Well I went out to test my knock settings and was happy with the results. I tuned the car fairly rich and safe and decided to test if the knock sensor was working correctly. It wasnt a smart idea but figured it would help me in the long run. I do not have det canns or anything else to truly listen to knock and be sure but I am confident now by my results... I started at about 11.0:1 at peak TQ and start leaning it out slightly every run. Finally when I hit about 11.5:1 it had 1 to 2 counts of knock. I richened it back to 11.2:1 and its gone. Now i will start to actually tune it to get leaner at higher RPM (Farther away from the peak TQ should take much leaner than 11.2. My guess is around 11.7-12:1 at 7250 or so. I also may try to lower the timing a little bit but run it leaner and see how it effects the power.

I have gotten alot more power out of the car since the utec install. Started around 360 and now get consistant in the 400 flat range. I think I will be able to get a few more pounds out of the car on pump and hopefully get about 425 or so on pump. And those are all at around 7200RPMs... car is still gaining lots of power at this mark but dont feel like repeatedly beating the car to 8k just for testing purposes.

I hope to get some 110 in the car soon and see what I can do at 26-28psi or so. Problem I have right now with the higher boost is my boost sensor somehow 'got lost' so I dont know when it will be here and my boost guage tops out at 25psi

I will also try another tuning method that people like Shane from Elite use. More boost and less timing and see if I can get some more power using that method. I am hoping that perhaps I will be able to get the car to run around 24psi on pump if it works and maybe get to 440ish powerwise on pump. It may not work though...

All of my endevours I will explain and give logs so if anything I try actually works well it wont be a mystery to all how it is done. That is one thing that I am starting to hate is how the true tuners never will explain thier different tuning strategies aside from the normal low timing progressively getting higher to 20 or and 11.2:1 AFR's. I know there is alot of secret sauce you can throw at a car to make it run much better. Ill keep you guys informed of any new things I find out (If any)

Also if anyone else has any little tuning strategies that seem to work well that arent on the normal lines of tuning please share I dont see the reason of people hiding thier secret sauce... People like J Shepherd and Brent Rau fine.. they race for thier jobs.. but normal people that have 'normal' jobs.. if you find something that works why not share? I would feel like I got screwed hard if I brought my car to a certain tuner and get my car tuned but they use the normal tuning methods on your car but use a completely different tuning method on thiers. Doesnt seem like I am getting what I paid for if I did that I suppose.

One last thing, I will get my car on the dyno hopefully soon and see how accurate the data log viewer program really is

 

Yeah, I'm actually curious about the accuracy of the DLL program, you can actually alter your car definition to more closely match the dyno numbers so your future runs can serve as a benchmark for the dyno too (within reason, in reality its never quite right)

My tuning methodology is to try to produce the most power with the least amount of boost required, so I generally run fairly rich, but a little leaner than most, and I will bump the timing as much as I can without being on the threshold of detonation. Unfortunately that strategy can be risky with the stock coils and ignition system since there's some timing drift involved (which is why most tuners are conservative about this) In any case, its a balance, but I found my numbers were generally better with slightly lower boost and more timing, than with much higher boost and less timing (on a smaller turbo car, its definitely due to the efficiency of the turbo) But my ultimate goal is to get the most useful work out of the combustion process which means timing things to get as much of the cylinder pressure pushing down on the piston as possible. For me, adjusting the AFR's after the fact had been a method of controlling the EGT's and slowing/accellerating the combustion rate slightly..

 

Well I am thinking the program should be semi close in accuracy considering it is a very simple idea that makes it work. The biggest flaw that I see in it is that is takes speed (Calculated from RPM) over time with known variables (Weight, HP required to hold 115mph (Aerodynamics) and a few others like TQ to HP calculations). From my understanding is the Utec is not a controlled sending process... more like it just sends data when it does which turns out to be pretty close to a clocked process but not quite. This would lead to some variations I would think. Run after run however the pulls seem to be damn near nuts on accurate from the run before. This is great for people like me because it being so accurate between runs means any changes I do can get seen instantly and accurately from other runs. How it will compare to a real dyno I have no idea... I am still assuming pretty close. If I look at some true dyno charts of cars with setups just like mine they seem to be very very close... Like these two: His at 22psi (Probably with same type mods) and mine at 20. They seem pretty damn close to me at least

 

Actually its fixed at 5 lines per second, I've been able to verify this.. So the sample rate is known.. And your right about run to run accuracy, thats why I've been using it.. Even more so if you use the SAE correction for different conditions its been pretty consistent for me. The issue for me is my car weighs more than other cars (with the junk in it when I test) and my wheels and aerodynamics affect the calculations so I had to do a rough estimate and alter the wheel/tire size parameters.. Also the driveline loss numbers are somewhat incorrect since its around 18-25% loss, no lower..

