While planning the next set of changes I decided to try and chase down some minor idle issues. Like RPM dipping at low speed when in neutral.
After some reading on EFILIVE forums for idle transition and idle tuning I made a few maps and pids and went logging from startup to full operating temp.
I pasted the changes into the Desired Air Flow tables and things are now much smoother. I think the 1.8 rockers might have thrown the stock idle table out a little. Good stuff, Im now prepared for some cam idle tuning next year come cam install time.
That was too easy, so I decided to look further into suggestions that you can get a similar effect to a "pump shot" by messing with the throttle follower tables. This handles the transition from idle to running airflow. Factory default is to trickle changes in until throttle position sensor (TPS) is at 13% at which time it is increased 6 fold! There will be some interpolation, but I decided to make it more linear, so scaled the roll in from 3% TPS and set the mulitplier at 1200 to match 1600 RPM lead in. The car now launches off much more confidently without the delay from idle requiring 15%+ TPS to make it do anything. Another sucessful series of tuning actions and no observable ill effects.
I will be logging a lot come tuesday as Im off up North again so will check to see if this additional airflow has affected my AFR readings and hence VE table. I doubt it, as its only put in on TPS +ve delta changes, then decayed out.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Stage one complete
I decided that my tune was close enough to warrant a trip to the dyno to check WOT fueling, timing and power.
The guy was very helpful and didnt mind me digging my laptop out and hooking myself up. On his advise Im now at 12.5:1 at max torque, which gained me 3bhp and 2ft/lb over my tune.
I basically overloaded their dyno as you can see my power run is cut short. I will try somewhere with a beefier dyno next time. I think I can make up more power with my LS6 intake and a new otrcai (Over the Radiator Cold Air Intake), plus run some high 98 octane fuel. Im also running cats still. Anyway peak power is normally aroung 5500rpm my run was cut short under 5200rpm so I wont know till the next time where we are at. Indicated flywheel power is 362bhp with 364ft/lb this is because the dyno measures trans loss on the overrun, apparently pretty accurate.
So I think for now Ive got things about as good as Im going to get them unless I retune for 98 octane. I think Ill just leave things be until March when the cam, intake and injectors all get changed then retune for 98 octane too. Im hoping for at least another 50-75bhp. Apparently the LS6 intake is worth 20bhp itself, plus maybe 10 for the fuel and 40-50 for the cam. We will see.
Injector duty was at 92% on the dyno so the new injectors will be required.
Tordne seemed impressed enough to request my tune and go looking for an HSV285KW base tune too. I had based my timing on the HSV table and found it very good. This was the last HSV LS1 engine before they went to the LS2 so I think its got a lot of good things in it to make good power. Basically 65KW over the original 220KW LS1 engines from 1999, which is a 30% increase!
Here is the cut off table with my tune overlayed on the tune as recommended by the dyno dude. (Just change fuel from 12.6:1 to 12.5:1 at max torque)
So thats it for now. No more updates till I get some 0-60 or 1/4 mile times... or I get my extra goodies on.
The guy was very helpful and didnt mind me digging my laptop out and hooking myself up. On his advise Im now at 12.5:1 at max torque, which gained me 3bhp and 2ft/lb over my tune.
I basically overloaded their dyno as you can see my power run is cut short. I will try somewhere with a beefier dyno next time. I think I can make up more power with my LS6 intake and a new otrcai (Over the Radiator Cold Air Intake), plus run some high 98 octane fuel. Im also running cats still. Anyway peak power is normally aroung 5500rpm my run was cut short under 5200rpm so I wont know till the next time where we are at. Indicated flywheel power is 362bhp with 364ft/lb this is because the dyno measures trans loss on the overrun, apparently pretty accurate.
So I think for now Ive got things about as good as Im going to get them unless I retune for 98 octane. I think Ill just leave things be until March when the cam, intake and injectors all get changed then retune for 98 octane too. Im hoping for at least another 50-75bhp. Apparently the LS6 intake is worth 20bhp itself, plus maybe 10 for the fuel and 40-50 for the cam. We will see.
Injector duty was at 92% on the dyno so the new injectors will be required.
Tordne seemed impressed enough to request my tune and go looking for an HSV285KW base tune too. I had based my timing on the HSV table and found it very good. This was the last HSV LS1 engine before they went to the LS2 so I think its got a lot of good things in it to make good power. Basically 65KW over the original 220KW LS1 engines from 1999, which is a 30% increase!
Here is the cut off table with my tune overlayed on the tune as recommended by the dyno dude. (Just change fuel from 12.6:1 to 12.5:1 at max torque)
So thats it for now. No more updates till I get some 0-60 or 1/4 mile times... or I get my extra goodies on.
