just ordered my utec from vivid. it will be here tomorrow. i have a few beginnner ?'s

1. can you download maps from utec that will give you a place to start tuning from? i will be at the track this weekend testing and would like to have say a "stage 1"type map ( all i have is 3" TB) that gives like 20whp over stock? i would like to establish a performance gain from stock to just exhaust and then add in the tuning.

2. any good websites or books to use as a reference for tuning the evo or tuning in general? i have been a musclecar and 5.0 mustang racer mostly. very little experience with imports (read none), but i like to turn my own wrenches and want to learn to tune.

3. any cautionary advice from the start. i would like to keep from blowin a hole in my pistons the first day out!

4. how important is the wideband from the start with just limited mods. is it something that can wait a month or two until i make more serious mods?

thanks - marc

 

If you look at my thread, I think our #1 question is the same. I'm still waiting for a blessing on my conclusions from what others have answered and posted in mine and other threads

 

www.wrxhackers.com

lots of info there for the UTEC, its mostly wrx stuff but it will help you out and give you a good starting point (dont use wrx maps though). Then tune slowly, and do a little at a time, if you do too much you might blow something. Also the wideband is a good tool but if you dont plan on really doing a lot of tuning it can probally wait a month or so but dont do and significant tuning. Also there are many people here that have their maps that you can adjust to run on your set up. They wont be perfect but they will give you a starting point. But be carefull and dont try and push it past your cars limits and your mod limits.

 

thanks for the posts so far.

just spoke with a tech at xs and here is what he said - "our stage one map made 38whp on a stock evo. it would be an excellent starting point for you since TB is the only mod you have"

looks like i will start there and learn and tune from that map.

this board rules!

marc

 

Yep, that base map does work for some people... in my case I lost power using it.. You will start seeing more maps over time..

But my advice about using other peoples maps is.. Don't.. you can use them as a baseline, but My experience so far is that every car, and combination of mods is unique... so the trick is to "Sneak up" on your tunes, as was said earlier, make only minor changes, and watch for knock.. You really should be using a wideband if you do it yourself, an overly lean mixture or overly aggressive timing curve can quickly damage an engine.

My car is a good example of one that is more knock tolerant than others, and runs a bit stronger out of the box.. So if I gave you one of my maps, it would have pretty aggressive timing, and likely be much richer in some areas than you need..

But we're out there to help you out if you need it.. The best "Tool" is your brain, try to learn as much about it.. wrxhackers is a good site for learning how to tune with the utec.. but don't use any WRX maps on the Evo..

It takes a little trial and error but it becomes easier with practice.

 

did everyone install the ABC? just curious, as I will be slightly increasing boost over stock to 20.5 at some point.

marc

 

That's bizarre that there's so much variation between cars that they were able to get 38 HP from that stock map. Maybe that was with crappy gas? When my car was stock, using their default map ran slightly worse because the timing is so much lower than what the ECU wanted to run. I mean like 1/2 the timing in places. Switching the UTEC between stock mode and the default map made no noticable difference. Now if I use their default fuel & boost maps, but use ECU timing, then there is a noticable increase in performance over stock. That's how I'm still running it now, which kind of sucks because I can't tweak the timing.

I didn't install the ABC. If you have an aftermarket exhaust, the boost will probably be too high even without the ABC. I had to turn down the boost to keep it from going over 22 PSI. I think even with stock exhaust you would be able to hit 20.5 without the ABC. I would say don't bother with it at first, unless you find that you're not getting enough boost.

 

the "0" setting is the stock ecu map correct? i guess i will be able to view the stock ecu map right?

being such a newbie at this reminds me of the days when carb jets and timing lights were rocket science to me! ::

 

Well, you can't directly view the "Stock" ecu map because its not located on the UTEC, however if you log your data while driving, you can get a really good idea of fuel and timing that the car is running during your logging..

the 0 setting is just a passthrough.. so its essentially like the UTEC wasn't there doing anything.. but you can log data with it.

Your right about the stock solenoid hitting 22psi, but would very quickly taper down to 17psi even if you tried to maintain that.. At the time I first installed the UTEC I had an aftermarket exhaust, and a stock intercooler, etc.. Now that I've upgraded the intercooler pipes and intercooler, It goes about 20-21psi (in cooler weather) dropping to about 19 or so..

the ABC will allow you to run a little higher boost, but its recommended that you use the ABC in closed loop mode (in conjuction with the MAP sensor addon) simply because of the spiking you might get if you remove the restrictor and adjust the ABC. In closed loop, you can leverage the tendency to spike to allow faster spoolup, but in closed loop, you have a boost target which it will maintain.. (How well it maintains it depends on a few factors..) I am not currently using closed loop control at the moment simply because of a bug that was found earlier that affected the map sensor reading that will be fixed in the upcoming firmware release.

 

thanks mj - couple of more ?'s

1. basically it seems like tuning these cars in "theory is similar to tuning any gas powered car - advance timing to the farthest point without causing knock and lean fuel out as far as possible without causing knock. i know this is over simplified, but that is basically the goal, with modifications made to suit the individual vehicle and climate, elevation etc..right?

2. assuming you find a map you are happy with on 93 octane, what type of gains would be seen with just upping the octane to say 100 without changing the map?

3. if you do up the octane, you should be able to advance the timing and the boost, however the increased octane has nothing to do with leaning the fuel out anymore correct? once you have the fuel map set for your mods, changing octane should not matter.

once again this board rules and seeing the cooperation between members is what made me choose the utec over other solutions. (not to mention the lack of mudslinging, *****in, and pissin contests)

marc

 

I don't know this for a fact, but I think increasing the octane on a utec map set up for 93 Octane would yield little or no gains. Because the utec doesn't adjust itself to try and take advantage of the higher knock resistance of the new fuel.

Again no figures to back it up, but yes if you up the octane you need to retune to get the most out of the higher rated octane fuel - as you said in 1, before - tune up to just before getting knock.

It won't matter if you increase the octane rating of the fuel, but if you go down you'll will probably end up in knock hell

 

Yep.. Thats basically how it goes.. If your tuned for 93 octane, and put in 100, with no other changes you won't see any increase in power.. HOWEVER, the advantage of the UTEC is you can have a seperate map for 100 octane, with more aggressive timing and leaner fuel mixture, even higher boost.. when you run out of gas, or get a fill-up, you switch it back to your 93 octane map.

 

I do have a low-boost map though.. just in case I get bad gas.. it basically has no fuel correction, but runs the boost as low as it will go..