I have an excellent book by Jeff Hartman on fuel injection. It has some very good information and after a fair few pages I understand a lot more and am feeling ready to start messing about some more.
Tordne had shown me what a good VE table can do though in the back of my mind I had thought that one of my previous tunes had felt "sharper" down in the low RPM range. Tordne has mentioned that he has started experimenting with a late model Corvette spark map. Aha, cool. maybe I was right afterall. Time to dig out that aggressive HSV 285KW map I played with earlier and try it again now I had updated Knock settings.
Im going to also configure a VE modifier for IAT temps. This is due to a large variance in AFR over a 10-40 deg C temperature range. Im also keen to switch DFCO and Lean Cruise back on to maximise long distance driving efficiency. The cam is burning a hole in its box waiting to get out, unfortunately there can be no rushing things there as I need to get my new LS6 intake over from NZ as it will be going on the same time as the 28lb '03 injectors and cam. Im hoping for about 380RWHP, we will see, that might be somewhat optimistic, but certainly within the realms of possibility.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Friday, November 25, 2005
In cruise mode
Ok, so not much of an update today. Basically we have done a few tweaks to various parts. Tordne has suggested retaining PE mode in addition to table B3647 as both have their pro's and con's.
Id like to reenable DFCO and Lean Cruise shortly. Though that throws a few spanners in the works if you still want to tweak your VE table. I also thought that using B3647 to run semi closed loop, where it will use Short Term Fuel Trims (STFT's) to maintain AFR at 14.63 would be a good idea. Though Tordne made a point that if everything is 100% correct you wont need STFT as nothing will need correcting. So yes, I think things are pretty close. The main reason Id like to make a "final" tune is so that I can get the laptop and cables out of the car and go for a proper drive. Having laptops balancing on the seat with cables everywhere does not make for a spirited drive.
Of course closed loop may still not result in a commanded 14.63:1 AFR as the O2 sensors are not in their stock location. Others have resorted to altering the O2 switch points in order to bring these back in line. I think mine are stock HSV R8 which Im not sure have headers from the factory. Anyway the best way to check is to operate in closed loop and check the AFR. Mind you Ill be using the WB02 to output NB02 signal to the PCM, so the LC-1 will be measuring itself. It will also only be measuring one bank of cylanders so thats not the best in any case.
I bought a Fuel Injection book from a US company for $8US so will do some reading there. Maybe some more revelations will surface.
Id like to reenable DFCO and Lean Cruise shortly. Though that throws a few spanners in the works if you still want to tweak your VE table. I also thought that using B3647 to run semi closed loop, where it will use Short Term Fuel Trims (STFT's) to maintain AFR at 14.63 would be a good idea. Though Tordne made a point that if everything is 100% correct you wont need STFT as nothing will need correcting. So yes, I think things are pretty close. The main reason Id like to make a "final" tune is so that I can get the laptop and cables out of the car and go for a proper drive. Having laptops balancing on the seat with cables everywhere does not make for a spirited drive.
Of course closed loop may still not result in a commanded 14.63:1 AFR as the O2 sensors are not in their stock location. Others have resorted to altering the O2 switch points in order to bring these back in line. I think mine are stock HSV R8 which Im not sure have headers from the factory. Anyway the best way to check is to operate in closed loop and check the AFR. Mind you Ill be using the WB02 to output NB02 signal to the PCM, so the LC-1 will be measuring itself. It will also only be measuring one bank of cylanders so thats not the best in any case.
I bought a Fuel Injection book from a US company for $8US so will do some reading there. Maybe some more revelations will surface.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Only 2,000,000 miles to go..
Well, after discussing some issues with a co-tuner Tordne around various things like VE variations around Intake Air Temperatures (IAT) etc, I think he felt pained by my slow progress. So a short drive later on a baseline tune of his, he sent me a new baseline for my setup. Interestingly enough my VE table was 10% higher than his up to around 3600RPM. This may be due to a number of things, my LS1 intake, IAT being aroudn 10deg C here (his was 40) and my 1.8 rockers. I think its mainly the rockers and LS1, apparently the LS1 intake actually flows better than the LS6 at the lower end.
