Ed Higginbotham
Ed Higginbotham Associate Editor
7/6/16 9:46 a.m.
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Have you ever been interested in engine tuning? Grassroots Motorsports has partnered with the High Performance Academy to offer a free engine management tuning session on July 7 at 9:30 p.m., Eastern Time. This dyno tuning lesson consists of a 45-minute dyno demonstration, teaching the basics of t…

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Armitage
Armitage HalfDork
7/6/16 10:17 a.m.

Sounds great. Signed up!

gearheadmb
gearheadmb HalfDork
7/6/16 12:48 p.m.

I'll be there.

WonkoTheSane
WonkoTheSane HalfDork
7/6/16 2:16 p.m.

I attended the last one (Tom was there, too).. It was an excellent event. Those guys are top-notch, and I plan on getting on of the packages next year once the racing budget supports it.

I highly recommend attending it.

Tom Suddard
Tom Suddard Associate Editor
7/6/16 4:35 p.m.

Yes, I knew it would be good, but I was honestly blown away by the quality of the lesson last time. These guys are truly GRMers, and they're good teachers, too.

I'll be there tomorrow!

mikeatrpi
mikeatrpi Reader
7/6/16 4:48 p.m.

Awesome, signed up, thanks!

Driven5
Driven5 Dork
7/6/16 4:57 p.m.

I don't suppose this gets saved and uploaded, so that those who aren't able to watch it live can still view it at a later date/time?

calteg
calteg Dork
7/6/16 5:39 p.m.

This is a brilliant idea.

Tom Suddard
Tom Suddard Associate Editor
7/6/16 8:39 p.m.

In reply to Driven5:

I'm pretty sure it does, but you have to sign up before it goes live.

moparman76_69
moparman76_69 UltraDork
7/6/16 10:04 p.m.

I'll bite, I've ran across these guys before and wondered if their course was legit.

gearheadmb
gearheadmb HalfDork
7/7/16 2:41 p.m.

Is dusterbd aware of this? Wasn't he the one wanting to learn the basics of tuning about a month ago?

Ransom
Ransom PowerDork
7/7/16 2:51 p.m.

Neat! What the heck...

Hasbro
Hasbro SuperDork
7/7/16 10:55 p.m.

Very well presented. Thanks.

gearheadE30
gearheadE30 HalfDork
7/8/16 7:28 a.m.

Well crap. I signed up thinking that the 7th was today (friday). Obviously I've long since missed it.

mikeatrpi
mikeatrpi Reader
7/8/16 8:21 a.m.

That was pretty good. I picked up a couple of tips. Incredibly surprising that a point swing in AFR doesn't have that much of an impact in power.

Thank you!

Ed Higginbotham
Ed Higginbotham Associate Editor
7/8/16 8:32 a.m.

In reply to mikeatrpi:

Glad you enjoyed it! We'll have to work with these guys more in the future.

Robbie
Robbie UltraDork
7/8/16 9:03 a.m.

Yeah, I thought it was great too. I never thought to do steady state tuning on a back road with the left foot brake technique.

Is the guy who is in chicago with the ka24 e85 turbo build on here? I'd be interested in linking up since I hope to take my Saab e85 at some point.

WonkoTheSane
WonkoTheSane HalfDork
7/8/16 9:34 a.m.

It would be a great article if you worked with these guys to come up with something like "diagnosing common tuning issues/failures in the real world." Or, to put it in modern journalism terms "5 real-world tuning mistakes you're probably making!"

One course I want to ensure I get is their "tuning on the track" course, that sounds awesome.

Robbie
Robbie UltraDork
7/8/16 9:36 a.m.

Actually, I had a couple suggestions for these guys, and I wonder if Tom or Ed could pass them along?

  1. $417 was steep to me. If they had a $50 package I would have plunked during the video last night. I get that it would not include a lot of content.
  2. They seem to be leading the industry on tuning training. If this is true, I think they should strongly consider making some tests to verify student knowledge of important subjects. Then they can effectively become the 'certification body' for tuning. i.e. they start to develop something of true value to the students if the student can walk away with a certification in hand that helps her actually land a job. The certification track could be a little extra money, but ensures that they have not just watched the video, but that they have learned something. Especially with their 'remote live dyno tuning' package (how cool BTW) having done that, passed a test, and having a certification should definitely mean something to a potential employer.
Armitage
Armitage HalfDork
7/8/16 9:54 a.m.

Picked up a couple things last night. Like most education, a little bit of insight really serves to underscore how much I don't know.

chiodos
chiodos Dork
7/8/16 12:29 p.m.

I should have stayed for the q&a because one of my questions was supposed to be "on the list" but im an old man at heart and had to get in bed for work at 7am this morning. I believe my question was "if we dont have this fancy equipment how should we do this?" Anyone got the answer or was it just backroad tuning and reading plugs?

Robbie
Robbie UltraDork
7/8/16 12:36 p.m.
chiodos wrote: I should have stayed for the q&a because one of my questions was supposed to be "on the list" but im an old man at heart and had to get in bed for work at 7am this morning. I believe my question was "if we dont have this fancy equipment how should we do this?" Anyone got the answer or was it just backroad tuning and reading plugs?

Long answer short you can simulate 'steady state dyno tuning' on the road by using your left foot to brake and hold the engine at whatever speed. For example, if you need to tune at 2000 RPM, and varying engine loads, you can essentially use your gas and brake together to get that.

Better be logging though and then go back and make tuning changes based on the log and try again. Can't really live tune unless you have someone else driving the car while you are sitting there tuning.

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