Friday, December 09, 2005
The cracked nut
Ok things seem to be going pretty well now.
I have totally axed PE mode as I was getting a "bog" when throttle went past its trigger position and enrichment started often at too low rev's. Now it comes on progressively after 85kpa richening up at max torque. Delco recommended a trigger of 80kpa rather than the factory 15kpa, but with the custom OS thats not required as I can command it with table B3647.
Ive been reading lots. Too much advance isnt good. In fact less advance in theory is good depending on what the power output is and at what point of the cycle it occurs. Afterall if you can spark after TDC on the power stroke and have max force expended on the downwards stroke then you are not wasting combustion pressures on slowing down the compression of the charge.
Here is my current spark table as of today.
So in summary its not important to get hung up on how much advance you can run. Your engine will be tuned to its fuel based on many aspects including its VE, combustion chamber design etc. Im running 22.5 deg at max torque around 4000rpm. It wont take any more without KR. In fact it might run even harder with a little less advance. What I did notice however is that after adding a few degrees at the lower end things have got very lively in the low and mid ranges, so much so that I requred a full 5% more VE across the board. I did take some timing off the upper end and some minor VE adjustments, however the engine is now running well.
Previously through the 70+ tunes that its now had in it I could pick out times when certain area's and parts ran well. Now I cant detect any part which needs improvement. Well not quite true. Id like a little more straight off idle..
I may richen up to 12.6:1 at WOT peak torque as Im running 12.8:1 and some recent reading suggests I should go a little richer and lean it to 13.1:1 above and below this point. Though near the redline and fuel cutout, I think a lean towards the high 12's would be more prudent there.
I dont think timing could be improved much more, subject to a dyno tune.
I must get some 0-60 times to see where I am now. In fact no more posts till I have done so :)
I have totally axed PE mode as I was getting a "bog" when throttle went past its trigger position and enrichment started often at too low rev's. Now it comes on progressively after 85kpa richening up at max torque. Delco recommended a trigger of 80kpa rather than the factory 15kpa, but with the custom OS thats not required as I can command it with table B3647.
Ive been reading lots. Too much advance isnt good. In fact less advance in theory is good depending on what the power output is and at what point of the cycle it occurs. Afterall if you can spark after TDC on the power stroke and have max force expended on the downwards stroke then you are not wasting combustion pressures on slowing down the compression of the charge.
Here is my current spark table as of today.
So in summary its not important to get hung up on how much advance you can run. Your engine will be tuned to its fuel based on many aspects including its VE, combustion chamber design etc. Im running 22.5 deg at max torque around 4000rpm. It wont take any more without KR. In fact it might run even harder with a little less advance. What I did notice however is that after adding a few degrees at the lower end things have got very lively in the low and mid ranges, so much so that I requred a full 5% more VE across the board. I did take some timing off the upper end and some minor VE adjustments, however the engine is now running well.
Previously through the 70+ tunes that its now had in it I could pick out times when certain area's and parts ran well. Now I cant detect any part which needs improvement. Well not quite true. Id like a little more straight off idle..
I may richen up to 12.6:1 at WOT peak torque as Im running 12.8:1 and some recent reading suggests I should go a little richer and lean it to 13.1:1 above and below this point. Though near the redline and fuel cutout, I think a lean towards the high 12's would be more prudent there.
I dont think timing could be improved much more, subject to a dyno tune.
I must get some 0-60 times to see where I am now. In fact no more posts till I have done so :)
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Book fest
Just got my book by Jeff Hartman, basically an MIT text book for Advanced Mechanic students. If you like differential calculus you will love this book. Its a nice 600 page tomb.
Lucky the book uses the maths to demonstrate the text, though at times I think it just gives up and explains things with long physics formula. Anyway very interesting so far. That will keep me busy over the holidays.
Anyway, my tune continues to improve. Im not convinced with "Lean Cruise" and have reduced the factory lean out by 50% as I had to put my foot down quite a bit to get it to maintain cruise speed. This was backed up by some comments from Delco at chipmaster in oz, an amazingly helpful pro tuner who seems to live and breathe GM PCM's. I understand he wrote some of the code for EFIlive.
Ive left DFCO on as I like the engine braking it creates. I also wiped out PE mode by setting map to 110kpa. I will use table B3647 to command enrichment instead and see how that goes. The main reason for this was that PE came in at 64% Throttle and I could feel the engine slump at this point. I was assuming that it was PE cutting in. Either that or the richer fuel.. or maybe lower spark advance. Anyway stage 1 test is to see if turning TPS and PE off makes a difference. If not Ill look at the enrichment settings. Basically 13:1 going to 12.8 at max torque then back to 13:1.
