[dannichols1474]

Ben, my experience so far has been that I can use recommendations for the AFR targets in the AFR table and then use the driving techniques you describe (plus ET's at the track) to get the VE table dialed in with auto tune, but I don't know what the ignition timing should be especially when I build an engine with non-standard parts.

So what I have read is ignition timing is where we can unlock hidden torque / power and to do that I have to run timing sweeps for various combinations of engine speed and load to determine the timing point that yields MBT (maximum brake torque) for each of those combinations and then I can build an optimized timing table for the ECU to use. That's where the dyno and a skilled calibration tech come in.

Long answer, short: I think dyno testing is good value for the money especially since I am not an experienced tuner of EFI plus I like having hard data (even if the data is relative and not absolute).