adjustments on the fly and figure that stuff out very quickly. BTW this is all while data logging in real time too.

With SCT you're making a change, saving it. Uploading it to the hand held device. Then from there you can flash the car off, wait a few minutes, now start car back up and try to see what changed. Have to re-initialize your hand held to take data logs, start a log...... repeat. When you're learning and unsure of changes this is very frustrating and time consuming.

BE/QH has many many other advantages but that's the huge one for guys learning. BTW SCT is good stuff too and has it's own strong points and advantages but for starting out not so much.

 

[cj428mach]

If you want to tune your own car and learning I'd highly recommend you start with Binary Editor and a Quarter Horse chip. You can purchase the package from coretuning.net

The huge advantage over SCT (there are many) is that you can tune the car in real time as the engine's running. This is huge when learning and trying to figure out what various misc changes do because you can tinker with them on the fly immediately. Trying to get your idle to simmer down or tip in transient fuels working etc. you can make quick adjustments on the fly and figure that stuff out very quickly. BTW this is all while data logging in real time too.

With SCT you're making a change, saving it. Uploading it to the hand held device. Then from there you can flash the car off, wait a few minutes, now start car back up and try to see what changed. Have to re-initialize your hand held to take data logs, start a log...... repeat. When you're learning and unsure of changes this is very frustrating and time consuming.

BE/QH has many many other advantages but that's the huge one for guys learning. BTW SCT is good stuff too and has it's own strong points and advantages but for starting out not so much.

This guy does tuning as a side business and does a lot of tuning, he's also an SCT dealer so you can tell he's being honest with you.

 

[DSG2003Mach1]

ya, I will say when I played around with proracer it was a royal bitch getting the initial maf stuff in the ballpark so it would start and stay running.

im almost tempted to buy a cheap GT to cut my teeth tuning then sell it vs messing with my current car

 

[cj428mach]

I say buy Binary Editor with a QH chip, you can tune on the fly and its so much easier.

When I installed my ID1300's I bought from Malcolm I still had my QH on the car. It would start and barely run, with in a minute or two I was able to have the car tuned in at idle and low load in a few minutes while the car was running. As Malcolm said tuning on the fly can teach you so much about the tables and do it a lot quicker as you can see your changes in real time. If you make a change and things get worse you know immediately and as fast as you can type the change and hit send your car will respond.

With SCT its shut the car off, connect the hand held to the lap top, flash the hand held. Then you must flash the car and try to see the difference.

 

[cobrabrouk]

Thanks guys I'll start reading up on the software. There's only a couple reputable tuning shops in St Louis and I've heard horror stories about both of them so I'd rather do it myself. I'll get to learn alot while I do it too.

 

[MalcolmV8]

This guy does tuning as a side business and does a lot of tuning, he's also an SCT dealer so you can tell he's being honest with you.

I'd rather people get what works best for their situation. I wish more people would do that.

Thanks guys I'll start reading up on the software. There's only a couple reputable tuning shops in St Louis and I've heard horror stories about both of them so I'd rather do it myself. I'll get to learn alot while I do it too.

Bob Monks of St. Louis Mustangs should be out your way. I've not had the opportunity to meet Bob in person but we've chatted tuning on the phone and online quite a bit. He's a smart guy and knows what's going on. I'd be comfortable taking my car there.

 

[badcobra]

This is the point you have to determine if it's time to go standalone. When you start making more power, you need those fancy big money injectors, slot MAF, and then tuning and other related parts. When you total it all up, you're at what a Holley HP system costs. Plus you can run $450 Bosch 210 injectors instead of $1500 ID1300's. Many people dismiss this as hogwash, but add up the costs. I've have already been down this road.

Plus a standalone is so much better than the factory PCM in every way imaginable. My car has never idled, driven and run better than it does now with the Holley system. And it has safety's built into the tune to save my engine in the event of a problem.

 

[MalcolmV8]

This is the point you have to determine if it's time to go standalone. When you start making more power, you need those fancy big money injectors, slot MAF, and then tuning and other related parts. When you total it all up, you're at what a Holley HP system costs. Plus you can run $450 Bosch 210 injectors instead of $1500 ID1300's. Many people dismiss this as hogwash, but add up the costs. I've have already been down this road.

Plus a standalone is so much better than the factory PCM in every way imaginable. My car has never idled, driven and run better than it does now with the Holley system. And it has safety's built into the tune to save my engine in the event of a problem.

I don't think OP is quite there but you bring up a good point. When you reach a certain level the injectors cost so much it pretty much off sets the cost of a stand alone system.

 

[cj428mach]

This is the point you have to determine if it's time to go standalone. When you start making more power, you need those fancy big money injectors, slot MAF, and then tuning and other related parts. When you total it all up, you're at what a Holley HP system costs. Plus you can run $450 Bosch 210 injectors instead of $1500 ID1300's. Many people dismiss this as hogwash, but add up the costs. I've have already been down this road.

Plus a standalone is so much better than the factory PCM in every way imaginable. My car has never idled, driven and run better than it does now with the Holley system. And it has safety's built into the tune to save my engine in the event of a problem.

After adding a Megasquirt to my street rod and ditching the old Fox EEC I won't disagree that aftermarket EFI is vastly superior. I also don't think the OP is there yet, plus some of us don't want to "hack" up our wiring that much.

I did see that DIYautotune will build PNP megasquirts if you can get 10 people to do a group purchase. This would make for a very quick, cheap, easy setup for our cars if they can do it.

 

[MalcolmV8]

I did see that DIYautotune will build PNP megasquirts if you can get 10 people to do a group purchase. This would make for a very quick, cheap, easy setup for our cars if they can do it.

Why they haven't done this a long time ago I don't know. I've been a dealer and reseller for them for a while and there's so many lost sales because not many want to manually wire in their ECU. It's not overly horrible but if wiring is not your thing you're going to hate it.

To me it was worth it because I really love the Megasquirt stuff. It supports so many options and is very open to tinker with. I even have my car wired up with bluetooth and don't even have to plug in the laptop to tune or data log. Pretty slick.

I made mine overly complicated though because I wired mine up in a modular way so I can run the car off either the MS3Pro or the factory ECU or even any combination such as MS3 controlling fueling and stock ECU ignition or vice verse etc. No reason other than I tune a lot and enjoy the experimenting and playing around.

However on another project I did an LS motor which they do have plug & play harnesses for and I got to say it's so nice going that route. Just snap on the harness, hook up power, ground, fuel pump and go. When they finally do this for mod motors it'll be a good thing.