**How To: HP Tuners** - Page 4 - Tuning Forum

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Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Saturday, April 20, 2013 7:56 AM
DOHC_tuner wrote:Well with all the research ive read is tuning alpha-n with boost is not a smart way to get a dialed in tune. Its diffulcult and the tune will be inconsistant.

I understand Ben is on the path to learn hptuners and tune alpha-n with boost with his Eco Cavy. But again with all the reading i have done it doesnt seem to be a well viable solutiion.

Considering Bill from Hptuners was willing to help Ben tune his car via tuning by RPM.....im assuming BIll knows there is a way to get the tune drivable. Same thing with Trifecta. I have heard Trifecta has access to more tables than hptuners on an alpha-n operting system. Thus allowing a better tune.

So if you do buy the red cable/trifecta cable, then im sure you will have a better time getting tuned. Make sure you have a wideband!


Alpha-N can be done and be very driveable. Is it the best option, no.

I have heard more bad things about Trifecta tunes on jbody's, than good.



FU Tuning




Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Saturday, April 20, 2013 10:30 AM
^^There is a reason Vince refuses to tune j-bodies anymore
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Wednesday, April 24, 2013 2:02 PM
Oh well nice to hear it can be done and accomplished then. Im just going off what EVERYONE and they moma is saying about tuning alpha-n with boost.

So your saying it can be done and dialed in but very very hard to get it done.


GMR has got nothing on this
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Thursday, April 25, 2013 7:36 AM
Alpha N can be tuned, yes... the problem is it doesn't take much to throw the tune off in terms of the environment... not to mention with a turbocharger it is VERY VERY hard to dial in due to different loads at the same RPM. It can be done, it's just very very far from ideal.

Now if the car had a Supercharger on it with linear boost, tuning via Alpha-N isn't that bad at all. Everything is predictable for the most part... this isn't the case with a turbo though.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Thursday, April 25, 2013 4:54 PM
Ah well there you go Derek.....alpha-n tuning on your M62 should be easy then.


GMR has got nothing on this
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Thursday, April 25, 2013 5:29 PM
SweetnessGT wrote:Alpha N can be tuned, yes... the problem is it doesn't take much to throw the tune off in terms of the environment... not to mention with a turbocharger it is VERY VERY hard to dial in due to different loads at the same RPM. It can be done, it's just very very far from ideal.

Now if the car had a Supercharger on it with linear boost, tuning via Alpha-N isn't that bad at all. Everything is predictable for the most part... this isn't the case with a turbo though.

-Chris-

^This. My cav is proof that it can be done and be very reliable if done right.



"In Oldskool we trust"
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Thursday, April 25, 2013 10:20 PM
Raf..that's the problem..theres no one here in SA to do it. Hopefully Ill be a Trifecta dealer here very shortly so at least Ill have that until I can get a competent, knowledgeable HPTuner that will actually work with me. Seem to be all up north. I need someone who can sit in my car with me and see whats going on. If I buy a house Ill really buckle down and try to learn HPT. Its useful across all kinds of platforms.


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Friday, April 26, 2013 10:27 AM
DOHC_tuner wrote:Ah well there you go Derek.....alpha-n tuning on your M62 should be easy then.


Easy? No... I said it "isn't that bad at all"... but I'm talking from the perspective of a somewhat experienced tuner. If somebody is just learning to tune then grasping boost on an Alpha-N even supercharged is still quite a learning curve.

I have tuned 3 cars on alpha-n and boost, and all 3 ran reliably up to 9 psi - but it took some practice to get there!

If you find a good tuner then they should honestly have no problem. If you're doing it and learning as you go... well... it'll have some rough spots.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Friday, April 26, 2013 12:56 PM
Well...after months of waiting since the last contact and over a year of running on 'hope' since the initial install, its not going to happen with Trifecta.
Vince just threw in the towel on my car. So I guess I have no choice but to either find a reliable HPTuner, or sell the cav as is.
Its as good as its going to get at this point. Super super rich and fun at low speeds with little potential at the track now (useless in higher gears at WOT), but will still pull on modded v8's lol.

