00Wildcat

First of I'm a computer idiot. I have a 79 Malibu with an '04 5.3 truck engine. I'm a tinker/fabricator and can't leave anything alone which is why I want to tune on my own with HP tuners or one of the other full tuning software suites. If you aren't familar with G-body dashes they have a big rectangular gauge cluster area that in my case has a big useless sweep speedo and that's it. So I've been thinking why not take an inexpensive laptop add a solid state drive (to reduce effects of jarring and reduce the ghost energy consumption when the car is shut off and the computer is still on), separate the lcd from the key/mother board, mount the lcd in the dash and the key board in the glove box or swing out from under the dash (or would a touch screen work?). That would give me a tuning package and gauge package for around the same cost as just a nice set of gauges? Will this work as simply as I think it should? how much 12v power would something like that use in hibernation mode? If the computer was shut down every time the car was shut off, waiting to reboot would be impractical.

Schwanke Engines

iTrader: (1)

Or, you could just do this!!!

http://www.racepak.com/Components/IQ3_Display.php
http://www.racepak.com/Components/OBDII.php
http://www.amazon.com/Cable-J1962M-2.../dp/B000TMCX72

And you wouldn't have to worry about keeping your laptop in hibernation mode.

00Wildcat

Racepak would fall under "nice gauge package" I've considered that. I already have an Innovate LM2 Wideband datalogger. The racepak setup starts around $900 from my research. I was thinking $200 used business class laptop like a dell 620, a $100ish 8-10" lcd monitor, HPtuners $500 and another $100 or so for power supply and cables, that adds up to arond the same as the Racepak but a larger screen, GPS, and most of all tuning capabilities.