Quote:
Originally Posted by NASSTY
Let me add as someone who has gone down the path of self tuning.
There is no real mystery to EFI. At the end of the day it's just about how much spark and fuel. Map the fuel to achieve your desired A/F ratio and map the ignition map for the timing. For a factory EFI most of the work has alreay been done. A tuner is just tidying up the mapping as most factory cars run too rich at WOT. This is because a factory car will need to operate in any conditions; such as hot weather towing a boat etc etc.
Once a tuner has developed a tune which I dare say won't take too much of their time to do, all that's left to do is pay for the license of the software which the consumer does when the product is bought. After that, tuners usually just charge for dyno time if you want a custom tune.
So where's the problem?
I have to agree with Les on this one especially the bit about the perceived self importance that some tuners convey to motorists.
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You are right, there's no real mystery to EFI tuning. For example, tuning a Wolf 3d or Motec ecu is fairly straight forward. Like you said, in a nutshell it's just fuel and spark.
Tuning the factory GM LS1 computer however, is a different story. Quote "For a factory EFI most of the work has alreay been done. A tuner is just tidying up the mapping as most factory cars run too rich at WOT." end quote. Most LS1 tunes these days tend to be MAFless. There are heaps of tables that need to be modified just to get it to run properly without the MAF. In fact, many tuners used to completely disable all Knock Retard just to get the engine to run with stable spark at WOT. Knock Retard is a valuable safety feature that should never be disabled (except perhaps on a race car).
Aside from normal MAFless tuning, try tuning a big head/cam car!!!
I completely disagree with this comment: "Once a tuner has developed a tune which I dare say won't take too much of their time to do, all that's left to do is pay for the license of the software which the consumer does when the product is bought."
Developing a tune can be done quickly, if you just copy a program that you've previously used. That's not tuning, that called copying!!!
Additionally, when I tune a PCM, the consumer is not paying for a software licence. I paid that years ago, the customer is just paying for my time and experience.
I believe that I have a right to keep my "secret stuff" to myself. I tell the customer that fact up front and then the choice is theirs. I will still provide an unlocked tune, it just won't be quite as fancy as my locked program.
Boxhead, a standard MAFless tune with VATS off and some different fan temps is nothing secret at all.....