[rok50]

Jus wanted to say hey to everybody I'm new here and no nothing about tuning so if you experienced guys could help me out I would appreciate it. Does anyone know of any good books or any type of reading material besides the docs. In the faq area (which I've read a bunch of times already)that could help me on my journey to becoming a tuner?

[markedforlife]

Hi rok50, when i first started tuning i found that by using the search box
it really helped me to learn about tuning. For example type in injector slopes
and you will find alot of threads pertaining to the subject, this whole website
is your manual. Also put in your signature your computer specs
such as A9L/GUFB and tranny type cam specs and tuning software,
hope your using Binary editor and Engine analyzer.
Welcome aboard.

[rok50]

I know nothin about tuning at all and I don't have any tuning equipment I'm purely mechanical at this point, I still have a hard time doing timing lol, but I am willing and ready to learn I jus need to know where to start and how?

[decipha]

tuning starts with mechanics, first you need to learn how an engine functions and operates, once you know whats going on inside the engine you need to learn physics specifically airflow and combustion. Once you have a fond understanding of such your on your way. Then 'tuning' is simply just giving the engine what it wants. Since the easiest way to see whats going on inside the combustion chamber during combustion is by looking at the spark plug, the spark plugs are the primary means of evaluating an engines running condition. If the plugs are happy the engines happy. The tuners objective is to make the engine happy (safely). To do so you'll need to learn how to PROPERLY read plugs.

typically happy engine afr for naturally aspirated engines is .89 lambda for gasoline or even richer at .85 for boosted engines either nitrous or turbo/supercharged, for safety concerns you'd often richen up a boosted engine a tad more.

with timing you'd usually advance until the torque increment reduces. What I mean by that is if your picking up 20ft lbs of torque for every degree of timing you add, then you add a degree and only pick up 10 then add another and only pick up 3, you need to bring her back down 2 degrees. An often mistake is when tuners demand more spark than the engine wants. Overadvancing an engine reduces output and puts more stress on the engine for no gain (overworking). With high octane and really efficient heads its possible to severely over advance the timing to the point where no detonation is present but the engines output is greatly reduced. That type of mistake is often made by amateur tuners that advance to the point of detonation then retard a few degrees. Not ideal.

In truth, tuning doesn't start until you get to the track, everything before is just 'setup' at least in my opinion.

[cgrey8]

But what if you never drive on the track? Is everything still just setup?

[rok50]

Yeah bcz my car is a daily driver soooo......

[decipha]

But what if you never drive on the track? Is everything still just setup?

that is correct from the track aspect, you can set it up to perform at the track but you won't know exactly whats optimal unless you make the engine perform as it would under track conditions

the track is used for track performance, the street is used for street performance, in the end the two are closely similar, except on the street you wouldn't usually have a known repeatable standard (distance, speed, time)

Those that aren't interested in running down the track aren't interested in performing at the track thus they tend to rely on street performance, most of the vehicles that fall under this category are primarily daily drivers and street performance vehicles.