HP Tuners Tutorials

[Gregski]

just some visual content, somebody with more experience correct me, but I recon Enabling / Disabling the SES also prevents some tests from running, is that so?

[Gregski]

I am a visual person and so I made this chart / table to help us visualize the five conditions and the code combinations

why are we spending so much time on stuff we are deleting? do future doctors practice on live folks or cadaverous? ha ha

this is the pattern seeker in me talking, but if you notice the passenger side codes are just adding 20 to the driver side codes (this will not be on the quiz, but makes for great dinner conversation)

[Gregski]

In the Editor we find the Diagnostic Trouble Codes, DTCs under the Engine Diag menu \ DTCs tab

at first glance that list of codes can be quite intimidating, and I wish we could sort the Description column alphabetically or filter based on some text

[Gregski]

highlighted are the 8 codes we will need to Disable the Service Engine Soon light and set the MIL to No Error Reported

Note: Sensor 3 has already been done (mine came like that stock)

[Gregski]

We want the end result to look like this.

How did you get these things to highlight like that in green?

[Gregski]

Using the Compare feature we can overlay two files. So I like to open the 00 - Original.hpt file first and then Compare it to which ever file I have questions on if I cut corners and didn't take the time to name it properly and now I have no clue what it does, ha ha

[Gregski]

This fantastic feature can get you out of trouble if you got click happy and saved your work. You can overlap the two files and your changes will be in green.

[Gregski]

This is a good of a time as any to reset our file name to something shorter, since we left some bread crumbs with the stack of file names nicely in order of what we did above. but as the youngsters say: You Do YOU!

[Captainfab]

Thank you for putting this together. It will be a big help when I get to the point of needing to tune one of the LS engines I have waiting.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Thank you for putting this together. It will be a big help when I get to the point of needing to tune one of the LS engines I have waiting.

thank you which year donor do you have and what displacement/size?

[First c10]

Great job! Do you take suggestions calibrate th MAF? Hahaha. Again great write up. It will be valuable to anyone that is doing an LS swap for the first few times. Oh and I like the file logging you proposed. I wish I did it like that. Rock on gregski

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by First c10

Great job!

Thank you

Originally Posted by First c10

Do you take suggestions calibrate the MAF?

Are you asking me if there will be an article on how to calibrate the MAF? Or are you suggesting you want to post one up?

This method uses the Short Term and Long Term Fuel Trims (STFT+LTFT Maths) to calibrate the MAF and does not require a third party Wideband O2 Oxygen Sensor, it will be covered in greater detail in the Tuning Series of this Tutorial, coming soon, but for now here are the basic steps.

Step 0. Save your existing configuration file as something like: 00 - MAF Calibration - Initial.hpt this is your current working setup, if things go South you can always go back to this.

Step 1. Disable the MAP sensor. In VCM Editor go to Engine \ Airflow \ Dynamic \ Dynamic Airflow and set the following two values to something like this:

High RPM Disable 100
High RPM Hyst 10

Step 2. Disable DFCO. In VCM Editor go to Engine \ Fuel \ Cutoff, DFCO and set the following value:

Enable ECT 284

Step 3. Disable Catalyst Protection. In VCM Editor go to Engine \ Fuel \ Temperature Control \ Catalyst Protection and set the following:

COT Disabled

Note: We do this as part of the Standard Housekeeping procedures, but it doesn't hurt to check.

Step 4. In the VCM Scanner make sure you have added the following Channels:

Mass Airflow Sensor (not to be confused with the Mass Airflow channel which shows grams per second)

Short Term Fuel Trim Bank 1 (SAE) if starting with the default channels this channel should already be there
Short Term Fuel Trim Bank 2 (SAE) if starting with the default channels this channel should already be there

Long Term Fuel Trim Bank 1 (SAE) if starting with the default channels this channel should already be there
Long Term Fuel Trim Bank 2 (SAE) if starting with the default channels this channel should already be there

Step 5. In the VCM Scanner create an AFR % Error graph based on the Mass Air Flow Frequency sensor.

If you don't see the graph pane already on the right hand side, go to Layout \ Add To Layout and select Graph

Right click anywhere in the graph pane and click Graphs Layout to bring up the Graph Display Layout Editor then click the green plus sign Add Graph icon on the menu bar, make the following selections:

Parameter: LTFT + STFT [Math]
Decimals 2
Cell Hits Required: 5 (or what ever you like)

Shading
High Value 20 Color: Red
Low Value -20 Color: Green

Column Axis
Parameter: Mass Airflow Frequency [Sensor]
Values:1500 1625 1750 1875 2000 2125 2250 2375 2500 2625 2750 2875 3000 3125 3250 3375 3500 3625 3750 3875 4000 4125 4250 4375 4500 4625 4750 4875 5000 5125 5250 5375 5500 5625 5750 5875 6000 6125 6250 6375 6500 6625 6750 6875 7000 7125 7250 7375 7500 7625 7750 7875 8000 8125 8250 8375 8500 8625 8750 8875 9000 9125 9250 9375 9500 9625 9750 9875 10000 10125 10250 10375 10500 10625 10750 10875 11000 11125 11250 11375 11500 11625 11750 11875 12000

Label your new graph something like: MAF Calibration (box at the very top)

Step 6. Save your new configuration file as something like: 01 - MAF Calibration - Setup.hpt this is the tune you will need to flash to your PCM in order to disable the components mentioned above only while you collect the MAF data. Flash your PCM with this file.

