I know there is a whole slew of threads on setting your car up on Speed Density and I've read most of them. But, my questions are in regards to the driveability for a daily driver. Everyone posts about how smooth the car runs and the benefits of less intake tract restriction, but I live in northern NJ. We have four full weather seasons. I just bought an OMNI 4 bar so I can log boost, but figured why not give Aaron at ER a call and have him set my car up on speed density. Thats when I started doing a bunch of research and also saw the draw backs of SD. Evo 8's don't idle well when the temps go down. If you let your car sit for 10 minutes, the temp sensor heat soaks, and now you have trouble starting the car. Effects of elevation change. (NJ elevation isn't too high, but you can change 1000ft within an hour of driving.)

So my question is to you guru's and those who are in SD in a 4 season geography. How has your car held up? Was it worth it? Has anyone switched back to MAF for peice of mind?

 

Good question, I mean I have an ix so I'm slightly better off, I have had no issues tho other than basic mapping quams... Ran it in 30's and 80's .. I'm on the st Lawrence river so weather is 4 way party here too. 8 hrs north of nj.

The jitter would suck .. I try to keep rpms low so I'm not obnoxious with noise... An 8 prob wouldn't be that friendly.

The.intake restriction isn't mega on moderate stock framed turbo setups IMHO.

 

I have daily driven my car on speed density for over a year now. I dialed it in myself and have had no cold start issues during the winter (with minor idle timing adjustments). In all seasons the car has ran without a hiccup. I am however using fuel temp in place of an IAT sensor so I don't experience any sensor heat soaking quicks. Evo IX btw.

 

Thank you for the input guys. I'm kinda hoping someone with an 8 or any guru can chime in. 8's seem to be a little more tricky to deal with.

 

I've been driving my car for the past few weeks on the stock ecu with SD.

My thoughts...


There is a 2,500 RPM stumble, and while it is annoying, it's definitely not a problem. I'm used to it now. It's a known issue, nature of the beast until someone figures out what exactly it is.

The car does have a slight cold start problem, that will hopefully be fixed tonight. Just have to dial it in a bit more. Jamie@Dynotech is helping me

I am also using the fuel temp, instead of the IAT. I do have an IAT installed. It would be nice if they could make the code read both of the sensors and interpolate the temp reading. Or maybe read the fuel temp at startup and then switch to the IAT after a few minutes.

Overall drive-ability is great. I used to have random hiccups on MAF, but everything is very smooth. I am using a TiAL bov, that is VTA, and at partial throttle there is no bucking at all. I did have partial throttle issues on MAF, last year, with my recirculated HKS SSQV. I also like not having to worry whether or not the honeycomb in my MAF will get sucked into my turbo. In my opinion, there's no reason not to convert over to speed density. Works great


-Bink

 

I have 2 buddies in MS on SD.. the temps range from 20 in winter to 105 summer.. They haven't said a thing about any hiccups... Evo8 and evo9.. Running SD for about 2 years now

 

No issues here either on my 8. Been running it for 7-8 months now. No hiccup on 9417. Im starting to drive it less and less now though (bad heater core = painfully cold mornings). And plan to put it in hibernation this winter for the 1st time in the last 4 years Ive had it. I ran the fuel temp sensor at 1st. No issues, but wanted real data so switched to the IAT.

 

I have been on SD on my 8 for a year. In cooler temps, my car will not go anywhere unless I sit there for 5 min warming it up. If I try, the car will die...it's as if I'm not even pushing the gas pedal to try to go. That and an fluctuating idle are my main erks with my setup. I'm due for a re-tune, so I'm curious to see if anything will change.

 

Definitely get a retune, my car runs perfect on sd even when its cold.

 

I have the same issue currently. Tom from Tscompusa says he can fix it. I find it very annoying lol. It almost feels as if I am doing it on purpose.

Other than that, I have no other issues or complaints so far.

 

i have SD on my 2.3 and its my daily driver, don't have any issues at all

 

Still using 9653+sd2.0+live?

 

yep although just changed the turbo from a 8MR unit to a 9 one so just need to finish this tune properly now, but had a baby daughter 11 days ago whos taken up a load of time and the cars been parked up since although back to work tomorrow so will be getting ready to finish it

 

Yeah, you told about that, congratulations to dad!

 

Cold start is just the MAF Comp vs coolant temp. Every car is as individual as the VE/SD setup it seems.

It has taken awhile but I dont think there are as many issues as there used to be in the early phases. Binky is using a supplied basemap and has Jamie to finish it. I think that is the key, having a good starting point and then us or someone local that is familiar with it to polish it.

A bad MAF tune will do the same things that we see with SD though so the "drawbacks" are still relative to the tuner I think.

Aaron