New to tuning, always paid to have it done

[Rumble]

Well here it goes,
I am a drag racer and I have always paid to have someone else tune my "02 Camaro". I have put together a 430cu.in. iron block LS1 engine Dart heads, Fast 90mm intake, TPIS throttle body. Compression is "high", Cam is mechanical and "Big". Jesel is helping out on the inside too. This is a track only car, open KOOKS headers, slicks, TH400, high stall converter, low gears in a Mark Williams rear end, one seat, absolutely no street use. This car has been in the build stage for 2 yrs so far. I want to be able to tune it at the track for the conditions on that day. I don't intend on using the MAF, just the throttle body. We have a great tuner locally, and he has offered to help, for a price, that is only fair. The problem is I don't want to depend on him every time I go racing, his schedule wouldn't allow it anyway.
I have a few questions, and I have looked in FAQ's and haven't seen to much on this. Do I have to get a different laptop that is only used for tuning or is the laptop that I am using now ( Gateway with XP ) OK? Is tuning without a MAF OK? Where do I start? I would like to have a few answers to my questions so I don't look like a complete idiot around these guys that I am dealing with. We are attemting to dyno tune this engine before we put it into the car. I have a Speartech harness that was built to fit our DynaFlow dyno at the machine shop where I work. We are about 2 weeks away from starting up the engine. I am just trying to get a handle on the tuning aspect before hand, and not go into panic mode.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Rumble

[EC_Tune]

Well here it goes,
I am a drag racer and I have always paid to have someone else tune my "02 Camaro". I have put together a 430cu.in. iron block LS1 engine Dart heads, Fast 90mm intake, TPIS throttle body. Compression is "high", Cam is mechanical and "Big". Jesel is helping out on the inside too. This is a track only car, open KOOKS headers, slicks, TH400, high stall converter, low gears in a Mark Williams rear end, one seat, absolutely no street use. This car has been in the build stage for 2 yrs so far. I want to be able to tune it at the track for the conditions on that day. I don't intend on using the MAF, just the throttle body. We have a great tuner locally, and he has offered to help, for a price, that is only fair. The problem is I don't want to depend on him every time I go racing, his schedule wouldn't allow it anyway.
I have a few questions, and I have looked in FAQ's and haven't seen to much on this. Do I have to get a different laptop that is only used for tuning or is the laptop that I am using now ( Gateway with XP ) OK? Is tuning without a MAF OK? Where do I start? I would like to have a few answers to my questions so I don't look like a complete idiot around these guys that I am dealing with. We are attemting to dyno tune this engine before we put it into the car. I have a Speartech harness that was built to fit our DynaFlow dyno at the machine shop where I work. We are about 2 weeks away from starting up the engine. I am just trying to get a handle on the tuning aspect before hand, and not go into panic mode.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Rumble

Rumble,
Your Gateway laptop will work just fine as long as you have a free USB port.

Tuning without a MAF on a race car makes tons of sense. You might even want to use the 1 Bar Speed Density Enhanced Operating System as it gives you options you wouldn't have otherwise.

You said the car is an 02 Camaro. Is the PCM from the same car (Year)? If so you have an excellent platform to start out with.

I would read as much of the GEN III V8 Stickies and see if it makes any sense. Once you are up to 100+ questions you are bound to get explicit answers to those individual 100+ questions.

And as always, observe, quantify results, adjust, repeat.

[Rumble]

EC Tune,
Thanks for the reply. The PCM is an 02 from the same car. I will take your advice and start reading all the GenIII stickies, and will get up to speed on what to purchase from HP Tuners. What I find most difficult, right now, is understanding all of the acronyms. As symple as it sounds a lot of this is hard. It took me awhile to figure out VE was volumnmetric efficiency, but I can see why we shorten up things. I guess the stickies are the key to understanding so I will keep reading and after awhile things will start to make more sence. I am motivated and this is suppose to be FUN! I can't wait to hear the engine, it should be awsome.

[EC_Tune]

Definitely! Once you actually start looking at the scan data and what's available to tune the questions will start rolling off your tongue. What if, how does, you know the drill...

Enjoy! I know you will.

[Rumble]

I have decided to buy a dedicated laptop/notebook, just for tuning. I purchased a Lenovo T43 it has XP. This way I don't have to carry all of the other stuff that this laptop has to the track. The T43 is much smaller, 14 in screen, and should be pretty easy to use. What I want to do is down load the products to this computer and then put the info on the T43 and do tuning from it. I hope this makes sense. Total investment for tuning so far $600.00
Is anyone willing to share any insite about a competitor called EFILive? I have logged on to their site too and want to compare products. Is that ok? If it is not ok just tell me and I will shut up. I have been told that HP Tuners is more user friendly and that is important to me right now. The next step is to buy the product and get started, I am just trying to get the best product I can use.