Today was a great example of why tuning can be so difficult

Tuning really is more than adjusting a/f ratios and ign timing

One part of what we do is to remap the ecu to compensate for performance modifications and also to maximize performance beyond the conservative stock settings

Also we make part recoemndations and suggestions about which modifications work well for a customer's intended goals and driving style

Another part of what we do is IDENTIFY and correct issues and problems a car may have

Some common problems we see with cars are

1 - Improperly installed parts
2 - Incompatable parts - e.g. bad turbo kit design / wrong turbo
3 - Boost leaks
4 - leaking, bad adjusted bov
5 - Compression failure - or low compression
6 - Head gasket failure
7 - Ignition problems
8 - Wrong oil (too thick- yes some people run 20 - 50 in their evos)
9 - Bad or poorly designed or intalled boost controllers
10 - you name it

As a tuner in many cases most of what Iam doing is applying my past experience and tools to figuring out WHY a particular car is not running right.

In MANY cases the reason why a car may not be running smooth or making power may have NOTHING TO DO with ecu tuning. Instead - something else may be the fault.

In these cases, diagnostic skills and experience are what gives you the ability to spot the problem and find the solution.

In most cases our though the mail reflash works great and leaves us with a totally satisfied customer. In some cases though I must assume that the cars may have other issues which interfear with the driveability or performance.

Here is an example of a car that had some issues which took some time to identify.

This car was a 3,000 mile 2004 Evo RS with zero miles

We can see on its base line run a typical stock evo.

In retrospect our little dip at 5200 rpms should have set off some warning bells in my head. At the time I assumed that the gas was suspect.

 

Here we have the Dyno Flash base map installed and picking up power right away

However the a/f curve and power band is not smooth

There is a rather large dip at 4500

Its the same dip we used to see at 5200 in the base line - more on this later

I set about to smooth out the a/f ratio and tweak the timing and keep an eye on our little dip

 

We have success at smoothing out the a/f curve

However - the mid range is too lean and I hear what i THINK is knock - again the dip is still there

 

Richer still - getting smoother and closer to my target a/f slowly

Still that dip

I am starting to wonder about our stock BOV

Time to hook up a boost gauge on the car

 

The curve is getting smoother

But I dont like what the boost is doing

4500 has something going on

The a/f is nice and flat and we have reached 260 to the wheels which is a decent number on a stock car

Time to install a MR BOV for diagnostic purposes !

 

The MR bov actually lets the boost come on harder and makes the problem even worse !

Time to explore some other options and break out the scan tool to log some data

 

By run 11 we can see that I have been getting no where with tracking down boost issues

The timing curve is perfect

Zero knock

Everything is good

But still we see the same pattern in the trq curve - a dip at about 4500

The plugs look good - gap is good and they are reading well

However - I take a chance and swap out the plugs for a new set

 

BAMM. It was a plug !

As soon as I put in a fresh set of plugs the problem was solved - totally smooth trq curve !

A few fine adjustments later and here is our final sheet

A smoother curve and a lot more power and all with a nice conservative 11.1 /1 a/f ratio

Driving this RS was simply a dream - a wonderful machine and now its smooth as silk !

I should have figured it was plugs right away - BUT in these cases you have to go through a series of diagnostic steps to track down what is causing the problem . This is what keeps my job interesting day after day and what really makes it a challenge for me.

If you look at the time stamps on this sheet you'll see this tune took me almost 4 hours on the dyno to get it done. Sometimes you can't get a really good job done quickly and you have to take longer to get a decent result.

Situations like this is where our one price policy really pays off for our customers.

 

i'd really like to come down and get the 199 flash..i'm a little confused though..was this person paying for a custom flash or the base flash? if the 199 base flash does that mean if I came down that I would get dyno time and such to figure out WTF is wrong with my car? because unless I have a glazed flywheel I think I may have some a/f problems at idle because of the way my rpm needle responds when i hit the gas and the way the car studders with starting from a stop..i'd also like to see my gains after the tuning..you had told me to get the flash to help with my maf readings in my fuel economy thread..so i'd really like to i just want to know about what'll go on when I come..and if i go to dynoflash in stamford or to pruven in milford..thanks Al I appreciate your time

 

The $199 flash is just a base flash intalled - either in person or through the mail

The $399 flash is the one that includes dyno testing and is a fully customized custom tune

Normally - diagnostic work and repairs of faulty systems are NOT included in the Dyno Flash

EG if you have a leaking fmic pipe and we have to do a boost test and fix a leak that is usually an extra charge

Lately - with the so called case study tunes that I have been doing - I have been including a lot fo diagnostic efforts for free and doing a lot of additional work. For example in this case we provided the customer witha free set of plugs.

It sounds like your particular car has some type of mecahnical issue of some sort.

I would suggest that you give me a call to discuss the exact condition in more detail and I can come up with a game plan to resolve your problems.