mike i lookin at tue night around 7-8pm to drop off the car do u have like a key dump where i can put the key.
I’m not allowed to say much, but it came out nicely. The engine only has a gasket and studs, but we made a nice turbo setup for it, made an intercooler kit, made an exhaust for it etc. He’s been out racing people and doing well.
I’ve tuned a few other cars for people that are being sneaky, so I’ll just say that there are a few other new fast cars in the area.
He didn’t end up making it back yet. We’ll see…
Do you have more clutch yet?
PMing you.
When is the next dyno day? Still willing to tune ms? Unlike other ms systems, mine as been running perfectly.
I don’t have any dyno days scheduled at the moment because I’m still working very long hours to tune as many cars as possible for our wonderful customers. I may put one together for late July and if I do I’ll be sure to post it up.
I tune dozens of engine management systems, but I’m still not a Megasquirt fan and would prefer not to tune one.
my clutch is good mike lol. it was my clutch master cylinder that went
Oh cool I wasn’t sure if you sorted it out yet or not.
I’ve been tuning tons of cars and I wanted to get a few up here because they were good examples of adding parts and cranking up the boost not necessarily helping.
First is a 2010 Camaro SS that’s being used to prototype various exhaust parts manufactured by Solo Performance.
We baselined the car stock, then high flow cats were installed. They provided a solid gain across the RPM range. The peak differential shown on the graph is higher, and peak power increased 13 whp which is still a good gain for some inexpensive and easy to install high flow cats.
Then an upgraded cat back exhaust was added to the high flow cats and suddenly the car lost power, going back down to near stock power levels. It wasn’t until they ended up having me tune the car that I figured out the extra airflow from the better exhaust was causing detonation on the stock tune.
My tune included running less timing advance and richer AFRs in the mid range and top end which stopped the detonation and allowed the engine to make a lot more power on a safer tune. This is a great example of putting a good part on a car actually doing more harm than good without proper tuning. It’s also a good example of leaner afrs and more timing making less power than dialing the AFRs and timing back to where an engine makes the best safe power.
Next is a CRX with a built D16 SOHC engine. This one came in with a solid looking home build. He had been driving the car at 19-20 psi on a tune he’d been working on himself and was looking for some help finishing the tune. AFRs in boost had been dialed in pretty well so I just did some low end and partial throttle cleanup before testing the car in boost. This was a case where the intercooling and fuel octane (93 pump gas) wasn’t sufficient to allow the current setup to push 20+ psi without detonation or running the timing so low that power would suffer.
Turning the boost down to 15 psi (it still crept to 19 psi but only at redline) and reducing timing advance stopped engine knock and made more power. This customer had a good start on the tune for a first timer and I was glad we got it on the dyno to dial it in a bit better as the knock that caused the scary looking drop in the black run in the dyno graph shown below would have cracked pistons etc. if it wasn’t resolved.
More boost, more timing advance, and leaner AFRs can hurt power and your engine. Tuning isn’t about cranking everything up. Too rich or too lean, too much or too little timing advance or boost and you’ll be out of the range where the engine operates optimally. On many setups this range is rather small so you have to be on the money and the dyno is a great tool I use to help find that sweet spot.
that turbo crx is it red by any chance?
ya its my buddy jake built him self over the past few years
turbo s2k is black?
:snky:
Just want to say thanks Mike I am definitely enjoying the power of this set up and you did an excellent job. I ended up buying a garret t3/t4 57 trim with a tial external gate and Meth injection so I am hoping to get back to you early August for a retune 
Some nice numbers on that Camaro. Too bad they weigh so much…
I’ve made some changes at the shop which should free me up enough to keep up with the blog again. I enjoy doing it and people seemed to like it so here we go again. 
Blog for Monday 9/20/10:
First we tested a DIY exhaust coating product called Turbo X by Techline. I had hoped that it would be comparable to Jet Hot, while being something we could apply or have a local body shop apply. I prepped a turbo manifold and brought it to a body shop we’ve used so the first piece could be sprayed by a pro with a proper gun. He prepped the header further with a blast cabinet and then by sanding it. He painted the header as per the instructions and it came out looking good:
Unfortunately during the curing process I noticed that the coating didn’t seem to be holding heat in. Before/after temperature readings confirmed this. Then things got worse. After a test drive the coating started to break down. After more driving the coating has continued to fall apart.
I had high hopes for this product, but it looks like we’ll stick with sending things out to Jet Hot/HPC for coating.
The guys finished a Vortech Supercharger kit install on a G35. This car came in stock aside from the cat back exhaust and wheels so this was quite the change. We installed Vortech’s tuner kit which comes without fuel upgrades or their piggyback system. Instead we installed DW injectors, a walbro pump, and a UTEC so I could custom tune the car. I’ll be flashing the ECU as well shortly to better adjust for the injectors.