Here was my VE beforehand.
The sunken bit is where its dialed in ok, the rest was due to the intial "15% scale" recommended by efilive for autotuning. Tordne made a good point that sharp variances are averaged by the PCM so can cause some erratic results. His tables are very nice and smooth. This is reflected in the tune while driving. In a previous tune I did hammer the table flat with the smooth function, but hadnt got around to it on the new one yet. So thanks to Tordne, I now have a nice smooth VE table as a base. Ive got 2 long drives ahead of me, hopefully I can get some good results from them. It looks like Ill need to use table A00014 in the custom OS to adjust for IAT over the seasons. Anyway here is Tordne's work of art. Can you tell any difference?
So yes, summary for today is that smoothness is good. Maybe Ill show you the spark table next. Ill save that for my next update.
Here was my VE beforehand.
The sunken bit is where its dialed in ok, the rest was due to the intial "15% scale" recommended by efilive for autotuning. Tordne made a good point that sharp variances are averaged by the PCM so can cause some erratic results. His tables are very nice and smooth. This is reflected in the tune while driving. In a previous tune I did hammer the table flat with the smooth function, but hadnt got around to it on the new one yet. So thanks to Tordne, I now have a nice smooth VE table as a base. Ive got 2 long drives ahead of me, hopefully I can get some good results from them. It looks like Ill need to use table A00014 in the custom OS to adjust for IAT over the seasons. Anyway here is Tordne's work of art. Can you tell any difference?
So yes, summary for today is that smoothness is good. Maybe Ill show you the spark table next. Ill save that for my next update.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
The road well travelled
Ok some major advancements recently.
My 2000 PCM had pretty shocking knock values and not just the Burst Knock tables. Im talking attack and decay values as well as sensitivity etc. Default was for all cylinders to act the same. Of course with the sensor sitting right besides some cylinders and further away from others, this doesnt make sense. I basically put the table from the 285KW HSV in there, though I understand the 02 Camaro is also a good baseline for testing. Anyway my weird hesitation from 2000-3500 is now gone, the car is running much better than it has done before. Timing is quite hardcore at around 32deg. I read that the ideal timing is around 26 deg or there abouts. So with this in mind I pasted the spark table from a friends tune in. He had spent months on his and was rewarded with 240rwkw on a stock engine with standard bolt on's. His timing table looked much closer to the ideal. I have also commanded my AFR at all RPM and Load points using the custom OS table in EFIlive. At low loads I have 14.63, heading to 12.9 at 3600-4400 then back to 13.1 to redline.
I did this based on some threads on efi101.com discussing the ideal AFR ratio for performance on LSx engines.
So in theory if my VE table is good things should start coming together soon. Speaking of the VE table. Some interesting observations there. On a long trip with 9dec IAT temperature I was running a little leaner than commanded, however around town it showed as richer, maybe due to IAT sitting at 40deg.. I was considering messing with the new IAT table, which I did in fact do, putting a 5% correction factor in, though I cleared that until I get the VE done at one temperature as it was making me chase a moving target. So the plan is now dial the VE table in fully then configure the IAT correction table in the custom OS to correct mixture. I think it will only be around 3% as my 5% factor was too much.
Cam install is penciled for March 06. I should have all the bits together by then. Im tossing up whether I should get some comp 918 springs as I understand I have 915's in there already, but this is not confirmed. The lower seat pressure of the 915's might be better for the components.
Ill almost certainly order a new Powertorque Over the radiator cold air intake (otrcai) to cement my tune in mafless mode.
I have a trip to Yorkshire next week, so lots more logging and ve table tuning to do. Im pretty sure the frequent parts are tuned already. I guess I should do some smoothing to make it look normal as at present it looks like the rocky mountains with a nice smooth valley in the middle.
Read an interesting article on octane. Basically no point running a higher octane as it actually burns slower and with less energy than the lower octane UNLESS your engine is designed for it. (ie) High compression etc. Basically if you can run timing at the perfect point without knock, then running higher octane may well lose you power and cost you more. So I guess thats well and good that I have been happy to use 95 octane and tune for that rather than mess with 98. Perhaps if I was running 11:1 I might.
