Topic: Review of EFI101 Course

[Main One]

I took the computer tuning class EFI101 over the weekend.  It is a 1 1/2 day class that will set you back about $500.

I took the class because after messing with my truck's tune, and a few others out there, I thought there just might be some things I could learn that I hadn't been able to pick up on already through mostly forums and discussions with a few folks around here.

The class is given by EFI University, an outfit started by a guy who thought there would be enough people interested in what he knew about programming fuel injection systems that he could offer a repeated class on the subject at various locations around the country.

This session was held at a Chicago-area tuner's location, Genesis Racing Development.  Behind their storefront, which included a big enough room for about 30 students which I guess is normally their employee lunchroom, they had a large bay with well over a dozen vehicles and a few lifts.  There was at least one Audi, one Mustang, and numerous Subarus.  It also had a chassis dyno.

The instructor started the class by asking everyone to introduce themselves.  Represented were shop owners, mechanics, and enthusiasts like myself.  The instructor was a tuning shop owner from Texas, who told us that he had tuned 900+ different vehicles.

Class started with some engine operation fundamentals.  There were a good number of mathematical equations given to us and the instructor went over examples with most of them to show how we got from info we knew, to info we needed to put in an initial tune.  For the more technical out there, the most complicated equation was probably the ideal gas law equation:  PV=nRT, which relates gas pressure, temperature and volume for those who didn't have the pleasure of taking Thermodynamics in engineering school.  (Thank goodness the Teaching Assistant was a fraternity brother!)  The instructor was very patient and did his best to make sure all of the students were "getting it".  If anyone wasn't, it was because they weren't speaking up.  Questions, etc, were very much encouraged from the students.

Most of the focus from the instructor was on setting up an aftermarket EFI controller, vice an OEM one like we play with using HPTuners, LS1 Edit, etc.  I spoke some with the instructor during a break, and he gave the opinion that messing with the OEM tunes was very advanced, due to the much greater amount of parameters that are available for tweaking.

The instructor basically broke down how one would initially populate a VE table, assuming one would be doing a speed density (MAF-less) tune.  These tunes primarily use input from the engine tach and MAP sensor, and make some adjustments based upon air intake and coolant temperatures.  He showed how to calculate for each VE table cell an injector pulsewidth value for a particular engine size, assuming 100% VE and an air fuel ratio he would initially target for that cell.

He would then build a conservative spark advance table, and then put the vehicle on a dyno.  He split us into 3 groups and showed us near the end of the class with one of the shop's customer's cars on the dyno how he would make adjustments.  First, using a wideband O2 sensor, he adjusts the injector pulsewidth to account for the actual VE for each cell in order to hit his target air fuel ratio.  He then plays with timing advance to find the max power in that cell, and then moves to the next cell.

For me, the class was mostly review.  I did pick up on a few new equations of interest, and I found it interesting that apparantly if I can navigate HPTuners fairly well, I should be able to pick up pretty quickly how to use an aftermarket system.

I learned from a Kansas City shop owner that there are "too many" dynos in KC, and for that reason he is only able to charge $45 an hour for dyno time, versus around $100 an hour in many other areas of the country.  We may need to schedule an upcoming gtg in KC!  (Hint, hint tdyber)

The dyno used in the shop was different than the two my truck has been attached to at a couple of previous AV gtgs.  Those were "roller" dynos which measured HP and torque basically by how fast the vehicle could accelerate a heavy roller.  They did not seem to be capable of holding a vehicle at a certain speed/load which would be more useful for full driving range tuning.  The dyno in this shop was able to hold the car at whatever desired rpm and indicate how much torque it was absorbing to hold the speed constant, while the guy tuning would adjust the timing, looking for the highest torque reading.  It also had to be a 4-wheel dyno as it had one of the many Subarus strapped to it.  Also, instead of the car sitting on big rollers, the wheels were off and bolted up in place of the wheels were "brakes" and measurement units.  The unit looked to be fairly portable.  The units at each wheel were roughly the size of very large suitcases, and beyond the control computer and the wideband O2 sensor, there wasn't much more to it.  I found out that dynos such as this ran for about $40-50K.  One downside to this type of unit was that you needed various wheel hub adapters for different types of vehicles, and also that there was some additional setup time involved.

All-in-all it was an interesting class.  I'm glad I decided to take it.

Would I recommend the class to anyone else?  That depends on many things.  The class isn't for everyone.  I was glad that the class was largely a review for me because there was a tremendous amount of information that had to be processed the first day, which was scheduled to go from 9-5.  We started late and ended early, and pizza and drinks were provided for lunch.  The 2nd day was supposed to go from 9-12, but it went long, largely due to splitting into 3 groups during the dyno demonstration - each group's demo lasted about a half hour.  We each got a cheap calculator, which helped everyone to follow along with the math calculations.  We also got a "book" of the classroom material which will be a nice reference in the future.  If anyone cares, I can show it at a future gtg.  I also got a nice certificate suitable for framing.

M1

[bluedevil]

You are now our in-house tune guru    Classes like that,at our age,we tend to pay attention. Im sure you learned a lot from it. Very cool.


....and yes, for $45 to put the AV on a Dyno in KC, im game

[MyBigToy]

It sounds like you picked up a few pointers. I'd like to go to the HP Tuners tuning course but time & money are a factor. I'm comfortable making small tweaks but as far as tuning the VE or MAF, I'm not there until I have someone work with me a little and helps show me how to do it. I plan to cross that bridge once I get the cam & 3.25" pulley installed.