Should I give up or try this?

I have a 2006 Exige. Two of the previous owners did several mods. The main mod done was a supercharger kit was added, then the second owner changed the SC to a TVS900. I know the tune is not correct so I have ordered a EMU Black standalone ECU. I have a Exige 260 map as a starting point. I have never tried to do EFI tuning but have taken several of the courses on HP academy.

I had to call a parts supplier/shop to get them to send me the correct connectors for the injectors I ordered. They sale SC kits and due tunes but only if you buy their kit. He asked what I am doing and I explained it to him and asked if they could do remote tuning the answer was no and he said they would not want to do the tuning on a car with out their kit. I told him that is what I thought and why I am going to try to do it myself. He said I will need a lot of luck to get it right. Then I called a local shop to check on renting their Dyno and if it was a load barring dyno. He said it was not and asked if I had done this before. When I told him no. He said that I may get it close but if I have never done this I will probably never get the car to run right.

So in less than 20 min. I was told by two experienced people I have a snowballs chance in hell. Great!

Is there any first time tuners on here? If so how did it work out? I am thinking maybe this is something I should not try.

I am a completely new to tuning. I purchased the EFI tuning bundle and been going through all the courses to learn how to tune myself because I paid someone to tune my car and it ran like crap, while another person tuned it not expecting any payment and his tune ran amazing but I would still get knocks here and there. This led me to want to learn how to tune my own car so I knew what to do to eliminate my engine from knocking. I have to watch videos sometimes over 5 times just to fully understand a concept and sometimes I feel like I still don't fully understand lol. Keep at it and as with anything that takes practice and work, it's always worth it.

In terms of how it worked out...I am only on my second revision of this tune. I have no Dyno where I live so I just datalog every time I drive and review that data. My main concern now is eliminating knock. I would have to say that with the help of another member on this forum answering one of my questions and the courses, I took the stock calibration, retarded the ignition timing in the areas I was seeing knock. Datalogged the exact same drive I did prior and the knock count went from around 16 knock counts to 4. I am going to make my next set of changes and see how the car drives but I am understanding the concepts taught in the course more, the more I get in the software and make changes and then see the effects of those changes have in the next set of datalogs.

Hope this helps!

Yes that does help. Thank you!

It will be a steep learning curve, but nothing beyond someone of reasonable intelligence - do your research, think about what you're doing, and take it gradually and you should be fine.

Remember, ALL those other 'tuners' had to learn from the beginning, too.

Reasonable intelligence? I am truly in trouble! You are correct everyone has to start some where.

I started with a standalone on my 2002 WRX. Luckily that was a plug and play kit so at least the car started and ran without being tuned. You can absolutely do it yourself but you'll spend a lot of time driving with a laptop in the passenger seat and logging. I'm sure you'll be frustrated at points because you'll fix one issue but cause another but it's a great learning experience. It literally took me years to figure out how to tune idle but through experience I figured out that you can't have an engine idle if you expect any control.

From my experience you can get better results tuning it yourself on the street than from a bad Dyno shop. A good Dyno shop on the other hand will have your car running very well in just a few hours instead of a few months or years.

As long as it is not your daily driver, I say go for it!