Looney Tuning
07-20-2009, 02:48 PM
This Evo X GSR belongs to 808_evo. He came from San Diego to see me for a tune. He previously owned an S2000 that he tracked at hot lapping events. Infact, he showed up wearing his Speed Ventures t-shirt. He intends to track the Evo X, but does not want to make it as hardcore as the S2000. He wants to keep the Evo X comfortable for daily driving.
The car had only one power modification, an HKS drop-in filter.
The car had the latest factory re-flash (52680020) even though it did not have a sticker under the hood to show that. I hook up the ZT2 wideband and flash the stock rom with mod23 code to enable mod23 logging. Then we head out to baseline and tune the car. 14 logs later, I had the car tuned and running like an Evo should run.
Below are the before and after data logs in 3D format; each table has 3-4 WOT runs in 4th gear. 4th gear is the optimal gear to tune an Evo X in. Third gear is too short and does not allow us to collect enough meaningful data for accurate tuning. The downside of tuning in 4th gear is that it produces lower power output on the dyno. But if you do the baseline runs and the tuned runs in 4th gear, then the gains are the same as doing the runs in 3rd gear. And gains are all that matter. The 300-400 hp number that you see posted in some dyno charts is meaningless w/o a baseline.
This Evo X had a typical stock boost curve. The peak 22.11 lbs of boost came late at 4000 rpm, then the boost tapered down to reach 14.57 psi by redline. The tuned peak boost, by contrast, was not only higher by 2.86 psi, it also came 500 rpm earlier. The boost stayed above 22 psi from 3500 to 5500 rpm and then tapered to 18.44 psi by redline.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Chad/psi_b4_after.gif
The AFR on the stock tune was not as bad as the last Evo X that I tuned. Though the stock AFR did dip into the 9:1 ratio, it did not max out the wideband on the rich side, the richest AFR being an average of 9.82:1. My ZT2 wideband stops reading below 9.6:1. The reason for this is the factory reflash and the panel filter that probably leaned out the AFR just a tad.
The tuned AFR peaked at an average of 11.72:1, stayed in the mid 11:1 ratio in the mid range of the power band and then tapered to 11.2-11.1:1 by redline.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Chad/afr_b4_after.gif
The last 3D chart belongs to ignition timing. As you all know by know, Mitsu runs old school tuning on the Evo. Old school tuning goes like this: If a little timing advance is good, then a lot of timing advance must be better. So let us richen the AFR to as much as possible so we can run 24-25* of timing advance by redline. Let us make the AFR so rich that the car chokes on the fuel and stutters/hesitates above 6000 rpm.
New school tuning is the opposite. New school tuning states that the most power from gasoline comes at 12.5:1 AFR. (because of crappy gas, and because the Evo is a high boost application we cannot run that AFR). The closer you are to that target the more complete the burn and the more power the car will make. When the fuel mixture is lean, there is no need to fire the ignition WAY in advance of TDC. A leaner fuel mixture burns faster than a rich one, so overly advancing the timing does not become necessary. All you have to do is run MBT, minimum best timing. MBT is achieved in two ways: either advance the timing BTDC until the car stops making power, or until the car knocks.
It is for the above reasons that you retard the timing on the Evo once boost is raised and the AFR is leaned out. This is especially true on 91 octane gas.
This car did not like the base timing map that I started with. It registered 5-6 counts of knock above 5500 rpm right off the bat. I tried to richen her up to quell the knock, but she was insisting on lower timing. Once I pulled 1* from 5500 rpm to redline the high knock count was gone. This proves to me once again, that the biggest cause of knock on an Evo is too much timing advance.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Chad/tim_b4_after.gif
The tuned timing on this Evo ended up being 3-4* lower at peak boost, 4-7* lower in the mod range, and 7-9* lower in the upper range of the rpm. Anything more than that timing advance triggered more than 2 counts of knock. So it seems to me that a unmoded Evo like 16* timing advance by redline and a moded Evo likes 18* timing advance by redline. Of course, this is just a rule of thumb and YMMV.
We finally get to the e-penis chart. Since this Evo began with the latest factory reflash, then the gains we lower than the last Evo I tuned. Still, there were gains across the power band.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Chad/dyno_b4_after.gif
The gains were as follows:
Max power gain = +37 hp
Peak power gain = +31 hp
Max torque gain = +29 ft-lb
Peak torque gain = +27 ft-lb
As you might have noticed, I started posting the time to speed for the stock and tune logs. For some strange reason the PCMScan logs did not generate quality time to speed graphs. Now that I am running Evoscan logs in DLL the time to speed graph is working magnificently. So how much quicker was this car than stock:
MPH------Seconds Quicker
40-100----0.9352
50-100----0.8061
60-100----0.8184
70-100----0.7892
80-100----0.5316
90-100----0.4004
From the 40, 50, 60, and 70 mile mark to a hundred this Evo was more than 7/10th of a second quicker than stock and from the 80 and 90 mark to 100 it was 5/10th to 4/10th quicker than stock.