My 2000 PCM had pretty shocking knock values and not just the Burst Knock tables. Im talking attack and decay values as well as sensitivity etc. Default was for all cylinders to act the same. Of course with the sensor sitting right besides some cylinders and further away from others, this doesnt make sense. I basically put the table from the 285KW HSV in there, though I understand the 02 Camaro is also a good baseline for testing. Anyway my weird hesitation from 2000-3500 is now gone, the car is running much better than it has done before. Timing is quite hardcore at around 32deg. I read that the ideal timing is around 26 deg or there abouts. So with this in mind I pasted the spark table from a friends tune in. He had spent months on his and was rewarded with 240rwkw on a stock engine with standard bolt on's. His timing table looked much closer to the ideal. I have also commanded my AFR at all RPM and Load points using the custom OS table in EFIlive. At low loads I have 14.63, heading to 12.9 at 3600-4400 then back to 13.1 to redline.
I did this based on some threads on efi101.com discussing the ideal AFR ratio for performance on LSx engines.
So in theory if my VE table is good things should start coming together soon. Speaking of the VE table. Some interesting observations there. On a long trip with 9dec IAT temperature I was running a little leaner than commanded, however around town it showed as richer, maybe due to IAT sitting at 40deg.. I was considering messing with the new IAT table, which I did in fact do, putting a 5% correction factor in, though I cleared that until I get the VE done at one temperature as it was making me chase a moving target. So the plan is now dial the VE table in fully then configure the IAT correction table in the custom OS to correct mixture. I think it will only be around 3% as my 5% factor was too much.
Cam install is penciled for March 06. I should have all the bits together by then. Im tossing up whether I should get some comp 918 springs as I understand I have 915's in there already, but this is not confirmed. The lower seat pressure of the 915's might be better for the components.
Ill almost certainly order a new Powertorque Over the radiator cold air intake (otrcai) to cement my tune in mafless mode.
I have a trip to Yorkshire next week, so lots more logging and ve table tuning to do. Im pretty sure the frequent parts are tuned already. I guess I should do some smoothing to make it look normal as at present it looks like the rocky mountains with a nice smooth valley in the middle.
Read an interesting article on octane. Basically no point running a higher octane as it actually burns slower and with less energy than the lower octane UNLESS your engine is designed for it. (ie) High compression etc. Basically if you can run timing at the perfect point without knock, then running higher octane may well lose you power and cost you more. So I guess thats well and good that I have been happy to use 95 octane and tune for that rather than mess with 98. Perhaps if I was running 11:1 I might.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
A new begining
Hello Mr FedEx man, thats that you have. A nice shiny new camshaft. Excellent. Now Im wondering if I have gone too large on the cam. Probably not, but looking at the lobes, they are awfully square looking, lots of high lift and the lobes pretty much match the bearing journal height.
Maybe I should have got some springs to replace the comp cams 915's Ive got in there at the moment!? Im sure a lot of others will tell me I doth protest too much, its only a 220/224 afterall. We will see, its advertised duration is actually quite large at 282/286 with 57deg overlap! Hopefully the cats can do their job and clean up the tailpipe mess or things will get interesting.
On that topic Ive been reading up on "emissions tuning". This usually consists of altering the mixtures to a leaner state, rasing the engine temperature through controlling the fans, rasing the idle speed and maybe altering spark timing. This can make some difference. Anyway thats a year off so we will worry about that if/when we need to.
Did a couple of short runs to start getting the Autotune feature working. I scaled the whole table up 10% as Id already done plenty of LTFT tuning so thought it cant be too far wrong. Seems to have been maybe 5-10% out. Anyway lots of driving required. Lucky friday Im off up North so should get near on 500Mile round trip logged. Certainly a tune on the way up and room for another on the way back. Im sure timing needs revisting again. Though a small amount of KR was still noted. Seems to have lost a bit down low, but starts going crazy up high. Perhaps thats just perception. I need to do some 0-60 runs again.
