nGauge FAQs

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FiveLeeter918

New member
Now that more tuners are jumping on to HPTuners to combat some of the shortfalls of SCT, we started making some tutorials and instructional guides to help navigate and learn the ins and outs of the nGauge.

Whether you are a current customer with HPTuners, an SCT customer looking to make the switch, or a competing tuner looking to learn how to use the nGauge, we hope this helps :)

If you have any other questions, or can think of additional guides that would benefit the community, let us know!

https://www.ortizperformance.com/faq/categories/ngauge-support
 
StealBlueSHO said:
Is Ortiz tuning SHO's with HPT now? I believe Unleashed is the only other vendor tuning SHO's with HPT.
Click to expand...

These guys do as well but I dont know much about their sho experience.

https://www.brewcityboost.com/product-category/ford/2010-2020_sho_3-5_ecoboost/2010-2020_sho_3-5_tuning_engine/
 
GhostlyGrenade said:
StealBlueSHO said:
Is Ortiz tuning SHO's with HPT now? I believe Unleashed is the only other vendor tuning SHO's with HPT.
Click to expand...

These guys do as well but I dont know much about their sho experience.

https://www.brewcityboost.com/product-category/ford/2010-2020_sho_3-5_ecoboost/2010-2020_sho_3-5_tuning_engine/
Click to expand...
I had a BCB tune years ago. Didn’t know they went HPT too.
 
StealBlueSHO said:
Is Ortiz tuning SHO's with HPT now? I believe Unleashed is the only other vendor tuning SHO's with HPT.
Click to expand...

My personal SHO has been HPT tuned since January. It's still an evolving platform and we have several tickets in for adjustments but so far the peace of mind alone and smoothness of operation is worth the changeover. We're still primarily SCT for Ecoboost vehicles but the number of customers switching to HPTuners with either an MVPI2 or the nGauge is steadily increasing.
 
FiveLeeter918 said:
StealBlueSHO said:
Is Ortiz tuning SHO's with HPT now? I believe Unleashed is the only other vendor tuning SHO's with HPT.
Click to expand...

My personal SHO has been HPT tuned since January. It's still an evolving platform and we have several tickets in for adjustments but so far the peace of mind alone and smoothness of operation is worth the changeover. We're still primarily SCT for Ecoboost vehicles but the number of customers switching to HPTuners with either an MVPI2 or the nGauge is steadily increasing.
Click to expand...

I believe a lot of hesitation with moving to HPT was the issue of being able to pull the tunes of cars and steal them. Is this not an issue anymore?
 
You can read SCT tunes with HPTUNERS. I think the ngauge is the only way to lock hpt. I really need to get a new vehicle. I've been using the company vehicle for everything but I can't modify it!
 
GhostlyGrenade said:
You can read SCT tunes with HPTUNERS. I think the ngauge is the only way to lock hpt. I really need to get a new vehicle. I've been using the company vehicle for everything but I can't modify it!
Click to expand...

True, but you can change the strategy with SCT (and probably HPT) which would require a call into HPT to have the tune file unlocked for reading. Not sure how much of a process that is, but that was my understanding.

Ultimately, if HPT provides a better tuning experience with more power developed safely then it absolutely would be the way to go. I know SCT has been lagging behind a lot over the past couple years.
 
StealBlueSHO said:
GhostlyGrenade said:
You can read SCT tunes with HPTUNERS. I think the ngauge is the only way to lock hpt. I really need to get a new vehicle. I've been using the company vehicle for everything but I can't modify it!
Click to expand...

True, but you can change the strategy with SCT (and probably HPT) which would require a call into HPT to have the tune file unlocked for reading. Not sure how much of a process that is, but that was my understanding.

Ultimately, if HPT provides a better tuning experience with more power developed safely then it absolutely would be the way to go. I know SCT has been lagging behind a lot over the past couple years.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is still a concern with HPTuners. HPT offers the ability to scramble the strategy but it's a $5000 package. We told them we had no problem paying that IF they made the changes we wanted so we could fully utilize the tuning capability, but a las, the ticket is still open 5 months later...
 