My commanded fuel is more gradual, though ramps to the same settings.
So Im summary my low end and mid range feels great. Im not so happy with the higher RPM range and believe it to be either PE or spark that is the cause. I got a little KR around 0.60g/cyl and 4000rpm, so have pulled timing there down to around 26deg.
More updates once I see how the recent changes go.
Im starting to read up on idle tuning in anticipation for some tuning action when the new cam comes in.
Lucky the book uses the maths to demonstrate the text, though at times I think it just gives up and explains things with long physics formula. Anyway very interesting so far. That will keep me busy over the holidays.
Anyway, my tune continues to improve. Im not convinced with "Lean Cruise" and have reduced the factory lean out by 50% as I had to put my foot down quite a bit to get it to maintain cruise speed. This was backed up by some comments from Delco at chipmaster in oz, an amazingly helpful pro tuner who seems to live and breathe GM PCM's. I understand he wrote some of the code for EFIlive.
Ive left DFCO on as I like the engine braking it creates. I also wiped out PE mode by setting map to 110kpa. I will use table B3647 to command enrichment instead and see how that goes. The main reason for this was that PE came in at 64% Throttle and I could feel the engine slump at this point. I was assuming that it was PE cutting in. Either that or the richer fuel.. or maybe lower spark advance. Anyway stage 1 test is to see if turning TPS and PE off makes a difference. If not Ill look at the enrichment settings. Basically 13:1 going to 12.8 at max torque then back to 13:1.
My commanded fuel is more gradual, though ramps to the same settings.
So Im summary my low end and mid range feels great. Im not so happy with the higher RPM range and believe it to be either PE or spark that is the cause. I got a little KR around 0.60g/cyl and 4000rpm, so have pulled timing there down to around 26deg.
More updates once I see how the recent changes go.
Im starting to read up on idle tuning in anticipation for some tuning action when the new cam comes in.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Nice
Still lots to learn, but a few things are starting to fall into place now.
My new (well HSV derrived) spark table was fine, no knock retard at all, so I merged a little more hardcore Corvette table in. I got a tiny bit of knock, but only at 4000, that was with some WOT runs, so that was cool, basically at Max Torque, where apparently its good to run more fuel. Fuel at that point should be sitting at about 12.8, maybe I should drop it to 12.5.
There is a discussion on efi101.com forum about more timing and more fuel vs less timing and less fuel, the consensus for performance appears to be that slightly leaner with less timing is good. So Ill pull some timing for now and see how we go.
Just as a reminder of how far Ive come I found this henous old VE error lable, using LTFT readings. I guess its not a million miles out, but its certainly all over the place. Rich down low and lean up high. I think if I have smoothed it out heavily and worked on it, it would have come right... Which in fact it did with some assistance.
I was commanding 14.63 and STFT was trimming nicely yesterday but as I have my LC-1 in as NB02 the signal isnt quite 100% the same, it tracks closely, but in the end one bank was reading like 6% different than the other. I thought this might not be good as they might be fighting against each other especially if the LC-1 was switching at the wrong point. So Im back to a non commanded 14.7 running soley off the VE table. Now getting that to track acutal is much more of a challenge. STFT were running an average of 2% out, so things arnt that far out. Each time I adjust 1% it swings the other way, so I think I might mess with IAT modifier or something else other than the VE table.
The car runs like a psycho now, light throttle causes nice acceleration which starts peaking a little over 4000rpm, it still pulls to the red line, but its not really worth it as the fun is done. My new cam Im sure will address this minor issue. Then the tune can start all over again!
So now Ive just got a little more playing around with the timing then most things will be right on. I dropped my idle to 625 the stock HSV is 640, so the timing must speed up low rpm operations and allow a much reduced idle. Tordne's idle was 900, so I suspect he can find more power in his spark table. He has said as much as he is now running a modified Corvette table.
The joys of not having a dyno to create a properly mapped spark table. Perhaps once I get the cam in I will pay for some dyno time to dial in a good spark map.
My new (well HSV derrived) spark table was fine, no knock retard at all, so I merged a little more hardcore Corvette table in. I got a tiny bit of knock, but only at 4000, that was with some WOT runs, so that was cool, basically at Max Torque, where apparently its good to run more fuel. Fuel at that point should be sitting at about 12.8, maybe I should drop it to 12.5.
There is a discussion on efi101.com forum about more timing and more fuel vs less timing and less fuel, the consensus for performance appears to be that slightly leaner with less timing is good. So Ill pull some timing for now and see how we go.
