Like any specialised job, when it comes to EFI tuning, there are some specific
tools that you're going to need to understand how to use in order to
be able to do your job correctly.
In this free lesson, we're going to investigate some of these tools
and see what they do and how they're used.
Engine tuning is a specialised job and there are a few tools that you're going
to need to help you do your job correctly.
Some of these tools are an essential item and you just can't get by without
them while others such as a dyno, are obviously not something a home
tuner's going to jump in and buy straight away.
Let's have a look at what you are going to need.
One of the most frequently used tools in my tuner's toolbox is a multimeter or
digital voltmeter.
We can use these for measuring voltage, current and resistance and they're an
essential item for fault finding and diagnosing EFI sensor and wiring issues.
A good quality digital voltmeter can be purchased very cheaply and should be
considered an essential item.
Next we have an LED test light, and these are a quick and easy way
of checking for voltage in a circuit.
They're simpler and faster to use than a digital voltmeter but they can't give
you the same amount of information.
For example the LED test light will show you that a circuit has voltage but it won't
be able to tell you how much voltage is present.
One of the best, most common uses for an LED test light is for checking pulse
width modulated outputs such as ignition and injector drives.
By jumpering the LED test light across the terminals of an injector plug
for example, the LED will flash every time the ECU pulses the injector.
This is a quick and easy way to prove that the ECU is operating that output.
When you're checking a pulse width modulated output like this,
the LED test light will only be useful at relatively low frequencies.
If the frequency is over or about 30 hertz, you won't be able to see the LED flash,
and it will appear the LED is just permanently on.
LED test lights are very cheap and I'd consider them to be another essential item.
Another cheap tool that you really can't live without is a timing light.
These use an inductive clamp that fits around an ignition lead and they flash
when a spark occurs.
We use a timing light to check the ignition timing and these are essential when we're
setting the base ignition timing for an ECU.
Timing lights can be purchased very cheaply and are another essential
item for your tuning toolbox.
If you remember back to the module on electronics, I talked about using
and oscilloscope to view complex wave forms.
These can show us how a signal or wave form is changing with relation
to time and is the perfect way to fault find triggering problems on the engine.
An oscilloscope is one of those tools that you don't tend to use all the time,
but when you need it, nothing else can do the job.
Oscilloscopes used to be a moderately expensive tool, however with PC based
oscilloscopes such as those sold by PicoScope, they are now much more
affordable and having one can save you hours of fault finding.
If you want to take EFI tuning seriously, then you'll need one of these.
Next we have one of the tools that you simply can't get by without.
This is a wideband air fuel ratio meter.
This is essential for displaying accurate air fuel ratio information so we can
correctly tune the fuel tables.
When I first started tuning, these units were seriously expensive,
and still not overly accurate.
We now have a range of high quality wideband meters available from several
manufacturers and they're very reasonably priced.
There are a lot of features available in some of these wideband meters,
so it pays to know what you should be looking for.
While some units will give you the option of a single or dual sensor input,
or the ability to datalog the OBD2 data stream for your factory ECU,
I find the most important option is an analog voltage output so that the wideband
meter can be connected straight to an aftermarket ECU.
This lets us datalog through the ECU which is perfect on the road or racetrack
where you can't easily view the wideband meter.
While we need a wideband meter to tune the fuel delivery, we also need an
audio knock detection system to let us listen for knock while tuning the
ignition tables.
There are systems available from several manufacturers such as Plex, Link and Formula
that offer sophisticated digital signal processing to let you accurately
isolate knock via a set of audio headphones.
If you expect to be tuning V6 or V8 engines, I'd recommend that you look
for a unit that has dual inputs so that you can run a sensor on each bank
for the best results.
Some of these knock detection units can also provide an output to interface with
and aftermarket ECU or even to a dyno.
Depending on the ECU you're using, this type of input can be used for closed
loop knock control, when the ECU can automatically retard the ignition timing
if knock's detected.
If you want to tune reliably and safely, a basic audio knock detection system
is an essential purchase.
Since we need to be mobile while we're tuning, we're going to need a laptop
computer to actually run the software and talk to the ECU.
Just about any laptop will do this job and you definitely don't need the latest
or most powerful processor.
In fact tuning is pretty hard on laptops and I find that they usually have
a lifespan of only a couple of years.
It makes sense then to buy a cheaper laptop that you aren't going to be too
worried about if it breaks.
I do recommend though, buying a laptop with a solid state hard drive,
as these are much less likely to suffer from failure due to vibration,
and I've lost many gigabytes of data over the years when I've had a conventional
hard drive fail.
If you're tuning some older ECUs, there can be some compatibility problems
when running on the latest version of windows.
Check with your ECU manufacturer before buying a laptop to make sure the
system requirements are going to match your needs.
The last and perhaps most important tool we'll use as tuners, is the dyno.
Now obviously these are very expensive pieces of equipment and they're not
something you'd consider if you just want to tune one or two cars.
There are solutions though, and many dyno shops are more than happy to
rent you their dyno at an hourly rate, and let you do the tuning.
This gives you the benefits of tuning on a dyno at a fraction of the cost
of purchasing one.
Before you decide on a dyno shop, talk to the owner and make sure that
they're happy to work the way you want to.
For example, will they let you drive the car on the dyno?
What hourly rate will they charge you?
And do you need to bring your own equipment such as a widenband
air fuel ratio meter?
It pays to know exactly what you can expect before making a booking.
When you're choosing a dyno shop, you also want to make sure that they
have a braked dyno, also known as a load bearing dyno.
This will allow you to run the car in steady state where they dyno holds
the RPM constant.
Inertia dynos, which are very common, have no brake, so they can't hold the
car at a constant speed and they're only really useful for tuning at wide open
throttle, which unless you're tuning a drag car, isn't going to be much use to you.
Using a quality dyno will let you do your job better and more accurately
giving you the best results from your tuning project.
So that wraps up the main tools you're likely to use.
While there are a limitless number of additional tools that can be handy
to have, these are the ones that are critical to doing the job right.
That was just one module that's been taken out of our EFI tuning
fundamentals course.
This is a complete theory based course that will teach you the core tuning
principles and techniques that you need to understand in order to be
able to correctly tune any engine, ensuring you achieve maximum power
and torque while most importantly ensuring engine reliability.
Within this course, you're going to find out how the engine operates,
how the ECU works, you'll learn about fuel and ignition tables and find out
what we're trying to achieve when we're optimising these.
If you want to learn more about this course, click the link in the description.