6th Gen ('00-'05): Tuning Help
#1
Tuning Help
Hey guys, so I think I finally have got my tuned dialed in correctly. I went and did a few 1/4 mile pulls, using HPTuners Track Addict to time them, and I'm coming up pretty slow, right around high 14s to 15.0. Something clearly isn't right, as my car with the mods I have on it shouldn't be that slow. I was wondering if anyone familiar with HPTuners could take a look at my tune and see if you notice anything wrong. I've got timing adjusted so I'm not knocking, my only guess right now is that maybe I am running rich and losing power. I tried leaning out a bit, but it didn't seem to make any difference and I wasn't comfortable going leaner until I heard what you guys thought. I plan on taking it to a dyno and doing some runs there to compare to my previous numbers when I got my dyno tune done, but I want to see if I can fix it before I pay to do a run on the dyno. Any advice?
Edit: I also added my latest scan
Edit: I also added my latest scan
Last edited by Keudn; 04-22-2020 at 04:15 PM.
#2
Dont use HPT, but I've got a few questions:
-What are you actually seeing for max WOT timing?
-How about boost? No belt slip or anything?
-Whats the 1/4 mph you're seeing?
-Whats the wideband AFR at WOT?
TBH, assuming the ET is accurate, that seems even slower that your previous dyno graphs would've indicated. I'd have expected pretty low 14s at high 90s with the numbers you had before.
I wouldn't worry about trying to gain power by leaning it out. Unless its single digit AFRs, you're not really going to gain noticeable power going from say 11 to 12.
-What are you actually seeing for max WOT timing?
-How about boost? No belt slip or anything?
-Whats the 1/4 mph you're seeing?
-Whats the wideband AFR at WOT?
TBH, assuming the ET is accurate, that seems even slower that your previous dyno graphs would've indicated. I'd have expected pretty low 14s at high 90s with the numbers you had before.
I wouldn't worry about trying to gain power by leaning it out. Unless its single digit AFRs, you're not really going to gain noticeable power going from say 11 to 12.
#3
Dont use HPT, but I've got a few questions:
-What are you actually seeing for max WOT timing?
-How about boost? No belt slip or anything?
-Whats the 1/4 mph you're seeing?
-Whats the wideband AFR at WOT?
TBH, assuming the ET is accurate, that seems even slower that your previous dyno graphs would've indicated. I'd have expected pretty low 14s at high 90s with the numbers you had before.
I wouldn't worry about trying to gain power by leaning it out. Unless its single digit AFRs, you're not really going to gain noticeable power going from say 11 to 12.
-What are you actually seeing for max WOT timing?
-How about boost? No belt slip or anything?
-Whats the 1/4 mph you're seeing?
-Whats the wideband AFR at WOT?
TBH, assuming the ET is accurate, that seems even slower that your previous dyno graphs would've indicated. I'd have expected pretty low 14s at high 90s with the numbers you had before.
I wouldn't worry about trying to gain power by leaning it out. Unless its single digit AFRs, you're not really going to gain noticeable power going from say 11 to 12.
As for my 1/4mph, I don't remember off the top of my head, and the track addict app is crashing when I try opening old runs so I'll have to go do another pull when its not raining.
My AFR starts at 0.85 EQ / 0.82 Commanded at the start of the pull and goes as low as 0.79 EQ / 0.78 Commanded. I agree that it is slower, assuming the app is correct. I have slips from the strip when the car was stock that were 15 flat, so either the app is just off, or something isn't quite right.
Something I should mention is that after my dyno tune last summer, I had a longer glasspack installed, and I distinctly remember a kind of grainy, static-y sounding exhaust sound coming from what sounded like behind the lower dash area when WOT. I thought it was just a tiny leak somewhere, but as I was tuning timing, the less knock I had, the more the sound went away until I was left with no KR and a smooth sounding WOT engine note. It seems as though what I was actually hearing was KR the whole time, and I remember it becoming apparent when I got the longer glasspack installed. I'm wondering if that glasspack didn't affect my tune enough to cause KR and the source of all of my problems like the melting plugs? If it did, I'm wondering if maybe my exhaust flow is being restricted and I'm losing power because of it.
#4
I'm not sure if there is any belt slip, what would be a sign of that?
My AFR starts at 0.85 EQ / 0.82 Commanded at the start of the pull and goes as low as 0.79 EQ / 0.78 Commanded.
First, is this all commanded AFR or actual via wideband?
