O man, help me choose.....HPT or efi live

[Rhino79]

I searched, researched, and once I had done that....I did it more..lol. I got efilives demo in a year or 2 before I bought the flashscan itself. I wanted to get a feel for the tables in the tune tool and the functions of the scan tool. I had a lot of mechanical experience so I knew the fundamentals of how everything worked which helped a lot. From there it was trial and error, baby steps. The first vehicle I tuned was a 408 that I built and put in a buddies reg cab 2wd silverado. 11:1, mild cam, victor jr intake, 4bbl edelbrock tb.....It was quite the experience. Then I did several f-bodies of all configurations, bolt ons, fi, cam/head.

There is no replacement for on hands experience. The net is full of good info and garbage, its hard to tell what to believe sometimes. I'll tell you this though, I frequent the hpt forum as there is a ton of info for gassers over there. On diesel, you might check the diesel place forum, there are some badass diesel tuners there. I am not a diesel guy at all...lol.

[bluetorp]

I learned the same way as Rhino. After doing my cam swap on my 2002, I decided I wanted to tune it myself and bought HPT. Had no idea how to use it when it showed up. Lots of trial and error, and lots of lurking and asking questions around the tuning forums at LS1Tech and HPT. It isn't a short road, and the learning curve can be a bit steep- you just start small, and start tweaking more and more things as your understanding increases. Fast forward a couple of years, and I had a heads/cam/full bolt-on car running an open-loop, speed density (no MAF) tune. Eventually I got to the point that I was doing tuning for friends, etc.- generally for beer and pizza.

[JLE58]

Originally Posted by Ace1USMC

How did you learn to tune to this level of detail? Do you do this for a living? I've seen courses for EFILive - but spending $1500 for a course when I don't even do it professionally is not within the realm of reality.

Since I own a 2007 Duramax, going with EFILive is a no-brainer for me...but how the heck do I learn how to use it effectively without spending a lotta dough??

Sam

Look up and get some greg banish dvd's or tuning school dvd's books etc. Get a good feel for it then do a class to get more advanced.

[Camarowguy]

So who's credit structure ends up coming out cheaper? Efi live just went up to $125 per credit. How's it work?

[Rhino79]

EFilive licensing is ok. 125 gets 1 ecm and 1 tcm license which allows you to do 1 vehicle OR if your vehicle only has a pcm that controls both, you'll have a left over tcm license you can use on whatever.

[calbert1999]

My tuner uses EFI live, and has said there is virtually nothing he's not able to change.

[evilbeef54]

Originally Posted by white 2SS/RS

Sure do. I started with TunerCat and Datamaster on the LT1 cars.
Holy crap! Just looked at the Tunercat site and they have support for the 2010 and 2011 Camaro!

WOW, i might need to look into that, I used to use TC and datamaster a lot on my 94z28, it would be nice to be able to use the same program and get get the new file, i really want to get into HPT but the price seems pretty high, i know it is worth it and i just need to fork over the cash and do it, but that may have to wait a bit, it would sure be nice to be able to make tweaks with TC in the mean time

[white ZL1]

Originally Posted by evilbeef54

it would sure be nice to be able to make tweaks with TC in the mean time

You still would need something to log data with.

[Steck]

Originally Posted by calbert1999

My tuner uses EFI live, and has said there is virtually nothing he's not able to change.

Except tons of transmission parameters. Lol.

[lucky7]

hp tuners.

[lucky7]

if you decide on hp tuners/ efi live-
i have both greg banish tuning dvd's, great source for tuning.

[bluegoat06]

Originally Posted by calbert1999

My tuner uses EFI live, and has said there is virtually nothing he's not able to change.

And i bet he probably won't change much in the A6 deparment with it.

Auto VE in EFIlive is not the world changer, if you know how to adjust VE, you can do it in HPT using a VE table (Where the VE table is available, like in the E40 PCM's) or using a 3rd party tool to support the E38's VE model.
Granted, you'll have to learn either way, nothing wrong with learning right?, is not like this Auto VE drives the car for you so you can fill the needed cells properly...

HPT is a lot more user friendly,which is very welcomed when you're in the learning stages, and right now offers a huge A6 trans support that EFI can only dream of having

Both tuning suites would offer the best experience for LSx tuning, HPT is easier to "deploy" and in my humble opinion, have better support, which in turn brings more satisfied customers.

You can't go wrong with either one, you just to have to learn how to use the tools in either one, and some basic tuning concepts. However, right now, HPT offers a ton more support for the A6 trans, EFI won't