Well, we've been at it custom tuning the car since around 10:00am this morning.

The car came in as it was the last time, with the Hallman MBC and the Works drop in filter. This time, the car also with the Ultimate Racing exhaust installed.

Some other tuners have mentioned that cars were breaking up when warm, and this supported that, coming off a 150 mile trip to get here, about half hour to rest, and right up on the dyno.

Here are three different graphs to look at:
-Run #2 was the car as it was stock. It is the dark red run.
-Run #22 is the blue run. It was how the car looked when it came in today with no tuning, but the MBC, exhaust, and drop in filter in place
-Run #45 is the tuned run.



If you have a good memory, you'll notice that the run #22 is a bit down from the last time the car was at the shop. We attribute that to heat, and the crazy rich factory mapping.

For point of reference, a stock VIII makes around 205whp on this dyno. A stock IX makes about 220whp on this dyno.

 

Fueling and boost.

 

Andrew and Bruce had to jump back on the dyno to tune an IX.

The tune on my car is great and it pulls feels really smoothly. A huge thanks to Bruce for the mapping and all the work! I took a spin at the controls and pushed it a wee bit harder, but we were all three happier with Bruce's curve, so we reflashed the map we used on run 45.

Here's my attempt and slight tweaks:


I love the EcuTeK interface. It has really cool logging features and real time graph display. It was the first time I have used it and I like the logging a lot more than Ecuflash.

When the car was stock mapped, it was seeing a bit of knock and pulling from a degree to 2 degrees in parts of the curve. While Bruce mapped the car, he got rid of the detonation pretty quickly. All through the end, it pulled cleanly to the rev limiter with not a hint of knock in sight.

I was also really happy with the Mivec tuning Bruce did. As you can see from the above graphs, the torque and spool up is a lot stronger. This is satisfying on the road. When I came down here, the car had a very hyperkinetic powerband like a Honda. You had to rev the crap out of it to get it to go. Now, its just monsterous in the middle. The car picked up nearly 65whp at 6500rpm! That with peak boost being raised up only a pound or a pound and a half in some places.

IMO, a reflash is far and away the best mod you can do. The power increase for the cost is a probably the best gain per dollar you can do.

I can't wait for Bruce to get off the dyno to post more.

Thanks for listening!

 

Good Job guys

 

Thanks for the review Noize.

Overall, Tuning the X with the EcuTeck tools is about what I expected. Great results, great product.

A quick note to follow up on the point several other tuners have made, the stock tune really tends to fall apart after just a few pulls on the dyno. With a little conservative mapping.. (smoothing out the timing curve and getting the air fuels in check) consistency improves dramatically. After about 20 pulls we ran the final map in two back to back runs with just a few minutes between, the air fuels got a bit richer due to coolant and air temps, but the power stayed the same and no knock was detected. I'll poke around for that plot and post it up in a bit.

 

Good job Bruce and Andrew!

 

great , Keep the info coming. I wish I live closer to you guys. Who is tuning down in Texas. Help!!!!!!!

 

Nice information and good looking graph. Its a shame the boost is still falling to 17 psi by 7400 RPM. I think a good bit of power is available on pump gas if someone can get the boost taper out of it and get it peak at 23 psi and hold 20 psi. I thought the ECUTEK had boost control also? Maybe that part of the ECU has not been found yet.

Brian

 

Awesome stuff! Can't wait to get mine done up there in a couple of weeks.

 

They didn't use the stock twin solenoid setup, which with WGDC mapping would've netted a flatter boost curve most likely. They kept the MBC on the car and just tuned everything else on the ecu. I spoke with noize earlier and when he has more time he is going to go back to the solenoid setup and see what they can do with boost tuning via the ecu. Still geat results though! Especially on the "heart breaker" dyno dynamics that they have there at the shop. That dyno has sent many a people home depressed with lower numbers than what they thought they would be making. I actually like having a sheet showing low numbers, though. That way when you race someone bragging about their bigger number on a dyno jet and they lose they call their tuning shop complaining and can't figure out why they lost. It's hilarious.

 

Nice!

 

Looks very good, so what is next Noize? Are you happy there or are you going to go for more?

Just for refference what was your VIII putting down before you sold it?

 

I want to try ECU boost control and eventually a full turboback.

My IX made 290whp and 300tq, had a full turbo-back, and a flash.

My VIII made 340whp pump and 409whp race. 3071R.


Long way to go to get that on the X, but with stock cat and a cat-back only, I'm pretty happy so far.

 

Great power with catback only. How much boost up top do you think
you can hold once you figure out the EVU Boost control?

 

My guess, at least based on the difference of running an MBC vs ecu controlled boost on my STi, is about 2 psi (give or take a hair). I like ecu controlled boost much better because in addition to a better taper, there are tables in the ecu to compensate/adjust the boost based on ambient temperature, atmospheric pressure, etc which isn't possible with an MBC.