It's the debate you've all been asking for! We've invited Andy Wyatt (Adaptronic/Haltech), Adam Neish (Just Engine Management) and of course, Scott (aka Tuning Fork) to talk about tuning fails, DOs and DON'T and offer their hints and tips on how to get your car tuned quickly, efficiently and safely. What was your worst or best tuning experience? Let us know in the comments section!

Haltech needs to partner with a app company to make a Tuning Simulator where you run different cars on dynos and have to go through tuning it to make it run as good as you can and clean up the fuel maps to get a high score think this would help people who are intrested

From a experienced retired tuner, a tuner REQUIRES a thorough knowledge of the mechanical side of the engine and whole package. - Most useful tip I have for your viewers is NEVER believe that any work (either electrical, mechanical, or tuning) done before you received the car has been done correctly. - Most often faults in cars brought to the dyno would be in this order: low level fuel in tank, wiring issues, fuel pumps, h.t. leads, old plugs. - As for most interesting problem/fault, in my first year of professionally tuning, I had a race car that tuned up great on the dyno with owner very happy but went bad later when checking the tune on the track. After every lap the engine would run richer and with noticeable lower top speed down the straight. After 5 laps and leaning it out 5 times with no reason or problem observed from a engine management point I had to insist to the owner he had a engine problem. I was a young tuner and he was a retired tuner and engine guy from TWR so it was a very big call to make! I was pleased, and have respect for his integrity, when a week later he came back and told me the external oiling system he had built for the cams wasn’t working as expected and the cam lobes were badly worn down! The moral of that story is that if you are sure with your diagnosis and beliefs don’t be afraid to stick with it, if you don’t have confidence to trust your decisions how can you expect your customers to have trust in you.

HAHA, I legit did not expect Andy to wear anything different than that! Some of my favorite Aussie legends all in one room!

Best: Bring it to Tuning Fork. Worst: Facebook Marketplace "street tune" yo.

I agree 💯 with practicing checking over the car for how ever long it takes before tuning starts, that couple of hrs checking over things equals piece of mind..

Best episode yet. Prepare prepare prepare. Sounds like the message. And a full tank of fuel. Good to see that going to guys like you, you have already served your’ apprenticeship’ and are at the top of your game.

Having done my apprenticeship in Australia and during the time that commodores and falcons were cheap, I know them like the back of my hand, hand me something euro and it's a headache because I actually need to call on my diagnostic knowledge and years of experience rather than just knowing what's probably wrong like I do when a commodore or falcon rolls into the workshop

I tuned a 86 with a 4age 20v for customer a few months back and I noticed we were losing power after about the 5th pull, particularly at midrange to top end. The power just kept dropping on subsequent runs. I went through all the sensors, calibration, timing, trigger, etc and everything seemed to be fine. Inspected sparks and performed engine compression test and all was fine as well. Finally, I noticed a lot of metallic particles out of the tailpipe and around the rear of the car. The car had a catalytic converter and the cat had failed and clogged up the exhaust system which caused major exhaust restriction.

You know Scotty, I did a very similar thing with my brother. Working on his na miata we had just put a standalone in, accidentally got a tiny thread of wire in the wideband controller, shorted the microcontroller out and it died. We were also right at the same time checking our base timing. Set it to 10 degress BTDC. Come back 2 weeks later with a new wideband controller. After 20-30 minutes of driving around being really confused why it is so slow and I can smell so much fuel it hits me. That little ignition gauge I'm looking at on my laptop has been on 10 degrees this whole time. Turned off fixed-timing and it was beautiful. We probably spent a good 15 minutes speculating.. Is a valve stuck? Did the crank pulley slip? Is the ignition coil dying?? Nope, just forgot to turn it off before we finished up last time

Really good EP!!! your a good bunch of humble men, with a good passion for cars :) exactly what all industries need

Good to see Andy back sharing his knowledge on KZfaq!

Interesting hearing him mention the bike engines with plenum instead of individuals. I’m a bike tech by trade , but have an ls1 with a big cam and went with an itb set up , because I know how bikes use big overlap with no issues

100% agreed with all your points, guys. Every beginner/hobby tuner should make a PDF and print out, or atleast keep that PDF on their laptop or phone. But hey, paper don't run out of battery. ;) My personal demand is a AFR meter and a boost gauge, or I will never touch the car, not even "take it for a spin". Greetings from Sweden! =) /Kim. 1991 GVR4.

Fantastic Video. I'm a "home guy" and have built a number of cars in my own (or mates) garage. The biggest question mark has always been the tune, and tuner. I've never had a check list provided by the tuner or for that matter, any direction at all. This is awesome info and great from the other side of the table to help me make sure I'm presenting the car to the tuner in the best state it can be. Thanks guys! P.S. None of my cars have exploded yet!

As an aspiring tuner thanks for sharing the hard earned knowledge!