Just as a reminder of how far Ive come I found this henous old VE error lable, using LTFT readings. I guess its not a million miles out, but its certainly all over the place. Rich down low and lean up high. I think if I have smoothed it out heavily and worked on it, it would have come right... Which in fact it did with some assistance.
I was commanding 14.63 and STFT was trimming nicely yesterday but as I have my LC-1 in as NB02 the signal isnt quite 100% the same, it tracks closely, but in the end one bank was reading like 6% different than the other. I thought this might not be good as they might be fighting against each other especially if the LC-1 was switching at the wrong point. So Im back to a non commanded 14.7 running soley off the VE table. Now getting that to track acutal is much more of a challenge. STFT were running an average of 2% out, so things arnt that far out. Each time I adjust 1% it swings the other way, so I think I might mess with IAT modifier or something else other than the VE table.
The car runs like a psycho now, light throttle causes nice acceleration which starts peaking a little over 4000rpm, it still pulls to the red line, but its not really worth it as the fun is done. My new cam Im sure will address this minor issue. Then the tune can start all over again!
So now Ive just got a little more playing around with the timing then most things will be right on. I dropped my idle to 625 the stock HSV is 640, so the timing must speed up low rpm operations and allow a much reduced idle. Tordne's idle was 900, so I suspect he can find more power in his spark table. He has said as much as he is now running a modified Corvette table.
The joys of not having a dyno to create a properly mapped spark table. Perhaps once I get the cam in I will pay for some dyno time to dial in a good spark map.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Back to basics
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Base OS upgrade
Lots of reading and scanning this week. I noticed that Engine Coolant Temperature wasnt being measured in the default PID's, it would stay at -40C. Weird, no codes where thrown so I guessed it must have been ok. In addition it was shown ok using the bidirectional controls for idle. I noticed it was set at priority 3, so bumped it up to 1 and low and behold it came to life and now works ok in the scanner. Cool.
My LTFT's were all +10 in the higher ranges, so certainly room for improvement there. Im tempted by an EFILIVE custom OS as it allows dual spark maps and octane/spark scaling dynamically in SpeedDensity (MAFLESS) mode. Only issue is that the OS doesn't support any calibrations from PCM's before 2001. So I downloaded from this excellent Holden Pcm site a stock 2003 Manual R8 Clubsport PCM OS image and Calibrations. After firing up the stock 2000 tune and the 2003 one to compare I noticed not much had changed. There was some alterations higher in the RPM range to the Volumetric Efficiency (VE) table, but nothing stellar, certainly not compared to the GTS tune. There are numbers well over 100 in there. All looked well with the main action required to copy the fuel injector flow rate table over. The 2003 model injectors appear to flow around 10% more. I think from memory 2000 are 26lb/hr and the later years 28lb/hr or there abouts. I guess Ill need to keep an eye on duty cycles, which coincidentally were also not reading accurately. I might have to fiddle about with the scanner to get them reading ok. Again no DTC codes are thrown and the car drives ok so I guess its down to the scanner PID settings.
It was then with a little trepidation that I fired up the tuner and ran a test flash. Some nice warnings about isolating the Class-2 network from the PCM, which I duly accepted and the test worked fine. I ran it again and it went in fine, a power cycle of at least 15sec and then everything fired up 100% no codes or anything, a drive around the block and all is well. I couldnt say I noticed any more power unlike the cleaner air filter, but it seemed a little "fuller" at lower revs, less peaky. I can now mess around the the PCM and know that my tuning can be transferred to the later PCM. Its kind of tempting now to throw a 285KW HSV tune in, which should definately give a little more power, but that will just delay the proper tuning process. Next step Speed Density mode and VE table tuning. Winter is approaching so I need to get my Wideband in while I still can. Being in London the only place to do this is on the driveway!
My LTFT's were all +10 in the higher ranges, so certainly room for improvement there. Im tempted by an EFILIVE custom OS as it allows dual spark maps and octane/spark scaling dynamically in SpeedDensity (MAFLESS) mode. Only issue is that the OS doesn't support any calibrations from PCM's before 2001. So I downloaded from this excellent Holden Pcm site a stock 2003 Manual R8 Clubsport PCM OS image and Calibrations. After firing up the stock 2000 tune and the 2003 one to compare I noticed not much had changed. There was some alterations higher in the RPM range to the Volumetric Efficiency (VE) table, but nothing stellar, certainly not compared to the GTS tune. There are numbers well over 100 in there. All looked well with the main action required to copy the fuel injector flow rate table over. The 2003 model injectors appear to flow around 10% more. I think from memory 2000 are 26lb/hr and the later years 28lb/hr or there abouts. I guess Ill need to keep an eye on duty cycles, which coincidentally were also not reading accurately. I might have to fiddle about with the scanner to get them reading ok. Again no DTC codes are thrown and the car drives ok so I guess its down to the scanner PID settings.
