We Started tuning the unicorn tonight...

[slw240sx]

so we have been street tuning my car the last two nights, we pulled up to our friends shop about 11pm tuesday night, they just bought a DynoDynamics dyno a few weeks earlier, we jokingly ask how long to get it setup, he was down to get us on the thing right then. we scheduled it for tonight, closed up shop about 7pm and headed over. we put in about 3-4 hours of tuning. This dyno is great, we tuned alot of driveabilitly all the way up to 18psi. It was getting late and we had a problem with my wastegate actuator rod popping off so we finished up a few more points and called it a night. happy that the car had made it through 3 solid hours of steady state tuning with only a few breaks to get out of the car and stretch. it wouldnt over heat or even get too warm even loading it down and beating it continuously. it was great no mechanical problems or computer problems

the biggest let down of the night was we decided to to a power pull just for ****s and giggles and see what we were sitting at. 174hp... the damn car wont hold boost after it spikes to 14 or 18psi, its hitting full boost by 4200 and it drops right back off and goes below 10. i need to get my Blitz controler working again. we made roughly 175-180ft lbs of torque. we have another 2-3 hours of work finishing off the timing maps and accell enrichments.

anyone have a timing map of a 300-450hp car ?? i want to compare them.

[yeahpancake]

wow 174...i hope you dont have too many mods

[slw240sx]

haha to damn many mods to be making that number, but i think once we get the boost controlled and we get more timing in it. we are shooting for 380hp

[bentvalves]

pics if ya get a chance....

[yourmomsrps13]

haha to damn many mods to be making that number, but i think once we get the boost controlled and we get more timing in it. we are shooting for 380hp

200hp from uping the boost? what psi you going to 40? lol

[bentvalves]

sorting the timing map can do wonderful things for engines

what ECU are you using?

[ca18detgabby]

200hp from uping the boost? what psi you going to 40? lol

that does sound a bit off since he was saying it was running so good.... I could see if he was bogging down or something and having over fueling issues.

Then again if he is using a huge trim turbo and pushing alot of air...... even 14PSI is alot from 10PSI. 380HP on pump?

post some pics or even better a vid! will be very interested to see.

[slw240sx]

we will be going up to 18-24psi. 350-380 on pump gas shouldnt be difficult. we have one of our Sr cars with a EvoIII turbo at 18psi making 350 on pump gas.

i am running a EVO 8 turbo, and megasquirt ECU,680cc injectors, 264 HKS cams

with the dyno we are using during tuning with steady state we could hold the boost levels exactly where we wanted through out the entire rev range. it was tuned for 18 through out the entire power band. I was being told we are off with the timing and during our next session we will be adding more.

Ill have to check with one of my friends to see if they uploaded any pictures yet, i was over an hour late to the dyno session so i rushed out of the shop with out my camera. by the time i got there they were already in the middle of tuning the car. it was getting dark. No video because we were dynoing outside with hardly any light, it was too hot in the shop to have the dyno inside last night.

[r34 gtr]

Jon, you need to get really good at tuning the CA18 with Megasquirt. That way, when I drive through late next month, you can tune it for me! I would pay handsomely of course. If it breaks, I will just continue on my way up to New Hampshire and steal parts from ks13. I usually go to Cincinnati and jump on 71, but taking 75 from there to Dayton, and then 70 to Columbus isn't even out of the way, seeing as its a 1200mi total drive.

Ive still got my appointment at Top Speed in ATL, but the place where I work just got gutted yesterday afternoon and now I am out of a job! I got zero warning, it was just "Hi, this place is closing, give me your keys to the front door and go home. We will call you....maybe." Jerks.

[themadscientist]

wtf? That's the same power as stock.

[bentvalves]

yea its a new dyno he mentioned to, perhaps the correction factors weren't properly crunched or something.

But again, from experience, proper ignition timing maps do wonderful things for our little engines.

[Buddyworm]

I don't find those numbers too surprising, depending on what mods you have . The factory horsepower rating is done at the crank so once you factor in your mods and a ~15% drivetrain loss it's entirely possible that's where your power is supposed to be. Although....What mods have you got at the moment? Out of curiosity.

