Is hp tuners enough
Is hp tuners enough I know efi live is the best out there but I at the most plan to maybe put heads and a cam on my ls1 in the long run. Who knows when or if that will happen I bought a predator when I got headers last spring. I was planning on to have it tuned with that by logging it.
My question is if I am not planning on buying heads or a cam for at least a year am I better off just paying 100 bucks for a tune for the LT and code deletes? Or should I pay an 800 with a wideband tuner basically and get a hptuners pro or will the gains at my current state be minimal?
My question is if I am not planning on buying heads or a cam for at least a year am I better off just paying 100 bucks for a tune for the LT and code deletes? Or should I pay an 800 with a wideband tuner basically and get a hptuners pro or will the gains at my current state be minimal?
In the short term you can pay to get youself tuned to get up and running. (make sure they do NOT lock the PCM)
Then save your money so that you can purchase HP or EFI so you can learn and tune for future mods.
Its not hard to tune a car but its not easy, there are alot of paramater in the PCM that needs to be understood what effects changing them does to the operation to the car.
Then save your money so that you can purchase HP or EFI so you can learn and tune for future mods.
Its not hard to tune a car but its not easy, there are alot of paramater in the PCM that needs to be understood what effects changing them does to the operation to the car.
Staging Lane
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 59
Likes: 0
From: Bella Vista, AR
HP Tuners Buy it and a wide band and have some fun. In fact, tuning is just as much fun as driving your beast. You will never stop learning and you will feel great about what you have learned. No one can get a car tuned perfectly on a dyno because of differences on the street. If you convert your ram air, if you have a hood scoop, to a real ram air by modifying to seal against the air cleaner assembly then it can only be tuned on the street because the air flow coming into the throttle body and intake manifold is much different than when on a dyno. The higer speed air coming into your engine is what it is all about. There are people like myself on here that will help you with your tuning questions when you get up and running. You cannot go wrong with HP tuners. Just do not change any parameters or table that you do not definitely know why you are making these changes. The MAF calibration is the most effort and yields the most results, as well as the timing advance. It is also important to get the VE table close and this takes some time, however you can learn how to do all of this yourself relatively easily unless you are not good with math and are just unable to understand the fundamentals of what is going on with the engine.
Staging Lane
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 59
Likes: 0
From: Bella Vista, AR
DashDAQ by Drew Technologies This is by far the most useful scanning tool because it is similar to a GPS that mounts on your windshield and you can see real time what is going on with your fuel trims, timing, map, and any parameter you want to view while driving. It logs to a memory chip which will fit into your laptop and you can then view and analyze the results. This is how I found out where I was too aggressive with timing and knew exactly what areas of the timing table to remove timing to avoid any knock retard. It tells you when your MAF is reading too high and too low by viewing your long term fuel trims at steady state RPM values while you are driving. Although this device is about $650 it is a great deal of help for determining tuning changes. I can provide you some starting points for timing, VEs and MAF adjustments to make based on the modifications you have made assuming you have a HIGH quality MAF such as the Pro-M racing which has an exact calibration from the manufactuerer to work with as a starting point. Having the ability to tune your own car is as much fun as driving the car, and when you get it dialed in the smile on your face will last as long as you own the car.
You can do all the with the V2 with EFI Live, no laptop needed. Then you of coarse you can also tune with it. No $650 extra scanner needed to show you what your cars doing while driving around.
I am good with numbers or I wouldnt be an accountant. I want to buy a hptuners or efi live v2 and tune it myself out of the point I like being able to do anything to a car not having to pay anyone to do it. Having to drop 800 on everything for hptuners or 930 for efi live is just hard to say its worth it especially when I am stock internals and just LT's and y pipe
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You can download our software here http://files.hptuners.com/support/msi/DemoSoftware.msi
Once you run the installer simply open the editor or scanner & click Demo mode then have at it
In the hptuners-logs & tunes-samples folder you'll find several sample files for your viewing pleasure.
I think you'll find tuning software one of the best bang for the buck mods you can do for you and your vehicle.
With our product you get 8 credits, enough to tune up to 4 separate vehicles right off the bat so just slightly over $100 per vehicle for the first 4 and its the one mod that will likely never be outgrown and will grow with you and your vehicle(s).
Add a cam retune it
Add a blower retune it
Up the boost on the blower retune it
Swap in new gears retune it
Thats not even to mention the scanner which is really necessity nowadays on obd2 vehicles for gathering important diagnostic information not only for DTC's but for knock retard,etc.
But try out the demo and I think you'll find its more than enough to get the job done. While efilive is more difficult to navigate, costs more, no longer supports this forum and has less support on its forum I don't necessarily think that makes it the best out there
-Bill
Once you run the installer simply open the editor or scanner & click Demo mode then have at it
In the hptuners-logs & tunes-samples folder you'll find several sample files for your viewing pleasure.
I think you'll find tuning software one of the best bang for the buck mods you can do for you and your vehicle.
With our product you get 8 credits, enough to tune up to 4 separate vehicles right off the bat so just slightly over $100 per vehicle for the first 4 and its the one mod that will likely never be outgrown and will grow with you and your vehicle(s).
Add a cam retune it
Add a blower retune it
Up the boost on the blower retune it
Swap in new gears retune it
Thats not even to mention the scanner which is really necessity nowadays on obd2 vehicles for gathering important diagnostic information not only for DTC's but for knock retard,etc.
