HP Tuners Tutorials

[Gregski]

if you have one of them fancy EGR hole block off plates or some other freeze plug in your (1999-2001) intake manifold like so, then you have opted to ditch your dirty exhaust gas recirculation sytem and may want to disable the error codes that are associated with it.

[Gregski]

just a random pic of the ugly EGR tube port on the passenger side factory exhaust manifold (on the garage floor in the foreground), you can buy kits to block this off, or you can go to the junkyard and get a 2002 manifold that already has it closed off

[Gregski]

out of the four EGR codes: P0401, P0402, P0404, and P0405 in my case one was already turned off from the factory, P0402 so we can learn from the way the factory did it, and set the other three to match

[Gregski]

Set all the EGR codes: P0401, P0402, P0404, and P0405 to SES disabled and Error Mode to No Error Reported

[Gregski]

we save our new configuration to a file with a new name, most likely just appending to the name

06 - Disabled 02s & EVAP & EGR.hpt

baby steps, baby steps, but it all adds up

[Gregski]

after saving changes to our newly named file, we go to the truck and write / flash the PCM with our new configuration, and we're done!

[Gregski]

HP Tuners - Part IV - Turn Off Exhaust Gas Recirculation EGR. (1999-2001 donor engines only)

So there you are cruising on the freeway at approximately 70 MPH when all of a sudden the PCM commands the EGR valve to open and dump a bunch of dirty, hot, unburned exhaust gases into your intake manifold, bypassing your K&N air filter. The engine goes WTH, I can't burn this! And so the PCM commands more timing advance! Well except your EGR valve is on the garage floor, so you don't need all this extra timing, as there is no dirty gases entering your intake manifold. Since those of us using 1999-01 donor engines most likely ditched the EGR system, and disabled the seven EGR related codes in Section C (ie the last article) we might as well do a little tuning and eliminate the need for more timing advance do to EGR.

Your engine runs off of a main Spark table but then there are a number of timing tables that modify the timing depending on the conditions and engine needs. The EGR Base table is one of those modifiers, and if there is no EGR there is no need for the modifications.

[Confusion] For those of you following along, you may have noticed that I changed the article naming conventions, in Serries 1 articles which we called Housekeeping we used Part I, Part II, etc as the titles... where as in Series 2 which focuses on Code Deletes we call the articles Section A, Section B, etc. that is deliberate as it allows us to inject articles into each Series. What the hell are you talking about? Well when tuning you will realize that there comes a time when you need to Zig Zag a little bit and everything does not always happen in perfect order. So we return back to the first Series and add Part IV.[/Confusion]

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 C. (Our last saved file is always our starting point).

2. Make changes in the Editor, this time we will make changes effecting the EGR. First we edit the EGR Base table found under Engine\Spark\Advance. Zero out any cells that are not green, ie contain 0s already. There are many ways to do this but for beginners just go to each cell and type 0 and move on to the next one. Then we show the Navigator tree view by clicking on Edit \ Navigator and go to the Exhaust yellow folder and on the right in the General section next to Enabled we use the pulldown and select Disabled. Finally under Engine \ General \ Airflow we zero out that entire table. (Additional instructions with each pic)

3. Save the changes you made to a new file and call it something like "07 - EGR Base Tuning"

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]

on the 1999-2001 donor LS truck engines it is a common mod to delete the EGR valve and block off the opening on the passenger side stock exhaust manifold like so, though I prefer to go to the junkyard and just buy a stock factory exhaust manifold off of a 2002 or newer vehicle which already does not have this ugly appendage.

[Gregski]

to start off launch the VCM editor

[Gregski]

First we show the Navigator tree view by clicking on Edit \ Navigator



and go to the Exhaust yellow folder and on the right in the General section next to Enabled we use the pulldown and select Disabled.



Next under Engine \ General \ Airflow we zero out that entire table. (no screen shot provided)

Below we will be making changes under Engine \ Spark \ Advance \ EGR Base table

[Gregski]

here you can see the stock configuration and how much extra timing advance the computer will try to add at certain RPMs so for example at 2,400 RPM and .25 grams of air the computer will try to add 10 degrees of extra timing, great if you are dumping dirty exhaust gases into your intake manifold, not needed if you are not

[Gregski]

here in order to keep things simple I just clicked each cell that had a number in it greater than 0 and typed a 0 in it's place then I arrowed over to the next cell, you can just highlight a region and type a 0 in the white box above in the menu bar next to the X multiplication icon and then press the = equals sign and that will set them all to zero in one fell swoop, tomato tomatoe

[Gregski]

as always we increase our index from 06 to 07 to force the files to stay in order of achievement and we name the file something meaningful like 07 - EGR Base Tuning

[Gregski]

as a final step we write / flash our changes to the PCM and we are done, one small change at a time, test drive your rig for a week or so to ensure it likes the changes before making any others

[weedoublewide]

So I have a question,

Lets say you had your heads re-ported and the cylinders bored out....would you have to change any values in HP tuners?

