What do I need to sit in my car with a laptop and tune live
 

I cannot find this answer anywere, and i admit I have a TON to learn still, im just trying to prepare for the future and cant seem to find the answer anywere
What I want to do is sit in my civic with a lap top and be able to make changes then upload them directly to the ecu without any of the pulling the chip out buisness to reburn. I know of the moates emulator but I cannot find a direct answer if the emulator will just let me sit in the car and bam.
Also for dataloging I plan on running the hulog
I want to tune on Crome pro
Another question I have is, on D series motors some of them (like the d15b7) do not have knock sensors, so what would i have to do to be able to datalog off of a knock sensor? run a different ecu then the po6?
Sorry for such a noob question but I have searched all over and cannot find a direct answer as to what things will let me sit in the car, make a change, then upload it, run the car, make another change upload it etc.
Thanks to all!

You need....
1. Obd1 ecu socketed for your hulog or hondalog and to hook up the moates.
2. Moates emulator and the printer tape hook up harness
3. Crome free or pro
4. conversion harness if its a obd2 vehicle (what year is your junk?)
5. freelog for datalogging if you go with free crome which is what i use.
6. wide band oxygen sensor (innovate LC1 is perfect) and get the gauge with it.
7. make a set of detonation cans (auto stethoscope through the fire wall with extra vacuum hose and bolt it on or near the pistons and head area) to hear detonation
8. couple steps colder NGK regular plugs. no need for platnums or irridium plugs.
9. gap them to .028. Get extra sets because you will be fouling them out from rich tunes and they are cheap.
10. you need a base tune to go off of.
11. windows xp or equivalent.
12. Down load all the drivers for teh computer for freelog
13. you need bigger injectors like 440cc if you are going to tune in the 3-15psi range
12. Go to www.------------- and they will hook you up with basemaps if you buy the kits they have, great deals, that's where i buy my stuff. email them, call them, they will help if you buy.

Awesome thanks alot for straight answer!
And I always hear about people getting a basemap to tune off of, couldnt i just start from scratch or does it just make everything easier to start with a closer guess?

A base tune is much easier to start with, if you take a stock tune and use crome to add the boost side of the tables and change all the parameters because of bigger injectors, it could take you a while. I have done it before and it is time consuming. You can do it but the base tune saves alot of time, its usually really rich and the timing is a bit retarded. So if you know what you are doing, you can be on the street much quicker letting someone else do the hard stuff of making a base tune and you then tweeking the tune for your area and your driving habits. The other thing i have is a cat that doesn't exist. Always remember to save your new tune under a new name so you don't rewrite the original one. And when the seasons change, your tune will change, i have a summer and a winter tune. I have a race tune also. Good luck, and take your time with the whole set up, dont go out and rag on the car until you understand how to tune, and read up on reading spark plugs. They tell you exactly whats going on in the combustions chamber.

Yea thanks for the info
I like how the basemaps will come really conservative, I would rather do that then guess then start winding it up, I did plan on having multiple tunes for the season and to constantly datalog when ever the weather changes and what not. I definatly have alot of research to do about tuning in general (AFR's Timing) Were abouts did you go for good solid info, forums? any good books?
Thanks again!

The best way is to start with fresh stock map. Rescale the injectors (if they are not stock). Have someone else drive the car while you make changes. These changes will happen real time using an ostrich. I have rough tuned turbo Hondas in 30 mins (this is all part throttle and some boost to get AFR in range). It will take you much longer starting out.

Seasonal tuning is much harder to do right. OEM uses very expensive equipment to do this. One thing that hurts tuning a Honda is the location of the IAT sensor. I find that it gets heat soaked quite easily. In the past I have found that relocating the IAT to before the TB a better indication of real air temps.

Welcome DSMR

I have to disagree on the fresh stock map thing for a first timer. Take what xenoncron sends you and change it. They did the work for you, no point in starting with a stock map.

The IAT is a problem though, I usually have a rich condition or a lean condition on start up sometimes especially if you go into a grocery store or something for a while. I did put mine right infront of the throttle body and its probably the best place to put it but you will probably have problems. The place in crome that you will use to work with this issue is the Advanced Tables. I have gotten it pretty close and it will take some time to adjust, just remember it will affect everything all the time especially staying in open loop.

Everything is on this website, all the smart guys posted already, its all saved on here. www.pgmfi.org is also the main place. This place isn't popular as it was 3-4 years ago but everthing you are doing is on here, you just have to use the search option and read all the sticky's. The only other forum that might be more popular then this one is honda-tech . But so you know, i built my B16a2 that ran a 14.1 at 103mph with over 20,000 miles on turbo kit on an engine that had over 80,000 when i installed it and getting i got 95% of my info off of here. Never had any problems with it. I am pulling the engine apart just to only install forged pistons so i can boost higher. I want to be in the low 12's for a daily driver street car.

Thanks for all the new info, ill give pgmfi some more hours of reasearch it just seems I cant find what I want on there, but ill get ready for doin some seriouse time on pgmfi, also thanks for the info on the IAT.
And good luck getting to 12's, I still have to come up with power goals but first I need money and more knowledge, I really want to do a vitara build, But before I get to far I want to tune my stock motor just to get comfortable with crome and tuning in general, that way once I feel capable I can be more comfortable doing a seriouse build.