Ok, time to enlist the help and expertise of the evom community. I've been trying to clean up my tune for months and I feel like I'm just going in circles. Perhaps a fresh set of eyes and a different perspective can yield some insight into my issues.

Quick background:

* 2006 Evo 9 - ~145,000 miles - second owner (7 years)
* Run 91 octane gas
* Albuquerque elevation is > 5200 feet
* I'm the only one to have ever tuned it (ECUFlash & EvoScan)
* ECUFlash v. 1.44.4501
* EVOScan v. 2.9
* Running Taxtrix 1.3U Cable (can't get the 2.0 to work...)

Mods (most of them...):

• FP Green Turbo
• MAP Turbo Manifold
• Megan O2 Housing
• AMS Downpipe
• 3" Turbo back exhaust (no cat)
• AMS Intercooler piping
• Larger IC (can't remember who I got it from...)
• Stock BOV
• Stock wastegate
• Hallman Boost Controller
• FP silicon intake pipe
• Cosworth 272 cams
• Omni 4-bar MAP sensor

* Boost set to peak around 24 PSI and taper to 20
* Currently, the cars smokes, a lot, at WOT or even less. Grey/white smoke. Lots of carbon build up in the car, black/carbon spray all over my garage and driveway when idle in the morning.

My latest logs: I did two 3rd gear pulls, back to back and on almost the same portion of road (flat, straight, etc.). Two very different logs...





My Tune





So given all that, what do you see/think?

Logs and tune attached below...

 

sorry you need to start over from scratch, everything about those maps is bad.
make sure your fuel map starts at 14.7 from the far left and after the cruise section of the map it slowly gets richer going right and down. it shouldnt go rich then lean and rich again as the curve progresses.

The same goes with the Timing table. the numbers need to start high on the left and decrease towards the right and then get higher as it goes down the map. Find where your peak load is and make that cell something around 5 and work the rest of the map from there.

 

gSx - while I appreciate your willingness to help, I'm not sure you fully understand how tuning works. The fuel map does not contain the actual AFR values you are trying to hit, but are rather relative numbers necessary, based on lots of different factors, that help the car achieve the AFRs you desire. If you look at my logs, I do have a light dip in my AFRs near peak, they are pretty close to where they should be. Timing is the same way - I did start with a "standard" map, and adjusted it for maximum torque - least knock.

My question is why on one run there is very little knock and then the next run there is a lot? Generally, you pull 1 degree of timing for every 3 counts of knock, but pulling 3-4 degrees of timing when it seemed fine on the first run doesn't make sense.

Hence why I'm asking the community - and hoping to hear from those with lots of experience tuning the evo.

 

If you aren't already, try using maptrace. It makes tuning SO much easier....

...

Boost leak test?

I have found that you just have to try different stuff. Try adding a little fuel/pulling timing/gapping plugs down. If you can't get the knock to go away with any of that, try spiking the tank with a little race gas and see if the knock goes away.

 

I've never tried MAPTRACE before... I'll have to look into it. And good call on the boost leak test. I reinstalled my larger IC and didn't do a check after reconnecting everything. I may have a leak... I'll also check plugs.

 

Is the knock real? Have you confirmed with det cans

 

It will change your life. Shows you exactly what load cell you are in for AFR/knock/timing advance/etc.

 

Considering your ripping into this bloke trying to hep you, telling him he doesn't understand tuning, your the one running a 12.5 afr at wot @ 5k, with a map incorrectly scaled for the loads your hitting, who doesn't use a map trace, asking why it's knocking! Lol

 

And your post was not helpful at all. My first log shows little to no knock. I'm not asking how to tune. I'm asking why one run there is no knock and another run there is. And if someone is going to give advice on how to tune, they should give correct information - which is all over this site. Map Trace is just another flavor of tuning software that I'm personally not familiar with. I've used EVOscan's ability to map in real time the load cell and corresponding careabouts - AFRs, knock, etc. I don't have a question about which load cells I'm in when I'm knocking nor did I ask if I'm running too lean. I know that on an EVO 9, it's best to be around 11.8-11.7 at peak load, but I'm not going to adjust my fuel until I know what really causing my knock and if it was due to running lean (higher temps), then I would have expected that my first run would habe been knocking just as much. Unless someone wants to say that the difference between the runs is that the first run heat soaked the engine/raised my temps enough that by the second run a minute later, the higher temps were enough to induce such high counts of knock.

It's a simple question of those who are experienced tuners, asking if they've seen something like this before and what to consider.

 

Fuel does provide a cooling effect to the intake charge via latent heat of vaporization. At 12.5:1 you may be fine for one run IE a drag car that makes one pass but once areas of the combustion chamber heat up you may be seeing some knock. You could deter that with some extra fuel.

A lot of tuning in my experience is trial and error. I tend to tune on the very conservative side so that I'm not having to retune ALL the time for environmental changes or fuel quality changes. I'd rather leave 20whp on the table and be able to just go drive my car at the limit and not worry.

 

Once I found out about maptrace, I dialed my fuel trims in like three to four passes.ha They weren't TOO far off but it was so awesome to know exactly what load cell(s) to adjust. Also awesome to get spool up curves/cells as well. I had some slight knock on spool up that I took care of with a little extra fuel.

 

Makes sense, and not a bad idea about being more conservative. You hear/read a lot of tuners say advanced timing until you encounter knock, then back off a degree and you're good. What it doesn't take into account is a bad tank of gas. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

Works on fuels where you reach the knock threshold before MBT. If the cylinder temps are exceeding pre-ignition points of a specific fuel then pulling timing isn't going to help. You can either lower intake air temps, reduce boost(which does effectively lower intake air temps), or try adding fuel. If temps are too high by a large margin then you aren't going to be able to add enough gasoline to make a difference. In this instance I would probably just lower boost 2-3psi and try again.

Again, I'm not one to ride the knock or MBT threshold.

 

Your timing transitions are very rough, likely the cause of the knock along with being really lean for 91oct. You should be aiming for around 11.0 on that fuel.

 

Ooh.
Good luck on your upcoming crankcase ventilation adventure.