I really appreciate everything that I have learned since frequenting this forum, and continue to appreciate all the specific help that has been given to me.

I now have some questions that I have searched after and have yet to find solid answers for, and they relate directly to the state of my current tune. Here is where the car currently stands: All mods are noted in my sig, with the exception of the LC-1, which is now wired correctly and is depenable in it's readings. The car has not undergone much tuning (I leaned a tad in the 5.5k to 6k range to get rid of a rich dip, something like .2 AFR steps... and pulled a few degrees of timing at peak load, and loaded the "radical" mivec map) I can PM some logs if desired, but the cliffnotes go like this:

AFR under boost is ~12.2 with little variation, about +-.15
Peak load hits at 3.5k in 3rd, peak is 254. Tapers to 200 at 7k
0 counts of knock. sometimes 1 at peak boost on hot days.
Coolant, EGR, etc. all stay about normal.
91 octane is all I have access to.

Here are my questions
1. It seems to me that 12.2 is a little lean, I read most people tune conservative at 11.4 and aggressive at 11.8. Should I be richening it to one of these levels? Or with the low knock should I lean it out more?

2. I would like to increase the boost over stock, and have the OEM boost guage. Is this dependable enough to tune to say, 23 psi, or would I be walking through a minefield without a JDM MAP sensor?

 

You can hit 270 load, which is like 23 psi spike then it will go down to 22 on the
midrange and so on. If I were you I will get the A/F to 11.5-11.2 and then increase timing till you get repetitive knock.

 

I'm not suggesting that you do, I mean if it works why fight it.

However if you do take the suggestion that you will hear, it would be very interesting to see which method of tuning provided the best power. So please make an effort to log hp with one of the loggers before and after, that is if you do the afr&timing switch.

 

Got it. So my MO from here should be to
1. Richen up the tune to be safe
2. Fab the new orifice per instructions
3. Reduce WGDC tables and adjust accordingly to 270 load with little taper as possible
3.Re-tune for safe AFR
4. Advance timing at load points until repeatable knock of 1-2 counts, then backscale slightly
5. Enjoy my car

?
Sounds fun.
EDIT: And log each stage for the make benefit the glorious nation of Evom.

 

That should be made a sticky.

MB

 

evos like to spool up lean- if anything i would drop down timing in the peak boost (torque) 1 or 2 cells- then turn up the boost a lil. then adjust the timing and a/f after you turn up the boost - that way u can tell exactly what cells need correction

 

I know not a lot of people are paying attention to this thread, so this might need to be re-posted...but I got some of the steps done this morning

Setup is a long, wide open road. Not perfectly flat, it has a slight uphill section at the end. Logs were taken in 3rd gear (not enough room to tach out 4th) WOT from 2k-7k. I don't much like revving any higher. Same direction, same time of day. 5 Minutes with car off between runs to compensate heat soak.

Log # 1-3 Ciffnotes

Interestingly, my AFR throughout boost is where I'd like it to be...11.5-11.7. WHAT? I just logged this the other day at ~12.2 throughout.
EvoScan HP/TQ figures jump around, but average at 328 / 305...Not depenable, but actually close to what I would expect.
I went through ECUflash and richened it up in a few loadspots, no more than .1-.2 change in most areas.

Log # 4 Cliffnotes

WTF?!?!?!?! I'm running at 12.4-12.5! It's like lean spool just decided to kick in. The only explanation I have for this is flashing reset the SES that having no DP NBo2 set. My stab would be that even a little lame light like this causes the car to run a few points richer...e.g, what I saw in log 1-3.
HP went up to about 335 / 315

Log #5-8

After each log I would richen up load points in a general manner...lowering the cell I was working in and smoothing the points surrounding it. Log 8 Came back very smooth at around 11.7 through boost.
HP results? 321 / 290. The SOTP dyno says about the same...Little change.
However I did learn something through all this. On my first change, I was lookup up the AFR and adjusting the point also displayed by rolling over the AFR. This yielded the most "spikey" AFR curve. It was only after this I noticed there is no way this is correct, as at 226 load at one point it says my AFR was 30.6... So I started clicking the line corresponding to the RPM plot and adjusting the afr that the graph displays at that point. This technique IMMEDIATELY smoothed out the AFR curve and consistently richened the AFR.

Now I'm out to install a new oriface and adjust the WGDC. Results to follow.

 

No kidding, every time my A:F looked too lean from 300hz to 1200hz I found it difficult to force myself to enrichen the area from the noticeble decrease in RPM slope time from TPS signal.

When I overlapped logs leaner slopes were up to 0.3 seconds quicker to respond!

I won't mention how lean I'm talking about - can be detrimental info but it was less prone to knock

 

This oriface install was fairly easy, more so with my intake than the stock airbox.
*WARNING* The #58 Drill bit is not for everyone. People without experience as a brain surgeon or a marines sniper should not use the #58 drill bit. Side effects include bending, snapping, malligned hole, a second trip to Ace marked by profuse and vulgar vocal discharges.

I went back out to my "tuning strip", keeping it out of boost for the most part, and logged the following:

Log #1
I flashed before the log for a flat 45% WGDC curve. I also made all of the changes noted in the Boost Control writeup. Car felt EXTREMELY slow. Probably about as fast as a WRX. A quick glance at 3.5k at my boost guage showed it to be about 14-15 PSI peak, with little taper. The log showed about the same, peak load 205 tapering to 182. I was suprised, however, at how immediately smooth the load curve became, and how little the boost dropped to 7k. I wouldn't compare the HP/TQ results against the previous results because of the time and temperature difference, but result was suprising 317/290, but I find this very off, even against the following logs. Wanna know what a lancer WRX fighter would feel like? Do this.

