Diesel tuning theory?

[sarg]

So I have found countless threads saying do this or do that and how to go about said changes, but does anyone have any good links to the actual theory behind these changes, specifically timing. I am very familiar to gas tuning in both NA as well as fforced induction applications, but would like to learn why these changes are being made on a diesel motor rather than just blindly plugging in numbers and not knowing why.

To preface this, I have been trying to learn more, but there just is not a ton of information about diesel tuning out there. Seems every search gets cloged with "diesel handheld tuner" results. I just got my fathers old 2003 LB7 Duramax and want to fully understand it before attempting to make changes. This is just all very new to me. If anyone has some Duramax specific links that would be even better, but even basic general diesel tuning would be good too. Thank you in advance!

[sarg]

Well, I found some good info on dieselpage and duramax forums. Seems no one talks much about these things here as more people use efilive. Maybe because there are more options and support. Seems every diesel shop I talk to uses efi live and does not deal with hptuners. Not sure why there is not more development for these trucks on here like there is the gas motors. It might make hptuners more popular for these trucks. I know I love what has been done with hptuners and the gen3 ls motors. I wish the diesel section would catch up.

[Johns98TA]

HPT lost their diesel market share when they pulled the DPF removal features from their software. HPT is mostly useless on the 07+ trucks unless you have an older version of the software that still has those features.

There is lots to read on turbo-diesel tuning theory. I would suggest getting some books or something better than internet forum gossip. Even in this forum there is a lot of bad info (and a lot of good info too).

[sarg]

I have looked but not found much that seemed like it would apply to diesels directly. I have over the years bought a ton of general tuning and turbo books, but none specifically deal with tuning a diesel, let alone a Duramax. So I guess for now I will have to weed through the BS that I find and try to separate BS from fact. Often times hard to do when you are new to something!

[tokymon]

also hp tuners has lost out on the diesel because efi live has dsp5 switch ( 5 tunes on a switch)
do not buy the edge dvd i have never been so disapointed in my life

[sarg]

I have never been one for handheld tuners....my father's experience with the "cortex" proved that. He would just be randomly be driving down the road and the whole truck would just shut down. Switched back to OEM GM flash and it has not done it in a month of driving.

[Johns98TA]

check out the EFI Live forums for a lot of good tuning tips as well

[Mvasek]

also hp tuners has lost out on the diesel because efi live has dsp5 switch ( 5 tunes on a switch)
do not buy the edge dvd i have never been so disapointed in my life

The Edge Insight Pro works with HP Tuner as a replacement for the DSP5 switch.