I'm on an island (Guam), and there is no dyno here. I plan on doing some improvements (stroke/turbo, etc) over the next couple of years that I'm stationed out here. What is the best way to get the best tune on my car without reaching the possibility of exploding the engine???

I don't know much about the handheld tuning devices and their capabilities, maybe someone could school me here, purple dinosaur style?

 

Seriously, if your looking to modify your car to that extent, then your going to have to go one of two routes.

The easier would be to get a mail order tune from one of the various popular tuners. While this is the easiest path, it also is, IMO the riskier one. Your talking about pretty radical setups that small miscalculations in a tune can make your engine into a paperweight. While this outcome is pretty unlikely, it's still posible.

The second route you could go with would be to buy a tuning suite (something like SCT's Racers package or HP Tuners or similiar), lean how to tune yourself, and with the aid of a dragstrip, a wideband O2 sensor, and MANY hours of datalogging, build the tune yourself. This route is alot more work, but in the end, I think you'll be far more satisfied with the outcome.

 

The second option is probably the most feasible. I have unlimited access to the dragstrip (see, volunteering is a good thing!!!), so all I'd need to do is get a tuner, a laptop, the tuner program, a wideband O2 sensor, and learn how to do by self?

Anyone have any lessons learned from doing this?

 

If you buy a whipple supercharger for example they all come with canned tunes and can produce easily 500hp. I don't see a reason not to with that route. Funny I actually know people on Guam.

 

Its a small island, we may know the same people!!!

 

You might enjoy the book "How to Tune and Modify Engine Management Systems" by Jeff Hartman. It covers some basic topics and has a lot of real examples in the back.

Sleeper2