Tuning Software

[great white]

Aah I understand. Right on guys, thanks!
I'm sure theres a link to a wideband o2 installation somewhere on the forum

All you do is weld in a bung, screw it in and connect it to the box. Or a scanner program is efiLive doesn't have the "in" port.

Probably does. The hardware in tunercatII has a place to connect a wideband.....

 

[94Sierra4x4]

All you do is weld in a bung, screw it in and connect it to the box. Or a scanner program is efiLive doesn't have the "in" port.

Probably does. The hardware in tunercatII has a place to connect a wideband.....

The wideband sensor will be hooked up as well as the two standard o2s?

 

[NaomiSays]

EFI Live is a good tuning software package for GM. Custom operating systems and advanced scan tool and diagnostic capabilities.

 

[great white]

The wideband sensor will be hooked up as well as the two standard o2s?

Yup. The Oem o2 sensors feed the PCM, the wideband feeds your data logging hardware/software.

This is another reason I like tunercatII with the Moates Roadrunner hardware. It allows for real time tuning and it works with a 411 PCM as well as the lb7 pcms.

A normal tuning session goes like this: run the truck and data log. Analyse the logs. Make your adjustment to fuel, timing, shifts, line pressures etc. reflash the PCM. Then go out and run the truck again to data log. Analyse the logs, see if you got the expected results. Repeat as necessary until you get what you're looking for.

Each time you make an adjustment you need to reflash the PCM. Any adjustment. and you tupically only adjust one thing at a time unless you're very experienced at calibrating tables. While PCMs are almost all rated for a foolish number of reflashes, you can see how it can take a fair amount of time to "dial in" a calibration. This is why "canned tune" pcm's are Not cheap. it's a significant amount of money time and effort to build a Good calibration. then thrown in that most reflashes "come back" a couple times for adstments becasue every engine runs just a little bit different from what would seem to be identical vehicles. Each reflash requires you to shut the truck down which means time.

What roadrunner and real time tuning allows you to do is this: run the truck and data log. Analyse the logs and make changes to only the parameters you want instead of reflashing the whole PCM. Run the truck and data log. Make adjustments as required to only the needed parameters. Repeat until you get it right. Real time also means you can make the changes as the truck is running. Much much fast way to tune.

I love real time when I can get it. Usually a trip down the road and back is enough since it's so quick. If I want to tweak fuel and timing at say, 2500 rpm I just pull over, opener the table and tweak it. Then pull out and I can see the results right away.

As I mentioned before, I do believe efiLive also supports real time tuning is you have the right PCM (ie: 411 or lb7). You either buy the modified 411 from Craig moates (411 only) or you buy a "guts kit" from them and install it yourself in your 411 or lb7 PCM. Modifying the PCM is not for the faint of heart though.....you have to be able to lift the psop44 chip and solder the modified Moates hardware on to the board pads. Little bit more involved than sticking two wires together, but doable with enough experience and pluck.

 

[Aloicious]

All you do is weld in a bung, screw it in and connect it to the box. Or a scanner program is efiLive doesn't have the "in" port.

Probably does. The hardware in tunercatII has a place to connect a wideband.....

yup, EFILive has both analog and serial inputs for external sensors like a wideband, or EGT sensor, or any number of other things.

Yup. The Oem o2 sensors feed the PCM, the wideband feeds your data logging hardware/software.

This is another reason I like tunercatII with the Moates Roadrunner hardware. It allows for real time tuning and it works with a 411 PCM as well as the lb7 pcms.

A normal tuning session goes like this: run the truck and data log. Analyse the logs. Make your adjustment to fuel, timing, shifts, line pressures etc. reflash the PCM. Then go out and run the truck again to data log. Analyse the logs, see if you got the expected results. Repeat as necessary until you get what you're looking for.