2004 Cavalier supercharged, 5spd, lots of custom upgrades, tons of spare parts, all stock parts, spare M62 supercharger, 3 hoods, 3 sets of tires, 2 sets of wheels, 2 front seats (mint), original tail pieces, PLUS the stage 2 cams, supertech titanium double valve springs, devils own meth kit, $5500 firm....




jk...maybe lol




Edited 2 time(s). Last edited Friday, April 26, 2013 12:57 PM

04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Friday, April 26, 2013 6:59 PM
I'll give you $12 for your broken dream... lol

Nah that's mean. You'd throw yourself off a roof after you see me turn it 25 psi reliable tune-wise with just $400 and some time spent.

Looks like Trifecta has bailed on the platform. That's what happens when you have no clue how to tune when the PCM can't spoon feed it to you, I guess.

-Chris-



-Sweetness-
-Turbocharged-
Slowly but surely may some day win this race...
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Friday, April 26, 2013 11:05 PM
If I could rely on someone..like REALLY rely on someone id be willing to pay for a good custom tune. I even have a spare ECU.
Just disheartening. I mean I would like to at least have a final go at it where he tries to lean it out some..at least make it to where it can drive at the track. Oh well....who knows what Ill do.

carry on


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.

Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Saturday, April 27, 2013 11:42 AM
If you were only closer.... I still have to get to Vince and Travis, just waiting on days off to be approved....





P&P Tuning
420.5whp / 359.8wtq

Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Saturday, April 27, 2013 12:45 PM
SweetnessGT wrote:Alpha N can be tuned, yes... the problem is it doesn't take much to throw the tune off in terms of the environment... not to mention with a turbocharger it is VERY VERY hard to dial in due to different loads at the same RPM. It can be done, it's just very very far from ideal.
-Chris-


This going to be an issue Ryan? Probably be above the 9psi range considering i was on 16 last year and it ran perfect. That was also 16psi, 93 octane, stock timing.

QWK LN2 (P&P Tuning) wrote:If you were only closer.... I still have to get to Vince and Travis, just waiting on days off to be approved....


I will admit it.... I just got a boner.



Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 10:11 AM
how long does it take to truly dial one in start to finish? can it be done over a weekend or a few days?
Having both ECUs would allow me to swap back and forth as needed between tune sessions, always having one as a back up. Course if someone skilled was to tune me, Id love to also throw in my cams and meth


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 11:05 AM
blu04DD wrote:how long does it take to truly dial one in start to finish? can it be done over a weekend or a few days?
Having both ECUs would allow me to swap back and forth as needed between tune sessions, always having one as a back up. Course if someone skilled was to tune me, Id love to also throw in my cams and meth


Someone who knows what they are doing can do it in a day.

This is saying the car has no other issues etc...



FU Tuning



Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 2:10 PM
Vince, It should not be too big of an issue as long as everything else is cooperative. Normally one of these setups takes a few hours. Lot of the time is due to the lenght of time our PCM takes to flash....





P&P Tuning
420.5whp / 359.8wtq

Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 2:44 PM
QWK LN2 (P&P Tuning) wrote:Vince, It should not be too big of an issue as long as everything else is cooperative. Normally one of these setups takes a few hours. Lot of the time is due to the lenght of time our PCM takes to flash....


Good to hear. Going to do an oil change this week and make sure everything is ready! I have everything wired up correctly this time as well. Oil change should be the last thing on the list. Can't forget to attach the line from turbo to wastegate!



Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 3:36 PM
Wow so its really that quick to dial it in perfectly with HPT?
You guys are about 13+ hours north of me. To get my car tuned over a weekend would be well worth the trip!
would I have to buy HPT or just pay for the credits for an 04 jbody?


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 3:45 PM
^^If you make the trip up there you wouldnt have to pay for HPT. He has it, you may have to pay for the credits which is $100, and whatever fees that come along with the tune.

