HP Tuners Tutorials

[weedoublewide]

I looked at all those dudes videos and then some more. I liked this gentleman as well, very well spoken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX0OuvgUCbQ

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by weedoublewide

I looked at all those dudes videos and then some more. I liked this gentleman as well, very well spoken.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX0OuvgUCbQ

OMG, that was my first pick I just couldn't find the link to that first video at the time, thank you so much for posting this link.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by weedoublewide

I wish I was 20 something again lol, I'm what you call a late bloomer going back to college, still 30 years young.

is there anything to log when one is trying to start for the first time? I'm only firing on three cylinders. Coils are good and each injector is getting pulse(YAY NOID LIGHT).I need a new set of fuel injectors(3 are bad 37 ohms).

I'm trying to learn this VCM scanner and use it as a troubleshooting tool.

sorry to hear about your troubles, did you disable your VATS, Vehicle Anti Theft System (I assume this is a Swap - engine not in original vehicle) I read that you say your coils are good, but does that mean you actually checked for spark, one plug at a time at the plug? (I like to use a test tool like the one below, wife prefers it too, so she aint standing in a puddle of water with metal vice grips trying to ground it to the block)

If you swap a good plug and its plug wire to another cylinder will it fire there? Will the bad plug / wire fire in the before working cylinder, on that coil?

A lot of times guys blame grounds, each side of coils has its own ground and the PCM uses four on these PINS: 1 and 40 on each of the blue and red connectors

Check out the link here: Grounds Demystified

Did you thin out your own harness did you repin any wires? sorry if asked and answered

which 3 cylinders fire? what do they have in common? are they all Odd or all Even for example, since the PCM has an Odd coil and an Even side coil

what codes show up in the Scan Tool?

did you check your fuses? even if they look good to the eye just replace the ones for the Injectors and Coils for funzies

[weedoublewide]

Originally Posted by Gregski

sorry to hear about your troubles, did you disable your VATS, Vehicle Anti Theft System (I assume this is a Swap - engine not in original vehicle) I read that you say your coils are good, but does that mean you actually checked for spark, one plug at a time at the plug? (I like to use a test tool like the one below, wife prefers it too, so she aint standing in a puddle of water with metal vice grips trying to ground it to the block)

If you swap a good plug and its plug wire to another cylinder will it fire there? Will the bad plug / wire fire in the before working cylinder, on that coil?

A lot of times guys blame grounds, each side of coils has its own ground and the PCM uses four on these PINS: 1 and 40 on each of the blue and red connectors

Check out the link here: Grounds Demystified

Did you thin out your own harness did you repin any wires? sorry if asked and answered

which 3 cylinders fire? what do they have in common? are they all Odd or all Even for example, since the PCM has an Odd coil and an Even side coil

what codes show up in the Scan Tool?

did you check your fuses? even if they look good to the eye just replace the ones for the Injectors and Coils for funzies

No big deal, ill answer them all!

It's firing on 1,7 and 8.

Since we knew those three were firing, we did a rotation of all of the coils and wires to verify those were good as well. And they were.

We had a ground problem at the beginning, as it seems not having a ground hooked up will cause problems lol. I didn't have the ground hooked up for the coils. it is now.

Yes the harness is thinned out, but we didn't repin any of the inputs/outputs on the PCM.

I didn't see anything that popped out on the scan tool, but I shall double check it.

And yes sir, VATS is disabled.

could it be an airflow/fuel/spark

Oh and fuel is constant 58-60 psi with cranking

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by weedoublewide

could it be an airflow/fuel/spark

LOL, what else is there, ha ha - as an old timer once told me, unless you're trying to start a vehicle under water don't worry about the air, ha ha, focus on the other two, fuel and spark

Originally Posted by weedoublewide

Since we knew those three were firing, we did a rotation of all of the coils and wires to verify those were good as well. And they were.

I'm sorry I don't follow.

Scenario 1. you take a good coil/wire/spark from cylinder #1 and put it on bad cylinder #2, what happens there? does two fire or not?

Scenario 2. you take a bad coil/wire/spark from cylinder #2 and put it on good cylinder #1, what happens there? does one fire or not?

share a pic of your fuse block or a link to your build please (sorry I don't show sigs on my forum view in case you have it in there) what is it out of Year / Make / Model / Mods I think you said heads, so I am assuming whole enchilada, did you swap injectors, did you decap them? if you built your own fuse block did some of our connections come loose?

[Gregski]

HP Tuners Section F Disable the Catalyst System Codes

In this article we disable what we hope will be the last of the codes. It is common for LS Swappers to run exhaust systems less the catalytic converter so it makes sense to suppress any diagnostic codes which may surface do to it's absence. There will be an accompanying write up on how to actually turn off the catalyst PCM controls but for now we focus on just the codes.