Step 7. Warm up the truck and then go drive around with your HP Tuners laptop hooked up for 30 minutes avoid wide open throttle acceleration and log your data. In my daily driver I like to log my trip to and or from work, that way I ensure the MAF is calibrated for the cells I am sure to hit on my most common drives. After the drive stop the log and save it. You will be able to replay this file in the comfort of your own home and safely watch what happens in the graph we created in Step 5 as opposed to glancing at your laptop on the passenger seat of your car while you drive.

Step 8. After your drive copy the data from the graph that we created in Step 5 in the VCM Scanner to the file in Step 0 in the VCM Editor (the very first time I calibrate a MAF I like to do a Paste Special Multiply by %) and save it as a new name 02 - MAF Calibration - First Mods.hpt This file will do two things for you, one it will re enable the MAP sensor as well as the DFCO and write the new MAF calibration to the PCM, and we want to do exactly both of those things. On LS Swaps I leave the Catalyst Protection (Step 3.) off.

[First c10]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Thank you
Are you asking me if there will be an article on how to calibrate the MAF? Or are you suggesting you want to post one up?

I was asking if you could do an article on a MAF Calibration.

[Captainfab]

I have a 2002 5.3 and a 2004 6.0.

Originally Posted by Gregski

thank you which year donor do you have and what displacement/size?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

I have a 2002 5.3 and a 2004 6.0.

The 2002 is absolutely a brilliant year, still drive by cable makes for easier swap, and no factory EGR to delete and holes to plug. Sounds like you have the perfect enjins.

[Gregski]

HP Tuners Section B Disable the Evaporative Emission System (EVAP) Codes

Having disabled the Secondary O2 Sensor codes in Section A we move on to the EVAP codes. We are doing a batch of codes at a time in this tutorial, but once you get through it once, you are welcome to disable all the necessary codes on your second LS Swap project all at once ha ha.

It's worth repeating there are two schools of thought when it comes to LS Swaps and disabling the codes, some say drive the truck and see what codes it throws than research them a bit and if applicable, delete them. Nothing wrong with that method, but since I like to prep my PCM ahead of time before the engine even swallows a drop of gasoline, and especially since I know exactly what was deleted after all I deleted it, we might as well prevent those Codes from popping up ahead of time. Also and this may tip the scales, if you do your diligence and disable all the codes the best you can for the components you deleted than your MIL should not come on. However if it does, you should turn off the engine and look up the code rather than ignoring it assuming, eh it's probably for one of the items I deleted, and blindly press on with a glaring MIL. Hope you followed that logic.

Since I bought the engine\transmission combo already yanked out of the 2001 donor truck I don't have a complete EVAP sytem to show you, (you may have sourced yours the same way) so from what I investigated at the local junkyard, it appears it's a fuel line that runs from the fuel tank along the frame rail than hugs the transmission and up to the front of your intake manifold as a black plastic line, where it enters the intake via a valve which is regulated by the PCM.

Some folks when they do an engine swap get a three tube fuel sending unit, one for supply, one for return, and the third to vent into the atmosphere with a 2 foot rubber hose and a small check valve at the end. I don't have the check valve on mine yet and my truck in the garage does not emit stinkies, so I'm fine with that for now till I source the check valve (6 months later, hee hee).

Tunistas let's meet the nine EVAP codes:

P0440 Evaporative Emission System

P0442 Evaporative Emission System Leak Detected (small leak)

P0443 Evaporative Emission System Purge Control Valve Circuit

P0446 Evaporative Emission System Vent Control Circuit

P0449 Evaporative Emission System Vent Control Circuit Intermittent

P0452 Evaporative Emission System Pressure Sensor/Switch Low

P0453 Evaporative Emission System Pressure Sensor/Switch High

P1441 Evaporative Emission (EVAP) System Flow During Non-Purge

P1665 EVAP Vent Solenoid Control Circuit

Now let's look at the Black Magic that it takes to disable these codes, we have two controls:

• SES Enable
• Error Mode

If it was up to me I would break it up into a third control so it would look more like this:

• SES (Enable / Disable)
  
• MIL (MIL On First Error, MIL on Second Error, No MIL Light)
  
• Report Code (On / Off)

1. Again we start in the comfort of our own home, we fire up our laptop and launch the Editor. Open the file we saved in Step 3 of Section A. (Our last saved file is always our starting point).

