Hey All,

Just wanted to toss this out for suggestions. Tunah has been super nice and has given me a lot of guidance and suggestions on my first tune. I know he's busy with his own car right now, so I wanted to bounce this off others.

03 Evo
10.5 hotside
Turbosmart 14psi actuator
Perrin Intake
ETS LICP
Grimmspeed 3-port
Supertech valves, fresh head.
Walbro 255
AEM Wideband

Stock exhaust and downpipe (new OEM cat).

So here's where I am:

This is where I can run very consistent without any knock.


Here's my map trace.


And full map.


Let me know what you think. I'm probably just getting greedy and wanting more out of a very stock car. Tunah has suggested that I'm just at the mercy of my exhaust. I tend to agree.

The car feels great, but that flat spot in the power from 4800-5800 is driving me crazy. I can't run any more boost or timing without getting knock.

Let me know what you think! I can post the log if necessary.

 

Are you on 93 octane? You should hold 24 psi boost out farther, its drops off a lot after 4k rpm. Your timing looks pretty low, especially for an 8. I don't see why you would be getting knock with more boost and timing, are you sure its not phantom?

The stock exhaust and cat are really going to hold you back, what's the reason for staying stock?

 

Yes, on 93.

Money and curiosity. I like to see how much I can get out of parts. I was super hesitant to put the intake and LICP on, but they were killing me sitting on my shelf.

I have a Cobb catback I'm trying to pick up. Current owner is supposed to have me pictures soon and we're working on a deal.

But, I still want to see what can be squeezed out of this. I'd hate to put a catback on and then be able to tune 45whp out of it and think it was all the exhaust.

My last car was an e46 330Ci. No easy/cheap tuning capabilities. I got so sick of putting on parts and not being able to see what was going on. I'm really enjoying this learning experience. Hopefully baby steps and tuning after each mod will help me to become a better tuner.

BTW, I found this yesterday and it's my inspiration to keep tuning w/o more mods (for the time being).

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...k-exhaust.html

 

Have you tried to see if it would take a little more midrange boost if you lessen the initial spike? Just thinking that it may be too aggressive down low and that is maybe causing problems in the mid range. Just a thought. But Id ****** that exhaust off there ASAP.

And just be careful comparing VD #s to other people's graphs. Who knows how accurate they are. I know I do mine in the same spot, both directions...and still really only do it for comparison against myself.

 

I'm still toying with it. I was getting some knock at peak boost and it was really frustrating me. But it turns out it was wanting more timing instead of less, go figure. So, just going to bump it a hair and keep my timing advance good.

I don't know that I'll necessarily make "300", but I've also been comparing against some of my old pulls (one that I sent you) and have been using the info to edit the tune.

I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks for the input.

Oh, and the exhaust didn't end up being what I wanted. Just need to stick a couple extra bucks in PayPal to pick up the my original choice.

 

So, with the catback, test pipe, and some cooler weather, the car has come alive.

Added;

HKS Sport Catback
Megan resonated test pipe

Attachment 330159

I'm sure there is still some timing in there, but I'm happy with it for the time being.

 

^Exactly what most of us expected to see. Glad you did it. Looks on point.

 

Pretty stoked. She took another degree of timing 6000 and up. I'll try to get a pull in after work and see how it looks. But, I think I'm happy enough to spend some time on suspension for a bit, now. Of course, I'll have to get a downpipe or larger FMIC on by next summer. I'm not going to want to give this up.

 

Hey man can you post your High Octane Fuel Map?

 

Yeah, I'll try to get a screen shot later. It's on my laptop. Always a work in progress, though, especially now that it's cooling off.

Oh, and I tried adding a little timing up top. Mad no extra power and got a little knock. Took it back down.

 

Sweet, we just Put tephra on our 8 with TBE, Intake, Licp, Mbc, Trying to get 300 lol... It was making like 260 on the virtual at the stock fuel map values 9.2:1, super rich. Trying to be safe with it as we dont have the wideband on yet, however i set it to target 10.2 instead of 9.2.

 

You can't tune fuel based on what the fuel map values are. You need a wideband.

 

Why is that, with the stock injectors and no scaling needed why would they not be close?

 

I don't mind sending it, but you NEED a wideband that you can log. Small investment that'll save you. I didn't touch my tune or do any mods until I installed a UEGO.

Everyone is different. Plus, you'll be probably running even leaner than me due to your downpipe.

 

That's why, among other things.