HP Tuners Easy?
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,316
Likes: 2
From: St. Louis Mo
HP Tuners Easy?
Can most car educated people use the HP Tuners system on our own cars? or would we be best waiting for an opening at the dyno guy? or would we want to wait for him anyway just to get the most out of our combo? 
Thanks for any insight!!
Thanks for any insight!!
Drifting
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,283
Likes: 13
From: Akron Ohio
The learning curve is huge, but I enjoy learning. I did some basic stuff with my tranny, fans, 02's etc. Its not easy, I wouldnt throw that word around. You may be alot smarter than me though. The forums are nice you can get help there. If your not in a hurry, go for it. If your cars a daily driver and you thow an agressive cam in it thats another story. This is all just my opinion. I love HP Tuners, Im going to understand it if its the last thing I do. You can also view tunes of cars with like mods, nice feature.
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,316
Likes: 2
From: St. Louis Mo
Its not a daily driver but its a High compression(11.8-1) 427" with long tubes, fast intake, ported ls2 T/B, Ported L92 heads and a lumpy camshaft, etc. I m just getting it all buttoned up. Just about ready for the point that i buy a HP or get it to the dyno. Maybe i better have my tuner/dyno friend do it. I get impatient! lol 
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,089
Likes: 4
From: Ocala FL
The learning curve is huge, but I enjoy learning. I did some basic stuff with my tranny, fans, 02's etc. Its not easy, I wouldnt throw that word around. You may be alot smarter than me though. The forums are nice you can get help there. If your not in a hurry, go for it. If your cars a daily driver and you thow an agressive cam in it thats another story. This is all just my opinion. I love HP Tuners, Im going to understand it if its the last thing I do. You can also view tunes of cars with like mods, nice feature.
I couldn't tune until I did the Mail order tune thing.
Sent them my scans and got back a tune. Studied them and learned that way.
Racer
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 328
Likes: 0
From: Orange County California
If you were starting with a stock(ish) motor I would say go for it, but since you're starting with a whole new setup you may want to have an experienced tuner get it started at least with a base tune and then you can go from there slowly. Make only small adjustments one at a time at first and always "save as" new. Keep the old tune in case you screw up and have to start over.
Justin
Justin
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 4,928
Likes: 1
Cruise-In V Veteran
St. Jude Donor '09
Get a wideband 02 setup. Frequent the tuning forums and go from there. You should be able to find a basic 427 tune with similar mods that you can use as a baseline. It's not "easy" because it's time consuming and challenging. You will learn a lot about 4 strokes. FWIW, most "Dyno Tuners" don't do much with part throttle tuning.
Drifting
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 1,590
Likes: 1
From: Littleton Colorado
It is easy to use, but knowing what to modify is not. You can do a LOT with it.
I got it so I could scan my Vette in order to work with a tuner better. Still working on that, as you have to have the mechanical stuff up to par before you can tune
I got it so I could scan my Vette in order to work with a tuner better. Still working on that, as you have to have the mechanical stuff up to par before you can tune
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Racer
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 382
Likes: 5
From: Virginia
Do not expect tuning to be a quick process. THere are a lot of helpful people here, but It's taken me months just to be able to figure out the wiring of the wideband and integration into the tuner/computer.
don't expect to finish your build and drive it right away. (think in terms of months to learn to tune)
It's taken me 3x as long to tune my car as it did to remove, rebuild and reinstall the engine its self.
THat said just taking your car to a dyno guy won't always get you the "best" tune, but it is a heck of a lot easier than learing tuning.
don't expect to finish your build and drive it right away. (think in terms of months to learn to tune)
It's taken me 3x as long to tune my car as it did to remove, rebuild and reinstall the engine its self.
THat said just taking your car to a dyno guy won't always get you the "best" tune, but it is a heck of a lot easier than learing tuning.
Last edited by NASAblue; Jun 9, 2008 at 01:19 PM.
Drifting
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 1,549
Likes: 1
From: Roanoke Virginia
Why not do both, since this is not an exclusive decision. Get your HPTuners AND get a tune. Get a few tunes. Compare what they did and learn from it. One of the best features is the "compare" feature. It is a great learning experience.