Maybe I should have got some springs to replace the comp cams 915's Ive got in there at the moment!? Im sure a lot of others will tell me I doth protest too much, its only a 220/224 afterall. We will see, its advertised duration is actually quite large at 282/286 with 57deg overlap! Hopefully the cats can do their job and clean up the tailpipe mess or things will get interesting.
On that topic Ive been reading up on "emissions tuning". This usually consists of altering the mixtures to a leaner state, rasing the engine temperature through controlling the fans, rasing the idle speed and maybe altering spark timing. This can make some difference. Anyway thats a year off so we will worry about that if/when we need to.
Did a couple of short runs to start getting the Autotune feature working. I scaled the whole table up 10% as Id already done plenty of LTFT tuning so thought it cant be too far wrong. Seems to have been maybe 5-10% out. Anyway lots of driving required. Lucky friday Im off up North so should get near on 500Mile round trip logged. Certainly a tune on the way up and room for another on the way back. Im sure timing needs revisting again. Though a small amount of KR was still noted. Seems to have lost a bit down low, but starts going crazy up high. Perhaps thats just perception. I need to do some 0-60 runs again.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Wideband!
Well thats the Wideband O2 installed.
As can be seen here from a cold start things start pretty lean then richen up substantially until warm and things drop into closed loop.
The LC-1 NB02 simulation is very erratic compared to the smooth stock results.
I might need to mess with grounding wires. Though preliminary checks showed little to no difference. I do however need to calibrate the Wideband properly as its LC-1 stock. Ive had to order a USB to Serial converter. Hopefully that should be in the next day or so.
I can now start AutoVE tuning which basically scales the VE table so that commanded fuel equals actual fuel. This then means that you can do without PE mode and use the custom OS to command specific fuel ratios at any RPM and MAP point. So far my part throttle is pretty good, but Ive been running with no PE or enrichment for a while and avoiding full throttle, so hopefully things will start moving pretty well once I get it the VE table sorted out.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Slow and steady progress
I bit the bullet and ordered the 220/224 cam. Basically the Crane grind though at a much better price. Should be on its way for an 06 installation date. I also won an LS6 intake and injectors on ebay for quite a low price, so that should give me more injector and manifold flow for the cam.
After a day spent figuring out how to wire up the wideband and lying on the 13deg C driveway in London hefting on the narrow band stock O2's (NBO2) I finally worked out what went where and being late Autumn of course it got dark so I had to put the stock sensor back in.
The solution it appears, in my mind anyway, is to locate the LC-1 controller in the cabin and drop the Wideband (WBO2) connector down through the shifter hole as the sensor sits basically at the base of the trans. This will give me easy access to the wideband connectors for efilive and calibration, plus keep it out of the weather. Just the Narrow band inputs to the PCM need to go down under the car and the WB02 sensor. So the next stage is to remove the console. Im going to need to do this again when I get the "ripshifter" which I already have sitting in NZ. Hopefully all the LC-1 controller and most of the cables will fit under the console out of site. I really only need a couple of wires available for efilive. This might be a 3 stage process due to time constraints;
I should mention that subsequent to my burst knock adjustments the car goes significantly better at part throttle and off idle driving. I have disabled PE mode which runs at over 60% throttle and higher MAP pressures in order to doublecheck my VE table. I expect to turn it back on soon as well as revisiting my timing tables, as I suspect I may have pulled a little too much out in places. Hopefully Ill have the WB02 in well before then and be on the way to a solid baseline.
I also did quite a bit of smooting to the VE table. It looks pretty stock now, though its a little higher in most area's. Still a way to go though.
It looks like running the car on a dyno for spark tuning is the best idea, its virtually impossible on the street to tune for best advance as you need to hold a certain load and RPM point while adjusting spark to verify maximum torque. Apparently maximum torque is also usually a good way from knock point. I found that interesting. I guess Ill have to find out how much dyno time costs once I get the tune dialed in as best I can. Ill also keep my eye out for a dyno day as Id like a proper baseline.