On my 2001 Siera donor PCM there were two Catalyst System codes, your PCM may be a little bit different:

P0420 Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 1)

P0430 Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold (Bank 2)

[Just Sayin'] There has never been a more suitable code than a 420 for dealing with lighting up and smoking something, and they say GM egineers have no sense of humor [/Just Sayin']

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. We fire up our laptop and launch the Editor. Open the file we saved in Section F. (Our last saved file is always our starting point).

2. Make changes in the Editor, this time we will make changes only to the Catalyst System codes under Engine Diag \ DTCs. Refer to the cheat sheet below and Disable the SES on these and set the MIL to No Error Reported, some may be disabled already by default:

P0420

P0430

3. Save the changes you made to a new file and call it something like "11 - Disabled Catalyst System Codes"

4. In your vehicle 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]

junkyards cut these out in California so I can only assume this is what they look like, ha ha

[Gregski]

we open up the VCM Editor because that's where we will be making our changes

[Gregski]

two catalytic converter codes get turned off, P0420 (hee hee) and P0430

[Gregski]

be descriptive when you name your file, a sentence here is better than an abbreviated word, six months from now you will thank me for nagging you to do so

[Gregski]

Write Calibration aka Flash your PCM

[MDPotter]

Gregski - as I said before, awesome writeup. You've broken down what appears to be rocket surgery and made it understandable. Just wanted to let you know that we do read this and appreciate the info very much. Keep it coming please!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by MDPotter

Gregski - as I said before, awesome writeup. You've broken down what appears to be rocket surgery and made it understandable. Just wanted to let you know that we do read this and appreciate the info very much. Keep it coming please!

Oh Wow! Thank you so much for taking the time to say that, I really do appreciate it, this forum has been so helpful to me and I just want to give a little back.

Anyone else following along, please don't be a stranger, I don't mean to ever sound like a know it all, so just chime in correct me where appropriate, ask questions if something is not clear, and call my B.S. when you think I am pouring it on a bit too thick, ha ha.

[PGSigns]

I have an LS swap in my future and have been following along as you ad content. I like the format as it makes it easy to do for one but having it broken down into sections allows for an easier search if you have a specific topic you need to get figured out. Keep it coming!
Jimmy

[clay68c10]

Keep em coming! I’ll be doing the tuning on my LQ4 eventually, hopefully next spring or summer.

[Gregski]

For those of you following along in the LS Swap planning stages, you can download the HP Tuners software for free from their website, it is legit not pirated and you can start practicing and following along what I am doing, you can read the tune files, you can make changes to them, you just can't write them back to the PCM without buying the hardware / credits. Hope this helps.

https://www.hptuners.com/downloads/

[Captainfab]

That is good to know. I might give that try this winter.

[Wgesnerjr]

Originally Posted by Gregski

For those of you following along in the LS Swap planning stages, you can download the HP Tuners software for free from their website, it is legit not pirated and you can start practicing and following along what I am doing, you can read the tune files, you can make changes to them, you just can't write them to the PCM without buying the hardware / credits. Hope this helps.

Gregski,
Just so I`m getting this straight, I can go on the site, download the authentic software to my laptop. Then (without credits) I can practice on a test file from them or can I download a copy of my current tune and practice on it; just not writing it back to the pcm? Or do I need credits to copy my current program out to the laptop?

The reasons I ask: I have an old OBD II cable from my 95 Trans Am Gen II SBC. (95 was a change over year, OBD I PCM with OBD II plug) I used it with Tuner Cat software for that year. Very basic program and not user friendly compared to the HP Tuner; but got the job done. if the cable will work with HP Tuner, my buy in to start this had gone down considerably. No need to buy their Bluetooth hook up, just credits.

[Gregski]

Great questions, allow me to clerify.

Originally Posted by Wgesnerjr

...Just so I`m getting this straight, I can go on the site, download the authentic software to my laptop. Then (without credits) I can practice on a test file from them

Correct, you can download the software and also download any tune file from their repository although I recommend starting by downloading the Stock Tune files meaning some guys post their factory default files on there for others to grab in case they forgot to make a backup of their own tune files. You can search by Vehicle Year Make and Model. Not all years are available, but most are.

Originally Posted by Wgesnerjr

... or can I download a copy of my current tune and practice on it; just not writing it back to the pcm?