If your making the trip up there id make sure everything is mechanically 100% so you dont waste your time driving up there only to not be able to tune the car due to issues.
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 6:10 PM
road trip!!


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 7:42 PM
Yeah don't forget, you have the tune itself to pay for as well. Hopefully it happens sooner than later so youd have to get your butt in gear! He has certain years unlocked already but cannot recall how he charged for credits when he did mine. He would have to chime in and tell you that. Pretty sure we could at least find you somewhere to stay if you made the 13 hour trip.




Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 9:18 PM
Addicted to meth wrote:
blu04DD wrote:how long does it take to truly dial one in start to finish? can it be done over a weekend or a few days?
Having both ECUs would allow me to swap back and forth as needed between tune sessions, always having one as a back up. Course if someone skilled was to tune me, Id love to also throw in my cams and meth


Someone who knows what they are doing can do it in a day.

This is saying the car has no other issues etc...


This.
When Oldskool first tuned my car when I was still on the Eco PCM, the only reason it took us several sessions was the fact that I was having major issues getting all the air out of my h/e (and probably that my h/e setup at the time was not sufficient) and it was the dead of summer...needless to say the IATs fought us like a b!tch. Once that was straightened out, it only took him a solid afternoon to get the car running amazingly. Had it not been for the cooling issues, I'm confident it would've been a weekend affair and done.

My two cents on the whole alpha-n thing...definitely doable, definitely works. Ideal? No but with a good tuner it's fine. My car pulled hard, had great in and out of boost driveability, was consistent with low/high rpm driving, took timing like a champ, not a speck of KR, etc. I'd say the only big drawback to alpha-n in our cases is if you live in a region with a reasonable difference in temperature from season to season...here in PA we go from 25-30* winters up to 100* summers (sometimes higher), so I definitely needed adjustment to the tune going into the cooler months (I don't drive the car in winter weather, but even in oct-nov we needed to compensate).






Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Sunday, April 28, 2013 9:53 PM
Well I do have about 203k miles now. But a lot of my issues probably stem from not being tuned properly and then driving it as is for months. Then throwing new upgrades at it on top of a bad tune since the first tune (since ive never really had a good proper first tune). I wouldn't normally do this, but I kept getting promises that my tunes were going to be tweaked. Then months go by and nothing, and I have a thousand dollars worth of upgrades just staring at me for half a year and I say f*ck it.

What it needs is a good tuner to sit and tune it as is, then help me figure out if there is anything wrong. Havent done a leakdown test yet but I did a compression test a few months back and it was running strong in all four cylinders.
If I find out after getting a knowledgeable person to look at it and they say 'your motor isn't good for this', Ill be happy and consider it a successful trip and leave this motor as is. Then Ill look into a new motor build and have all the parts needed for a good build already on standby. Until then, this motor is strong as I can tell and will just need a good tuner to get its potential out.

The weather here in south TX is pretty warm, 80s - 90s almost all year. Winters can get down to 40's but its very seldom freezing and man, those cold nights my car wakes up like crazy (obviously). I haven't noticed any issues with my ZZP heat exchanger, then again I don't have a clear visual of how well its flowing coolant. I want to get a clear tube somewhere so I can watch it. I am also considering the blower cooler mod that I saw on a persons supercharged civic. On a fully built motor with a blower smaller than the M62 he put down 438fwhp. But he had a professional built/installed motor and one of the mods was a snout cooler for the blower, all clear lines. Could see how well it was flowing.


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Saturday, May 04, 2013 9:24 PM
got an HPTuner who is very confident in helping me with my build. He's tuned a over a dozen cavs/grand ams/etc already and has his own fully built GA GT.
so I may have a viable option here very soon, and he's local! id have him look at it tomorrow maybe but my ic pump went out...so I gotta get a new one before I can run it hard again.


04 Cav. 2dr. 5spd. My DD. 'Nuff said.
Re: **How To: HP Tuners**
Monday, May 06, 2013 9:38 AM
Glad you found a solution man!! now get that pump taken care of, I know you've been waiting a long time for this!




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