So next step, wideband install. Hopefully sometime over the next week.
After a day spent figuring out how to wire up the wideband and lying on the 13deg C driveway in London hefting on the narrow band stock O2's (NBO2) I finally worked out what went where and being late Autumn of course it got dark so I had to put the stock sensor back in.
The solution it appears, in my mind anyway, is to locate the LC-1 controller in the cabin and drop the Wideband (WBO2) connector down through the shifter hole as the sensor sits basically at the base of the trans. This will give me easy access to the wideband connectors for efilive and calibration, plus keep it out of the weather. Just the Narrow band inputs to the PCM need to go down under the car and the WB02 sensor. So the next stage is to remove the console. Im going to need to do this again when I get the "ripshifter" which I already have sitting in NZ. Hopefully all the LC-1 controller and most of the cables will fit under the console out of site. I really only need a couple of wires available for efilive. This might be a 3 stage process due to time constraints;
- Disassemble console
- Wireup LC-1 in NB02 and WB02 mode
- Reassemble console
I should mention that subsequent to my burst knock adjustments the car goes significantly better at part throttle and off idle driving. I have disabled PE mode which runs at over 60% throttle and higher MAP pressures in order to doublecheck my VE table. I expect to turn it back on soon as well as revisiting my timing tables, as I suspect I may have pulled a little too much out in places. Hopefully Ill have the WB02 in well before then and be on the way to a solid baseline.
I also did quite a bit of smooting to the VE table. It looks pretty stock now, though its a little higher in most area's. Still a way to go though.
It looks like running the car on a dyno for spark tuning is the best idea, its virtually impossible on the street to tune for best advance as you need to hold a certain load and RPM point while adjusting spark to verify maximum torque. Apparently maximum torque is also usually a good way from knock point. I found that interesting. I guess Ill have to find out how much dyno time costs once I get the tune dialed in as best I can. Ill also keep my eye out for a dyno day as Id like a proper baseline.
So next step, wideband install. Hopefully sometime over the next week.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Welcome to the real world
Ok, dispite some initial excitement and quick learning I have now realised that to advance is going to take some considerable effort and time. I have done countless updates of the PCM in the last few weeks and almost started again today as I had a weird hesitation from 2000-3500RPM.
I tried a GTS tune which didnt help any and compared the maps I had done, surprisingly (or otherwise) the spark and ve tables were close, so I thought the issue must be elsewhere. Sure enough after some suggested logging I captured the culprit, BKR or Burst Knock Retard. This little blighter, which is especially hard on SD tuned vehicles, retards timing based on a preventative algorythm. It basically checks for delta airflow values which exceed a certain amount and retards the ignition based on a table. Suffice to say the table and airflow values have now changed. The stock Holden GTS has more agressive settings, while I have gone even more aggressive.
I have also learnt to check for knock sensor voltage while also monitoring knock. This allows you to differentiate between "false" knock, and real knock, as the sensor will be jumping around when real knock occurs and be fairly quiet when false knock is about. Of course false knock can be ignored except for the fact that it can mess with your timing. A partial solution is to tweak the "knock retard recovery rate" table to recover quickly. Knock being a potentially ruinous situation always requires care.. as does running too lean. (Hence a wideband is seen as fairly essential for tuning).
I have therefore ordered an O2 sensor socket so that I can pull the old one out and make up a harness. This will allow me to transfer the sensor to a friends car rather than a permanent fixture in mine. Hopefully I can get the blighter out. I spent a few minutes with a cresent the other day hefting on the drivers side O2 to no avail. I think a large lever is called for.
Im starting to consider what to do once things are tuned right. This isnt likely to be any time soon. Perhaps early next year I can consider things to be "ballpark". Id then like to do at least a cam swap, perhaps heads and intake. In fact I just bid on an LS6 intake and injectors in Oz. Would be a good upgrade from my current LS1 and 26lb injectors at the right price.