2. Make changes in the Editor, this time we will make changes only to the Evaporative Emission System codes. Refer to the cheat sheet below and Disable the SES on these and set the MIL to No Error Reported:

P0440

P0442

P0443

P0446

P0449

P0452

P0453

P1441

P1665 - was already disabled on mine

3. Save the changes you made to a new file and call it something like "05 - Disabled O2s & EVAP"

4. Now you get to move the operation to your truck, hook up your HP Tuner to the OBDII port and then your USB cable to your laptop, turn the key to the ON position, launch the Editor program, and simply write the new changes to the PCM.

Note: sometimes you have to write the entire tune file to the PCM, sometimes it is perfectly happy with only writing what's changed, more on this later.

More words with each pic:

[Gregski]

if your EVAP port is blocked off like this or in some other similar fashion you may want to disable the Evaporative Emission System codes to clean things up a bit

[Gregski]

this is the EVAP line and sensor, note the tip of mine broke off and I used a tiny screw to yank it out before it dropped into the abyss, so lucky

[Gregski]

on my sending unit this middle nipple is the Old School way of evaporating the fuel tank, it ran to a charcoal canister mounted on the radiator support

[Gregski]

the frenemy

[Gregski]

these are the nine codes that I disabled, seven shown in pic, and two more further down the list, your PCM's list of codes may or may not be slightly different depending on what year truck your engine came from

[Gregski]

this is what they should look like before you save the file and write (aka FLASH) the changes to the PCM

[Gregski]

we append what we've done to our latest file name, don't feel like you have to abbreviate too much and keep the file name short, it's not the 90s any more and we can have long file names, and we will reset the file name back to a short one once we are ready for actually tuning.

[Gregski]

and we FLASH the PCM which simply means writing our changes to the car's computer

[Gregski]

HP Tuners Section C Disable the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) Codes (1999-2001 engines only)

Having disabled the Secondary O2 Sensor codes in Section A as well as the Evaporative Emission System (EVAP) Codes in Section B we move on to the EGR codes. This only applies to engines from 1999-2001 vehicles as the factory did away with EGR in 2002. We are doing a batch of codes at a time in this tutorial, but once you get through it once, you are welcome to disable all the necessary codes on your second LS Swap project all at once ha ha.

It's worth repeating there are two schools of thought when it comes to LS Swaps and disabling the codes, some say drive the truck and see what codes it throws than research them a bit and if applicable, delete them. Nothing wrong with that method, but since I like to prep my PCM ahead of time before the engine even swallows a drop of gasoline, and especially since I know exactly what was deleted after all I deleted it, we might as well prevent those Codes from popping up ahead of time. Also and this may tip the scales, if you do your diligence and disable all the codes the best you can for the components you deleted than your MIL should not come on. However if it does, you should turn off the engine and look up the code rather than ignoring it assuming, eh it's probably for one of the items I deleted, and blindly press on with a glaring MIL. Hope you followed that logic.

[Rant] I have always struggled with the concept of EGR, I mean I get what it's supposed to do (appease the Environmental Protection Agency), but here we are putting a fuel filter to clean our fuel, here we are putting an air filter to clean our air, and we are all sold on the idea of "cold air intake" so we build crazy air damn isolation contraptions for our intakes, and than we turn around and pump in the hottest, dirtiest of exhaust gases (I mean the gases that did not burn the first time around) into our intakes bypassing any and all filters. That's like hitting yourself in a head with a hammer cause it feels good when you stop, ha ha. I have seen people on forums actually claim how their cars run better cause of EGRs, um ok, well even the factory finally dropped the EGR scam in 2002 so there's that [/Rant]

Tunistas let's meet the seven EGR codes:

P0401 Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow

P0402 Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow Insufficient Detected

P0404 Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow Excessive Detection

P0405 Exhaust Gas Recirculation Control Circuit Range/Performance

P1404 Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) Closed Position Performance

P1406 EGR Valve Pintle Position Circuit

P1409 EGR Vacuum System Leak

Now let's look at the Black Magic that it takes to disable these codes, we have two controls:

• SES Enable
• Error Mode

If it was up to me I would break it up into a third control so it would look more like this:

• SES (Enable / Disable)
  
• MIL (MIL On First Error, MIL on Second Error, No MIL Light)
  
• Report Code (On / Off)

1. Again we start in the comfort of our own home, we fire up our laptop and launch the Editor. Open the file we saved in Step 3 of Section B. (Our last saved file is always our starting point).

2. Make changes in the Editor, this time we will make changes only to the Exhaust Gas Recirculation codes. Refer to the cheat sheet below and Disable the SES on these and set the MIL to No Error Reported:

P0401

P0402 - was already disabled on mine from the factory

P0404

P0405

P1404

P1406 - was already disabled on mine from the factory

P1409 - was already disabled on mine from the factory

3. Save the changes you made to a new file and call it something like "06 - Disabled O2s & EVAP & EGR"

4. Now you get to move the operation to your truck, hook up your HP Tuner to the OBDII port and then your USB cable to your laptop, turn the key to the ON position, launch the Editor program, and simply write the new changes to the PCM.

Note: sometimes you have to write the entire tune file to the PCM, sometimes it is perfectly happy with only writing what's changed, more on this later.

More words with each pic: