Hey everyone,

To make a long story short, I've just recently picked up my 2006 Evo, and tuning is not going well; I could really use some help on this, badly...

I came from a WRX, and after modifying it extensivly and spending countless hours trying to get the tune in and failing, I ended up paying for two Remote Tunes. While they worked, I ended up feeling like I wasted a LOT of money on them, they just never ran as I expected or hoped.

Now with the Evo, again I'm not having any luck with trying to tune it. It's got some mods done to it and while I am not sure on all of them, I think I've got most of them figured out. For the most part, it runs good. I still get a random idle problem where it is choppy and doesn't want to idle well. I'm not sure what it is. New TB seals are on their way, but aren't here yet. Car has RC Engineering 1000 CC injectors, front mount IC, O2 housing, some exhaust work, a turbo inlet and intake, some exhaust work, and I'm betting a fuel pump. I've already installed a Wideband and Boost gauge and gotten the Evo X MAP installed and scaled, so I should be good for Speed Density, which is the route I want to go.



I've managed to get the car running under Speed Density, and while it's smoother, AFR's are all over the place and not where they should be. Under MAF or SD, I'm still getting some knock at both WOT as well as under partial throttle, lower load that I can't seem to eliminate unless I drop the timing way down and then it feels like a dog. I've tried adjusting VE MAP and RPM, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I either get to a point where it doesn't drive/idle, or it's bouncing all over the place and knocking as I'm starting to come into right under boost.


It's no longer funny/annoying, it's starting to become irritating as this is my only vehicle. I've spend hours reading hundreds of pages on these and other forums for Speed Density as well as other tuning, and I'm not getting anywhere. I'd be forever grateful if anyone wants to lend a hand.


Thanks in advance. I greatly appreciate it!
John

 

I admired you for trying to learn to tune but if it's too much of a problem and especially if it's your DD and you can't afford much downtime, I would suggest that you take it to Boostin Performance

 

Yo, grab a stock evo 9 rom, tune the injectors to match what you are running. Then log the dog out of it. If your idle is still jacked up it might be aftermarket cams. I wouldn't run anymore patches until you get it tuned up from stock ECU, save the Injectors. If you get thrown cells immediately check the codes and post'em so somebody else can help you. Thanks for reading this much; I am crazy novice at tuning.

 

That's probably a good idea. I've been unable to find a stock Evo IX rom. I searched, came across aktivematrix.com, but they appear to no longer have these. : /

Know where I might be able to find a stock rom at by chance? As I don't know the immobilizer code, and have the wideband wired into the rear O2, some of the patches have been nice that I've found for keeping the CEL out.

 

I don't really know what you can do without the imobilizer code. I know there is something that can be done but I'm not in the know on that one.

You can get the ROM here:
http://code.google.com/p/ecurom/

Here's another spot:
http://evoecu.logic.net/wiki/Downloads

 

Just sort the car out peice by peice try to trouble shoot anything you can and go from there. I went to tune my car and found out it was a lemon and had a s*** load of problems. So now my cars in the shop being fixed. I would not experiment tuning the car by yourself unless you are 100% sure you know what you are doing. A decent tuner will be able to point out issues you are having and will be able to fix them. Sure it will cost money but for piece of mind its so worth it.

 

Hey John,let me know if you want me to help you out,we would have to go back and forth over emails and get it sorted out,i wouldn't charge u anything for it,just let me know.

 

Thanks for the continued help everyone! I really do appreciate it.

Last night, I installed new throttle body shaft seals in hopes it would help with idle. While I was at it, I temp blocked off the EGR to see if that was causing issues. At first, it seemed to be 100% resolved. Got back home after a decently long drive from my friend's garage, and the idle issue seemed to be back. Today, I think I'm going to replace the vacuum line going to the FPR just to be safe. It looks good, but it's worth a shot.

I read a lot about these black fuel pump relays potentially causing issues like this, but from my understanding this is only on the X's, not the IX's?


VIIIdriver - I think I'll take you up on your offer. If I can get the idle issue completely resolved, I'd be in 100% better shape!

 

I thought I was on to something here. I tried swapping the Cam Position Sensors and it wouldn't start. After reading up a lot on this before I tried it, I thought the consensus was that they were the same sensor and could be swapped. After looking at them closer, they have two different part numbers. Car would instantly die upon starting when they were switched.

Intake: J5T24281
Exhaust: J5T23071A

It appears they are the correct sensors and in their correct locations. Was hoping I found the problem.