Lower numbers could also be because it's a DynoDynamics. Sustained load dynos like those and Mustangs tend to read lower than Dynojets. The tire's rolling radius could even affect things.

[ca18detgabby]

I don't find those numbers too surprising, depending on what mods you have . The factory horsepower rating is done at the crank so once you factor in your mods and a ~15% drivetrain loss it's entirely possible that's where your power is supposed to be. Although....What mods have you got at the moment? Out of curiosity.

Lower numbers could also be because it's a DynoDynamics. Sustained load dynos like those and Mustangs tend to read lower than Dynojets. The tire's rolling radius could even affect things.

the point is when someone is expecting 300+ HP and barely hits 1/2 that..... it seems a little far featched to expect him to meet that.

[bentvalves]

he has an EVO 8 turbo on that bad boy gabby, pretty sure hes gonna trample 300whp.

[slw240sx]

the point is when someone is expecting 300+ HP and barely hits 1/2 that..... it seems a little far featched to expect him to meet that.

please don't forget, i have owned this Ca18det swap since 01/02. i was over 250hp on a Evo3 turbo back in 05. i started my own performance shop in early 05, i have built my share of high hp cars all using turbos as their main power adder. I assure you i know more then your average CA owner I know what the setup can and will net. I just do not handle actual tuning, i am the fabricator and make it work guy not the EFI nerd haha. I want to learn how to tune, but i just don't have the time nor the patience, maybe one day.

i might even start posting again now that the car is running and driving.

Jon

[slw240sx]

also the dyno from what the shop was telling me reads about 18% lower then the dyno that i used last time. all of the shop owners around here are friends, its like our own little club, we all share information and help each other out. We are all into different niche markets so we are rarely competing for business.

The tuning is off. the boost is off, once we fix those things we will get the power we are seeking.

[boost_boy]

I can vouch for him in the fact that he's not new to this and will reach his goal. Once you have the knowledge on how to tune your motor based on it's characteristics, additions, and surrounding elements, you'll be surprise what you can extract out of these motors. I support everyone's desires and expectations from their porojects, except those that pop-up onto this forum with ridiculous HP dreams and no knowledge on what the components on the motor are, let alone trying to get 400hp out of the stock fueling system. Good luck with that Jon (Not that you really need it).

Dee

[Buddyworm]

Ah! Well then! I'll just shut my pie-hole!

[r34 gtr]

So Jon, your friend is pretty good at tuning the 'ol Megasquirt? I really want to see how he does with yours.

[slw240sx]

So Jon, your friend is pretty good at tuning the 'ol Megasquirt? I really want to see how he does with yours.

well he has tuned a 1st gen turbo neon on it, it blew up on the dyno though. But that motor was stock 10:1 on stock cast rods/pistons and had about 5-6K on it after being boosted for over year and only using a FMU for management, so i dont blame him on that one!

Mine he has been learning and perfecting it. He has attended EFI 101 and has been learning about tuning since before we opened up a shop, he tuned my car on Roms back in 03, if you recall we were also one of the first to get a burner and eraser back in the day. He has tuned a number of turbo cars on various systems, from 200-600+ hp 4's to 8 cylinders.

We are currently installing megasquirt into his SR hatch and one of our sponsored Drift cars. that system will be a plug and play system and its housed in a Nissan ECU case. it will use EDIS.

once my car is fully tuned i will talk to him about getting out some base maps, hes pretty open about sharing his maps for other people to learn from.

i also have a friend in MI that has been tuning on MS for a few years, he has tuned another neon we built that was a 1st gen, it was over 530hp to the wheels, and has broken into the 10s using MS everything we built from scratch and wired up.

Jon

[r34 gtr]

I don't need base maps, I have plenty of those. I just want to pay someone a lot of money so I can watch as they tune the **** out of it. I have learned I know enough about tuning to get a car running and driving, but not enough to get it making a lot of power. I should mention my setup is way different than yours. I have the "typical" 300hp setup, whereas you have the "I'm gonna rape you right through your pants" setup.

When I took a stab at tuning the stock ECU on this WRX I'm currently driving around, I at best managed a 10.7:1 AFR to redline, and it was only good for about 230whp. Top Speed got it to 290. I want that extra 60whp.