Log # 2
WGDC: 50% Flat. No other changes. Boost guage read 15-16 psi, peak load 208 taper to 185. AFR was very lean though all this, ~12.5 or so, I figured because the car was seeing "pre-peak" boost levels, so it was still trying to spool. No knock So i didn't worry. HP : 308

Log # 3
WGDC: 60% Flat. Car finally decided to get out of its own way. boost read about 18-19 psi spike. Load from 220 - 190. Still suprised at how little it tapers, and how much smoother the curve is. Power went up to 328 / 292, I could imagine this accurate against the 15-16 PSI...

Log #4
WGDC 70% Flat. Hey this feels like my car! Boost read near stock, with less taper. Peak load 233 to 193. HP read low at 315. I really don't know why I can never get consistent HP graphs, but oh well. SOTP dyno confirms this as near stock.

Log #5
I had a Load Spike on this log at peak and had to re-log it, But WGDC 80% Flat. This began to actually see an improvement over the runs this morning. Boost was higher than stock, I couldn't tell how much. Peak load 246 to 199. Car seemed to keep pulling longer than usual, and noticed something funny...Peak boost was now occuring at 3300RPM...Before, it was at peaking at 3500RPM. HP Read as I would expect it to, 339.

Log #6
WGDC 90% Flat. Car feels much stronger. Strong enough to make me pay more attention to the road than the boost guage. Peak load 258 taper to 200. Car pulls from 3300-6000 strong. I love it! Some repeatable knock of 1-2 is occuring after peak boost, likely do to untuned AFR at these points. Hp Reads 333 but feels like 350. This isn't the 270 load I was looking for, but it's close enough. Gives a little headroom for elevation changes. In addition, I logged a quick 4th gear 2k-5k on the way home and it did hit about 268 load, so I'm going to leave the WGDC peak here.

Taper elimination and AFR tuning to follow!

 

You are taking the same approach that I did to tune the boost. I tried tuning the WGDC values to eliminate more taper, but it didn't seem to work. I could tune out the spike, but after that the WGD was no where near the peak I'd set for the higher RPM range. It would stay pretty level to redline, or decrease slightly.

The results I'm seeing seem to show that the boost solenoid does nothing more than aim for your desired load. My desired load was set to 250 (145 boost + 105 offset) and with the WGDC capped at 68.5 I spiked to 265 and tapered to 212 or so (3rd). Ramping up the higher RPM area of the WGDC table had no effect on this. My next approach is to dial up the desired load toward the higher RPM to try to try to further reduce taper.

That said, I should mention that I did not zero out the correction table. I simply lowered it. I noticed slightly erratic boost response, but a stable load curve. My current tune has the + values in the error correction table nearly zero'd out and the - values set to about half of stock. I'm hoping that this will cure the erratic behavior after the spike at peak torque, yet still allow for the solenoid to modify the WGDC if the load is less than desired. I have yet to flash this to the car and log, but I plan to do this this weekend.

I'll post up results here as well if Titanium doesn't mind me sharing his thread ...

 

Go ahead man, I'm a free love kind of guy. haha. Nah yeah this is really all for as I said "the make benefit the glorious nation of Evom". Other than the help I've received, I hope my posts help some other sprouting self-tuner take the leap himself.

Something I have been noticing...with the #58 oriface, It seems my WGDC is closing up quickly at my desired boost. Although this small free play keeps me from getting greedy and blowing the top off, I'm beginning to wonder whether this is going to counteract eliminating taper. if the table looks like so:

3k 90
4k 90
5k 95
6k 100
7k 100

*shortened as an example* the extra 10% may not counteract the taper. Possibly I may move to #59 to gain some more free play. I do have my Error Correction 0'd, and the curve is smooth. I have to learn more about that "target load" stuff, I know it applies I just don't know how.

 

I might have missed it, but have you modded the orifice at the BCS? You can drill or remove this to help increase the amount of air bled off from the system.

MB

 

No I have not. Although I have read Write-ups about REMOVING this oriface, I saw a lack of consensus regarding it's effect, including some evidence that removing this pill caused dramatic changes in boost spike from one run to another, I have yet to read a conclusive article about it's modification. I MAY experiment with it for the greater knowledge.

 

This is what I attempted as well. My Max WGDC was at about 69% and I ramped it up to about 85% by redline. I noticed no changed and logged the WGDC to sit around 68% - 65% the entire pull.

From what I've seen, the WGDC aims for the desired load and if it doesn't need that extra 10% or 20% you've added to the max WGD table, it won't use it.

This trick would work if your pill was smaller than you needed it to be for your desired boost level and request a higer load than you really want to hit. For instance, you want 22 psi to redline and you make your pill super small (#60 or so). Your max WGD could be 50% for the 22 psi you want but your target load is set to, let's say, 300 (instead of the 240 you REALLY want). Now, the pill is too small and wants to hit your target load of 300 but it is limited by the WGDC you've set. Now, when you raise that number you still have some room to work with since you are aiming high with the load and limiting boost with the WGDC.

My approach is simply to use a higher load offset to allow me more adjustment within the boost desired load table. This is basically the same thing you could do with a smaller pill but requires no hardware changes. By raising the offset you can lower the desired load tables and reach the same load numbers. So, now you can ramp up the boost desired toward redline and use more of the available WGDC.

Now, I have not proven that this method works, but my understanding of the boost control values in the ECU makes me think it will.

 

Today after work I'm going to use WGD ramping to attempt to de-taper. If I find the same result as you (as I imagine I will) I will play with the other tables and let you know.

If all else fails I'll move down to a #59 and start over.