Im considering an SDPC custom cam, which is in effect an off the shelf Crane jobby. Specs are 220/224 and 0.551 lift. Or 0.583 with 1.8 rockers. Should be good for a 12 sec 1/4 or 11's with any luck. That should do me for a while. Heads and intake can wait till I go for a 402 stroker. (Which isnt planned until the engine wears out or I kill it, whatever comes first!).
So in summary, lots to learn and lots of time required to learn, but as long as I pick something new up each day we are on the right track. New 0-60 times to come soon.
I tried a GTS tune which didnt help any and compared the maps I had done, surprisingly (or otherwise) the spark and ve tables were close, so I thought the issue must be elsewhere. Sure enough after some suggested logging I captured the culprit, BKR or Burst Knock Retard. This little blighter, which is especially hard on SD tuned vehicles, retards timing based on a preventative algorythm. It basically checks for delta airflow values which exceed a certain amount and retards the ignition based on a table. Suffice to say the table and airflow values have now changed. The stock Holden GTS has more agressive settings, while I have gone even more aggressive.
I have also learnt to check for knock sensor voltage while also monitoring knock. This allows you to differentiate between "false" knock, and real knock, as the sensor will be jumping around when real knock occurs and be fairly quiet when false knock is about. Of course false knock can be ignored except for the fact that it can mess with your timing. A partial solution is to tweak the "knock retard recovery rate" table to recover quickly. Knock being a potentially ruinous situation always requires care.. as does running too lean. (Hence a wideband is seen as fairly essential for tuning).
I have therefore ordered an O2 sensor socket so that I can pull the old one out and make up a harness. This will allow me to transfer the sensor to a friends car rather than a permanent fixture in mine. Hopefully I can get the blighter out. I spent a few minutes with a cresent the other day hefting on the drivers side O2 to no avail. I think a large lever is called for.
Im starting to consider what to do once things are tuned right. This isnt likely to be any time soon. Perhaps early next year I can consider things to be "ballpark". Id then like to do at least a cam swap, perhaps heads and intake. In fact I just bid on an LS6 intake and injectors in Oz. Would be a good upgrade from my current LS1 and 26lb injectors at the right price.
Im considering an SDPC custom cam, which is in effect an off the shelf Crane jobby. Specs are 220/224 and 0.551 lift. Or 0.583 with 1.8 rockers. Should be good for a 12 sec 1/4 or 11's with any luck. That should do me for a while. Heads and intake can wait till I go for a 402 stroker. (Which isnt planned until the engine wears out or I kill it, whatever comes first!).
So in summary, lots to learn and lots of time required to learn, but as long as I pick something new up each day we are on the right track. New 0-60 times to come soon.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Not easy
A reflash to manual calibration today to set right the trans issue. Seems to be the accepted way of fixing. I never did get to the bottom of where it was set in the calibration.
Also some slight errors in adjusting my VE table, I was using absolute values rather than percentages. Tordne lent me a hand with a calc_pid. I was making 50% changes rather than full value, but still was going down the wrong track. I do definately need the WB LC-1 installed so will make full effort to achieve that in the near future. Will require an extended session under the car with a large lever and a good spanner. I also need to check my O2's. Learning lots, not stuck yet, but the more you learn the more you know there is to learn, its certainly not a quick fix situation.
Also some slight errors in adjusting my VE table, I was using absolute values rather than percentages. Tordne lent me a hand with a calc_pid. I was making 50% changes rather than full value, but still was going down the wrong track. I do definately need the WB LC-1 installed so will make full effort to achieve that in the near future. Will require an extended session under the car with a large lever and a good spanner. I also need to check my O2's. Learning lots, not stuck yet, but the more you learn the more you know there is to learn, its certainly not a quick fix situation.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Gathering momentum
As expected I wasnt paying attention, I had placed the .cal files from the Custom OS's into the wrong place. Once they were in the right place a reflash of the tune worked fine. So Im now running OS3 with dual spark tables in SD mode. The software reads the cal files so that it can understand the PCM OS, I was running off the old ones still.
Efilive with custom additional features, like support for dual spark maps and forced induction.