You can NOT get your own file because you need their hardware dongle to connect to your PCM in order to read the file from your own PCM, that hardware dongle (little box, see pic below costs $300 bucks no matter who you buy it from) I say buy the dongle without the credits first, just pay $300 and have the hardware. That will allow you to read the data from yours and anyone's PCM in the world just not write changes back to it, but that's ok, baby steps.

Originally Posted by Wgesnerjr

Or do I need credits to copy my current program out to the laptop?

No, you do not need credits to read files, but you do need the hardware to link your laptop to the cars computer aka PCM.

Originally Posted by Wgesnerjr

The reasons I ask: I have an old OBD II cable from my 95 Trans Am Gen II SBC. (95 was a change over year, OBD I PCM with OBD II plug) I used it with Tuner Cat software for that year. Very basic program and not user friendly compared to the HP Tuner; but got the job done. if the cable will work with HP Tuner, my buy in to start this had gone down considerably. No need to buy their Bluetooth hook up, just credits.

Their magic hardware is proprietary and that's how they make their money it will not work with your OBDII cable I wish it did. Below is the pic of the little box, the cable is just a standard generic USB cable as far as I know, it comes with it, but it's just a regular USB cable.

[Gregski]

What guys do, what I've done, and what I suggest you guys give a shot, is go to the junkyard and buy a PCM ie computer off of a 1999-2007 (Silverado, Sierra, Suburban, Tahoe, Yuckon) vehicle it really does not matter which one, but try to match it to your truck a bit, so if you have a 2WD then get one out of a two wheel drive, if you have a 4x4 than grab one out of a four wheel drive, if you plan on doing an automatic get one from a 4L60e transmission car, or 4L80e type of thing, if you want a stick than try and find one out of a NV3500 or NV4500 (good luck finding those) hee hee.

Then keep the blue connector for the PCM and cut about 3 feet of cable with it, you will make your own "Bench Harness" using this. This will allow you to tune this PCM or any other PCM off the car outside of the truck in your living room, your home office, or on the work bench in the garage, ie that's why it's called the Bench Harness, ha ha also get one OBDII port with about a foot of wire with it, you will also need that.

I've included a link to a video on how to make one, this is Matt the Godfather of LS Swaps from Sloppy Mechanics you all should meet ha ha, 8-7-13 Stock computer bench flashing harness there are other videos that will come up so find one that works for you, I think I had to watch like three or four of them to see the different designs and flavors guys like to build / make, that's how all of this HP Tuners stuff works, there is no one 100% complete source you have to hunt and peck, this thread being no exception. frustrating at first, but it does get easier over time

[Kermitt47]

Thank you Gregski for taking the time to break down and document a very complex program into small logical bits that us neophytes can follow along and gain some comfort level without feeling buried and afraid of blowing things up. Your efforts and those of others like ChopperDoc are appreciated.
Have you taken a look at the Gen V LT programming with the HP Tuners and is it similar or very different?

[Wgesnerjr]

Thank you Gregski,
This helps me wrap my head around what it will take to get into tuning.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Kermitt47

Thank you Gregski for taking the time to break down and document a very complex program into small logical bits that us neophytes can follow along and gain some comfort level without feeling buried and afraid of blowing things up. Your efforts and those of others like ChopperDoc are appreciated.

You're welcome.

Originally Posted by Kermitt47

Have you taken a look at the Gen V LT programming with the HP Tuners and is it similar or very different?

I have not, I am really into older cars A '54 named Busty like the carb world because it takes my mind off the high tech crap I do in my regular day job, but eventually the geek in me comes out and that's why I graduated to the Gen III (1999-2007) engines, and they are a great mechanical design and not just due to the computer control, however not sure I want to take it further and go beyond that, I am not a big fan of all that shut some valves / chambers off to save fuel/economy tech and alternative fuels etc. So just a simple man trying to get by.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Wgesnerjr

Thank you Gregski,
This helps me wrap my head around what it will take to get into tuning.

You're welcome, it is good info even if you are going to send your PCM to some remote tuner to get the VATS disabled, at least now you can maybe give him or her a list of other things to do as well, like:

1. Change my RPM signal to 8 cylinders
2. Set my tire size
3. Here's my rear end gear ratio
4. Please turn off EGR and disable the associated diagnostic codes
5. Please turn off EVAP and disable the associated diagnostic codes
6. Please turn off the CAT heating and protection and disable the associated diagnostic codes
7. Please configure my fuel tank capacity for 16 gallons
8. Please turn off the speed limiter
9. Please enable Power Enrichment
10. etc, etc...

please provide me with a copy of my Stock File before making any changes on a DVD or a USB stick

please provide me with a copy of my New Tune File on a DVD or a USB stick

hope this helps,
G

[saon]

sub'd