Each time you make an adjustment you need to reflash the PCM. Any adjustment. and you tupically only adjust one thing at a time unless you're very experienced at calibrating tables. While PCMs are almost all rated for a foolish number of reflashes, you can see how it can take a fair amount of time to "dial in" a calibration. This is why "canned tune" pcm's are Not cheap. it's a significant amount of money time and effort to build a Good calibration. then thrown in that most reflashes "come back" a couple times for adstments becasue every engine runs just a little bit different from what would seem to be identical vehicles. Each reflash requires you to shut the truck down which means time.

What roadrunner and real time tuning allows you to do is this: run the truck and data log. Analyse the logs and make changes to only the parameters you want instead of reflashing the whole PCM. Run the truck and data log. Make adjustments as required to only the needed parameters. Repeat until you get it right. Real time also means you can make the changes as the truck is running. Much much fast way to tune.

I love real time when I can get it. Usually a trip down the road and back is enough since it's so quick. If I want to tweak fuel and timing at say, 2500 rpm I just pull over, opener the table and tweak it. Then pull out and I can see the results right away.

As I mentioned before, I do believe efiLive also supports real time tuning is you have the right PCM (ie: 411 or lb7). You either buy the modified 411 from Craig moates (411 only) or you buy a "guts kit" from them and install it yourself in your 411 or lb7 PCM. Modifying the PCM is not for the faint of heart though.....you have to be able to lift the psop44 chip and solder the modified Moates hardware on to the board pads. Little bit more involved than sticking two wires together, but doable with enough experience and pluck.

Roadrunners are awesome, I really want one, they work with EFILive too like was mentioned, getting the complete roadrunner is worth it IMO. installing a guts kit is doable, but the small extra cost to get a completed one isn't much more than the cost of the PCM you'll have to supply anyways, and it comes fully tested and complete.

 

[great white]

yup, EFILive has both analog and serial inputs for external sensors like a wideband, or EGT sensor, or any number of other things.



Roadrunners are awesome, I really want one, they work with EFILive too like was mentioned, getting the complete roadrunner is worth it IMO. installing a guts kit is doable, but the small extra cost to get a completed one isn't much more than the cost of the PCM you'll have to supply anyways, and it comes fully tested and complete.

Agree, if you run a 411 then RR from Moates is the way to go.

Unfortunately, they no longer do lb7 PCMs so it's a "guts kit" or nothing...

Got one sitting in the electronics closet just waiting for that "special" project....

 

[VorTecxas]

So, if I don't have to flash the PCM (like the one already in my truck), I can still tune it with the free software from EFILive?

 

[great white]

So, if I don't have to flash the PCM (like the one already in my truck), I can still tune it with the free software from EFILive?

Nope.

To "tune" it you need to reflash the calibration into the PCM.

Can't do that without the hardware.

 

[Aloicious]

So, if I don't have to flash the PCM (like the one already in my truck), I can still tune it with the free software from EFILive?

no, you can download tunes from the interwebz and look at them with the free software, but without the hardware you cannot connect to a vehicle at all.

when someone is referring to 'tuning' a pcm, it means reflashing new data onto the PCM, so without reflashing you're not changing anything in the PCM...

basically how tuning works is you connect to the vehicle, download the PCM 'tune' data from it, examine that data in the software on a computer, make some changes to the data, re-flash the changed data back into the PCM, go for a drive to test out the changes that you made while logging various sensor outputs, re-examining the logged data, making further changes to the tune data, reflashing, testing/logging, examining, etc until you are happy with how everything is working....

 

[VorTecxas]

no, you can download tunes from the interwebz and look at them with the free software, but without the hardware you cannot connect to a vehicle at all.

when someone is referring to 'tuning' a pcm, it means reflashing new data onto the PCM, so without reflashing you're not changing anything in the PCM...

basically how tuning works is you connect to the vehicle, download the PCM 'tune' data from it, examine that data in the software on a computer, make some changes to the data, re-flash the changed data back into the PCM, go for a drive to test out the changes that you made while logging various sensor outputs, re-examining the logged data, making further changes to the tune data, reflashing, testing/logging, examining, etc until you are happy with how everything is working....

Gotcha. And from what I'm seeing on EFILives site, that's the $899 license for two vehicles?