[weedoublewide]

But amazing write up too, very informational with the goods!!!!!!!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by weedoublewide

So I have a question,

Lets say you had your heads re-ported and the cylinders bored out....would you have to change any values in HP tuners?

absolutely, as that changes displacement, compression, air flow, and volumetric efficiency, and VE Table is the mother of all tables

this is a great question but beyond this basic tutorial

[weedoublewide]

Originally Posted by Gregski

absolutely, as that changes displacement, compression, air flow, and volumetric efficiency, and VE Table is the mother of all tables

this is a great question but beyond this basic tutorial

Sorry for the late reply, school started back up and midterms around the corner.

I figured it would be a on the complicated side so this leads up to my next question. Would the getting the book from the tuning school be worth getting?

Thank you,

double

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by weedoublewide

Sorry for the late reply, school started back up and midterms around the corner.

I figured it would be a on the complicated side so this leads up to my next question. Would the getting the book from the tuning school be worth getting?

Thank you,

double

my advice to a 20 year younger self would be, digest / consume all the free information you can before dropping any coin on books or videos etc. these days there is so much free info out there, you just have to look, two words for you: Forums, Forums. Find a specific forum for your vehicle, or for your engine, or jump on the HP Tuners forum, cover yourself up in some thick skin, as some guys are jerks, and ask a bunch of specific questions, filter out all the BS and build away.

I have not used the tuning school materials so I can't recommend them.

I would suggest you consume as many YouTube videos as you can, but don't watch 12 hours worth in one day, watch an hour every other day, know what I'm saying, let your brain rest.

Here are some smart dudes that I enjoy watching. Oh, just because a video is not exactly about what you need, watch it anyway it may give you the foundation you need to build on, then you will find they all have 70% the same content, but it's that last 30% where you find the gold nuggets.

Yes I've watched some of these videos and barely understood 10% the first time, that's ok, there is a lot of information, so grab a cold one and watch them a few times, it's all good we all learn at different speeds, I applaud you for taking this on rather than [ahem] gaming, ha ha

In closing you will find a lot more dudes are doing write ups on what you are doing than what I am documenting in this thread, because seems like everyone wants to run before they can walk, ha ha.

Mega Mechatronics
Engine Tuning 101 - Part 1 - Intro, Lambda, Wideband

[Gregski]

HP Tuners Section D Disable the Secondary Air Injection Codes

So we continue disabling codes for the components we chose not to use after our LS engine swaps. The air pump probably didn't even make it to you and is still attached to the donor vehicles passenger side firewall back at the wrecking yard, making the code easy to miss when disabling all the codes ahead of time. It's job was once to add more air to our exhaust manifolds to help burn more of the unburnable gases, ha ha since you need oxygen to burn things.

In prior posts I talk about the two schools of thought on how to go about disabling codes. So far we have been disabling them ahead of time because we knew what aparatus we were deleting, but in this write up, we watch the PCM throw a code and then go after it. I should have used HP Tuners as my Code Reader this being an HP Tuners tutorial and all, but I wasn't thinking about doing the tutorial at that time so I caught the P0418 code using my Insight Edge CTS2 digital display (pronounced: "expensive"), but any OBDII code reader will find the same codes if you don't own HP Tuners and are just following along for understandability.

On my 2001 Siera donor PCM there were five Secondary Air Injection codes, your PCM may be a little bit different:

P0410 Secondary Air Injection System

P0412 Secondary Air Injection Switching Vavle A Circuit

P0418 Secondaery Air Injection System Control A Circuit

P1415 Secondary Air Injection (AIR) System Bank 1

P1416 Secondary Air Injection (AIR) System Bank 2

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 Part IV. (Our last saved file is always our starting point).

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

P0410

P0412 was already disabled by default

P0418

P1415

P1416

3. Save the changes you made to a new file and call it something like "08 - Disabled Secondary Air Injection"

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]

I snagged this pic from a YouTube video:

How to change Air Injection Pump - 2002 Chevy Tahoe

I think the Chevy trucks have it in the same location, I'm no expert on the components we don't tend to use, ha ha

[Gregski]

I strongly suggest you connect your MIL (ie check engine light) prior to your first fire up post LS Swap and hook up a code reader, the PCM is able to tell you the errors so might as well go look for them, of course fingers crossed you're hoping not to see any, but if you do, some may be a quick resolve, such as the P0418 Secondaery Air Injection System Control A Circuit

[Gregski]

P0418 Secondaery Air Injection System Control A Circuit code gets thrown if you deleted the air pump during your LS Swap

[Gregski]

some day we will use the VCM Scanner, but today we continue to use our work horse the VCM Editor

[Gregski]

and here is what caused the P0418 code to illuminate, it is enabled in the PCM and since we don't actually have an air pump any more, we might as well disable it, and it's cousin the P0410