Second, TBH I had no idea what EQ was as I use AFR or lambda. I looked up a conversion chart and this topic of the HPT board makes .8 ish EQ = to almost 18:1 AFR (which is clearly impossible as the engine would've melted down on the first pass)
https://forum.hptuners.com/showthrea...Eq-Ratio-Chart
Is that post wrong or am I not reading one of the two right?
if maybe my exhaust flow is being restricted and I'm losing power because of it.
At least that's an easy theory to test. I'd just drop the catback, grab some earplugs and go for a few rips to see how it responds.
Last edited by bumpin96monte; 04-22-2020 at 08:50 PM.
#5
I haven't noticed anything, and my MAP reading stays fairly constant so I don't think that is an issue.
Couple things on this-
First, is this all commanded AFR or actual via wideband?
Second, TBH I had no idea what EQ was as I use AFR or lambda. I looked up a conversion chart and this topic of the HPT board makes .8 ish EQ = to almost 18:1 AFR (which is clearly impossible as the engine would've melted down on the first pass)
https://forum.hptuners.com/showthrea...Eq-Ratio-Chart
Is that post wrong or am I not reading one of the two right?
First, is this all commanded AFR or actual via wideband?
Second, TBH I had no idea what EQ was as I use AFR or lambda. I looked up a conversion chart and this topic of the HPT board makes .8 ish EQ = to almost 18:1 AFR (which is clearly impossible as the engine would've melted down on the first pass)
https://forum.hptuners.com/showthrea...Eq-Ratio-Chart
Is that post wrong or am I not reading one of the two right?
See I would do that but everything from the downpipe to the tips are welded lol
#6
I'd probably either pulley up one step or add some mods to let you run more timing. The upside to going to a larger pulley is that the blower gets more efficient. You'll lose some boost, but you'll gain power back with more timing and a cooler air charge and usually make more power than by running more boost and tanking the timing.
Ideally, I like mid-upper teens for timing. 20+ seems to have limited gains, so it's not worth pushing that far on this platform IMO. But I'd definitely do something to get that timing up higher without knock.
I haven't noticed anything, and my MAP reading stays fairly constant so I don't think that is an issue.
The first number I gave, the EQ ratio, is the wideband reading and the commanded is what lambda the tune is commanding. You've got the ratio backwards, you should multiply lambda by stoich to get the AFR, so in my case I start out with the wideband reading 12.5 and ending the pull at 11.6.
See I would do that but everything from the downpipe to the tips are welded lol
#7
Wow, what size pulley? I thought you had quite a few mods too, so I'm surprised to hear that.
I'd probably either pulley up one step or add some mods to let you run more timing. The upside to going to a larger pulley is that the blower gets more efficient. You'll lose some boost, but you'll gain power back with more timing and a cooler air charge and usually make more power than by running more boost and tanking the timing.
Ideally, I like mid-upper teens for timing. 20+ seems to have limited gains, so it's not worth pushing that far on this platform IMO. But I'd definitely do something to get that timing up higher without knock.
I'd probably either pulley up one step or add some mods to let you run more timing. The upside to going to a larger pulley is that the blower gets more efficient. You'll lose some boost, but you'll gain power back with more timing and a cooler air charge and usually make more power than by running more boost and tanking the timing.
Ideally, I like mid-upper teens for timing. 20+ seems to have limited gains, so it's not worth pushing that far on this platform IMO. But I'd definitely do something to get that timing up higher without knock.
Wow, that's got to be tough to deal with. Being you suspect something wrong in the exhaust, I'd be real tempted to grab the sawzall and hack it off somewhere logical. Then when you go to weld it back up, just stick a flange in there. Or maybe add a cutout if that was on the future mod list?
#8
Curious - do you still have a cat? Is it possible its starting to plug up (perhaps from a previous issue)?
#9
Yikes, scratch going to a larger pulley then. That's really unusual to have to crank timing that low with as many mods as you've got. I see why you're thinking there may be a problem, like with the exhaust or something. I get some cars are more knock prone than others, but I'd expect to be able to run full timing on a 3.4" with all the stuff you've got done.
Curious - do you still have a cat? Is it possible its starting to plug up (perhaps from a previous issue)?
Curious - do you still have a cat? Is it possible its starting to plug up (perhaps from a previous issue)?
#10
I just ran some 1/4 pulls, trackaddict is reporting im running 15.5s. I don't know that I trust the app to be super accurate, but that is far too off for me to explain it by the app being wrong. I cleaned the air filter but that didn't help anything. I'm not sure where to go from here, I suppose my first step might be having a shop cut the 24" glasspack I have out and seeing if that clears it up. I don't think its the cat being plugged because it runs fine, no choking or bogging down or anything, it just doesn't seem to be making much power.