dsmlink + newbie=?

[Richrx_tsi]

ok so here the situation im 18 with a 97 talon tsi awd. what i have done to the car is big 16g and ebay fmic(witch me and my friend installed) 3in exhaust and intake. well im startin to look at upgrading the fuel system 660s? and 190 pump, but i was looking at dsmlink and my question is could i tune my car myself. The problem is ive never tuned before, this is my first tuner car and i want it done right. How difficult is tuning in your experience? should i do it or take it to a tuning shop?

 

[ziggys95tsi]

you can definately tune it yourself man. or well at least try. dsmlink is so user friendly and oriented it takes one afternoon at the track with your laptop to get a good heads up on tuning. read up a lil bit on it and your should be good to go!! good luck man, you can have so much fun with it and go A LOT faster..

 

[Boosted98RS]

dsmlink is not really that hard to tune with as long as you know a little about a car you can do it. As for the installation i don't know because i bought my car with it already installed. Another thing that is a must have is a wideband so you can see what your af really is.

 

[absolute_DSM]

If youre only looking for 660s, you can get away with a SAFCII if you want to save some money.

I dont have a DSMlink but I will here pretty quick. Whats to be scared about? Oh yea, you can blow up your new engine.

Jump on the DSMlink forums and just browse around. Check out the tuning forum here on the board. Id say go to a tuning shop and watch them tune a couple cars on the dyno, talk to them and see what they think.

 

[Thomas91169]

you can blow it up but only if youre really stupid about things.

with DSMlink, you can basically set up the global injector setting and dead times (you can find them on the dsmlink.com/forums) from the forums once you get your login/password after you recieve dsmlink. thats basically all you need to get running and a generic tune going, enough to get you down the road.

once you get to logging, you can post up the log on the dsmlink forums and other users will be able to give you advice on what to do, where to do it at, and what it all means and does. its by far one of the most knowledgeable forums out there.

plus the ability to log knock/timing retard make tuning almost foolproof. unless you want to destroy your motor. plus later on adding things like a 3bar MAP and a wideband 02 and logging them directly make tuning almost too easy. line up two graphs to the best of your ability, and it means youre basically good to go tune-wise.

btw little steps at a time. make little changes and make sure to document the changes and soon youll see what changes effect different things. see knock, add fuel or take away timing at that spot, if knock goes away, add timing and see what happens, if knock comes back, put it back to where it was and try taking out fuel, if both those dont work, stick it back to how it was when there was no knock and move on to another spot of the tune.

btw for the price, DSMlink is the winner, if you already have a laptop and a eprom, of course. otherwise dsmlink=$600, and a Safc (350) plus a palm setup (200)=$550, so you might as well spring the extra 50 and get something thats light years ahead of a palm/safc combo. once you add the price of a laptop to run link (~300 used) and a socketed eprom (300) then yeah, dsmlink can be quite a investment, but its still worth it. the potential it unlocks not just for standard 300hp combos, but the ability to run up to 1600cc injectors and most streetable combos (since unlike AEM EMS, it still retains all of your ecu functionality, so daily driving the car even with uber large injectors and turbo still feels like a stock car) effectively for years to come make it worth it.

 

[daren_p]

DSMLink is super user friendly & with a read of the manuel & their forums, which are a great source of info, you should have no problem tuning it yourself. Spend the money you'd spend on having someone else tune it on a wideband and you can have a "professional" tune anytime you want. As a side note don't go with 660's if your going with DSMLink as it can make pretty much any injector run like stock. Since injectors aren't a big price difference when you go larger, go large so you don't have to spend more money upgrading down the road. We all know are current goals tend to change. I origionally went with 750's as I thought they were huge at the time but with my current setup I will still probably be in the 80% + injector duty cycle. Personally I usually say go with 850's now & you should be set for a long time. I know if I was doing it over again thats the size I'd go for.

 

[jiggysnitz]

I definatly think its a good thing to at least tr yourself. Its alot easier than you would think just look around on the forums so that you can get a grasp of how it all works. Only downside is your car is gonna have down time while you get the ecu socketed. As absolute_DSM said, you can get away with the safc and be fine, so could I, but I wouldn't trade the dsmlink for anything its a great tool

 

[tkelly27]

I wouldn't try anything without a wideband. They are getting in the $150 range and I think you can log those with laptops. I'd equate tuning with a narrowband to skateboarding in the dark with a flashlight. You probably can do it, it's dangerous though. WB would be like in the light, still dangerous, but you can see where you are going. This post is already to long, PM me if you want me to dig up a link to a good example in another forum.

I'd also go DSMlink over SAFC. A SAFC is just modifying the signals sent to your ECU. With DSMlink you are altering how your ECU responds to the signals it is already getting. It's a much more powerful and accurate tool.

I'd see if there is anyone in your area that has done it before to get your tune down close (read "safer than you probably should be"), and then take it to a tuning shop with a dyno and go the rest of the way there. You can also do it at the track, but a dyno takes a lot of the variables out of the equation. Most tuning shops (the ones I've been to) are real cool about giving advice too.

I'm in full agreement with everyone else, having lots and lots of extra fuel delivery at the ready never hurt anyone that was smart enough to compensate for it. I'd even recommend a 255 pump and an AFPR if you haven't already changed your pump. You can never have enough fuel...

 

[Mitchel63]

I agree that a WB is a good tuning tool to have, but it is not 100% necessary. Our cars are knock limited, buy DSMlink, log knock......as long as you are keeping knock in check, you are not going to be even near lean enough for anything bad to happen.

 

[JessGST]

As everyone else said, DSM Link is very user friendly. You can have your injector size burned into the chip from the start. Then you once you do some reading up on how it works and how to tune, you can start fine tuning then.

 

[tkelly27]

I agree that a WB is a good tuning tool to have, but it is not 100% necessary. Our cars are knock limited, buy DSMlink, log knock......as long as you are keeping knock in check, you are not going to be even near lean enough for anything bad to happen.

I'd say it isn't really an option to tune without a WBO2 in this day and age. They are less than $150 now, there is no excuse for not having one when you've just spent $700 on DSMlink. I have a tendency to go off on tangents, so if anyone would like to know why I think tuning with log knock is a very silly idea they can PM me

Back on the topic at hand. If you're computer savvy, you can go here
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/dsm-ecu/
and here
http://users.wpi.edu/~ktarry/dsmtech/dsmromedit.html
and finally get this program (it's free, $30 is a suggestion0
http://www.moates.net/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=68

you can download some binaries and the tunerpro files for the DSM ECU and get a taste for how tuning works and what kinds of things you can change, where, and why they are there. DSMlink program works and looks different, especially for the 2G, but the tuning concepts are universal. From what I've read that forum is more for development, less for helping out noobs.