 

Well my first shot at attempting new ideas Im still unsure about. I went out and tuned it pretty well at 20psi. 21 peak timing advance starting at around 12 and going up till 7.25k and holding 21. Starting at about 11.2 getting leaner towards the top being at 11.7 at around 7.25k

Car pulled great and felt great.

Then, around 3pm (92 degrees outside or so), I turned the boost up to around 22 and had to drop about 1.5 degrees of timing across the board to make it run with no knock. Seemed about as quick as normal (But I had two people in the car). The HP calculator said almost identical numbers after adding in his weight. I did not get to test it without him in it (About 200lbs) but the airflow in Herz definately went higher. Hopefully tomorrow I will get to pull a few times without him in the car and see what it does for power... I think the wieght modifier may be slightly off giving the same HP numbers? The TQ did go up about 20 ft lbs so we will find out tomorrow hopefully. I did give the car some nuts after a movie tonight and it got pretty chilly (Probably 70 degrees) and I noticed the boost is now at about 23 psi. Still no knock but I didnt give it repeated abuse either.

I am now starting to see why the EBC method is nicer Anyways, I will post my findings out tomorrow night hopefully on whether higher boost with less timing is helpful or not. My guess is it will be but will it be on the stock turbo I dont really know.

On a side note I THINK I figured out my clutch dillema. It was not adjusted properly... dont know how it got so far off by pulling a tranny and reinstalling it a few times but it did. I adjusted the pedal all the way up (Probably too much) but it now seems to shift fine anywhere at anyload. I did not get to do much testing with it and it feels kinda strange driving it with the clutch that high but I really think it is fixed. Time to go back to the track and see if I can get some mid to high elevens... Maybe Ill go on pump just for the fun of it.

I will also try to get the car on a dyno before or after I hit the track so we can see how far off the HP numbers are.

Also, is it 5 or 6 per line? I just tried to convert my friends DSM Link log to this viewer so we could compare power. I made a new car, new wieght, and new gear ratios but on his log I had to delete every 7th line to make it 6 samples per second. Is ours really 5 or is it 6? I looked and it seemed like 6. Let me know if you are for sure about it. Thanks M Jack!

 

I've been told by TurboXS that its 5 lines per second... in my logger tool, it generally averages 5 lines. You may be seeing a bit of output latency then catching up due to the UTEC processing other data at a higher priority than the log output, but the output is definitely fixed at 5...

The easy way to tell is to use one of the loggers that has a timestamp on it, and check the ticks to see that it is basically 5 lines per second, that should be definitive.. Keep in mind the logger data is about a 10th of a second or so behind the actual car's readings..

 

Good deal thanks. I readjusted his logs to match mine now and it seems better now. Well the clutch is definately fixed... I have it adjusted too high; to a point where it feels stupid but it does work. I also figured out that raising the boost and lowering the timing does increase power but I dont want to run 24 psi and crap timing so I made the best of both worlds today and run at 21psi with pretty advanced timing. About 21 degrees up top starting at around 13. I am going to start adjusting the higher RPM timing degrees to a higher point (Closer to the 21 at peak) and see if I can increase the HP and TQ a little lower. Car pulls really hard for pump gas I must admit harder than I really thought it would before. It will start to slip the tires when I hit small bumps under full accel in 2nd with sticky tires. Everything is finally coming together on the damn car. I think on Sunday I will throw some 110 in the car and start turning the boost higher. I will try to get it to around 26 or 27... I am assuming that racegas gets most of the power by the boost but I think the timing being advanced a ton also gives plenty of power by iteself. If anyone already has some ideas of timing on racegas (110) it would help me out to start with. Ill keep you informed on my progress.