One thing I really enjoy about our customers is that a good many of them spend a lot of time and effort on their cars. It is always a joy to be able to tune, perform installs and/or dyno’ing for someone that places a high personal value on their vehicle and then entrusts me to help them take it to the next level.
Oftentimes I like to show my customers what I am doing as I tune. Some of this stuff can get very involved – tuning spark advance with all its modifiers – handling alternative fuels or ethanol blends (I’ll write an article on widebands and AFR in the future). I think the average car guy can get an appreciation for what is going on – this knowledge helps them make an informed decision in future mods/tuning and also helps you know when someone is laying you a line of BS. No black boxes just good solid results that make sense. Being informed and having a grasp on the theory of your engine is especially important with all the Internet heroes and experts running around nowadays.
For those guys that are interested in the theory and practical application for what it takes to tune, build and drive performance cars, I’d like to recommend several books I have enjoyed. I believe these books will get you a solid foundation to begin understanding what goes on “under the hood” (ok, bad pun).
Engine Management: Advanced Tuning
Greg Banish has written a stellar book here. If you are interested in what goes on in a vehicle calibration, read this book.
Auto Math
Like it or not math drives everything we do in tuning, suspension set, racing. Auto Math gives you some great, practical formulas you can use.
Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice: Volume 2
This one isn’t for everyone. This book is an engineering textbook that covers all aspects of combustion engines with complete examples of detonation/knock, metallurgy, head/intake design and MUCH more.
EGT Systems: Basic and Advanced Light Plane Maintenance
Don’t be thrown off by the aviation focus on this book, understanding what is going on in the cylinder by observing EGT is critical while tuning. This book is excellent, highly recommended!
If you decide you want to take control of your vehicle’s PCM I’ll be happy to get you pointed in the right direction. We offer tuning hardware, software and most importantly, personal time with you to teach you what is going on and why.
Lastly if you’ve got any good textbooks or papers let me know, I’m always interested in learning and always try to keep an open mind! I do R&D every week to push myself and keep thinking outside the box.
Being a new guy at this, where do I get started with tuning hardware, software?
For pre ‘96 Mustangs I recommend a twEECer or wait a bit and pick up one of Craig Moates’ Quarterhorse wonder chips. For 96 and up the SCT software is great. Give me a shout and I can help steer ya in the right direction for whichever vehicle you’ve got.