Well, after getting back from Korea and getting a job after the Army I decided to finally install this new fangled SMART doohickey. Some notes and impressions.

Install:
Directions are pretty straightforward but could use a little updating, I'll post that in the sticky at the top of the thread, but some highlights... I would recommend a spool of 18-22 ga wire, a male/female .187 slide connector, small diameter electrical shrink tubing (instead of electrical tape) and a laptop with a dedicated serial port be added to the required materials. Firmware updating was not possible for me using XMap so I had to use Xupdate on my Mother-in-Laws dinosaur of a laptop (for the serial port) since USB>serial was messing things up for me. Xupdate is now on the Vishnu Xede support page. Of note with the wiring is the white and blue wires leftover from the knock buffer which don't seem to serve a purpose and weren't in the instructions or schematic. Even with soldering, shrink tubing, zip ties and tape, the wiring harness still looks like a rats nest. Somewhere at the Vishnu shop is a parrot with a plug and play harness and I'm saying that little bugger needs to be shot out of whatever tree he's in to get that harness back. Oh, and a multimeter helps to check your solder job and grounds, but not absolutely necessary.
The WB sensor will fit through the hole in the passenger seat footwell with a little "panel beating" as the brits like to call it. Not pretty, but it works. Contrary to the instructions, don't delete your previous version of XMap and hand jam all the numbers in again. Save your current map and then cut and paste into the new 3.2 Map, then delete the old V2 version. Oh, the user version upgrade part of the instructions doesn't apply either, so ignore that. I took my time and not counting the firmware update, total install time was about 3 hours including jacking up car and adding test pipe and WB sensor to the downpipe.

Driving Impressions:
I loaded an off the shelf "SMART-off" map and drove to Dyno4mance to get on the dyno, and beat a 6.0 GTO along the way, but I digress. Once there Andrew loaded up the "SMART-On" Map, performed a few baselines and then turned the Fuel Threshold table off (-100 across the board) and we started tuning the base maps. We lowered the boost and added more fuel in the midrange without dramatically altering the peak numbers, just working on making the curves as smooth as possible. Then we burned the maps, turned SMART on, calibrated the wideband, highlighted the SMART tables and watched the trace lines. Because the car was getting pretty hot by now, SMART was pulling some timing and adding some fuel. Using the corresponding cells in the base maps we made corrections and on the next pulls, all was well and we were operating in the happy zone across the board. Incredibly simple and intuitive to tune, if only we all had an accurate way of measuring hp/tq. All in all I think I finished with ~5 more peak hp, starting with 274 and finishing right at 280hp with a mild Stage 1+ on pump gas. Note I have Crower cams, which are conservative compared to HKS'. Honestly, I feel no discernable difference in WOT pulls, but the midrange is much improved.

It's hard to objectively quantify it, but throttle inputs are much more intuitive now. 5th gear passing now only requires a breathe on the throttle for near max boost, versus having to stomp on it before. My idle improved noticeably and my fuel economy improved about 40 miles for a full tank over the Off-the-Shelf Map. I did not do any logs to check my "noise" threshold of my car, I just ran with the values already input in the maps. I lowered my boost since I wasn't making any more power in the midrange with the extra 2psi and my tune is nowhere near the ragged edge. It was pretty cool to see the SMART actively pulling timing and adding fuel during a pull, knowing that it's working.

I left without a 100 Octane map, though I'm confident using the race gas SMART template and a GTech pro or PyXede that I can road tune a good map. All in all, I think it's definitely a worthwhile investment to protect such a high strung motor as the 4G63 and its lofty specific output.

Pros: It works as advertised! Easy for meatheads like me to tune, provides greater margin of safety, midrange part-throttle response greatly improved.

Cons: Instructions still need some work, Parrot stole PnP harness, firmware updating difficult for those with new laptops

Sorry for being longwinded, but I think this might be useful for anyone on the fence about the SMART system. I think I may have even converted Andrew as he seemed a little hesitant at first, but after seeing how easy it was to tune, he came around.

 

I very much agree. I couldn't have said it better. I wanted to make a better install write up, but haven't had the time. I also am working on a SMART plus AMS Water/Alky/Meth install and wiring with Xede.

 

That thing that Omid was playing with was a voltage converter for the Miata XEDE. The plug-in SMART harness is something that we'll be working on during the holidays when we have some more free time on our hands.

Thanks for the review!! Glad you like it

Shiv

 

I guess it was in fact a Miata. But what's the hold up? Is it lack of electrical connectors...

 

Very good write up! Have you taken your Evo to the dragstrip so you can compare before and after timeslips?

 

duuuuuuuuuuude, welcome home!

 

No, tracks are closed here right now, but I probably will after it warms up.

To keep Vishnu in check I've taken my car to the dragstrip at various different stages solely to compare my trap speeds. I think they are a better indicator of horsepower than et because I suck at launching and am on a stock clutch that I don't feel like replacing anytime soon.

So far at Stage 1 at Carolina dragway I trapped 105.xx
Then at Silver Dollar with Stage 1+ (with cat) I trapped 108.xx
Next up Stage 1+ SMART (catless) = ???

Note that these runs were performed at full weight (spare tire, almost full tank of gas etc) and I normally leave it running with A/C on in the stage lanes, just like how it is on the street. These are also on 93 Octane, I haven't done any race gas runs. The car is pretty stout for only making 280 hp to the wheels on a DD. For the bench racers out there, here is my timeslip numbers from my last outing at silver dollar.

R/T..... 1.006
60'..... 2.615
330.... 6.410
1/8..... 9.386
mph.... 82.65
1000... 11.922
1/4...... 14.013
mph.... 108.59

Now before anyone says that sucks, I didn't have a helmet and they threatened to kick me out after I ran my first run at 13.5 so after that I just launched it like I was going to the grocery store to ensure I ran slower than 13.9's. Funny thing is there were a couple GTO's running 13.2x on drag radials and those guys had no helmets but they were never threatened to be kicked out. FWIW there were only 2 japanese cars there that night, me and a blue STi.

 

Thanks cooter. Hopefully I'll see you at the next dyno day if I can make it up from my new job in Florida.

 

Did you really run a 2.6s 60' or is that a typo?

 

Very nice trap speeds for a Stage 1 on 93 octane. It will be nice to see what your Evo will do when you have a chance to go back to the dragstrip. I love the part throttle response since I've added the S.M.A.R.T. You definitely have 12 second potential with your car.

 

Kind of off topic but, 1 question:

What cams did you get from crower?

I'm looking at the 3/4 race setup which is definately not conservative but, I was wondering what ones you got and how you liked them.

 

That's no typo. I was babying it off the line so they wouldn't boot me off the track for not having a helmet. I can post the actual timeslip up if you want. I figure if I really would have launched it I might have been able to get another 1-2 mph out of her...

 

I got the Stage 2, advertised as 264/272

Specs and duration can be found here in pdf format on page 88

 

I've got that PDF already, I was curious which set you got. After talking to Brian Crower he recommended the 3/4 race setup which are more aggressive than HKS 280's even for stock turbo and street duty.

I'm sure he knows what he is talking about but, I can't find anyone who is running them or who has a flash for them. If I can't get a tune for them they won't do me much good. So I'm kind of on the fence with what I should do. Thanks