There is nothing to be afraid of Hptuners, it's not rocket science, there is documentation out there to do whatever you want, sometimes is easy to find, sometimes you have to be persistent to find out.
I'm also in the IT industry, and when i started tuning, i didn't even know what LTFT's meant, i didn't know what a WB was, or how to set it up to work with the VCM Pro. i started doing my own car (06 GTO), cammed to top it off using a basic tuning guide for LS2's i found at HPT, and the Greg Banish book i bought to start getting into the terminology. i asked a lot of questions, read a lot, and kept asking more..
To make it short:
With a "Pro" dyno tune, my Goat ran 12.44@111 mph with a 1.95 60'
With my own tune: 12.15@116mph, 1.95 60'
all of this with the same weight, same shifting points, same track, same day, 2 hours cool down, same IAT's, same mods.
That justifed the money i paid for the Tool and the WB, and more importantly, i had a car that wouldn't explode on me doing WOT runs in 100F days, running stupid amounts of timing at WOT, or 13.6-13.8 afr past 5400rpm like my "pro" tuner had my car setup to run, heck yeah, i guess it made the most power on the dyno, i had cold start issues, hot start issues, car bucked like a bronco when cruising down the freeway, street low rpm driving was even worst, but like i was always told, is just the nature of the cam, and again, without the right tools, how could i've ever validate such claims ?
Not only i was able to fix the startup issues, car drove smooth again, i was able to make her lope even harder, and idle at a lower rpm, but i also fixed airflow where it was needed and never touched by the "pros", fixed timing to what the car really liked, and fixed the fuel where the car made the most power without making her run lean as crap to make a number look good in a dyno graph, everything translated at the track in the end, more than enough proof of what works and what doesn't