It was then with a little trepidation that I fired up the tuner and ran a test flash. Some nice warnings about isolating the Class-2 network from the PCM, which I duly accepted and the test worked fine. I ran it again and it went in fine, a power cycle of at least 15sec and then everything fired up 100% no codes or anything, a drive around the block and all is well. I couldnt say I noticed any more power unlike the cleaner air filter, but it seemed a little "fuller" at lower revs, less peaky. I can now mess around the the PCM and know that my tuning can be transferred to the later PCM. Its kind of tempting now to throw a 285KW HSV tune in, which should definately give a little more power, but that will just delay the proper tuning process. Next step Speed Density mode and VE table tuning. Winter is approaching so I need to get my Wideband in while I still can. Being in London the only place to do this is on the driveway!
Thursday, October 27, 2005
The end of the begining
Is this really the end of the beginning? I hope it is, rather than the beginning of the end.
Ok enough metaphysical claptrap.
First drive since the clean up today. Noticed a decent spot of rust bubbling around what appears to be a crossmember bolt midway down the enginebay, its not come through the paint yet, but she is a cruncher. So I think Ill hack it open and douse it in anti rust/corrosion treatment. Hopefully its not gone right through and its just a surface issue.
With that in mind I booked the 'Orange Pig' (Tiger Gold R8) into Before-n-After in Newbury about 1hr west of here. He is fully booked till late December though. Basically coats the inside and outside of the whole car in a protective coating of Waxoyl and gives a 5 year anti corrosion guarantee. Not bad.
So back to the main theme which is performance modifications and analysis.
I managed some good times today, 5.82, 6.08 and 6.20, quite an improvement on last time.
I have to put most of this down to cleaning the air filter which previously was pretty much like having the engine breathe through a cow-pat.
Also the cold air intake has a large diameter pipe from the airbox going to the shielding which sits over the radiator this was disconnected and basically performing no function. I hooked this back up as well so I guess this will now let quite a bit more cold air into the engine.
EFILIVE was nice enough to replace the parcel which NZ Post now says they have no trace of being posted. A replacement was sent via DHL yesterday and I got a call today to say it was here and the nice VAT man wants £100 off me! Aside from that little pain I am now able to commence tuning from this weekend. Ive done all the free mods I can, its onto the costly stuff now. By all accounts I should expect up to 50KW/65BHP from a tune. Though Im sure it will have to be pretty good to get me that much. Ill be taking it in steps.
Stage one tuning will be to do a lot of scanning and see what is going on, see if I have any knock and take a look at whats going on with the sensors etc. So far the Check engine light hasnt resurfaced so maybe a few long runs has sorted that out. Next will be the VE table and to get rid of all trace of 'Abuse Mode' or 'Torque Management' as it is euphamistically known.
Ok enough metaphysical claptrap.
First drive since the clean up today. Noticed a decent spot of rust bubbling around what appears to be a crossmember bolt midway down the enginebay, its not come through the paint yet, but she is a cruncher. So I think Ill hack it open and douse it in anti rust/corrosion treatment. Hopefully its not gone right through and its just a surface issue.
With that in mind I booked the 'Orange Pig' (Tiger Gold R8) into Before-n-After in Newbury about 1hr west of here. He is fully booked till late December though. Basically coats the inside and outside of the whole car in a protective coating of Waxoyl and gives a 5 year anti corrosion guarantee. Not bad.
So back to the main theme which is performance modifications and analysis.
I managed some good times today, 5.82, 6.08 and 6.20, quite an improvement on last time.
I have to put most of this down to cleaning the air filter which previously was pretty much like having the engine breathe through a cow-pat.
Also the cold air intake has a large diameter pipe from the airbox going to the shielding which sits over the radiator this was disconnected and basically performing no function. I hooked this back up as well so I guess this will now let quite a bit more cold air into the engine.
EFILIVE was nice enough to replace the parcel which NZ Post now says they have no trace of being posted. A replacement was sent via DHL yesterday and I got a call today to say it was here and the nice VAT man wants £100 off me! Aside from that little pain I am now able to commence tuning from this weekend. Ive done all the free mods I can, its onto the costly stuff now. By all accounts I should expect up to 50KW/65BHP from a tune. Though Im sure it will have to be pretty good to get me that much. Ill be taking it in steps.