After 2 passes at updating the VE table I am now hanging around -5 to +2, so Im almost there Im now making changes at 50% the recorded rate. One thing I noted was with the second flash and another 10 on average (max figure of 115 so far) added into the VE table things seem a little sluggish down low. Maybe things are a little rich at this point. Timing has remained unchanged, though I think I need to pull a little more timing out as there is a little knock retard at higher RPM. I guess I might even need some more timing down low the idle timing table is set to an 8 degree advance while redhardsupra's site recommends around 20. Though admitedly this appears aimed at people with cams.
Now is a good time to add some pictures to my boring text only blog, so here is the current state of the VE table.
I started reading up on the next step, which is idle and timing tuning. Idle is pretty good, though I need to make sure transition to and from idle is good as this might have something to do with the sluggishness Im feeling down low now. As usual the most excelent forum LS1tech.com has a thread to cover this topic as does my fellow blogger redhardsupra here. There is also an excellent link to what appears to be a foolproof method of recalibrating MAF's. Which I may do to allow extra data logging for tuning, though I expect to lose the MAF longer term.
My baseline tune was from an Auto and I suspect I may not have "cleaned" it out as much as I need to. The car drives fine, but Im still trying to figure out how to get the scanner and tuner to read it as a manual. Either Ill have to flash with a manual tune or will figure it out soon enough. Good old EFILIVE forums are very good for data gathering.
Efilive with custom additional features, like support for dual spark maps and forced induction.
After 2 passes at updating the VE table I am now hanging around -5 to +2, so Im almost there Im now making changes at 50% the recorded rate. One thing I noted was with the second flash and another 10 on average (max figure of 115 so far) added into the VE table things seem a little sluggish down low. Maybe things are a little rich at this point. Timing has remained unchanged, though I think I need to pull a little more timing out as there is a little knock retard at higher RPM. I guess I might even need some more timing down low the idle timing table is set to an 8 degree advance while redhardsupra's site recommends around 20. Though admitedly this appears aimed at people with cams.
Now is a good time to add some pictures to my boring text only blog, so here is the current state of the VE table.
I started reading up on the next step, which is idle and timing tuning. Idle is pretty good, though I need to make sure transition to and from idle is good as this might have something to do with the sluggishness Im feeling down low now. As usual the most excelent forum LS1tech.com has a thread to cover this topic as does my fellow blogger redhardsupra here. There is also an excellent link to what appears to be a foolproof method of recalibrating MAF's. Which I may do to allow extra data logging for tuning, though I expect to lose the MAF longer term.
My baseline tune was from an Auto and I suspect I may not have "cleaned" it out as much as I need to. The car drives fine, but Im still trying to figure out how to get the scanner and tuner to read it as a manual. Either Ill have to flash with a manual tune or will figure it out soon enough. Good old EFILIVE forums are very good for data gathering.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Starting to get into it
Yesterday was a very enlightening day as I had almost the whole day to replace the oil and do some tuning.
The old R8 neeeded its skidplate removed to give me access to the drain plug and oil filter. Thankfully the filter looked reasonably new and wasnt on too tight, a slight mess on the driveway later and 4L of 15/40 and 500m of 0/40 Mobile1 later and we are good to go.
I decided to update to efilive custom os v3 which was relatively straight forward, after flashing the base OS in and then flashing my 260KW HSV tune back in all "looked" well. I made the recommended alterations to the custom parameters and fired it up. The idle was shocking and it seemed no better at higher RPM, the car stalled.. Ok so checked out what was happening and reset idle to 800 rpm, still no good. Maybe I wasnt paying attention and did something wrong.
At this point I decided Id go back to the OEM OS, but decided on the 285KW tune instead. I will get a tune happening on the stocker then have another go at the custom OS. The 285KW tune was for an Auto so I had to disable some codes and copy and paste a few of the trans fields over from the R8 including speedo settings. The car fired up no problems, there is a lot more timing in this tune over the 260KW one, in fact thats where most of the changes seem to have taken place. After going for a drive I found out as others have suggested that the 285KW tune is a little "sharp" on the timing with up to 4deg Knock Retard recorded. So a little tweaking to pull timing from the high octane table as indicated by the logs and another flash, though as well as pulling the timing I decided it was time to go Speed Density (SD) mode and start tuning the VE table properly. The MAF was duly unplugged and the P010x MAF MIL (SES warnings) disabled.
