Apoloies in adavance for this lengthy post. I am a relatively FNG, saw this thread and my good friend Kevin's name mentioned so I thought I might add some background information on him, the product, and its performance.
Kevin's a degreed mechanical engineer from Georgia Tech and has owned and built Harley engines for a decade (Evo's/Twin Cams/Carb/EFI), though he is a young man. As a teen-ager he built extremely high horsepower drag cars and show cars--in short he is a true motorhead with excellent computer skills who knows his way around engine design, EFI, assembly, machining metal, etc. and etc.
His personal ride is an '06 EFI EG Classic that he has "Ultraized." After buying the bike, he did a Head-Quarters 95" 10.5:1 motor and, more recently, built a HQ 113" engine. Details of his 113" build are shown here:
http://www.hdforums.com/m_2420679/tm.htmThe recent build has less than 350 miles on it, does not have a "final" tune, but does produce 130+ tq and 110 hp. It has the HQ Pro Tuner installed and on our 250 mile ride this past Sunday, delivered 45+ mpg.
For good performance, there really isn't a lot of debate about what target AFR's should be as noted by Chief earlier in this thread. However, the expense/time required for a "thorough" tune is in establishing the actual AFR that has been targeted after advancing timing to the point of ping, then backing off 3-5* for each cell (rpm/load). For example, you can achieve a targeted A/F with a given ignition timing, but by advancing the timing, achieve more complete/powerful combustion without ping. So now you add more fuel to that cell and determine if there is ping; if not, add more advance to see if there is more power; if there is, and no pinging, you can again add more fuel. And this process is repeated to the point where added advance and/or fuel provides no improvement and/or pinging is present that can't be removed with more fuel. At that point the fuel and ignition timing have been maxed out, and timing is retarded 3-5*. And that process is repeated for the cells (rpm/load).
This is a somewhat crude explanation of EFI/SERT tuning, but the general approach accounts for the often significant expense of a thorough tune. Most customers aren't willing to pay the piper, and most tuners aren't patient enough to do it thoroughly. If there were good SERT tuners, TMAT and DTT "auto" tune systems wouldn't be in the market--and neither unit "auto" adjusts ignition timing.
The HQ Pro Tuner is installed on a bike with an ECM loaded with a map that is close, gets the target AFR from the Pro-Tuner's pre-programmed "standard" in its software and compares the target to the "actual" AFR the sensor(s) is (are) reading, then changes the voltage signal to the ECM to add or subtract fuel to achieve the AFR target in the Pro Tuner. The Pro Tuner will cause timing changes in the ECM that are due to the fuel tables already in the ECM. It will not advance timing independent of the ECM, nor can the target AFR values be changed in the Pro Tuner's software.
The benefit to the customer is that the Pro Tuner will make a mediocre/modest tune much better. It will not, however, max out the hp/tq of the engine if the ignition timing in the ECM has not been done well. However, if you have a laptop, it's relatively easy to adjust timing, do data runs, etc. in search of the "perfect" map of the moment/conditions.
Another aspect of this discussion is that cutomers of HQ who buy one of their engine kits and the Pro Tuner, receive that "close" map from Kevin to load into the ECM after the build is done. So an HQ engine kit customer has little, if any, dyno tune expense.
A final point: Printing your email and the response to it is certainly a way to assure accuracy of what was said. However, unless your initial email says that the response may or will be posted on a public internet forum, I personally find the posting of the reply "bad form" as the Brits would say. I note that Kevin's email response was posted earlier in this thread and he, nor anyone else, has the time to monitor all of the message boards to assure accuracy of the "pasted" email, or the context of his reply. Nor does he or anyone else have the time to compose in great detail all possibly relevant information to support the text of what would normally be a brief message.
By all means, continue to contact Kevin with your questions, if any, regarding the HQ Pro Tuner--I'm sure you will find him knowledgeable and helpful.
As for me, I am not a motorhead, my EFI tuning experience is limited to tuning my own basically stock 88 using a SERT and Twin Scan II+ under Kevin's supervision, and being pretty familiar with the Pro Tuner. And, aside from buying a set of cams, have no affiliation with HQ.
HTH
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Topic: Headquarters Pro Tooner (Read 13988 times)