That was fun to watch! I'm from a different World... 56 years old, Old School Carb expert... I value guys like you because I definitely can't "tune" a computer!!! 😳 I've got my 😖 story... Rebuilding and setting up a Holley 4150. Got complacent. Set it in the car and started it up, ran like sh!t! Bogging, flooding and spilled fuel all over the Manifold. Took the Carb apart again, to find I FORGOT to fit the power valve back in!!! So "jetting" was a 3/8" HOLE in the bottom of the float bowl. 😡😡😡😡 Lesson 10 - NEVER ASSUME! Carmine ✈🚂🚙

Glad they mentioned the difficulty of the FSAE cars, I was on a team that ran a single cylinder turbo KTM450 that was a nightmare. It was a smart choice going single cylinder given how small the intake restriction was, since most the teams that run 4 cylinders seem to have trouble with them getting choked out. However there were more inconsistencies- the intake pressure was very cyclic, and even the engine RPM was varying quite a bit every cycle from the valvetrain and compression.

2j vvti has got me twice on weird issues. One where the engine had been assembled by another shop with the timing marks with the dots vs notches mixed up put the intake cam way out. It actually ran but sounded like a Bridgeport. The other was an engine assembled by another shop that must have dropped the crank trigger wheel. They would have dropped it, looked at it and it was fine. Fast forward to getting that engine running, first crank it was perfect for 30 seconds and then never again. We even pulled the crank sensor and looked dead on at the crank trigger wheel to count the teeth. Looked fine down the sensor hole. Pulled our hair out for a week, missed an event before pulling the front of the engine apart to find a tooth missing.

Great video. So many small things we forget to look at. Brings back memories. My first car was a Datsun 1200GX coupe. Turbo charged the original 1200 engine. Toyota 2e pistons. Custom intake plenum and a 4age throttle body. Stock crank and rods. Made 148kw at the wheels. Was a laugh when everyone thought I was running a 4AGE twincam until I opened the bonnet....

Omg this is gold Thank you for putting this together & posting 🙏

Really enjoyed this video! Love the content and info. Hoping to see more of such discussions in the future.

I enjoy watching guys mass debate

Thank you guys this is a very informative video. Every day should be a learning day and double check everything, words to live by in this trade.

My first car when I was 17 back in 2001 was a 1974 2 door valiant lancer with the cordia 1.8 turbo 💪

Awesome video guys! Lots of great tips, Thanks!

This is so awesome. This series just takes everything to the next level. I've always wanted to learn how to tune cars and these videos give an amazing insight into that world. Keep it going guys 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Hey guys! Thanks for the great video, I can 100% relate on all the issues you've had.... My worst experience was having a car run on a map tumed for VP Import.... Then forget to switch it back to the 93 map when we pumped it back... So a hod one would be "don't forget to switch maps when tuning for different fuels" lol Love the video again guys, you should do more of these! Norman AlphaSpeed from Puerto Rico

What an excellent video Scotty, great job for lads like me who are new to getting a car tuned

You guys are awesome. To me modifying a car has always been about improving the performance of the nut behind the wheel. Modify the driver is my religion, that said I have a lot of respect for yo your engineering mind's and skills. T thanks guys.

Great video once again. I've got a Nissan N12 turbo from 86 in the garage. It's the version of the Nissan pulsar we had in the UK that Andy had. Great cars. I will be coming to you for the ECU when I get around to getting it on the road.

Go Andy! Helped with diagnosing a Fuel Pulsation issue I had on a client's car years ago.

Ahh, the venerable 3T-GTE! Love those. Adam will probably never see this, but I must highly commend his work on our Hilux. Love it to bits!

I wish politicians would learn to debate like this. Very informative to understand things correctly and to make your correct choices and steps to each choice. Thanks fellas.

Thank you for the knowledge guys! Good stuff!

Great stuff guys, thanks for your time.

Had a mate who had a 7AGE KE70 with a bespoke ECU that was pretty much in an old lunch box. Thinking it might have been an Andy special from back in the day.

Fantastic video! Loved it!

Great video guy's, keep it up 👍

measure fuel flow on the return line under load to make sure fuel is returning, an easy way to see if your running out of pump.

In short, make sure you've got your 'strap on' and always suspect everyone is a numpty.

Pretty impressive combined iq levels in one room. Plus 3 very nice and knowledgeable guys talk about the most interesting aspect of building a car. Best video of 2020 so far, and most likely whole year.

Oh man... checking for issues before even cracking open the laptop. I keep falling for this! 😅

Scotty,Andy, Adam & Haltech. Thanks You great subject information is everything keep up the great work. Need more like this.

So true such good content. You Australians are really into tuning thank you for sharing.

