I got 2 lappy's so that's not an issue. Putting heads/cam/exhaust onto 94Z this winter project and need to know what to buget for electronic goodies.
I assume I will need some interface cable, possibly TunerCat, whatever datalogging soft you guys recommend.
Anything I'm forgetting
thanks

 

Just hook up with madwolf www.madz28.com, for programming

AKM Electronics for cable
I'd go with tunercat and datamaster

I'd definately get your PCM socketed and have a spare set of Flash memory chips

 

I 2nd tunercat and datamaster, I use both of them all the time, datamaster almost dayly just to check stuff out. I keep the laptop plugged into the car and run it almost constantly. I did use freescan for a bit but I think datamaster is much better, I do still use freescan to do a quick check on things because it loads up faster and displays the data a little better, but datamaster displays more data and has many more options. So just keep both handy.

 

Madwolf does good work, but there are limitations to how far you can tune a car with mail in tuning. That's why a dyno tune is the best way to do it (however, it is also the most expensive). Being able to tune your car yourself and watch all the data with a datalogger is the second best to a dyno tune. If you still don't know a lot about tuning, have Madwolf do your first tune via mail, then, as you become more knowledgeable, tweek the program as necessary to make it work on your car even better. I just got finished doing this for a buddy of mine with a 383 stroker and PCMforless tune. The PCMforless tune was a great start, but it needed a few tweeks in timing and trans tables to make smooth out the idle and correct the cam surge at low rpms. Mail order tuning is a good place to start, then go from there as you learn with Tunercat and datamaster or freescan.

 

yeah that's what I plan to do. I wouldn't know enough to setup the main part of the tune, but I could figure out little tweaks on my own and w/help of others here to possibly refine the tune. I just need to know what hardware/software is best etc....
thanks