Remote tuners without using Ngauge

[mlabrot]

Im looking to start tuning myself within the year and didn’t want to buy the ngauge if it wasn’t necessary to have someone tune the car currently. I’ve had the car about a year now with minor mods. I come from an Evo X and have used open source software with the same process as the MPVI OBDII dongle. Was just curious if any changes as a previous thread said last year it wasn’t being done. Thanks.

Sponsored

 

[Volstang]

You can tune your own car using HP Tuners software and the MPVI2 to read your stock tune and load back the custom tune. I wouldn’t recommend doing all that without getting some training on it. I took the Ford Beginner class at The Tuning School and have learned a ton but there is always plenty more to learn. I really enjoy the process and find it interesting and fun. I’ve written a few tunes for Coyote engines and also EcoBoost engines. Ford engines are much more complicated than GM and other cars to tune so expect a learning curve.

 

[mlabrot]

You can tune your own car using HP Tuners software and the MPVI2 to read your stock tune and load back the custom tune. I wouldn’t recommend doing all that without getting some training on it. I took the Ford Beginner class at The Tuning School and have learned a ton but there is always plenty more to learn. I really enjoy the process and find it interesting and fun. I’ve written a few tunes for Coyote engines and also EcoBoost engines. Ford engines are much more complicated than GM and other cars to tune so expect a learning curve.

Would you recommend HP tuners over SCT for the DYI route? Also I’ve seen the LaSota cookbook offered and the tuning school books? Any difference between the two? And after reading we’re you able to start tuning and making progress or still weren’t ready for it? Sorry for all the questions. Trying to decide if this route is worth it over just getting tunes from a pro for a while. Thanks for your time.

Matt

 

[Volstang]

HP Tuners has a great support network. Not sure about SCT, I don't know anything about tuning with that product. I started out buying a tune from Rob Shoemaker and after a couple years I decided I wanted to learn more about tuning so I started diving into that and went with The Tuning School because they are about the only place that teaches Coyote-specific tuning. There is a ton to learn but its not too bad once you learn and understand it. I can write you a tune and sell you an nGauge and my tune wouldn't be locked like one from PBD, Lund, or AED. Then as you are learning to tune you can see what changes I made to your tune where you couldn't do that with one from one of the big name places. The Tuning School info isn't perfect, but they are always improving their material any Tony Gonyon teaches the seminar and he is fantastic, plus The Tuning School has a FB page for everyone who has attended their training to share info and help as well as 1 free year of support after attending their seminar.

 

[EFI]

PBD uses HPTuners, so you could get a base tune from them alot cheaper (since you don't need to buy a device) and then just go off that and adjust the parameters further on your own rather than paying for tune revisions from them. But at least that way you have a solid starting point. That or download the PP2 or PP3 tunes from the repository for free and base your tuning on those as Ford has some solid tuning of their own.

I plan on doing the later myself as I currently have the Ford PP2 tune for warranty purposes. When the warranty expires and/or I plan on modding further, I will base my tuning on the PP2 tune and adjust from there rather than starting from scratch.

 

[mlabrot]

HP Tuners has a great support network. Not sure about SCT, I don't know anything about tuning with that product. I started out buying a tune from Rob Shoemaker and after a couple years I decided I wanted to learn more about tuning so I started diving into that and went with The Tuning School because they are about the only place that teaches Coyote-specific tuning. There is a ton to learn but its not too bad once you learn and understand it. I can write you a tune and sell you an nGauge and my tune wouldn't be locked like one from PBD, Lund, or AED. Then as you are learning to tune you can see what changes I made to your tune where you couldn't do that with one from one of the big name places. The Tuning School info isn't perfect, but they are always improving their material any Tony Gonyon teaches the seminar and he is fantastic, plus The Tuning School has a FB page for everyone who has attended their training to share info and help as well as 1 free year of support after attending their seminar.

Seems like a good way to learn. I don’t have a ton of time to read now but I did like the way the evos tuned which is almost identical to the MPVI so I’m leaning that way. Thanks for the info

 

[Volstang]

Any tune you buy from PBD, Lund, or any other big name tuner is going to be locked where you can't open the tune or change any settings in it. Even if you could, you need to know what you are doing. On 2015+ Coyotes there are 26 Mapped Points tables just for Spark.

 

[mlabrot]

PBD uses HPTuners, so you could get a base tune from them alot cheaper (since you don't need to buy a device) and then just go off that and adjust the parameters further on your own rather than paying for tune revisions from them. But at least that way you have a solid starting point. That or download the PP2 or PP3 tunes from the repository for free and base your tuning on those as Ford has some solid tuning of their own.

I plan on doing the later myself as I currently have the Ford PP2 tune for warranty purposes. When the warranty expires and/or I plan on modding further, I will base my tuning on the PP2 tune and adjust from there rather than starting from scratch.

So those are like canned tunes? What mods are included with the pp2 and 3 if you don’t mind. I only have a corsa catback at the moment.

 

[mlabrot]

Any tune you buy from PBD, Lund, or any other big name tuner is going to be locked where you can't open the tune or change any settings in it. Even if you could, you need to know what you are doing. On 2015+ Coyotes there are 26 Mapped Points tables just for Spark.

That’s way more confusing than the EVO X tables. They only had 3 spark tables.

 

[mlabrot]

So I could buy a base tune? They emailed back and PBD said they could send a tune without ngauge. Didn’t ask about base tune

 

[EFI]

Any tune you buy from PBD, Lund, or any other big name tuner is going to be locked where you can't open the tune or change any settings in it. Even if you could, you need to know what you are doing. On 2015+ Coyotes there are 26 Mapped Points tables just for Spark.

So by locked, does that mean that you can't hook up the VCM Editor and "Read" the tune? Only once you return to stock can you then use the read function?

I'm not saying to edit the actual PBD tune, of course that would be locked. But what's preventing someone from reading the tune data and then building their own tune separately based on the parameters seen in the paid for tune?

 

[mlabrot]

So by locked, does that mean that you can't hook up the VCM Editor and "Read" the tune? Only once you return to stock can you then use the read function?

I'm not saying to edit the actual PBD tune, of course that would be locked. But what's preventing someone from reading the tune data and then building their own tune separately based on the parameters seen in the paid for tune?

Curious on this myself. On my Evo you could do this.

 

[EFI]

Curious on this myself. On my Evo you could do this.

I have done this also many times on the LS platform with the HP VCM reader. I built many tunes from scratch using examples from other paid tunes that people already had on their cars.

Heck, I was able to download the PP2 tune to my computer, and I will build a tune off that so unless PBD or AED or Lund have a special locking feature that Ford doesn't for their tunes I don't see why not.

 

[mlabrot]

I have done this also many times on the LS platform with the HP VCM reader. I built many tunes from scratch using examples from other paid tunes that people already had on their cars.

Heck, I was able to download the PP2 tune to my computer, and I will build a tune off that so unless PBD or AED or Lund have a special locking feature that Ford doesn't for their tunes I don't see why not.

Do you have a preference between SCT or HP

 

[EFI]

Do you have a preference between SCT or HP

I am partial to HPT since I've been using it since 2009 on several platforms and I already invested the money in the hardware.

Also, I'm not sure if you can download the tune editor software for SCT like you can with HPT to be able to access all of the parameters. I know in the Diablosport world, only verified vendors have access to the full tuning software, while consumers can only purchase the handheld units and make minor adjustments themselves. I suspect SCT is the same.

Sponsored