Who is willing to share some tuning tips???

S

SleeperMark

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As some of you already know, my tuner is a worthless piece of flesh and is about to kill my car. I am literally telling him what he can and can not do and he even went to the SCT school. As of right now, he has my car running the Air Fuel Ratios at 13.5:1 at cruise, and 11.5:1 at WOT, which I have been told is dangerously rich. He also set my timing at 30 degrees, (I'm not sure if that is at 6k RPM or not.) After all the tuning, I only gained 11HP and 6TQ to the wheels. Also, my trans is confused as hell. If I am going at WOT, the car literally completely cuts the throttle after it shifts and then picks up again. I already paid the guy, and there is nowhere else around that can tune this thing. He is willing to let me go through on the computer and make the changes, but I would like some advice before I start messing with that stuff. Mainly stuff like, timing tables, transmission tables, and fuel tables. How much can I safely add to each, what values and ratios am I shooting for, and how can I get the mushyness out of the trans? I have already had a BOC tune and was sadly disappointed with it also. I really wanted this to be a good learning experience for me because I love doing stuff like this, but this guy has made it a nightmare. So far, everyone I have asked for advice is unwilling to share their "secrets." Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!! The plan is to go in on tuesday, return the tune to stock, and start over.
 
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Wow this is one of many cases were DLF will be very missed but this question just seams tailored for him. Good luck.
 
Car info:
1995 Base (OBD-I)
3.27 diff swap
2.5'' Duals with custom X pipe after cats out to Borlas
 
I see the kindle one.. I'll look around first. That's a lot of great info for $10
 
I wouldn't say that there are any real "secrets" to tuning these cars. I assume you're using Advantage 3.0 to write the tune file? Set your timing in the Borderline Knock table, set your desired lambda, and correct/verify the MAF transfer function. It's honestly hard to make recommendations as to what needs to be changed without seeing what has been done to the file and being able to datalog.

If you want to learn more about using Advantage: http://www.lasotaracing.com/MOSCTTuningGuide.html
 
Are you guys really seeing overall advantages in daily driver conditions when changing these parameters on our cars? In the old days, I would always change the timing to more suit my driving, but without a mechanical distributor I thought those days long gone. I hadn't even considered changing the computer, but I guess it can't really be different than what we'd do when adjusting for going to the mountains or the coast. My car is best enjoyed with my son and wife on long distance cruises through rural eastern Washington and Oregon and western Montana at bordering triple digit speed. What kind of tailoring have you done? I don't need a lot of out of the hole grunt - I'll sacrifice it for mid-range response and better fuel mileage at high speed. I used to do that by advancing until slight knock at full throttle, an impossibility with knock sensors, right? This really makes me curious. I'm ordering the book right now. Any other reference work recommended? Thanks
 
olddavid said:
Are you guys really seeing overall advantages in daily driver conditions when changing these parameters on our cars?
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The stock file leaves quite a bit of room for improvement, IMO.


olddavid said:
I don't need a lot of out of the hole grunt - I'll sacrifice it for mid-range response and better fuel mileage at high speed. I used to do that by advancing until slight knock at full throttle, an impossibility with knock sensors, right?
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That's just one benefit of EDIS over a distributor driven ignition, you can adjust timing across the entire map to suit every load, rpm, coolant temp, air temp, etc. There's no need to sacrifice one area for better power in another.
 
olddavid said:
Are you guys really seeing overall advantages in daily driver conditions when changing these parameters on our cars? In the old days, I would always change the timing to more suit my driving, but without a mechanical distributor I thought those days long gone. I hadn't even considered changing the computer, but I guess it can't really be different than what we'd do when adjusting for going to the mountains or the coast. My car is best enjoyed with my son and wife on long distance cruises through rural eastern Washington and Oregon and western Montana at bordering triple digit speed. What kind of tailoring have you done? I don't need a lot of out of the hole grunt - I'll sacrifice it for mid-range response and better fuel mileage at high speed. I used to do that by advancing until slight knock at full throttle, an impossibility with knock sensors, right? This really makes me curious. I'm ordering the book right now. Any other reference work recommended? Thanks
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You can adjust your total timing just like old days like I do on my mk8. I just use a external timing adjuster. But your better off just calling up one of the notable MK8 tuners and getting a mail order chip/tune. The main reason for one is trans shift reprograming.
 
So, you're telling me that I can change A-F mixture, firing timing and shift points of the trans all in one place - the computer? I guess I can throw the Uni-Syn away. For this car, anyway. This is too cool. Who have you found to be the best source of advice and information, besides the experience of our members?
 
olddavid said:
So, you're telling me that I can change A-F mixture, firing timing and shift points of the trans all in one place - the computer?
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Yes, all of that and a whole lot more is adjusted via the tune file in the EEC.
 
Would anyone happen to have some transmission tables that they would be willing to share with me? Maybe even just some insight on how different tables effect the trans? After an hour of heated conversation about how crappy of a tuner this guy is, he agreed to let me use his software and tune my car myself. It's pretty shi**y that it has come to this, but he refuses to refund my money. I read a few books and talked to several other tuners today and figured out how to do the Air Fuel Ratios, ignition timing, and how navigate through the software. I just need some help with the transmission now. Nobody seems to share that info.. I know that there are ways to make the car stay more locked into gear and shift firmer without making the line pressure dangerously high, but how? Thanks in advance for all the help!
 
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You can download quite a few files for the 4R70W directly in Advantage. Run the "compare tunes" to see the differences. That should get you started.
 
Devil's Advocate: I've been told there's definite risks involved with tweeking the parameters and margins in your PCM, si?
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in other words, there's no real safety net to prevent totally destoying the engine by going the wrong direction? I have a mail order tune built from a script: better shift points, probably not much else other than removal of speed limiter.
I just figured out how to capture data-LiveLink so I'm very curious how to improve performance and economy. But I'm too uninformed to know what the risks and safe margins are, so I'll leave it to the expert(s). A true 'custom' tune is one where your car is put on the Dyno? There's a retired Fomoco mech near me who tunes and will Dyno it for 200. But is either car actually worthy of it: one has 186k on it, and the other may have damage from a long-standing unresolved oil leak.
 
Yes, if you don't understand what you're doing, you could certainly screw things up. However, you'd also likely have to "drive through" audible detonation to do so.

A dyno is not necessarily required to write a "custom" tune. It can be a useful tuning tool, but it isn't the end-all-be-all.
 
Well, I guess what I'm saying is the guy who did my tune just used a script along with my 4 character box code, no other info to make the tune. In the absence of Dyno sholdn't stock pcm measurements be taken?
As if I didn't have enough distractions, now I'm gonna try to learn how to mod the tune that's already on my handheld (then save it as a new tune, which can be added to my handheld with a new i.d.?).
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First step is to establish baseline readings, then take opinions on where to tweek?
 
Yes, what you have is the typical "canned" mail-order tune without any corrections made based on datalogs. Datalogs along with WBO2 data, whether it be on a dyno, on the street, or at the track will provide the information necessary to get the tune closer to ideal.

You'll need the Advantage software and a license for each EEC you'd like to tune (part of the Pro Racer Package) in order to make any changes beyond whatever minimal end-user parameters your tuner left open on your handheld.
 
Thanks Racecougar. I'm headed down there now to work on it. That should get me headed in the right direction.
 
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