We installed a Defi boost gauge and an AEM wideband air/fuel meter to keep an eye on things.
Beven’s 05 STI is back for more track preparation mods.
We installed one of our STI surge tanks so he stops fuel starving during hard corners on road courses and have moved onto avoiding oil starvation by adding an Accusump system. It took some thought to figure out where we could put the unit, but we found a spot. A custom bracket was made to relocate the fuse box and the battery was relocated to the trunk. Pics of the trunk coming soon…
We also made a custom intake and heat shield so he has a true 4" intake. We’ll be feeding it cold air via the passenger fender.
GM 3 bar MAP and IAT sensors were installed in Rob’s DSM to prep it for a speed density conversion tune via the DSMLink v3 system we installed.
Work continued on the interior of Eddie’s Supra. It’s still coming apart more than it’s going together, but it’s moving along.
I started diagnosing the no start condition on Tom’s Civic which he trailered in today. He swapped an 05 RSX engine in and was hoping for it to fire right up, but it’s proven to be a headache so he’s brought it to us to be sorted out. So far I noticed there’s no IAT sensor which is throwing off fueling considerably and one of the coil packs is being constantly charged, making it extremely hot and causing it to buzz. Wiring diagnosis to be continued…
Measurements were taken for custom breather boxes for Beven and Rob’s cars and for a custom coolant overflow tank for Rob’s DSM to be made later this week.
And I spent most of the day on the dyno. I’m not saying who or what because the car owner has asked me to keep it snky snky, but I broke our dyno’s WHP record for a Subaru.
---------- Post added at 09:24 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 AM ----------
Blog 9/21/10
We got a call from Pete. He’s OK, but he totaled the G35 we just put the supercharger on so he’s going to have it towed here for us to remove all the power mods that were just added. He’s already looking for another G35 for us to put the parts on.
We added a second external oil cooler to Mike’s Supra today and tweaked a charge pipe to make them fit together.
Work continues on Beven’s STI Accusump install and his Ixiz air/oil separator has been removed in preparation for us building one custom for him. The Ixiz unit flows enough for setups with mild mods on stock engines, but it wasn’t releasing enough crankcase pressure for a setup like this. In this picture you can also see the pipe we bead rolled and welded a bung into to fit a water temperature sensor for a new Defi gauge we’re installing. It’s atop the radiator.
We also tried to fit Beven’s brake ducting kit, but it’s not compatible with a front mount intercooler. The ducts are right up against the charge pipes with no room for the hose. The hose provided with the kit was also 3" and doesn’t fit anywhere, but under the car where it would contact the ground all too often so he’ll need another solution for that.
Rob’s DSM is ready to start, but his car fried a USB port on my tuning laptop via the OBD2 cable. My laptop is off for repair and in the meantime we need to figure out what on his car caused this. The car was completely torn apart when it was towed here from another shop so we’re finding issues as they present themselves.
Work continues on the 6 speed conversion on Eddie’s automatic Supra. There are hundreds of parts involved in the swap so it’s quite the process.
Parts were ordered for a shortblock replacement on Ted’s 04 WRX that came in with damaged engine bearings. The car is stock except for a reflash supposedly installed by a dealership and a cat back exhaust. It has low miles (just under 60k) and looks to be very well taken care of so this is a bit of a mystery. We pulled the oil pan and it’s full of bearing material, but the oil pickup is fine so it wasn’t caused by an oil pickup failure. The oil level was correct on the dip stick. We’ve sent an oil sample out for testing and we’ll be removing the engine and tearing it down so we’ll know more about the failure soon. We’ve been asked to do some investigative work because the failure occurred within 100 miles after having a 60k service performed at a dealership on Long Island. At this point we’ve found no evidence of them doing anything wrong. We also found out Ted is the second owner and the car was more heavily modded when the previous owner had it so that complicates the diagnosis a bit.
Nice to see a dyno of the G35 with the vortech supercharger. Did that car have stock exhaust manifolds or aftermarket headers? I’m curious to see how close it is the UFO 350Z of Kustom Workz.
The G35 has stock stock cats and stock intake and exhaust manifolds. Only the cat back is upgraded. It’s basically the barebones Vortech kit with bigger injectors and a custom tune instead of their FMU and reflash. We’ll recommend high flow cats again when the parts are being transferred.
I spent my day on the dyno with a crew of guys from Rome, NY that trailered out with a home built 1G DSM. Unlike many home builds, this was a heavily modified setup. The owner, Drew, had done a nice job getting the car together and had a pretty good street tune on his DSMLink that he’d been working on over the years.
His setup wasn’t working very well anymore with a MAF because of the power he’s making so he decided to convert to speed density based tuning using a 5 bar MAP sensor and an external IAT sensor. After fighting with it trying to get the car running well on speed density he contacted us and brought the car out.