The car had only one power modification, an HKS drop-in filter.
The car had the latest factory re-flash (52680020) even though it did not have a sticker under the hood to show that. I hook up the ZT2 wideband and flash the stock rom with mod23 code to enable mod23 logging. Then we head out to baseline and tune the car. 14 logs later, I had the car tuned and running like an Evo should run.
Below are the before and after data logs in 3D format; each table has 3-4 WOT runs in 4th gear. 4th gear is the optimal gear to tune an Evo X in. Third gear is too short and does not allow us to collect enough meaningful data for accurate tuning. The downside of tuning in 4th gear is that it produces lower power output on the dyno. But if you do the baseline runs and the tuned runs in 4th gear, then the gains are the same as doing the runs in 3rd gear. And gains are all that matter. The 300-400 hp number that you see posted in some dyno charts is meaningless w/o a baseline.
This Evo X had a typical stock boost curve. The peak 22.11 lbs of boost came late at 4000 rpm, then the boost tapered down to reach 14.57 psi by redline. The tuned peak boost, by contrast, was not only higher by 2.86 psi, it also came 500 rpm earlier. The boost stayed above 22 psi from 3500 to 5500 rpm and then tapered to 18.44 psi by redline.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Chad/psi_b4_after.gif
The AFR on the stock tune was not as bad as the last Evo X that I tuned. Though the stock AFR did dip into the 9:1 ratio, it did not max out the wideband on the rich side, the richest AFR being an average of 9.82:1. My ZT2 wideband stops reading below 9.6:1. The reason for this is the factory reflash and the panel filter that probably leaned out the AFR just a tad.
The tuned AFR peaked at an average of 11.72:1, stayed in the mid 11:1 ratio in the mid range of the power band and then tapered to 11.2-11.1:1 by redline.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Chad/afr_b4_after.gif
The last 3D chart belongs to ignition timing. As you all know by know, Mitsu runs old school tuning on the Evo. Old school tuning goes like this: If a little timing advance is good, then a lot of timing advance must be better. So let us richen the AFR to as much as possible so we can run 24-25* of timing advance by redline. Let us make the AFR so rich that the car chokes on the fuel and stutters/hesitates above 6000 rpm.
New school tuning is the opposite. New school tuning states that the most power from gasoline comes at 12.5:1 AFR. (because of crappy gas, and because the Evo is a high boost application we cannot run that AFR). The closer you are to that target the more complete the burn and the more power the car will make. When the fuel mixture is lean, there is no need to fire the ignition WAY in advance of TDC. A leaner fuel mixture burns faster than a rich one, so overly advancing the timing does not become necessary. All you have to do is run MBT, minimum best timing. MBT is achieved in two ways: either advance the timing BTDC until the car stops making power, or until the car knocks.
It is for the above reasons that you retard the timing on the Evo once boost is raised and the AFR is leaned out. This is especially true on 91 octane gas.
This car did not like the base timing map that I started with. It registered 5-6 counts of knock above 5500 rpm right off the bat. I tried to richen her up to quell the knock, but she was insisting on lower timing. Once I pulled 1* from 5500 rpm to redline the high knock count was gone. This proves to me once again, that the biggest cause of knock on an Evo is too much timing advance.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Chad/tim_b4_after.gif
The tuned timing on this Evo ended up being 3-4* lower at peak boost, 4-7* lower in the mod range, and 7-9* lower in the upper range of the rpm. Anything more than that timing advance triggered more than 2 counts of knock. So it seems to me that a unmoded Evo like 16* timing advance by redline and a moded Evo likes 18* timing advance by redline. Of course, this is just a rule of thumb and YMMV.
We finally get to the e-penis chart. Since this Evo began with the latest factory reflash, then the gains we lower than the last Evo I tuned. Still, there were gains across the power band.
http://www.sr20deracing.com/looneytuning/Evo/Chad/dyno_b4_after.gif
The gains were as follows:
Max power gain = +37 hp
Peak power gain = +31 hp
Max torque gain = +29 ft-lb
Peak torque gain = +27 ft-lb
As you might have noticed, I started posting the time to speed for the stock and tune logs. For some strange reason the PCMScan logs did not generate quality time to speed graphs. Now that I am running Evoscan logs in DLL the time to speed graph is working magnificently. So how much quicker was this car than stock:
MPH------Seconds Quicker
40-100----0.9352
50-100----0.8061
60-100----0.8184
70-100----0.7892
80-100----0.5316
90-100----0.4004
From the 40, 50, 60, and 70 mile mark to a hundred this Evo was more than 7/10th of a second quicker than stock and from the 80 and 90 mark to 100 it was 5/10th to 4/10th quicker than stock.