pgmfi.org

Tuning your Honda using the techniques outlined on this website isn't as simple as plugging in a CD and following the directions - sorry. Most of the people that are good at tuning EFI cars are pretty facile with certain aspects of combustion engines, automobiles in general, and/or computers. If you're not strong in at least one of those areas you will probably need a lot of help.

There are plenty of us out there playing with things we don't understand well. There are plenty of us that never figure out. If learning is one of your key objectives and you have lots of time and energy then pull up your sleeves and figure it out. If not, you might trade $$$ for time and see if you can find someone to help you out. I've found you can pick your comfort level by searching out others to help you if you are creative and have some people skills and money.

You really can do some amazing things with a Honda "lump" with the right technology. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply, and yes I have been building race cars for 48 years, but all with carbs or mechanical injection. I owned an after market Turbo kit manufacturing business and got patents on my turbo Merge collector pipe design back in the mid 70s when every one was still using logs. I also invented the bleed-off waste gate controllor still used today. I now run a business building swap kits for the B series into the old minis. Pics here:
http://www.vtecminis.com/album.php?cat_ ... 6&start=20

I am a mechanical engineer (that means 0 people skills), but never got into computers until recently. I posted in this thread because I am a "newby" but it appears that is still to advanced for me. I am just getting comfortable with electronic calculators; We used to use slide rules for math. Although I think it is cool that I can now do Trig without Log tables, Electronics is a mystery to me; so I try to avoid dealing with it. I DO need to make a decision on ECUs and wiring so I can get my own car running with a tunable system.
There are 0 wires in the Mini now, so I am starting from scratch. I have 3 boxes of wiring and a PR3 out of a 91 JDM CRX front clip that I got my engine out of; (every wire from the car, with all the relays, fuse boxes, and mystery gadgets attached; about 40 pounds worth). I think I can trace it all and eliminate about 90% of it. But since I started investigating how to go about tunning the ECU for various motor changes, I stumbled on this site and was overwhelmed with all the techno-talk. My question is still, do I have to learn all this stuff in order to get my car running optimally? Why can't you just buy an ECU with all that stuff already done, so you can just plug it into the harness,connect your lap top, and start changing numbers on the maps???? If you could answer that one question, I would be satisfied.
Thanks for your time, SA

Steeve
Because this forum is all about DIY...
Sure you can just drop an EMS in the car and start playing with, but it's not the same price (and not the same pleasure too !!!).

NTC490
Where is the complete PDF file ? The last time I read your post I was at the end of the 3rd page, and this post is a must have. Very documented between theory, link and practice. I still love it.

dj spark, If that is true, it would make a lot of sense; It never occurred to me that some people might enjoy doing this stuff, instead of buying a plug/play system. It would have saved me a lot of time if this forum had some kind of mission statement to that effect, so noobs like me would not think that we had to learn this stuff just to get a tunable car. To me, It is not worth the trouble, considering the steep learning curve that could take months or even years. I would much rather spend my time on the track.
So, why stop there, buying components and soldering them together, just to wind up with the same thing everyone else has? Why not build your own ECUs or write your own tuning software; seems like most of you guys have the knowledge?
Cheers.

This is the point : some guys built there own ecus or daughterboard (Megasquirt, Bikirom, Hondata, Zdyne) and other did their own software (Ben Oggle, Synoptic, John Cui, Calvin

For myself I didn't want to build a motherboard or code lineSSSSS of software. I just wanted to tweak my engine in the cheapest (but reliable !) way and learned a little bit how thing work...

It's your right to not like the taste of this whole thing, so just get your car to a tuner shop and that's it !

just finished reading this entire thread

I am on my knees in worship! It is very rare to find people, especially on the net, how will put their free time into educating and helping others.

This forum, the hardware and software developers and especially you, ntc, for this thread are truly great.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and if I'm ever in your town would hope to buy you a beer

Cheers
Matt

hey bro I love what you did

this thread may direct me into buying an eg with a z6, i need a hatch quick lol

I dont consider this a job, I think of it as a hobby that I will enjoy and teach to others what I have learned

and also learn from others

Hey NTC490,
Thanks for the post. I signed up for this forum because of this post. I had a friend tuned my integra with crome pro but never really know how it was actually done. This help me understand a lot of things. I do on planned on tuning my integra in the future and the ending goal is to run my ride on e85. So Thanks again!

this thread is great, bump this to the top

gave and answer a lot of questions i would have had, thanks alot

great thread indeed. Got to Thank the man...

EDIT: removed link to video...

I just read over this thread again for the 2nd time and feel like I've absorbed more of the information this time around. Im a proud noon and I must commend you on this great thread. A lot of the questions and doubts I had regarding tuning we answered in this thread and in better detail than I probably would have put it. I'm probably more comfortable now with "attempting" to tune than before, note the quotations around attempting, being 100% comfortable would be naive on my part. Nevertheless, props on your thread.

-Jeff.

Holy crap man! Couldn't find a better way to describe "Baby steps" for us noobs! AWESOME Post! you nailed it right on the money and answered most of my questions!!

Check out my thread man, chime in whenever you want! I'll be updating frequently.