Just starting out

Hey guys , big Honda fan and Hondas will be my main cars I focus on.....i'm still new to tuning but am getting the idea of it. Just all seems very overwhelming atm...I can't imagine having enough time in a day to tune even 1 car, seems to be so much setup. From checking pulse width to working out afr and fuel pressure etc....or am I over thinking it and in fact a lot of stuff is pre loaded into hondata from a drop down menu etc. Cheers

You're overthinking. It may seem like a lot at first, but once you get going and just slowly plugging away at the modules in your own, pace you'll start understanding more and more and it won't seem like such a daunting thing.

In the hondata, either s300 or kpro, they usually, more than likely have a base map you can choose from to start. May have to make a few adjustments as no two engines are the same for the base config. You may be running different injectors (if you buy quality injectors all the dead times etc will come with them), map sensor etc. I'm not sure on the hondata software (i haven't gone through the hondata worked example in the practical reflash tuning course), however a good majority of reflash ecus softwares will have the ability of doing either injection pulse width or VE (i guess VE could also be speed density? correct me if i'm wrong).

The only biggest difference between a standlone and reflash software (besides features and functions) is the fact of live tuning vs tuning off datalogs. Just take it slow and you will get it done. I've watched all of the modules from introduction to tuning, through to understanding AFR, and the practical reflash tuning course, over and over again. Just watch them and keep rewatching them until it sinks in. After you've gone through everything, I would also suggest getting the practical standalone course as this teaches a lot of "from scratch" tunes, and i believe that can help in configuring a reflash as well. (in my opinion that is again correct me on this if i'm wrong).

Again, if you dont have the practical reflash course, i highly suggest you get it as Andre has provided a hondata worked example and is right up your alley.

As far as the fuel pressure goes, more than likely you will have an upgraded fuel rail and injectors along with a FPR (fuel pressure regulator). This is where you set your fuel pressure. Which all of that is apart of your PDI (pre-dyno inspection) which I highly recommend everyone do before getting onto a dyno. If you're unable to do this, I recommend taking it to a local reputable motorsport shop who can perform the pre dyno inspection. This is to ensure that everything is set and ready to go and you have nothing to worry about other than the tuning itself. Also highly recommended for turboed cars, as boost leaks/vaccum leaks etc can give inaccurate AFRs and just cause things to run oddly.

Last but not least, once you've dived into all of the modules and have watched them over and over and over, i would suggest doing the live remote dyno tuning session. This is on a Link G4+ standalone ecu, but will give you the confidence of being able to tune. I never had tuned before doing this class, and only had watching the modules under my belt. Did the first lesson, then second, then by the time i got to the third, i completely tuned the motor with in 3 hours, starting from a base map which is the first 2 hours that you and the instructor set up. The third lesson is a 5 hour class (can be broken up).

Just remember to not complicate it. Don't read too much into what Andre is teaching and just take it at face value, if you do this you'll pick up on it much faster. All you're doing is going through, adding and subtracting fuel to hit your targets you'd like to see, then going through and finding MBT thats best optimized for the engine which you can see in the torque as you're advancing or retarding the timing. (retarding for either knock or in positive pressure, boost, areas or maybe the timing was already past MBT). Essentially at the core of it, that's it. Once you have a tune completely done, then you can shift your targets around and see where the engine makes the best power.

Which leads me to my last point, your AFR targets, are going to be solely based on what you're wanting to do, whether you're going for the maximum power you can get (which in this case is best done on cars not driving on the street, or very much at least), reliability (would be a tad bit richer and sacrificing a little power to error on the safe side), and also have to keep driveability in mind. Once you get the tuning down though you'll quickly understand what a motor wants. If it's picking up power as you're going more rich, that's always a plus because then you have the added fuel as a cooling factor. Which I tend to like personally.

Hope this helps a little. Let me know.

Damen

Thanks for the great reply pal, Yeh ice purchased all the courses and going through them atm... There's a LOT to take in but as you said I eill just drill it in. Going into the hondata software I've read that the knock sensitivity can make it hard to tune sometimes so a lot of people essentially seem to 'bypass' the knock control system by changing the sensitivity values so that they are very high and the the knock trim does correct stuff as your trying to find MBT. Obviously I would be using audio knock control to be safe but to me it seems a little iffy but obviously if the knock detection is too sensitive then the trim will be kicking in when there is potentially no knock??

Yea if the knock sensitivity on the hondata is garbage then best to set it super high like you said and then use the Plex knock monitoring system while you're tuning. And then personally I would then use the headphones in a "controlled envrionment" and do some pulls on a road type of setting ("track") to not only verify the tune but to also verify you're still getting no knock. I personally would then also maybe retard the timing in higher loads by 1 degree just to be sure I wouldn't hit knock in the engine, because if you're just driving around and do a little spirited run, at that point even when logging you would have no clue if you had any knock happen or not. I'm not sure where you've read about that being an issue, however, I would just wait to watch the hondata worked example as andre takes you through everything step by step in the hondata software etc in those modules. Do this before making any assumptions of what you read to be true. Me personally, I never take everything i read at full face value unless it's something credited with true knowledge behind it. That's just me though.

Cheers bro Yeh I havnt tone through the worked example yet maybe that's why I have a few questions. Il go through it soon and then see where I'm at. Thanks for all the help man