Going to get a tuner (first timer questions)

[b4black]

I'm 95% convince that I'm going to get a HPTuners VCM Suite very soon. This is for a 2002 Regals GS (3800 supercharged). I have some questions and looking for advice before spending the money.


1. I want to have a dedicated laptop for this. Best Buy has several for ~$200-250. If it has windows 7 then I'm pretty much good to go, right?

2. I have an Innovate LM-1 - does that tie in with the HPTuners?

3. Since they are local, is there any advantge to that? (Can you stop by their shop and get help?)

Anything else I need to know before I order the software?

Thanks!

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[Mook]

Paging Panda, Eagle, Tommy Gloves, HK, James, etc. You should get all the answers you need

 

[Eagle]

I'm 95% convince that I'm going to get a HPTuners VCM Suite very soon. This is for a 2002 Regals GS (3800 supercharged). I have some questions and looking for advice before spending the money.


1. I want to have a dedicated laptop for this. Best Buy has several for ~$200-250. If it has windows 7 then I'm pretty much good to go, right?

2. I have an Innovate LM-1 - does that tie in with the HPTuners?

3. Since they are local, is there any advantge to that? (Can you stop by their shop and get help?)

Anything else I need to know before I order the software?

Thanks!

1. Yep!
2. Yep!
3. Not really. Use their forums to get more info. Tons out there that'll help you get started.

 

[10sec]

I say go for it. Best decision you'll ever make. After you pick it up, you can do whatever you want with your own car. Cam? No problem. E85? Still not a problem.

 

[b4black]

Just ordered.

By getting it through Summit, you save IL sales tax ($37) vs. buying direct from HP Tuners.

 

[rocket5979]

Yes.
Yes.
Not exactly.



Good pickup, you will like it and the software is quite intuitive compared to some other ECM tuning platforms.

 

[willizm]

Make sure you get the pro version if you want to integrate the wideband.

 

[Pewter-Camaro]

I use an old Windows Tablet Laptop from 2006 for HPT. Just don't use a really nice expensive laptop and backup all the logs, tunes, and dashboards... It will get beat to shit using it in the garage and in and out of the car. Its a great tool to have. I spent a lot of time looking at logs and making changes to the tune and still go back and adjust it as the tune drifts over time.

 

[rocket5979]

I use a little netbook. It small size makes it perfect to fit in between me and the steering wheel when I am parked making tunefile changes.

 

[pajamasam]

Don't worry about pro there are work around to hook up your wideband to it. I used my unused egr wiring and worked great.

And the people at there office are sorta oblivious when people walk in like I did, so there not much help.

 

[rocket5979]

Don't worry about pro there are work around to hook up your wideband to it. I used my unused egr wiring and worked great.

And the people at there office are sorta oblivious when people walk in like I did, so there not much help.

I advise against the analog input workarounds. While they do work, the manual math conversions to scale the voltage reference for the AFR represented slow the tuning process down. I like to see all the data in real time as I am logging and actually see the exact AFR so that I can abort the run if it drifts too lean. Sure you can sort of do that with the EGR logging trick, but it isn't as clean or apparent. Let alone when you get into logging multiple sensors such as an external pressure sensor for boost/fuel pressure, oil pressure/etc and AFR's then you will wish you spent the extra money for Pro. The only way I would ever advise someone to not go pro is if they are just a bolton only auto trans car and not really need to do any significant datalogging and subsequent recalibrations of fueling. But to each their own.

 

[pajamasam]

I advise against the analog input workarounds. While they do work, the manual math conversions to scale the voltage reference for the AFR represented slow the tuning process down. I like to see all the data in real time as I am logging and actually see the exact AFR so that I can abort the run if it drifts too lean. Sure you can sort of do that with the EGR logging trick, but it isn't as clean or apparent. Let alone when you get into logging multiple sensors such as an external pressure sensor for boost/fuel pressure, oil pressure/etc and AFR's then you will wish you spent the extra money for Pro. The only way I would ever advise someone to not go pro is if they are just a bolton only auto trans car and not really need to do any significant datalogging and subsequent recalibrations of fueling. But to each their own.

Yes that's the impression I got from the op. Sounds like he is only interested in his own car. Standard can be a pain in the ass when doing multiple cars/ customers cars.

 

[Pewter-Camaro]

I advise anyone to just a Pro and be done with it. I screwed around with the standard one logging through other sensors but its a pain in the ass. I upgraded to Pro and never looked back. With Pro you can add on any sensors you want and log it.

Example.. After having some issues with trans temps, I logged the trans cooler temps before the factory radiator coolers, after the Aux cooler, and between the 2 coolesr to test the efficiency of the Aux cooler and various mounting points. Found out that mounting the cooler "dope" style (using LS1Tech jargon) is a horrible way of installing the cooler and gets no airflow through it yet strangely on Tech its touted as the best.. lol.

 

[cobra_spence]

Sorry for thread jacking - but how did all of you guys learn to use your HP Tuners?
From their forums? Have any of you taken any of their courses? Any jother outside sources that you can recommend?

 

[pajamasam]

Online research and just plugging in and trying it.

 

[Eagle]

Sorry for thread jacking - but how did all of you guys learn to use your HP Tuners?
From their forums? Have any of you taken any of their courses? Any jother outside sources that you can recommend?

Trial and error, start ed with an na car and learned the basics, then did nitrous, then turbo.

Lots of online research, and leveraging the folks on the hpt forums.

 

[Eagle]

I advise anyone to just a Pro and be done with it. I screwed around with the standard one logging through other sensors but its a pain in the ass. I upgraded to Pro and never looked back. With Pro you can add on any sensors you want and log it.

Example.. After having some issues with trans temps, I logged the trans cooler temps before the factory radiator coolers, after the Aux cooler, and between the 2 coolesr to test the efficiency of the Aux cooler and various mounting points. Found out that mounting the cooler "dope" style (using LS1Tech jargon) is a horrible way of installing the cooler and gets no airflow through it yet strangely on Tech its touted as the best.. lol.

Where did you end up mounting it?

 

[Pewter-Camaro]

Sorry for thread jacking - but how did all of you guys learn to use your HP Tuners?
From their forums? Have any of you taken any of their courses? Any jother outside sources that you can recommend?

the HP Tuners forum and a little bit on LS1tech or Learn-At-Home | The Tuning School is good as a fast track.

 

[Pewter-Camaro]

Where did you end up mounting it?

Well I have to run the factory cooler/heater because I drive it in the winter and have a 180* tstat. When I bypassed the factory cooler on really cold single digit days the trans would not heat up past the 72 deg mark to allow it go into lockup.

I had good results Dope style by making a scoop and taking out the wheel well to allow air to flow behind it as well as a separate fan to pull air through it when stopped. I don't have any shots of that setup but it seemed silly with all the added weight unless you have a boosted car and need to get as much air as possible into the IC and Radiator.

Also found This way works well when moving but you need to run a separate fan on the cooler because its just too far form the factory fans to get air when sitting still.

I ended up mounting in front of the radiator. Shot if it when changed the intake a couple years ago I've changed the mounts more since this and added a ram air as well. I also changed the wiring on the factory fans. to have 1 relay for each and wired them so the the Pass side fan is the low fan and drivers side is the high fan. Both are tuned to turn on at the same temp but because I have each fan on a separate relay I wired up a manual fan switch and indicator light for the pass side fan so it pulls air through both the radiator and the cooler beautifully with no scoops or added fans needed.

4000 stall in heavy stop and traffic in 95* + and the trans never gets past 200 and if I see it climbing I can just flip the fan on.