Stage one tuning will be to do a lot of scanning and see what is going on, see if I have any knock and take a look at whats going on with the sensors etc. So far the Check engine light hasnt resurfaced so maybe a few long runs has sorted that out. Next will be the VE table and to get rid of all trace of 'Abuse Mode' or 'Torque Management' as it is euphamistically known.
Monday, October 24, 2005
First mods
After the lackluster 0-60 times I wasnt surprised to find the air filter corrugations literally filled with dirt. I doubted the K&N had even been looked at in its life. Stock it should be good for 6.2 sec 0-60's. The screws holding the filterbox lid down were rusted through and i had to drill one out to get it off!
Much washing with the hose and rinsing later and it was in much better shape. A more thorough clean is in order when I get some K&N filter oil to recondition it after cleaning.
Oh dear so much for full service history! The main dealer who sold it obviously wasnt interested in anything like preventative maintenance. I suspect the oil was never checked since the last service which was around 5,000 miles ago. The oil level still seems fine after 500 miles. Ill monitor for a little longer, though a full oil change is now planned, and due, especially based on the shocking state of the air filter.
I Contacted EFILIVE to chase the tuning software, I have the LC-1 now, though getting the O2 sensors out of the exhaust may prove impossible as they look well rusted in there. Could be an interesting sequence of events..
The throttle body bypass was quite simple, I plugged the output tube into the input tube bypassing the throttle, didnt need any kit or anything. Also set the airbox up properly as it was all loose and wont have allowed much cold air in. The engine cover is also now removed to help prevent trapping in heat .
So another run of Mr GTech and we will see if the clean up has made any difference. If there is any change its likely to been mainly related to the air cleaner, it was totally clogged!
Much washing with the hose and rinsing later and it was in much better shape. A more thorough clean is in order when I get some K&N filter oil to recondition it after cleaning.
Oh dear so much for full service history! The main dealer who sold it obviously wasnt interested in anything like preventative maintenance. I suspect the oil was never checked since the last service which was around 5,000 miles ago. The oil level still seems fine after 500 miles. Ill monitor for a little longer, though a full oil change is now planned, and due, especially based on the shocking state of the air filter.
I Contacted EFILIVE to chase the tuning software, I have the LC-1 now, though getting the O2 sensors out of the exhaust may prove impossible as they look well rusted in there. Could be an interesting sequence of events..
The throttle body bypass was quite simple, I plugged the output tube into the input tube bypassing the throttle, didnt need any kit or anything. Also set the airbox up properly as it was all loose and wont have allowed much cold air in. The engine cover is also now removed to help prevent trapping in heat .
So another run of Mr GTech and we will see if the clean up has made any difference. If there is any change its likely to been mainly related to the air cleaner, it was totally clogged!
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Baseline
Well on collecting the LC-1 today, I managed to do a few 0-60 runs with the g-tech.
2 x 6.52sec runs and a single 6.70sec run. The plan will be to do 3 runs and drop the worst one. So lets call the first baseline run an average of 6.52 sec.
Next mod will be to bypass the TB and remove the engine cover. I saw a dyno showing basically 6 bhp and 7 ft/lb gain from the TB mod. We will see.
A fellow pistonhead has an old O2 sensor for me so Ill post him a fiver to send it back to me.
Im not sure what a stock R8 is meant to do, but the Wanali or whatever tyres at full road pressure probably dont help, nor will the traction control, which I forgot to turn off. Never mind, as long as I do all the rest the same it should at least give a "relative" idea of performance.
Chasing EFILIVE for their scanner as its just gone 10 days. Hopefully its not far away.
2 x 6.52sec runs and a single 6.70sec run. The plan will be to do 3 runs and drop the worst one. So lets call the first baseline run an average of 6.52 sec.
Next mod will be to bypass the TB and remove the engine cover. I saw a dyno showing basically 6 bhp and 7 ft/lb gain from the TB mod. We will see.
A fellow pistonhead has an old O2 sensor for me so Ill post him a fiver to send it back to me.
Im not sure what a stock R8 is meant to do, but the Wanali or whatever tyres at full road pressure probably dont help, nor will the traction control, which I forgot to turn off. Never mind, as long as I do all the rest the same it should at least give a "relative" idea of performance.
Chasing EFILIVE for their scanner as its just gone 10 days. Hopefully its not far away.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Some mileage
Well this week saw me off to Durham and York from my base in the South East. Over 1000 Miles, Looks like I might have to update my annual insurance miles. I managed to get some good runs on the way back the car drives fairly well.
The oil light turned out to be the oil level as suspected. I threw 2L in and will monitor useage over time. I know its common for LS1's use oil so we will see how bad it is, so far so good.