But try out the demo and I think you'll find its more than enough to get the job done. While efilive is more difficult to navigate, costs more, no longer supports this forum and has less support on its forum I don't necessarily think that makes it the best out there
-Bill
Last edited by foff667; Feb 18, 2011 at 01:36 PM.
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Launching!
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 260
Likes: 0
It depends what you are used to; there's no such thing as the best.
The most basic software package in the right hands always makes a better job than the most sophisticated being used by an average punter.
HPtuners is OK for a novice tuner or somebody wanting to learn how to tune their own car. The forum support is HUGE and the software is fairly simple to use on the older stuff once you get the hang of it. For an F-body owner, it's a great software for those PCMs.
However, when tuning professionally EFI Live is hands down the best product out there. Period. There's a reason that 95% of all shops in the entire country use EFI Live and not HPtuners. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have spent so much money on my HP stuff but you live and learn. I'll keep my HP cable, and I'll be purchasing an EFI Live package soon so I can efficiently tune E67 and E38 PCM's without using that POS Bluecat crap.
However, when tuning professionally EFI Live is hands down the best product out there. Period. There's a reason that 95% of all shops in the entire country use EFI Live and not HPtuners. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have spent so much money on my HP stuff but you live and learn. I'll keep my HP cable, and I'll be purchasing an EFI Live package soon so I can efficiently tune E67 and E38 PCM's without using that POS Bluecat crap.
TECH Enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 620
Likes: 0
From: Katherine N.T Australia
Wow 95% you reckon use EFI LIVE. I seriously doubt that as most shops I've dealt with aren't that smart and prefer the more simpleton way in which HPT operates. Plus for a workshop HPT does offer more coverage over vehicle brands. Ie GM, Ford and Dodge support.
So while I agree with you EFI LIVE is far better for GM models the fact remains most shops try to save money and would prefer a package that does it all. Even if it doesn't do it as well as buying separate solutions for separate makes. ie EFI LIVE for GM, SCT for Ford etc. For the home user IMO the massive hardware capability advantage EFI LIVE has over the matchbox HPT MPVI Poo more than makes up for the added initial outlay if you have solely GM blood in your veins.
So while I agree with you EFI LIVE is far better for GM models the fact remains most shops try to save money and would prefer a package that does it all. Even if it doesn't do it as well as buying separate solutions for separate makes. ie EFI LIVE for GM, SCT for Ford etc. For the home user IMO the massive hardware capability advantage EFI LIVE has over the matchbox HPT MPVI Poo more than makes up for the added initial outlay if you have solely GM blood in your veins.
HPtuners is OK for a novice tuner or somebody wanting to learn how to tune their own car. The forum support is HUGE and the software is fairly simple to use on the older stuff once you get the hang of it. For an F-body owner, it's a great software for those PCMs.
However, when tuning professionally EFI Live is hands down the best product out there. Period. There's a reason that 95% of all shops in the entire country use EFI Live and not HPtuners. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have spent so much money on my HP stuff but you live and learn. I'll keep my HP cable, and I'll be purchasing an EFI Live package soon so I can efficiently tune E67 and E38 PCM's without using that POS Bluecat crap.
However, when tuning professionally EFI Live is hands down the best product out there. Period. There's a reason that 95% of all shops in the entire country use EFI Live and not HPtuners. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have spent so much money on my HP stuff but you live and learn. I'll keep my HP cable, and I'll be purchasing an EFI Live package soon so I can efficiently tune E67 and E38 PCM's without using that POS Bluecat crap.
-Bill
HPtuners is OK for a novice tuner or somebody wanting to learn how to tune their own car. The forum support is HUGE and the software is fairly simple to use on the older stuff once you get the hang of it. For an F-body owner, it's a great software for those PCMs.
However, when tuning professionally EFI Live is hands down the best product out there. Period. There's a reason that 95% of all shops in the entire country use EFI Live and not HPtuners. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have spent so much money on my HP stuff but you live and learn. I'll keep my HP cable, and I'll be purchasing an EFI Live package soon so I can efficiently tune E67 and E38 PCM's without using that POS Bluecat crap.
However, when tuning professionally EFI Live is hands down the best product out there. Period. There's a reason that 95% of all shops in the entire country use EFI Live and not HPtuners. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have spent so much money on my HP stuff but you live and learn. I'll keep my HP cable, and I'll be purchasing an EFI Live package soon so I can efficiently tune E67 and E38 PCM's without using that POS Bluecat crap.
I have and use both, and I disagree with this immensely. I think you could make a much better argument for EFI Live on the GenIII stuff vs. the late model... The later model stuff has some custom OS's through HPT and between them and coefficient cal provide much better late model support. I'm not going to even delve into rest of the myriad of late model reasons as I am in a pinch for time, but man there are more than one or two!
FWIW, I have and use both. They both have their pros and cons. This has been beaten to death. I also have Tunercat. It can do things neither EFIlive or HPT can do. And yes, I have SCT, and Diablo, and so on and so on. Can't have too many softwares.
I agree with Bill on this. I have both also, you almost have to have both nowadays if you do alot of tuning. There are some things EFI can't do and there are some things HPT can't do but they are both great tuning tools.
