tuning beginner

[debbie]

Hi hope this is in the right place, I want to start tuning my car especially with the ecu, ive just started looking at the dsm link, and that’s where the problem begins, ive tried to read about it and I really don’t get what people are saying, ive not had anything to do with ecus in the past although I have a good mechanical knowledge its on ecus I fall down, so if any of you guys could give me a basic tuition or point me in the right direction this would be great many thanks Eric.

[Gamble97]

Did you purchase it yet?
DSMLink Homepage Download the manual and read through it, it's very brief though.
It's very easy to learn, and you have almost full control of everything.


Also what are you mods?

[1992awdlaser]

We need specific question since there is so much to cover.

[debbie]

Ok ive not bought the ecu or the link yet, but say i have the epom ecu and the link and i have it Installed and socketted where would I go now. Ive been thinking about this and im guessing you would take it for a drive with your lap top and see what fuel mix you have and so on, but how do you change them and what to, i.e. is there some info out there to tell you the parameters or does the dsm link do this for you, once again thanks Eric.

[1992awdlaser]

If you had it installed you would first do idle tuning. http://jeffgst.com/gmafcalibration2.html

[SethA]

Do you have a European spec car or a US spec car? If you have an EDM car make sure whatever you buy is compatible with whatever ECU you plan on running. It would be better to figure all this out before you spend any money on an ECU. There are non US members on here who might elaborate more.

Seth

[debbie]

Originally Posted by SethA

Do you have a European spec car or a US spec car? If you have an EDM car make sure whatever you buy is compatible with whatever ECU you plan on running. It would be better to figure all this out before you spend any money on an ECU. There are non US members on here who might elaborate more.

Seth

my car is from texas.also what does LTFT and STFT mean.

[lazyazzdaddy]

I have dsmlink and it's great... especially for someone with minimal tuning experance. to set it up all you have to do is put in you correct injector size and dsmlink takes care of the rest for anything besides wide open throtle. basically once dsmlink knows what injectors you have it compensates the size and uses your stock fuel and timing maps.. now at wide open throatle you'll have to set your timing and fuel your self "this is where a good a/f meter comes in handy.... at w.o.t. what you want to do is start off with minimal timing and adjust the fuel so that your some where around 10.8-11.1 once you have it so your a/f ratios stay within those limits you can slowly start adding timing untill you see knock once you see knock at any given rpm point you can remove a degree or two of timing untill you no longer have knock at that specific rpm level.."dsmlink will adjust timing and fuel in 500rpm incraments" so say you start to see knock at say 6500 rpm you would pull timing from the 6500rpm scale /slider untill you no longer see knock.. it takes some time and patience but once you figure it out it gets alot easer.... I hope this helps and if you do end up buying dsmlink and need some help feel free to pm me. im not an expert but between myself and all the other members on here im sure you'll be fine.

[1992awdlaser]

Long term fuel trim=ltft
Short term fuel trim=stft

[lazyazzdaddy]

Originally Posted by debbie

my car is from texas.also what does LTFT and STFT mean.

I would'nt worry about all that now,, just do some reasearch especially on the dsmlink site. "sorry i cant give away all the answers. I asked alot of the same types of questions when i got dsmlink and with the advice of other members I researched it all for my self and now im glad i did" theres a good article there about all that stuff. but you should'nt have to worry about that untill you get a good base tune first... by then you should have read/researched enough to figure that all out. good luck

[debbie]

Originally Posted by lazyazzdaddy

I have dsmlink and it's great... especially for someone with minimal tuning experance. to set it up all you have to do is put in you correct injector size and dsmlink takes care of the rest for anything besides wide open throtle. basically once dsmlink knows what injectors you have it compensates the size and uses your stock fuel and timing maps.. now at wide open throatle you'll have to set your timing and fuel your self "this is where a good a/f meter comes in handy.... at w.o.t. what you want to do is start off with minimal timing and adjust the fuel so that your some where around 10.8-11.1 once you have it so your a/f ratios stay within those limits you can slowly start adding timing untill you see knock once you see knock at any given rpm point you can remove a degree or two of timing untill you no longer have knock at that specific rpm level.."dsmlink will adjust timing and fuel in 500rpm incraments" so say you start to see knock at say 6500 rpm you would pull timing from the 6500rpm scale /slider untill you no longer see knock.. it takes some time and patience but once you figure it out it gets alot easer.... I hope this helps and if you do end up buying dsmlink and need some help feel free to pm me. im not an expert but between myself and all the other members on here im sure you'll be fine.