Now are are cooking on gas! That made a big difference, the car now no longer feels like a slug sandwich down low and jumps off the mark, a review of the logs shows no knock either. So a good few minutes of warmup to let the Long Term Fuel Trims (LTFT's) get themselves together and I logged using "Black Box" mode some data. "Black Box" mode allows EFILIVE users to log data in the car without a laptop, just a small cable connected box which can be tucked out of site. The box has about half a Mb of space, enough for me to log 40min with 9 PID's. The default is a load of tiny files which were not much use, so I have reconfigured for one large file. I really must read the manuals!
Ive updated the VE table based on the RPM vs MAP vs LTFT bank 1 results. Going forward Ill update the Map to average bank 1 and bank 2. As a side note injector duty cycle was at 25% at 2500 RPM, Ill have to check it at motorway speeds under full throttle, though for LTFT tuning hitting PE mode is a no no, as the PCM dumps in extra fuel so you wont get any useful information for tuning.
So a new VE table with values about 10% higher then smoothed once retaining high and low values is the result. Lots more logging and tuning over the next week or two. Off to Wales this weekend to see the All Blacks destroy the Welsh so should get plenty of logging and tuning done.
The old R8 neeeded its skidplate removed to give me access to the drain plug and oil filter. Thankfully the filter looked reasonably new and wasnt on too tight, a slight mess on the driveway later and 4L of 15/40 and 500m of 0/40 Mobile1 later and we are good to go.
I decided to update to efilive custom os v3 which was relatively straight forward, after flashing the base OS in and then flashing my 260KW HSV tune back in all "looked" well. I made the recommended alterations to the custom parameters and fired it up. The idle was shocking and it seemed no better at higher RPM, the car stalled.. Ok so checked out what was happening and reset idle to 800 rpm, still no good. Maybe I wasnt paying attention and did something wrong.
At this point I decided Id go back to the OEM OS, but decided on the 285KW tune instead. I will get a tune happening on the stocker then have another go at the custom OS. The 285KW tune was for an Auto so I had to disable some codes and copy and paste a few of the trans fields over from the R8 including speedo settings. The car fired up no problems, there is a lot more timing in this tune over the 260KW one, in fact thats where most of the changes seem to have taken place. After going for a drive I found out as others have suggested that the 285KW tune is a little "sharp" on the timing with up to 4deg Knock Retard recorded. So a little tweaking to pull timing from the high octane table as indicated by the logs and another flash, though as well as pulling the timing I decided it was time to go Speed Density (SD) mode and start tuning the VE table properly. The MAF was duly unplugged and the P010x MAF MIL (SES warnings) disabled.
Now are are cooking on gas! That made a big difference, the car now no longer feels like a slug sandwich down low and jumps off the mark, a review of the logs shows no knock either. So a good few minutes of warmup to let the Long Term Fuel Trims (LTFT's) get themselves together and I logged using "Black Box" mode some data. "Black Box" mode allows EFILIVE users to log data in the car without a laptop, just a small cable connected box which can be tucked out of site. The box has about half a Mb of space, enough for me to log 40min with 9 PID's. The default is a load of tiny files which were not much use, so I have reconfigured for one large file. I really must read the manuals!
Ive updated the VE table based on the RPM vs MAP vs LTFT bank 1 results. Going forward Ill update the Map to average bank 1 and bank 2. As a side note injector duty cycle was at 25% at 2500 RPM, Ill have to check it at motorway speeds under full throttle, though for LTFT tuning hitting PE mode is a no no, as the PCM dumps in extra fuel so you wont get any useful information for tuning.
So a new VE table with values about 10% higher then smoothed once retaining high and low values is the result. Lots more logging and tuning over the next week or two. Off to Wales this weekend to see the All Blacks destroy the Welsh so should get plenty of logging and tuning done.
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