Running..

Mr Road Runner is now installed and working fine. Flashes are immediate and its much less work to make changes. Now if only I wasn't so busy during the week I could get to the dyno.

On another tack, this little magic device arrived a few days ago. Ready for some beta testing action.
Its working pretty well and looks very professional. Not much more to be said at this stage as its on the beta program and under NDR etc. However Im off to look for some LS2 and LS7's to see how the scanning goes.

The car is going pretty well now. Power feels good. Im sure Ill pick some more up on the dyno, but its running pretty well for now. I turned Idle Learning back on as minor changes in the tune would throw idle out sometimes. With the idle learn on its very well behaved. So I think it will stay on.

So once the dyno tune is done I think Ill almost be out of things to tune. No new engines on the immediate horizon for me. Though I might get tempted with the new HSV VE range which may well arrive here in 2007!

Road Runner, the installation

Yesterday my RoadRunner realtime PCM arrived. This little item allows realtime changes to any PCM table that efilive supports. I wasn't able to order the license until the device arrived as I needed the ID and possibly the serial number.

So Ive installed it, but with no license. I now have a disabled car in the driveway! Hopefully the license isn't too far away.

Anyway, on with the install.

For this you will need a 7mm socket and about 20min time. This is on Holdens, other vehicles might take more time.

• First disconnect the battery.
• Then remove the radiator overflow tank. You can do this by pulling it up off its mount and then away from the side towards the engine. its held on in 2 places but just pulls off.
• Then pull the heat shield straight up, it will slide off the PCM surround.
• Next unclip the PCM top cover. There is a tab to the front of the car, if you pull the tab out and then pull up the cover will hinge open from front to back and come away.
• Dig out your 7mm socket and undo the 2 PCM connectors, at this point you might want to consider installing a wire for the Valet mode as well.
• The PCM surround has 2 tabs on the sides which prevent the PCM from lifting straight up. Rather than forcing the sides out to get the PCM out, I cut a small bit off the end so that the PCM comes in and out easier. Decide which option you want to use to get it out. It just lifts straight up once the tabs are dealt with in any case.
• Install is the reverse of removal.

Out with the old. (Note the valet switch which is normally hidden under the radiator fill tank. You can use this to specify max RPM and road speed)



In with the new


Route the USB cable through this hole in the firewall, it drops down neatly at the top left of the passenger foot well.


Once installed I connected my laptop, but could not flash the unit as it reported it as locked. I presume this is because I need to license the device. So now hopefully just a short wait until that arrives and I should be good to go.

Fueling thoughts

Not much to report at present.

Just messing with commanded fuel ratios.
This graph is interesting and shows max economy at 15.4:1 AFR. Right where I normally run for light load.

As I usually run quite lean I have been trying semi closed loop out. It seems much more responsive. I'm not sure if this is due to bank to bank variation or due to the slightly reduced power from the leaner mix. However after over 33,000 log frames tracking bank to bank fueling the average from both banks is identical. Pre heads, cam and SVO 30's I had around 2-3% variance. So perhaps the injectors were a bit out of whack stock.


I will try near to stoich for a while as I like to responsiveness off idle off the richer mix. I will also reassess using the alpha-n fueling for low throttle and map points as it also seems much nicer response wise.

Ive also ordered a Road Runner pcm. This will allow me to make on the fly changes to the pcm even while driving. This is so I can minimise Dyno time. Basically no need to shutdown and flash updates. Should be cool. It will also help to dial in idle issues as you can make adjustments as the engine is running.

By the way, Ive logged 0.87g/cyl recently. Im still hoping to break the 0.90g/cyl level with some more tuning.

Ok after some testing running close to stoich is much better for power.
I logged O2 mv and the following diagram shows the results in Open Loop. Basically the O2 voltage switches as though its fueled in Closed Loop. This is at idle so only a couple of cells. But hopefully I can get the same affect over the rest of the range. Who needs O2 sensors and a MAF!