Custom tune booked up :)

[SteveX]

Hi Guys,

Well, today I got off of the phone from Ray @ West Tuning over at Thruxton race course.

We've got the CLK booked in for next Wednesday, Ray thinks it will be approx 5 hours in total between the rolling road, analysing and tweaking the car.

I'm pretty excited, nearly had a Carbon Renntech this weekend too, but Jo the chap selling it is in two minds, and Ray said we could always tweak it again later for the intake if I managed to get it off of Jo.

Anyhow, we will see if the decat and intake modification helped or hindered the car, or indeed if it made no difference at all!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for a good result overall from the tune but we will see.

From our chat, we came to the conclusion that for my driving, it's not all about the peak hp and tq gains, although it would be nice to get a nice chunk, I am hoping that the power will be delivered much sooner and it will be more punchy, that's what we are going for anyway rather than all out screaming peak power - more response, quicker delivery and more drive ability with a bit more power to boot.

I'll report back on this thread once it's done, I've got a whole week to wait now though!!


Cheers,


Steve

 

[television]

Do not forget the Martin thread

 

[SteveX]

Do not forget the Martin thread

Martin thread? What happened there lol?

 

[whitenemesis]

Martin thread? What happened there lol?

20 month ban and £1000 fine :neutral:

 

[SteveX]

20 month ban and £1000 fine :neutral:

For getting a custom tune done legally on a rolling road? lol

 

[whitenemesis]

For getting a custom tune done legally on a rolling road? lol

LOL He didn't need the tune to drive at almost 2x the NSL

 

[SteveX]

LOL He didn't need the tune to drive at almost 2x the NSL

Lol that is true!

The first thing I was asked by a fellow colleague who has an SL55 is 'are you getting the limiter removed', I though, erm not really lol, although I maybe would like to do a top speed run just once on one of these air strips.

But seriously, ouch, shouldn't be much of a problem for me, I set the cruise at 58 or 60 most days on the commute, I'm in no hurry to get there or back lol, that's how I get 30 out of town, a relaxed drive is what I like most days. 58 is a great speed, as you can sit in the slow lane behind a convoy of lorries and never have to overtake or touch the cruise control.

I do occasionally blow the cobwebs out for a few minutes on the way home on a Friday, and have been known to be a little naughty, but far and few between.

Thankfully my boy racer days are pretty much over, I'm just bored and want to play with the car a little It makes a change from fixing problems on cars lol.

 

[whitenemesis]

When I was doing lots of miles for work I would set the cruise as you do, sit a safe distance behind the lorries, very relaxed way to travel

 

[SteveX]

When I was doing lots of miles for work I would set the cruise as you do, sit a safe distance behind the lorries, very relaxed way to travel

Yup, although I have been guilty of using the car as an office at the same time lol.

Getting up in the morning and falling into the car, setting cruise and sitting there whilst having to do very little is far better than constantly racing, slowing down, accelerating, braking and going in and out.

I actually did a comparison on the daily commute some years ago, I found if I did 75, I leave the carriage way to join the slower roads only 6 minutes earlier! The total trip is 28 miles, but there's about 8 miles either end of 30 / 40 roads, It really made little difference so most of the time, I just cruise steadily there and relax while everyone is rushing and then getting stuck behind lorries playing the 'I will overtake you over the course of a two mile stretch' game

I guess some people didn't bother doing the math and enjoy stress.

 

[SteveX]

Well, I am back after the tune, and the results were positive for the most part.

Car put out 357 hp on stock runs (362 claimed from factory) and once finally tuned put out 389 hp, all tuned on stock pump fuel (95 ron).

He did get an extra 9 peak hp from it above this, but he saw exhaust temps starting to rise, so decided to back it off to a much more comfortable level.

Still quite a large amount of degrees away from knock in the end for reliability as well, and also may see an mpg increase as it was running very rich from 2-4k originally.