We baselined the car at an impressive 330 whp at just 15 psi and 487 whp at 28ish psi on race gas on Drew’s map using the MAF. Then we converted the car back over to speed density and I started on a speed density tune. After spending some time hitting all the RPM/load zones using our variable load dyno to lock the car at each RPM I started doing pulls. The car made 360 whp at 14-15 psi and I started working the boost up. We were on our way to making a lot of power when we started running into some issues.
First his fuel pump started cavitating at idle while his fuel gauge read 1/4 tank. I added more fuel and the pump sounded normal again.
Next his electronic boost controller stopped working. It remained powered, but the solenoid wasn’t functioning. Drew fought with it for a bit and then we put my trusty MBC on the car so I could continue tuning.
Then the car started misfiring while under load. We pulled the plugs and they looked great, but we changed them anyways since he had an extra set with him. We did a boost leak test and that came out OK.
It turns out the misfiring was due to a voltage issue that came out of the blue. Voltage had dropped from 14.3-14.4 to 12.6 V where the car started to lightly misfire.
The next pull the alternator light came on as soon as the turbo started to spool so I stopped right away. After some investigating and trying adding grounds, it was determined that the alternator needed to be checked and Drew decided to continue the process another day since it was getting late.
They assured me they’d be back and I look forward to seeing what the car can do once these few little issues are sorted out. Drew noticed how much better the car ran on speed density tuning so he was exited and I’m exited to see what the car can do when they come back. I’m expecting big things.
The replacement DSMLink cable came in for Rob’s car, but my primary tuning laptop will be out for service for another couple weeks so I’m stuck using my backup for now.
We made a custom coolant overflow tank for Wes’s Civic that we’ve been building, installed his IAT sensor, wired in an electronic solenoid I’ll be mapping with NepTune to control boost, put his boost gauge in, and his car is almost ready to rock.
Mike bought a used Veilside hood for his Supra which we mounted up for him. We have some low profile Spal fans which we’ll make a custom shroud for next week after the fans are in.
9/23/10 - STI Accusump and surge tank, E85 tuning, water temp. gauge install, etc.
Beven’s STI fired up on E85 for the first time this afternoon. We’ve wired a switch that I’ve mapped in his standalone ECU to go between pump gas an E85 fuels. He’ll just need to drain the fuel system before switching over.
Our new custom breather box is in with the hoses heat wrapped since this is a road course setup. The Accusump is in, plumbed to feed oil directly to the main oil passages in the block in the event of a sudden drop in pressure during hard cornering/braking. You’ll see we’ve relocated the fuse panel, windshield fluid reservoir, and battery. That’s aside from all the things we’ve relocated, modified, etc. during the rest of the build of course.
In the trunk we’ve used a Taylor aluminum battery box and we’ve installed another of our Innovative Tuning fuel surge tanks and high volume fuel systems. Beven was fuel starving the car on road courses without a surge tank. That won’t be happening again.
I just finished up the dyno portion of the E85 retune.
First this is the high pull for the night. I only did this to make sure that if the car overboosted a little it would be safe once in a while. I have the timing backed off for safety if the car achieves this boost level and 530 whp at 31 psi was the result.
This graph shows the car at 29 psi on E85. This is the highest boost level I intend the car to run in it’s current state. 513 whp on this pull.
Here is a comparison of the same car and setup on pump gas at 22 psi vs. E85 at 22 psi.
And here is pump gas with meth injection at 24 psi vs. E85 at 24 psi.
Lastly I took a video of a multi gear test after tuning was mostly complete:
:tup: :tup:
I wanted to add a note on dyno graph smoothing. I’m seeing some shops/tuners abuse this dyno function all too often. Some of them are cropping the graph so you can’t see what filtering/smoothing is set to. Others are photoshopping it out. I’ve even seen one graph where a shop photoshopped in another filtering value, but you can tell it’s been monkeyed with because they didn’t align it properly.
Excessive filtering covers up issues with how the car is running and distorts the shape of the power curve. Some smoothing is useful because the tire roller interface and movement of the vehicle on the dyno can cause noise in the data.
The best way to show this is to take the same dyno pull and display it at various smoothing levels. Different dynos have different scales and adjustments for filtering. Dynojet goes in big steps between 0 and 5. Mustang goes in increments of 1 from 1-99. I generally use 15-30, but use 40 or so if a car has a bad alignment, damaged tire or something that’s causing obvious cyclic undulations in the power curve.
First here’s the dyno graph with filtering on 1, the lowest setting. Hardware smoothing may still take place based on how the dyno software is set up.
And now I’ll show you the same dyno pull at various higher filtering/smoothing settings:
By the time you get to a filtering value of 50 you’ve thoroughly distorted the graph and it continues to get worse from there.
Lastly maximum smoothing gives you this…an extremely smooth dyno graph from a car that’s running very poorly:
Great work Mike. I fixed my voltage issue and will see you soon for some dyno pulls.
Sounds good!