thanks for that that realy helped, i think the best thing to do is get it then take it from there, as when im reading stuff it just does not make all that much sence, but im sure if i was messing around with it i think i would pick it up a lot better

[snowborder714]

If you want more reading, here's a great site (in addition to Jeff's which 1992awdlaser linked to in post #5) that has A LOT of info:
start [ECMTuning - wiki]

[lazyazzdaddy]

Originally Posted by debbie

thanks for that that realy helped, i think the best thing to do is get it then take it from there, as when im reading stuff it just does not make all that much sence, but im sure if i was messing around with it i think i would pick it up a lot better

yes. I too am a firm beleaver of hands on experance.. you can give me all the books in the world to read but untill i actually have my hands in there its hard to apply it all.
I was so scared i was going to blow up my motor when i first got dsmlink but if you use your head and dont do anything stupid you'll figure it out..and like i said dont be afraid to ask questions thats what were all here for..

[1992awdlaser]

Originally Posted by lazyazzdaddy

to set it up all you have to do is put in you correct injector size and dsmlink takes care of the rest for anything besides wide open throtle. basically once dsmlink knows what injectors you have it compensates the size and uses your stock fuel and timing maps

This is wrong. You should still do idle and cruise tuning. And you have to calibrate the maf.

[lazyazzdaddy]

Originally Posted by 1992awdlaser

This is wrong. You should still do idle and cruise tuning. And you have to calibrate the maf.

I agree ! but, I was just describing the basic base tune as described in the dsmlink manual. I got the feeling they were looking at it like a complete management system where you would have to set every thing first to even get the car to idle. if you want to get into depth then yes for the best possable tune you would definatle want to do all that. I was trying to keep it simple and leave room for them to do there own research like I my self had too.. knowledge is the key!

[lazyazzdaddy]

Originally Posted by 1992awdlaser

This is wrong. You should still do idle and cruise tuning. And you have to calibrate the maf.

"And you have to calibrate the maf"

um no! no maf calibration is ness. unless your trying to max out your car or there using a gmaf which i highly doubt! in which case with there limited knowledge of tuning I would not expect they would try maxing out there car with out the help of a more experanced tuner.

[1992awdlaser]

Originally Posted by lazyazzdaddy

"And you have to calibrate the maf"

um no! no maf calibration is ness. unless your trying to max out your car or there using a gmaf which i highly doubt! in which case with there limited knowledge of tuning I would not expect they would try maxing out there car with out the help of a more experanced tuner.

A gm maf always has to be calibrated. A stock maf 99% of the time can be calibrated to make the tune better. The only not to calibrate is because of being lazy. Why would you not want your tune to be as good as possible especially when it is easy to do? And if it is not calibrated your gas mileage could suffer slightly.

[debbie]

thank all one more thing does anyone have a 1995 eprom for sale and would send to England, ill look in the classified as well but thought i would give it a shot in here thanks.

[lazyazzdaddy]

Originally Posted by 1992awdlaser

A gm maf always has to be calibrated. A stock maf 99% of the time can be calibrated to make the tune better. The only not to calibrate is because of being lazy. Why would you not want your tune to be as good as possible especially when it is easy to do? And if it is not calibrated your gas mileage could suffer slightly.

hey, i said i agree. but! ,1, were talking to someone who does not have a 3"gmaf like your self and 2, i never said i did'nt calibrat my set up and tune mine for max power.. if you look at my profile you'll see i have a ton of work done to my car, and i know how to tune!
were mearly helping someone to get started like we once did! we all start some where... i for one know when i first started tuning people would throw all these numbers and every thing else at me and it did nothing but confuse me even more.. i was trying to keep i simple for them and like i said. once they do there own research and get more comfortable using dsmlink the'll know enough to do all this.

[lazyazzdaddy]

Originally Posted by debbie

thank all one more thing does anyone have a 1995 eprom for sale and would send to England, ill look in the classified as well but thought i would give it a shot in here thanks.

there obviously in high demand, your best place to look would be on the classifieds here or ebay... i know dsmlink was saying they had a limited supply of them but i could'nt tell you if they still do or not. that was one of the reasons i bought a 95. well that and so i could bypass all the emissoins B.S.