Diy Tuning

[Ralph Wiggum]

Since wikipellor has moved onto greener (blacker?) pastures and the renewed interest in HPT it seem like a good time to reboot this thread.

[rollex]

http://www.hptuners.com/forum/showthread.php?53120-help-rolls-transition-from-a-tuna-to-a-tuner&p=394600#post394600

[Ralph Wiggum]

Hey guys, so I've purchased HP Tuners and am going to give tuning a go. I will be attempting to turn a standard BF XR6T tune into something that will run the following: ID1000, intercooler, dump and ~15psi.

I've got an XCAL tune in the car currently that runs this combination fine but I cannot edit the tune with HP tuners so it leaves the only option of doing it again myself as a learning experience. What I plan to do is the following:

1. "return to stock" with XCAL4
2. Start hacking the stock tune on the weekends
3. Save hacked tune
4. Load stock tune
5. Plug XCAL4 back in and load my custom tune so I can drive to work etc.
6. "Return to stock" with xcal4
7. go to step 2 until my HP tuners tune is acceptable and I don't need to or want to keep using the XCAL tune.

Now in terms of where to start I've found this guide:

http://www.hptuners.com/forum/showthread.php?48134-Speed-Density-on-the-BA-BF-Australian-Ford-Turbo-6

and been told to read Paul Yaws injector dynamics write up. Can someone post a link to this article?

The next thing to get my head around is how the fuelling is calculated. It seems from looking at some offline files and reading the above thread you get your "MAP per airmass high res" to get your commanded AFR to match your actual AFR so you can then tune the base fuel map.

There are two approaches to fuelling. First approach is Fudging injector values to achieve the desired Lambda values in open and closed loop. Acceptable and the most common approach) The second is full SD tuning which requires more time/effort/equipment. But is the "correct" way to do it (from and engineering point of view)

My understanding is you update your base fuel map (TPS vs rpm) to give the AFR you want at specific RPM, the ECU will then use this map along with the calculation air mass to work out how much fuel is required. This seems quite different to how other ECUs calculate fueling, eg they will have a single map of load (MAF or calculated MAF via a MAP sensor) vs rpm.

Correct, the ECU will also apply a multitude of correction factors to determine acutal INJ PW for a given engine condition (ie temp/baro/cam angle/etc etc) the good news is ford did quite a good job of this so leverage off that

Am I totally off the mark? Does the command AFR in the TPS vs RPM base fuel map get used like this?

No,Yes

I will keep reading as this seems very different to how other ECUs that I've tuned work and I want to have a solid understanding before attempting any tuning.

Ford use quite a complex airflow model which is what create the flexibility to tune these cars to the level we can.

Is there an equivalent writeup for ignition timing and injector sizing? As these will be the next things I need to read.

Best I have seen is available here http://www.lasotaracing.com/MOHPTuningGuide.htmlnot exact for our cars but a good start to understanding the methods ford use

Another thing as I can't read my SCT tune what should I datalog to get and insight to how it has been tuned currently. Eg can I effectively log all of these parameters to reverse engineer what my current maps might be so I have a good starting factor? What is better for datalogging, SCT livelink or the VCM scanner for HPT?

SCT has access to more parameters and will assist in decompiling the current tune but is more time consuming/less stable/more resource hungry than the HPT Scanner. At a high level break it down into fuel/air/spark/boost control.

Go through the available DMR's in each catergory in livelink. Fuel for example has Lislp/Hislop, calculated INJ PW, Battery offset etc etc. You should be able to build a picture of your current injector values from that.

Then do the same for airmass/spark/boost control.

It will take time to compile all the info and translate it back into you HPT modded tune but that's what you'll need to do.

[rollex]

Fudging injector values sounds like a hack way to tune a car, I've got the rest of my life to get this right so learning to do it the proper way will be interesting for me.

What does "full SD" mean?

[rollex]

$75 for his book, is it that high quality to be worth buying? If it is a proper book with long winded explanations I would consider buying it, but if it is just some guy who has compiled effectively free forum posts maybe not.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Once you delve into what required for a full SD tune you'll understand why most adjust injector slopes.

Speed Density, if you're not familiar with this you need to study up before starting

What's your time worth? I got in early when the book was released so it was half price but IMHO I've got more then $75 value out of it.

[rollex]

I just bought it, $75 isn't much for something that I'll get enjoyment out of doing.

Can you use the moates software with our PCMs? Looks like it would be an interesting way to get into the more "custom" side of things, eg if you want to make the check engine light flash on knock or other random software mods.

edit: Looks like it is for the previous ECUs before the ones we use now.

Edited 17/08/15 03:23 AM by rollex

[Ralph Wiggum]

No you cannot, Moates is for the older EEC pcms.

[turbotrana]

Read everything on the HP Tuner Forum.

There is "the ultimate Ford EFI tuning guide" by Don LaSota which is OK

Forget about the SD files for now. Ford has done a pretty good job on them anyway.

Once you have gone thru that, give it a couple of weeks to soak in then we can answer your questions.

Get your a/f ratio meter connected and start observing air/fuel ratios.

Get your scanner working and start observing spark /trims/load etc.

At this point you are just learning tuning knowledge and observing data readouts.

Edited 17/08/15 01:31 PM by turbotrana

[Peppy_t92]

I replied to your post on HP forum Rollex, didn't realise Ralphy covered most of it on here.. Good luck mate, there's plenty of knowledgable people to help out around here