Yeah I'd go through it carefully... Change fluids, check spark plugs, cap, rotor, fuel pressure, fuel filter, etc... Make sure all the basics are in order so you know what you have.

If it's bone stock, there's really not much to do on the tune unfortunately.

If you're planning on engine modifications, then more likely you'll want to get some tuning done for optimization depending on what you do.

 

my car gained massive torque from a tune over stock.

 

Updated first post with current links.

 

Thanks for maintaining a writeup with good links!

As we probably all know, a lot of the links from the stickied posts are dead. However, I was able to pull the "Traxions' Introduction to Prom Burning" from archive.org. Despite the fact that this article itself contains a lot of dead links and some dated hardware and software references, it's a great starting place to understand all the basic terminology to get you started. It answered pretty much every question I had as a complete newbie (what is a BIN? Whats the difference between a PROM and memcal? What does $8D mean, and so on...)

https://web.archive.org/web/20051225...romintro.shtml

 

you’re welcome. Let me know if you have any questions. There’s still a few active guys here in this diy prom forum that can go in depth with tuning help.

 

I do have some very basic/beginner question on definition files. I see TunerPro has these definition files for $8D:

• Why is the BIN definition an ECU file instead of XDF? Is there another / better file I should look for?
• I see I can import an ECU under the XDF menu, is there anything lost / any drawback from doing this?
• Why are there 2 separate datastream definitions with separate extensions? Is the second one for Corvette only?
• There's a separate link at the top for additional OBDI datastream definitions which shows A100.ads as an option. Which of the 3 datastream definitions is the best to use?

 

bin file is the binary computer “tune” file.
Xdf is the definition it tables and where they are on the bin file.
Ads is the old version of adx.
.ecu files I’ve never used.

you need your bin file, the xdf for tunerpro to read/edit it and adx to data log it.

 

I was going to ask if this thread should be a sticky but I see that it has been hot linked from an existing sticky.

 

Thanks. I've figured out what the different file types are for, I was just thrown off by the different versions available on the tunerpro site.

I've since registered for gearhead-efi and looked over the downloads for $8D/7730 (I followed the links in your first post). I'm still a little thrown by the multiple options for the same file type (for example there are 2 different xdfs). I guess you're just taking a bit of a leap of faith on the choice, though I do wonder if there are different versions because there's a know issue with an older option.

 

either should work perfectly. The difference will be either extra tables/switches/scalars or better descriptions or both. You may find both have better parts. You can copy and paste from one to the other to make a best one.

I made my own for axxd that’s better than any other one I’ve ever seen and i occasionally use saujps definition for quick info if I don’t have it defined. Then I paste it into mine to continue to make it better.

 

This makes sense. I had a hunch this was the reason for different file sizes, and your explanation lends a bit of confirmation there. Thanks for taking the time to explain!

Next up, figuring out the basics of data log analysis!

 

start a thread for your logs and what youre trying to accomplish with them. I’ll help where I can.