Looney Tuning
07-05-2009, 10:26 PM
This Apex Silver Evo X GSR belongs to a forum member. He drove from Oceanside to have me road tune it for him. The car had the following mods:
HKS Drop-In Filter
Megan Racing 3" DP
Artisan Performance 3" Exhaust
Test Pipe.
I hook up my logging equipment and we go to the Looney Tuning proving grounds. We do three back-to-back 4th gear WOT runs to baseline the car and collect data. Thereafter, I proceed to flash the car with a baseline rom and tune it. All-in-all, we did 11 4th gear WOT logs and one run through the gear at WOT to test to consistency of the boost curve. It took me about 2 hours to tune the car. It was a relatively easy tune despite the WBO2 clamp that kept getting loose on the exhaust. Here are the before and after results from the tuning session:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/psi_b4_after.gif
The maximum peak boost was 26 psi in one of the runs and held to maximum of 17.50 psi by redline. These numbers are respectively 3.41 psi and 3 psi higher than stock. Furthermore, the tuned boost peaked at 3500 rpm while the stock boost peaked at 4000 rpm. The passive solenoid was maxxed out from 5000 rpm to redline. Below that there was room to add more boost, but I did not feel that the car needed it.
The stock AFR was leaner than I expected it to be. Evo Xs usually run richer than this. This car did not even have the factory re-flash, but it was still slightly leaner than usual. The stock AFR fell below 11:1 at 4000 rpm and stayed there all the way to redline. By contrast, the tuned AFR was in the low 12:1 at full spool and then tapered to an average of 11.16:1 by redline.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/afr_b4_after.gif
Finally, the timing was, as usual, retarded from the ridiculously advanced state that Mitsubishi sets it at. Despite all the advances in combustion chamber design and the far superior flow of the cylinder head, Mitsu still insists on advancing the timing and running the car as rich as possible. I would hate to see the carbon deposits on an untuned stock Evo X with 80,000 miles on itÂ* :jaw:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/tim_b4_after.gif
The timing was retarded from 9* BTDC 5* BTDC. Basically, rather than fire the spark at 9* BTDC, the spark was fired only at 5* BTDC. By redline the spark timing advance was retarded by 6* from the stock timing of 24*. The theory here is that a leaner AFR mixture needs less timing advance to burn than a richer mixture. A leaner mixture burns faster and produces more power than a richer mixture. Furthermore less timing advance cuts down on the possibility of knock since the leaner mixture has a shorter period of time to burn.
After logging the car with PCMScan, I triple checked for knock using Evoscan. I still have not had the time to set-up Mode23 logging using Evoscan. Pretty soon, though, I will have to retire PCMScan and use Mode23 logging via Evoscan to do the logging. In three back-to-back logs this Evo did not register more than random 1-3 counts of knock. It was pretty consistent in its behavior.
So how much power did the car gain from baseline? According to the same day and same location before and after logs that I ran through DLL, this Evo X registered the following power gains:
Max power gain: +40 hp
Max torque gain: +38 ft-lb
Peak power gain: +35 hp
Peak torque gain: +36 ft-lb
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/dyno_b4_after.gif
Furthermore, the power was, as always, remarkably consistent. The tuned DLL power graphs over lapped very nicely as you can see from the chart below
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/dyno_consistent.gif
HKS Drop-In Filter
Megan Racing 3" DP
Artisan Performance 3" Exhaust
Test Pipe.
I hook up my logging equipment and we go to the Looney Tuning proving grounds. We do three back-to-back 4th gear WOT runs to baseline the car and collect data. Thereafter, I proceed to flash the car with a baseline rom and tune it. All-in-all, we did 11 4th gear WOT logs and one run through the gear at WOT to test to consistency of the boost curve. It took me about 2 hours to tune the car. It was a relatively easy tune despite the WBO2 clamp that kept getting loose on the exhaust. Here are the before and after results from the tuning session:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/psi_b4_after.gif
The maximum peak boost was 26 psi in one of the runs and held to maximum of 17.50 psi by redline. These numbers are respectively 3.41 psi and 3 psi higher than stock. Furthermore, the tuned boost peaked at 3500 rpm while the stock boost peaked at 4000 rpm. The passive solenoid was maxxed out from 5000 rpm to redline. Below that there was room to add more boost, but I did not feel that the car needed it.
The stock AFR was leaner than I expected it to be. Evo Xs usually run richer than this. This car did not even have the factory re-flash, but it was still slightly leaner than usual. The stock AFR fell below 11:1 at 4000 rpm and stayed there all the way to redline. By contrast, the tuned AFR was in the low 12:1 at full spool and then tapered to an average of 11.16:1 by redline.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/afr_b4_after.gif
Finally, the timing was, as usual, retarded from the ridiculously advanced state that Mitsubishi sets it at. Despite all the advances in combustion chamber design and the far superior flow of the cylinder head, Mitsu still insists on advancing the timing and running the car as rich as possible. I would hate to see the carbon deposits on an untuned stock Evo X with 80,000 miles on itÂ* :jaw:
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/tim_b4_after.gif
The timing was retarded from 9* BTDC 5* BTDC. Basically, rather than fire the spark at 9* BTDC, the spark was fired only at 5* BTDC. By redline the spark timing advance was retarded by 6* from the stock timing of 24*. The theory here is that a leaner AFR mixture needs less timing advance to burn than a richer mixture. A leaner mixture burns faster and produces more power than a richer mixture. Furthermore less timing advance cuts down on the possibility of knock since the leaner mixture has a shorter period of time to burn.
After logging the car with PCMScan, I triple checked for knock using Evoscan. I still have not had the time to set-up Mode23 logging using Evoscan. Pretty soon, though, I will have to retire PCMScan and use Mode23 logging via Evoscan to do the logging. In three back-to-back logs this Evo did not register more than random 1-3 counts of knock. It was pretty consistent in its behavior.
So how much power did the car gain from baseline? According to the same day and same location before and after logs that I ran through DLL, this Evo X registered the following power gains:
Max power gain: +40 hp
Max torque gain: +38 ft-lb
Peak power gain: +35 hp
Peak torque gain: +36 ft-lb
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/dyno_b4_after.gif
Furthermore, the power was, as always, remarkably consistent. The tuned DLL power graphs over lapped very nicely as you can see from the chart below
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Jesus/dyno_consistent.gif