The strategy change is easy to reverse once you know where its stored. The only upside being most users don't have someone to hexedit for them. A good tuner won't lock a file, they don't need to. Ive dumped tons of tunes and compared them and they aren't much different.  The biggest thing is how far some tuners push the limit as far as rich/lean and cylinder pressure/torque limiting. Some tuners tweak a lot more than others but most users probably don't even notice.

I used ajpturbo primarily because he explained everything he saw and did and why.

Think of it this way, you can't steal experience. Knowing what number to type in vs knowing why is huge.
 
GhostlyGrenade said:
The strategy change is easy to reverse once you know where its stored. The only upside being most users don't have someone to hexedit for them. A good tuner won't lock a file, they don't need to. Ive dumped tons of tunes and compared them and they aren't much different.  The biggest thing is how far some tuners push the limit as far as rich/lean and cylinder pressure/torque limiting. Some tuners tweak a lot more than others but most users probably don't even notice.

I used ajpturbo primarily because he explained everything he saw and did and why.

Think of it this way, you can't steal experience. Knowing what number to type in vs knowing why is huge.
Click to expand...

The concern is never for the customer, if they want to take an MVPI2 and modify the tune, be my guest just have the integrity to own it if you blow up. The concern is with competing tuners stealing the data when they can't figure something out, I've seen many times where they buy a $150 tune from another tuner who took the time to figure it out themselves and then they run a compare file in VCM Editor to see what is different and copy/paste.

Customers figure this out pretty quick when things don't go as planned, but doesn't stop it from happening.

You can lock the door to your house too, but a determined thief is still going to find a way in. The best we can do is keep the weak ones out.
 
FiveLeeter918 said:
GhostlyGrenade said:
The strategy change is easy to reverse once you know where its stored. The only upside being most users don't have someone to hexedit for them. A good tuner won't lock a file, they don't need to. Ive dumped tons of tunes and compared them and they aren't much different.  The biggest thing is how far some tuners push the limit as far as rich/lean and cylinder pressure/torque limiting. Some tuners tweak a lot more than others but most users probably don't even notice.

I used ajpturbo primarily because he explained everything he saw and did and why.

Think of it this way, you can't steal experience. Knowing what number to type in vs knowing why is huge.
Click to expand...

The concern is never for the customer, if they want to take an MVPI2 and modify the tune, be my guest just have the integrity to own it if you blow up. The concern is with competing tuners stealing the data when they can't figure something out, I've seen many times where they buy a $150 tune from another tuner who took the time to figure it out themselves and then they run a compare file in VCM Editor to see what is different and copy/paste.

Customers figure this out pretty quick when things don't go as planned, but doesn't stop it from happening.

You can lock the door to your house too, but a determined thief is still going to find a way in. The best we can do is keep the weak ones out.
Click to expand...


Its shifty to screw over a user because of competition though.

The same way laws work....for law abiding citizens.  I get it, I just don't like the double edge.
 
GhostlyGrenade said:
Its shifty to screw over a user because of competition though.
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand the reference. This is why you have to carefully research your tuning decision before making a purchase. Or you're the guy that buys OBX downpipes knowing that they are a direct copy of gen 1 Stainless Works for $450 and require modification to work on a PP even though Stainless Works has Gen 2 pipes that work without modification.

If you support the thief, but you only get partial service, who wins?
 
FiveLeeter918 said:
GhostlyGrenade said:
Its shifty to screw over a user because of competition though.
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand the reference. This is why you have to carefully research your tuning decision before making a purchase. Or you're the guy that buys OBX downpipes knowing that they are a direct copy of gen 1 Stainless Works for $450 and require modification to work on a PP even though Stainless Works has Gen 2 pipes that work without modification.

If you support the thief, but you only get partial service, who wins?
Click to expand...

Let's do a # of tuners vs a # of  customers:

You lock the tune to prevent say 10(random#) tuners from stealing
This prevents small tweaks such as tire size and lots of aftermarket software from working properly for say (random#)10,000 users.

So yeah you avoided the few thieves.

But now for the real example. Say my tuner dies unexpectedly and  I have a tune that is perfect but I have a new mod that needs a slight tweak.(let's use thermostatfor example) should I have to buy a whole new tune and start from scratch?
 
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