The plan this weekend is to lose the large plastic engine cover and do the throttle body bypass mod as well as look into the 2nd hole mod for the cold air box. Some searching for a vacuum or hose connector pipe will be required to find something that fits.
2nd gear whines somewhat, so Ill do some research. My old 6speed Camaro was a little crunchy and noisy too and that lasted over 3 years till I sold it, so Im not too worried.
Spoke to Steve at Moving Parts they have a great idea, basically for us UK based sods they provide a US delivery address then bulk ship stuff to the UK and do all the customs paperwork etc. Steve said as long as the stuff was over 10Kg it would be worth talking to him and even engines via air were fine. Im still chewing over my list of parts and deciding what I should get if anything. Still waiting for EFILIVE to show, the LC-1 is at the couriers. So Ill collect that on Saturday. Picked that up from a German company, so saves on paying VAT on US sourced items! So far the most sensible idea seems to be a Crane 216/224 Cam. Vinci Performance in the US like them and sell a wide range for 1.8 Rockers.
Failing any sense or at least following a nice month of overtime and travel allowances a set of AFR205 heads (Part #1510) could be on the cards, the only problem with that is where to stop seeing as the intake and everything else needs to come off it seems a good idea to replace the intake manifold and throttle body as well. Means that should the engine blow, Im good to go with a 402 short block!
Im going to wait until I get to grips with EFILIVE and can do a reasonable MAFLESS tune first, then at least if I change anything I can get the car running well afterwards. It looks like a fellow Pistonheads member may be able to provide me with a suitable old connector to wire my LC-1 up to the PCM as well as the EFILIVE scanner. This reminds me. An Over The Radiator Cold Air Intake (OTRCAI) looks like a very good idea, they ram cold air into the intake giving excellent results. I might try my hand at some fibreglass sculpting and save a bit of cash.
After the 1000 Miles, I thought it would be good to see if the indicated 20L/100Km was accurate as this is shocking! So I reset the mileage and now have the figure of 10.33L/100Km (27.65mpg), still not brilliant but not bad considering there was some city driving in there. Ill check out the air filter over the weekend as well and make sure its nice and clean, the screws on the filter housing have just about rusted out and look like nobody has opened it in years. Apparently its a K&N so a clean and re-oil may be in order Im pretty sure I have some oil left over from the Camaro.
The basic plan now is to monitor everything to make sure its all sound and no major expenses are required of a higher priority than a new camshaft or whatever takes my fancy next.
I also plan to use my G-Tech meter to measure 0-60 times and the indicated BHP. Apparently these are quite accurate, but Ill just use them as a relative measure of whats going on. I guess I should "baseline" the car before doing any mods including the throttlebody bypass, so that will be a plan for the weekend too.
The oil light turned out to be the oil level as suspected. I threw 2L in and will monitor useage over time. I know its common for LS1's use oil so we will see how bad it is, so far so good.
The plan this weekend is to lose the large plastic engine cover and do the throttle body bypass mod as well as look into the 2nd hole mod for the cold air box. Some searching for a vacuum or hose connector pipe will be required to find something that fits.
2nd gear whines somewhat, so Ill do some research. My old 6speed Camaro was a little crunchy and noisy too and that lasted over 3 years till I sold it, so Im not too worried.
Spoke to Steve at Moving Parts they have a great idea, basically for us UK based sods they provide a US delivery address then bulk ship stuff to the UK and do all the customs paperwork etc. Steve said as long as the stuff was over 10Kg it would be worth talking to him and even engines via air were fine. Im still chewing over my list of parts and deciding what I should get if anything. Still waiting for EFILIVE to show, the LC-1 is at the couriers. So Ill collect that on Saturday. Picked that up from a German company, so saves on paying VAT on US sourced items! So far the most sensible idea seems to be a Crane 216/224 Cam. Vinci Performance in the US like them and sell a wide range for 1.8 Rockers.
Failing any sense or at least following a nice month of overtime and travel allowances a set of AFR205 heads (Part #1510) could be on the cards, the only problem with that is where to stop seeing as the intake and everything else needs to come off it seems a good idea to replace the intake manifold and throttle body as well. Means that should the engine blow, Im good to go with a 402 short block!
Im going to wait until I get to grips with EFILIVE and can do a reasonable MAFLESS tune first, then at least if I change anything I can get the car running well afterwards. It looks like a fellow Pistonheads member may be able to provide me with a suitable old connector to wire my LC-1 up to the PCM as well as the EFILIVE scanner. This reminds me. An Over The Radiator Cold Air Intake (OTRCAI) looks like a very good idea, they ram cold air into the intake giving excellent results. I might try my hand at some fibreglass sculpting and save a bit of cash.
