Its great to get insightful information, every better when you dont have to make everyone else feel like they are stupid to do so. I should have worded better, I have not used VIPEC management for auto tune, I have used autronic(manually tuned) for last years Targa NFLD alltrac, and I strongly dislike that system. For the systems I am most fimilar with AEM, PFC, HYDRA, and MS, the auto tune is very unreliable, certainly not something I would trust over my own ability.
As it applies to this topic, and the person asking the question my statements remain, autotune is in unreliable. Incase we have forgotten the original post is regarding HYDRA systems, not either system which has been proposed as having a good auto tunee function. I did exaggerate a bit, but it was more to get my point across that if your relying on an autotune function to tune your car then you shouldnt be doing it. Of couse if your and expert like "hic" then you should be just fine with the auto tune. But for the average user, probably not a good idea.
For every person there is a differnt method, and no one should feel they are superior or call another bullshit. For example, if you were to describe your tuning method to my tuning instructior Chris Mancerello fromerly of EFI 101, he would probably chuckle a bit and invite you to a tuning class with him.
Everyone has their favorites, for the money (around 1000 or so used) AEM hydra and PFC work well on most applications. Vipec, motec and some of there systems are more expensive and thus more robust. I like the KISS method, so I stick with what has worked just fine and doesnt break the bank. Weather its my personal 300hp toy celica, or 720 awhp skyline seems to do the job just fine. Mind you the guy at the dyno place locally HATES aem, says it has a random miss(which I think it does to mostly under idle) but that is not seen on every car.
Mafix, knock threshold tuning IMO is only safe on the dyno. The dyno produces maximum load conditions that are hard to replicate on the street. Its actually quite easy to get a very accurate idea of safe timing using best torque method
anyway this is getting long, enjoy the thread.
As it applies to this topic, and the person asking the question my statements remain, autotune is in unreliable. Incase we have forgotten the original post is regarding HYDRA systems, not either system which has been proposed as having a good auto tunee function. I did exaggerate a bit, but it was more to get my point across that if your relying on an autotune function to tune your car then you shouldnt be doing it. Of couse if your and expert like "hic" then you should be just fine with the auto tune. But for the average user, probably not a good idea.
For every person there is a differnt method, and no one should feel they are superior or call another bullshit. For example, if you were to describe your tuning method to my tuning instructior Chris Mancerello fromerly of EFI 101, he would probably chuckle a bit and invite you to a tuning class with him.
Everyone has their favorites, for the money (around 1000 or so used) AEM hydra and PFC work well on most applications. Vipec, motec and some of there systems are more expensive and thus more robust. I like the KISS method, so I stick with what has worked just fine and doesnt break the bank. Weather its my personal 300hp toy celica, or 720 awhp skyline seems to do the job just fine. Mind you the guy at the dyno place locally HATES aem, says it has a random miss(which I think it does to mostly under idle) but that is not seen on every car.
Mafix, knock threshold tuning IMO is only safe on the dyno. The dyno produces maximum load conditions that are hard to replicate on the street. Its actually quite easy to get a very accurate idea of safe timing using best torque method
anyway this is getting long, enjoy the thread.