We had a lot of trouble getting accurate torque readings though, as the hancooks on the back he said were very hard. He kept running them and spraying them, but they kept slipping on the steel rollers even with the car strapped down. He said due to the tyres being hard and slipping, he was also not comfortable with locking it up in dyno mode with all safety features off as it could over-speed. So he ran it regularly, this meant the torque converter and ESP (although off on the panel I understand still cuts in somewhat at higher speeds) played around with the torque calculation, but overall he was able to obtain accurate peak power and the data from the engine to map the car.

In the end, it was pretty disappointing we couldn't get a truly accurate torque calculation. Initial torque on runs showed a low reading, with a big dip where the slippage started occurring around 2.7-3k. Overall though by comparing to the newer reading there was aprox a 40 ft lb increase.

He did it the propper way as well, not just by flashing the original program from ODBII, he took the ECU out and EPROM to get the correct version and information, then loaded a new program in based on the current software version, so it keeps the factory version.

Once he'd loaded the new map in, he then put the ECU back in and did some further tweaking via the ODBII.

All in all a very knowledgeable and nice chap, and I can really recommend his service.

I just need to get some new sticky tyres early next year and stick it on for a power run.

The most noticeable change to the car is the delivery of power, it picks up and responds much quicker now, and power delivery is much earlier.

Peak HP at 3.6k pre map was aprox 165, post map was pretty much bang on 200. Similar gains are seen all through the power curve.

From the calculation / illustrations of torque, the car is also producing a much steeper curve.

I've yet to test the car out too much, the run back was about 40 miles, but obviously I need to drive it on a normal week when I get back to work to do a full comparison about drive-ability and mpg etc.


Cheers,

 

[SteveX]

Knock all the RPM's in my post above down by 1k lol, the plot started 1k too late, so 7.2k was actually 6.2 etc

 

[st4]

Martin can cause havoc at 4000rpm and can supercruise at 138 at this sort of rpm.

Martin says you need a diesel

 

[SJMaxwell]

Sounds like all good stuff. Mine was a touch over 360 BHP with K & N's and Shell Nitro fuel so cant wait until next year when GAD are supposed to do it !

 

[SteveX]

Martin can cause havoc at 4000rpm and can supercruise at 138 at this sort of rpm.

Martin says you need a diesel

Who's martin?

The 55 changes into fifth at about 150 lol.

 

[television]

Who's martin?

The 55 changes into fifth at about 150 lol.

There was a Martin on one of the Cop programs on the box yesterday, he was caught doing 126 somewhere near the lake District, he was done for DD and lost his licence for 18 months and a £200 fine

 

[SteveX]

Sounds like all good stuff. Mine was a touch over 360 BHP with K & N's and Shell Nitro fuel so cant wait until next year when GAD are supposed to do it !

Cool, sounds like your motor is running healthy too so should be able to get some good results from it.

I ran and got it tuned on 95 ron, it was so far away from knock in stock form anyway and even after the tune on stock fuel it was still about 6 degrees away from zone1, so still very safe. On higher octane it would be even further away, could have probably ran 400hp with higher octane, and less heat soak in third gear pulls (had to do fourth because of grip problems, so heat was a bit of an issue).

After the finished map, Ray also added 3% more fuel higher up the rev range at my request to take into account further intake mods (renntech or larger TB by looking at previous results with similar cars).

I'd like to do a power run in 3rd if I could get decent grip on another dyno (I hear dyno dynamics can read lower than most other dynos and are very reserved).

I'm still pretty chuffed though, apart from the dyno plot was out due to wheel spin. The calibration was off, in that it said I was making peak power 1k later than I actually was, so it was reading about 40ft lb less. Oops.

After all is said and done, around 390hp and 400ft lb, but could possibly make a little more.

Might get a larger TB next

 

[st4]

There was a Martin on one of the Cop programs on the box yesterday, he was caught doing 126 somewhere near the lake District, he was done for DD and lost his licence for 18 months and a £200 fine

Martin in Scotland got done for 138mph and got 20month ban and £1000 fine...

 

[SteveX]

Martin is a naughty man!

I am hoping to go to bruntingthorpe next year though and do a top speed run