Calculated changes or Guesses?

[blinky5788]

Hi All,

[Background]
My mate just bought a MPVI2 and 2 credits to tune his car and he wanted help from me, if i can understand any of this (I'm in IT) so far it's equivalent to the greek/russian/chinese alphabet.

In order for me to understand this i need to know the barebones (I have tried search, it's not my first time using a forum, if i missed a thread apologies.)

Here goes:
Looking for some information regarding making changes to anything in HP tuners, more specifically the high / low octane tables, or if he was to swap a cam, Based off the spec sheet how would i calculate what changes to make to idle etc, surely it's not a wild guess (throw random percentages in and see if it runs/idles) at least that's what i understood from the videos.

How do you know what retard/advance is required on the fuel maps? what's the maximum safe for the rods/pistons etc?

Is there a formula to this? formula for cams to idle properly?

We have watched a few videos from HP academy (YT) and GoatRope Garage (hope I got that right). We have searched this forum etc and no formulas at least no one mentions any.

We don't want to do serious damage to the engine, or any if possible, we would like to get some extra HP or TQ.

Thanks in advance to anyone that points us in the right direction.

[kingtal0n]

I recommend start by researching how mechanical control systems, such as centrifugal distributor spark timing, aka mechanical advance, and carburetors work

You can base almost everything in electronic control more or less on the fundamental physiology of mechanical engine theory, from before computer control was more or less invented

Also make sure you understand PID controllers, proportional integral and derivative gain functions are key/central idea in many of the algorithms presented by any ECU