2xLS1

iTrader: (25)

HPT COS have been free for quite a while now. Last time I used EFI Live I don't think they had any COS beyond 2004 MY. Do they now? HPT does. I've used them both as a full time l tuner and for ease of use in both the scanner and editor HPT wins easily.

ddnspider

iTrader: (26)

Thats good to know, as they were still charging when I bought EFILive V2 awhile back.

mrvedit

STOP

Please no more "which is better - EFILive or HPTuners" or the Admins will ask me to close the thread or do it themselves. Be glad that two excellent tuning programs are available.
Each has its advantages and each has its supporters and fans. Lets leave it at that.
Any discussion that treats them "equally" can continue and I hope it does.

joecar

Yes, please, let's avoid "which is better" debates...

let's get back on topic...

most free software has not been developed sufficiently to be usable... you have to be a computer engineer to fit the "tool" puzzle together and to locate (reverse engineer) the table(s) you're interested in (think of this taking weeks/months/years);

paid software has been developed sufficiently to be very usable, containing integrated tools to make tuning a quick process (think of dyno facility charging hourly rate);

if you were (let say) some computer-protocols-specialist consultant, you would be getting about $200/hr... which method is personally best for you (spending your own time, or saving your own time)...?

Not to mention that the paid software has support.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

Make a friend with some locals into the LS scene, and you can have them do the simple stuff for little to no money. For a pro-tuner to just change a few settings should cost you little to no money, as long as you're not a thorn in their side.

Make some friends, it helps.

Efi69cam

Personally I'd rather use a professional tool than a cobbled together mess. This applies to software just like it does to any other tool you would use working on your car. Think Harbor Freight vs. Snap On. Would you trust your engine to someone's hack software?

TrendSetter

eh, i think its more about time, experience and interest. I have played with dsm and evo ecms and you basically have to jump into the deep end and really learn assembly and all that. its time consuming but the advantage is i have hands on access to the code and the mods and everything because its open source.

I use efilive with my chevys and absolutely love it, but if it does anything weird, theres not really anything i can do about it since i have zero insight into whats going on behind the scenes. a few years ago i spent a couple weeks trying to make the timing vs afr target correction table work, and it did some weird stuff and was intermittent and i couldnt get much input on the forums so in the end i had to give up and move on. When my evo does that, i at least have a little bit of a chance to dig around in the code to try to track down what is going on. the tradeoff is it just plain works almost 100% of the time.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

If he's simply looking for the simple things, then like I said, make friends with the local performance places, and most tuners will do simple tunes like fan settings, speedo corrections etc for a couple dollars.

brawls43

Best advice right there.