After the 1000 Miles, I thought it would be good to see if the indicated 20L/100Km was accurate as this is shocking! So I reset the mileage and now have the figure of 10.33L/100Km (27.65mpg), still not brilliant but not bad considering there was some city driving in there. Ill check out the air filter over the weekend as well and make sure its nice and clean, the screws on the filter housing have just about rusted out and look like nobody has opened it in years. Apparently its a K&N so a clean and re-oil may be in order Im pretty sure I have some oil left over from the Camaro.
The basic plan now is to monitor everything to make sure its all sound and no major expenses are required of a higher priority than a new camshaft or whatever takes my fancy next.
I also plan to use my G-Tech meter to measure 0-60 times and the indicated BHP. Apparently these are quite accurate, but Ill just use them as a relative measure of whats going on. I guess I should "baseline" the car before doing any mods including the throttlebody bypass, so that will be a plan for the weekend too.
Saturday, October 15, 2005
The begining..
Well its done. My lengthy deliberation over a UK based Holden derrived rear wheel driven vehicle is complete. I collected a Tiger Gold 2000 Model Year HSV Clubsport R8 on the 8th October 2005.
After being tempted many times with various 04 Monaro's I decided that I would save a few quid and get a few included "goodies" and go with an HSV.
Around a hundred of these were imported under the GTS and GTS-R nomenclature from 99. Recent UK SVA vehicle import rules have quashed any more without costly testing.
A Monaro would have been 2 doors, while it has the Holden "Calais" level of specification and the GTS or rather, HSV Clubsport R8 has the lower "Exec" level the R8 has a few more benefits.
So far Ive spent £60 on a wheel alignment. Aircond can wait till next summer. Rear demister will be more important with winter approaching.
However the best part is the EFILIVE v7.3 FlashScan kit winging its way over.
This will be used to remap the PCM and will prove useful in determining the real reason for the intermittent Check Engine Light.
Ive done a lot of reading and intend to start of with the narrow band tuning using the LTRIM learnt adjustments to make itterative adjustments to the VE table. Good info for tuning is available on loads of sites like;
www.efilve.com
www.ls1tech.com
www.ls1-australia.com
www.ls1.com.au
Plus loads of others. An LC-1 Innovative Wideband O2 sensor is on the cards based on how I go with EFILIVE.
Anyway the car drives ok, has some el cheapo tyres but they still have tread so will do the trick for now.
Possible future mods are;
After being tempted many times with various 04 Monaro's I decided that I would save a few quid and get a few included "goodies" and go with an HSV.
Around a hundred of these were imported under the GTS and GTS-R nomenclature from 99. Recent UK SVA vehicle import rules have quashed any more without costly testing.
A Monaro would have been 2 doors, while it has the Holden "Calais" level of specification and the GTS or rather, HSV Clubsport R8 has the lower "Exec" level the R8 has a few more benefits.
- Uprated suspension
- Uprated brakes
- Lower ratio 3.73:1 final drive
- 4 Doors
- 1.8 Billet rockers
- Uprated MAF (Initial thought to be 85mm, turned out to be Stock 75mm munched by Granatelli to flow more albiet without matching MAF calibrations in the PCM)
- 1-5/8 Headers in Tri-y configuration. 4-2-1.
- 2.55" Dual exhaust with 200 cell cats
- Failed rear window heater
- Failed AirCond (This was brought to the sellers attention and supposidly fixed.. NOT)
- Occasional check engine light (Apparently this is the o2 sensors which dont like UK temperatures, this doesnt sound right to me. But more on this later)
So far Ive spent £60 on a wheel alignment. Aircond can wait till next summer. Rear demister will be more important with winter approaching.
However the best part is the EFILIVE v7.3 FlashScan kit winging its way over.
This will be used to remap the PCM and will prove useful in determining the real reason for the intermittent Check Engine Light.
Ive done a lot of reading and intend to start of with the narrow band tuning using the LTRIM learnt adjustments to make itterative adjustments to the VE table. Good info for tuning is available on loads of sites like;
www.efilve.com
www.ls1tech.com
www.ls1-australia.com
www.ls1.com.au
Plus loads of others. An LC-1 Innovative Wideband O2 sensor is on the cards based on how I go with EFILIVE.
Anyway the car drives ok, has some el cheapo tyres but they still have tread so will do the trick for now.
Possible future mods are;
- Cam
- Heads
- Intake Manifold
- MAFless tune
- RIP Shifter
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