WinOLS Mastery: Map Identification & Editing: Live Tuning vs Reflashing
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Live Tuning vs Reflashing
03.23
| 00:00 | - One of the hardest aspects to get used to for those more familiar with tuning aftermarket standalone ECUs is that when we're working with WinOLS to make our tuning changes, in most instances, we're not going to be able to make these tuning changes live. |
| 00:14 | What I mean by this is we can't run the car on the road or the dyno and make adjustments to fuel or ignition and see the results of those changes instantly as we'd expect to do with any aftermarket ECU. |
| 00:27 | Instead, the tuning process requires us to make a test run on the dyno or road, make any required changes to the mapping, shut the engine off, flash the new map into the ECU and finally test again to confirm the effect of our changes. |
| 00:42 | This is necessary because the maps in the ECU are stored in read only memory and this information can't be altered while the engine is running. |
| 00:51 | On the face of it, this sounds like quite an inconvenience and potentially a very slow and time consuming way of tuning, particularly when flashing the ECU can take upwards of 10 to 15 minutes in some instances. |
| 01:03 | The reality however is that when we're reflashing a factory ECU, we can often confine the area of engine operation that we need to make adjustments to to solely the wide open throttle area. |
| 01:15 | Unless we've made dramatic changes to the engine configuration, such as adding a larger cam or maybe adding forced induction, usually the idle and cruise areas of engine operation will need little to no adjustment. |
| 01:28 | It's also important to understand that unlike tuning an aftermarket ECU, we will be starting with a calibration or tune that should be very well matched to the stock engine. |
| 01:38 | This means that we aren't starting from scratch with no fuel or ignition maps at all like we would be with a standalone ECU. |
| 01:46 | While the required tuning process will understandably depend on the level of modifications performed to the engine, a lightly modified engine with an aftermarket exhaust, intake, and perhaps a little more boost than a turbocharged car will typically only need the full power area of the map adjusted. |
| 02:03 | In this case, the tuning process isn't that much different to a standalone ECU. |
| 02:08 | We make a pull on the dyno, look at the results from our data logs, make adjustments to the tune to suit and then we confirm the results. |
| 02:15 | With an aftermarket ECU, we can then enter these changes into the map while the engine is running but in the case of reflashing, we need to perform one further step which is to shut the engine down and flash our changes into the ECU. |
| 02:29 | Of course there are situations where we will need to make more drastic changes to the engine tuning but in my experience, by far the majority of reflashing will mainly focus on the wide open throttle full power area of operation only. |
| 02:44 | Thanks to the way the current crop of factory ECUs operate, a basic tune to suit the modifications I've just mentioned, can often be completed in only a handful of flashes too, which makes the entire process very fast and time efficient. |
| 02:58 | Often it can take longer to strap the car down on the dyno and remove it than it does to actually perform the tuning. |
| 03:06 | For every rule there is an exception though and some of the more advanced flashing tools do provide the ability to make live tuning changes on some vehicles but this is still uncommon and will not be the way the majority of tuning will be completed. |
