Bought HP tuners today, any advice you can give a first time user would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

take your time, read through the help file www.hptuners.com/help as well as reading the stickies at the top here...combined you should be well on your way.

 

Read
ask questions
read
try new things
read
be patient
read
only make one change at a time
read
log




Oh yea and read

 

Yup what he said

 

I would step through each table and see what makes since to you. Decide which initial changes you need to make and keep a written log of each file you make so you can always go back to the previous file in less than a minute (I love HPtuners for that especially )

Never make a change unless you know what the end result will or should be. You need to understand the purpose of each parameter you are changing.

Do lots of searching and keep notes. When searching back up each fact you find before accepting it as gospel as many statements you will read are opinions or theory rather than facts.

It's a great tool that you will enjoy for a long time. Good luck!!!

 

you can take advantage of the change log as well...you can leave notes as to what you did, why & how much & pull them up for later use. So many goodies packed into such a small pkg at first it might be a bit overwhelming but like state just read the help file & ask questions if you get stuck...and just play with it to be honest...its not a program where you'll find everything in a day.

 

oh and get a WB too! did u get the eio? i hope so. save yourself some grief.

 

^^^^ This is sticky material ^^^^
very well put

 

Yes I bought the eio and which wideband to buy? All I need is the actuall O2 correct?

 

no, the minimum would be the LC-1, then the LM-1, DJC, and a few others.

 

I have an FJO wideband, good enough?

 

t t t

 

i'd put in few more 'log/analyze logs" sequences in here.

you want to know and understand your car before you make any changes. people don't do that enough, they make changes and wonder why things don't make sense. learn how fuel trims change with weather and altitude, different brands of fuel, etc. learn when it knocks and decide if it's real/fake/dangerous/natural. interpretation of graphs/charts/histograms is a super valuable skill. if you're just changing things, you're a hack that likes to shoot in the dark. if you're reading logs and learn how to interpret data, you're going to be addressing problems and making progress. also, it helps to diagnose problems. i got used to it so much i don't think i could fix anything on my car without running some tests, logging and reading logs to see what happened.

as far as reading on the net--WATCH OUT! there's a lot of bullshit out there, definitely more bullshit than truth. signal to noise ratio is against you. learn which people got it figured out, and stick to their posts. Also, remember this board especially, been around for a while, so if you see a post from 2002 it might not be the prefered method anymore, so watch your post dates as well.
try to go to the source. if you find a spreadsheet and it tells you where it was originally posted, go back there, see if there's a newer version. this might also lead you to more information (there's many more source of information beyond the boards!). also remember that boards are discussion oriented, so very often you'll see a lot of arguments, but little conclusions--that's for you to decide.
read books, plenty of books on tuning out there, all of them will be beneficial.
know your hardware--if you don't know precise specs, you will not be able to represent it in the software, causing imprecision and errors.
check your units--often number don't agree, and all you find out is you were looking at it in different units.
in general though, be a scientist! remember and practice all the principles of science, or you're quickly end drawing wrong conclusions.

 

Hey, redhardsupra. I like the site. A lot of info to read. Thanks, I plan to use some of this.

 

Great site. Lots of helpful info. Thanks a bunch