Hello from New mexico!

I am a heavy duty technician here in New Mexico, USA. I am interested in learning to tune to offset issues with engines. I also like the performed enhancements one may obtain from doing so without violating the clean air act. I am super stoked in becoming proficient at this art. I also like the idea of networking with others around the world to assist with what I know and learn from others to bridge the gap so to speak.

Timmy,

Welcome and thanks for joining us! I'm curious what you mean by "learning to tune to offset issues with engines".

I have had issues with diesel engines not want to start when coolant temperature is in a certain area, all other things such as fuel supply, cam/crank signal being equal. It is nice to be able to go into ECM to change things such as fueling while cranking to see it you could rectify issue.

Gotcha Timmy.

I applaud your learning efforts! I'll just offer a caution that one of, if not the most common mistakes I see people new to tuning make, is making tuning adjustments which skew the factory calibration in an effort to make the engine run better when the root cause of poor running is actually a mechanical or electrical fault.

Starting is something OE calibrators generally use temperature controlled chambers to precisely test and tune over and over during their development process, so as long as the vehicle is unmodified and in good working order, it should start up like new on the stock tune, down to the temperature where a block heater is needed due to the nature of diesel engine operation and the particular engine system. If it used to start well at a certain temperature and doesn't now, aside from the obvious like glow plugs, sometimes it's slower cranking speed from batteries that aren't 100%.

Nevertheless, the info you'll learn about tuning, datalog review, and engine operation, can really help during the diagnostic process, and certainly in terms of performance gains. You may also find you're able to provide a temporary bandaid to get an aging engine started while waiting for a part.

Have a great day,