Becoming Skilled in Engine Management Tuning

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Quick background story. My father navigates for a guy who drives a Group N Subaru Impreza Sti. Recently the driver had wanted to convert the Impreza to Group A spec for a rally. This came down to changing the size of the turbo restrictor and remapping the ECU to suit. The company that built the car isn't located in Barbados so they sent down a Group A spec base map for the ECU. Now it was up to a local engine management guy to install the base map but long story short, he had problems and couldn't get the car to run properly. The driver obviously had to keep the engine at Group N spec for the rally. Now the driver was quite dissatisfied with the service to say the least.

The driver suggested to my father that since I'm majoring in Computer Science to see how hard it is to get into. I like cars and I like computers so I'm quite interested in this idea. I never really thought of being a full blown certified engine management tuner (if there is such a thing lol) but it'd be cool if it was something I could do on a part time basis. But I mean, how does one even become skilled in engine management tuning? Do you have to be a full blown mechanic? Are there courses you take? Books? Anything? lol

There's only a handful of people who do it here in Barbados so I'm really not sure where to start my research. Any info would be helpful.
 
slims
Quick background story. My father navigates for a guy who drives a Group N Subaru Impreza Sti. Recently the driver had wanted to convert the Impreza to Group A spec for a rally. This came down to changing the size of the turbo restrictor and remapping the ECU to suit. The company that built the car isn't located in Barbados so they sent down a Group A spec base map for the ECU. Now it was up to a local engine management guy to install the base map but long story short, he had problems and couldn't get the car to run properly. The driver obviously had to keep the engine at Group N spec for the rally. Now the driver was quite dissatisfied with the service to say the least.

The driver suggested to my father that since I'm majoring in Computer Science to see how hard it is to get into. I like cars and I like computers so I'm quite interested in this idea. I never really thought of being a full blown certified engine management tuner (if there is such a thing lol) but it'd be cool if it was something I could do on a part time basis. But I mean, how does one even become skilled in engine management tuning? Do you have to be a full blown mechanic? Are there courses you take? Books? Anything? lol

There's only a handful of people who do it here in Barbados so I'm really not sure where to start my research. Any info would be helpful.
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Get a job in a garage. Any garage. You'll be changing oil filters on taxis for a year or two, but you have to start somewhere. Once you know you've outgrown your job specifications, try to get a job that runs some more performance-oriented clientele. Again, you'll be changing their oil for a while, but if you show an interest in their performance work then you can start angling towards engine management. Eventually you'll find yourself working at a place that has a dyno. There is no industry-wide certification, but having lots of work experience on widely-used machinery and firmware is a huge help (Dynapak etc).

The whole process takes a long time (in the eyes of most young workers). There is little care for certification, documents and paperwork. It mostly boils down to what you know how to do and how long you've been doing it. All the better if you've got a level head on your shoulders. I've got a friend who started pumping gas and a couple years later is working on C5R's that are lapping former Le Mans cars, but also know people who have wanted to do the same thing but are still pumping gas.

The interesting thing with engine tuning is that you don't even need to be present to manage it. These things can be done remotely (hell, I bet there's even an iPhone ap for it). Live tuning can happen across oceans.
 
what brand engine managment does he use, if its motec, or magnetti, or bosch there are courses that certify you to tune their products
 
I agree with Exigeracer, here. While it's easy to perform complicated mathematics in an Excel spreadsheet, it takes manual experience to learn how to tune an engine properly. You can really screw up a tune on a motor.

Either that, or get a degree in Thermodynamics, Doctorate, perhaps, and design a new engine program from the ground up. ;3
 
seinfeld
what brand engine managment does he use, if its motec, or magnetti, or bosch there are courses that certify you to tune their products
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I'm pretty sure it's MoTeC, will check with him next time I see him and make sure.

Working in a garage is pretty much out of the question for me being at University full time for at least another year but I see how the manual experience is useful. Another person I was talking with told me that it's all well and good to read lots of books and understand how it works but the best thing I can do is get a car and mess around with.

Another guy who does it down here linked me to a site with a ton of info about the megasquirt efi system to start with. Says once I can understand the theory he'll help me out a bit more. So it's a start. 👍
 
Well, what you can do is go to school and play around with cars at the same time. Thought that PB(perfect Balance) is a mechanic and he is going to school for engineering. I believe
 
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