My advice is to always use the lambda sensor bolted in the dump pipe or closest to the engine. Never in the tailpipe. I sometimes even use two wide bands to make sure reading right. EMS had a feature that data logged average lambda at the load point that helped heaps. I never used dynos although would of helped in the 500hp+ region with a good load bearing dyno. I don't recommend street tuning either but can do most low and medium points with it, actually better on the road.

This was such a good interview! Quick comment on the section of the engines they like to tune the most. It was immediately apparent that they both like the challenge of tuning the same thing. The only difference is scale. If they compare notes I bet they solve each others problems!! Thanks for this one Tuning Fork! I tuned my brain with this!

thanks guys, learned alot,

I don't know about a debate, much prefer a conversation. This was a good conversation.

As a first year app, I rebuilt the carby on my 4a-fe, set timing, etc. No power. Pulled the carb back apart twice, still no good. Senior tech had a look, turns out I got the timing marks wrong, running 10 after tdc.... 😳

That was great! Thank you

LOVE this content guys!

Awesome video Scott. Very interesting.

Oh yes! Fresh Haltech vids!

Being able to doubt the previous work done was something I had to get over.

Their stories would make a fantastic podcast!

Awesome video guys!!!!! From Canada 🇨🇦

Would love a really in-depth video with Andy, live on the 1s & 2s 🥼👨🏼‍💻🏆

How come we don't see more of Andy ? Miss that guy

those little tiny cars r hilarious to watch run around the track :p

When tuning with any ECU, Don't forget to turn run in "closed loop" (without fuel and ignition trim), and raise knock threshold on engines with knock sensors, i learned the hard way, LOL.

Thank you Haltech... very informative...

Best one yet, Cheers Scott

All top notch guys. Good watch!

this is awesome please do more!!!! ADAM IS A LEGEND! ask evan from unigroup and stix from quickbitz!!!

Andy's T-shirt sums it up really well. If you've ever used Adaptronic vs Haltech - Adaptronic is engine management software for a software engineer, Haltech is engine management software for an engine builder or designer. Every time I see a car with Adaptronic I sigh, and know the pain that owner or tuner has been through. Haltech every time :-)

Garbage in garbage out great video 👌🏽thx

I had a clevo that kept retarding timing every time I backed off over 3500 rpm. Turns out the vacuum advance was letting the inner and outer magnetic ring touch and then the inner ring would retard. New drive pin and shaft bush and never missed a beat since

What is the best method for testing ignition timing in a COP setup using an inductive timing light?

Nice piece Scott. With outputs climbing so quickly even at the oem level, do you see a need for individual per cyl wideband monitoring vs. bank monitoring?

Awesome video

Eyy my first turbo car was an n12 exa as well!

Love this show 👍👍👍

Made my day!

Congrats on 200.000 subs!!!

Excellent.

Anyone getting into tuning and wanting to know the best advice listen to @32:20 this sums up what you need to know.

😄 we got a shout out 🇵🇷!

Very good info but no one mentioned a dirty air filter

I had a starion turbo with an old haltech auxiliary twin injector driver thing and it never blew up!

My Rb25det chewed out the teeth on the exhaust cam many years ago. Stock ect even then took myself and 2 seperate workshops to finally find it. New oem stock cam good to go!

I've always been a fan of the mass-debate.

My first cat was a datsun 1600,no turbo,it had a l20b with twin carbs navarra 5spd and a legacy 4.1:1 lsd.

Next episode: Master Debater meets Cunning Linguist (love the videos, keep em coming) (uhh, I mean- oh fuck it)

please explain andy's shirt. also would love to see a vid for the general public on realistic expectations, with nightmare examples. i feel this is needed more as ecu tuning and such gets more popular.

Cordia turbo was one of the best worst 80s cars ever. I miss all my 80s nuggets. 86' prelude, 89' Swift GTI, 85' cordia. All of them driven into the ground by an ignorant younger me.

that shirt made me laugh and i don't even know what it means 😅😅😅

I'm guilty of the empty fuel cell when tuning lol.

PAGE UP! PAGE UP!

My first turbo car was a n12 exa!!!!!

Find out what clutch is in the car, ive seen one explode (owner fitted) and take out the gearbox, back of engine, and pieces go through the floor and break the dash.

I like the Oklahoma Plate you guys have, how did yall get that a fan mail you their old one?

I cannot make out the shirt. But I do see the the Molar density of air there.

andy is so humble

I wanna know more about the 4AGTE! Where can I learn more about Adam's car?

yall know Andy..Wyatt's a g

So best practice is ensure the basic fundamental stuff is dialed in properly first.

While I don't believe in superstition, I know I might be wrong, so does that make me superstitious? IE: Straps, Covers, 'Pretty Panels', Never install all of them until they are needed!

Can you PLLLEEEASSSEEEE elaborate more about battery ground!? I just relocated my battery to my trunk

Meanwhile can we compare the differences between halltech stuff and something like the MS3 Pro?