Hi Everyone - a very big thank you to all of you for helping pull me into the exciting world of Pcar tuning. I just picked up a 2005 996TTS Cabriolet that had a bunch of mods done and Foreign Import Specialists in Santa Monica, CA by Claudio. He seems like a very nice guy, and seems to have done a good job on the installation.

I have a few concerns now that I own the car and drove it for 20-30 miles today, and I wanted to get some advice.

1) The car was modded with a flash and exhaust first, then had turbos, diverter valves, crossplenum, cold air intake etc. done to it. It don't know much about this, but I know from tuning my motorcycles that whenever a major engine change was done, I needed to tune the ECU (on a dyno using a power commander) to optimize the AFR and get the best power and efficiency out of the engine. Since the car now has "upgraded" turbos from the stock K24s, wouldn't it need a new ECU flash? I'm particularly interested, because the fuel efficiency seems terrible at 10-11mpg in the city when I'm not pushing very hard. I live in the LA area, and would love any recommendations on what I should do to have this looked at, or whether I'm barking up the wrong tree.

2) While the car is plenty fast, I don't get the feeling that I was expecting in he higher revs. Now, I don't have much of a basis of comparison, but I think that has to do with the boost amount. I really need some guidance on how I should begin this process.

Thanks very much everyone. Pictures to come soon!

 

"The car was modded with a flash and exhaust first"

"wouldn't it need a new ECU flash?"

 

Please forgive me for not yet having a complete command of the lingo. Here's what I think I mean:

The previous owner did two rounds of modifications to the car:
round 1: flash and exhaust
round 2: turbos + everything else

So the question is - after completing round 2, do you not have to go back and re-flash based on all the engine changes made? I.E. Retune the engine computer to properly handle all the modifications that have been done?

 

If the flash was done for the OEM turbo's (K16) and they changed them afterwards for example K16/24 or K24 you need another flash.You should try to find out what turbo's you'r running at the moment.A lot of tuners can help you for the new flash but you need to know what setup you have..I also believe that a good Air fuel meter is a must for a tuned car,The AEM and the Brockway are good meters..

 

Ok - I will find out what turbos were installed. Since the Turbo S comes with K24's, I am curious to know what it was upgraded to myself. I will get the exact manufacturer and model number.

Can any LA folks recommend a Tuner in the LA area? I could go as far as OC, but would prefer to stay in LA given my work schedule.

 

no one would have modded a car to that extent without the appropriate ECU upgrade the car would not have run properly
Take the car to a tuner with a dyno. then they can tune it to what you have and maximize performance. be ready to open your wallet

 

In LA there is Lucent on Sepulveda and The Speed Gallery on Ventura in the SF Valley. Both are sponsers. Maybe someone on this board is familiar with your car already. You might ask Claudio who did the programming to give you a better idea what he did.

 

I'm impressed with how nice Claudio is, but he didn't seem to have immediate facility with exactly what had been done to the car. Hopefully he will be able to tell me exactly what Turbos were put in and what all the other parts were. He mentioned that they used Powerchip for the program, I've never heard anyone mention them on here.

I'm curious to know why he would have upgraded from the K24s on the Turbo S in the first place- looking forward to unravelling the mystery!

I will let you all know what happens. Do you guys know who might be able to dyno-tune? Is that Lucent or Speed Gallery? I guess I'll give them a call.

 

easy solution... schedule a dyno time at an AWD dyno. Baseline the car to see where it is at and hook up the AFR and Boost on the dyno to get good readings. From there you can see where the car is missing performance. Did you ever do plugs? I will be out in LA the 22nd, would be happy to check it out.

 

Brutish...to date AFAIK, there are very few (less than 5) folks that can custom tune the Bosch code. Most of us buy a program from "off the shelf" like GIAC, Upsolute or from a tuner. Some tuners have more tuning capability, but they all offer options. I suggest you figure out what hardware you have then call some tuners (I'd start with Kevin) and see what they would offer that is going to take advantage of YOUR system.

 

If you have the time, meet us at this place this Saturday at 1000. We are putting 10 cars on the dyno and maybe some of us can help you out with some of your questions. I know it will be a learning experience for me.

Harman Motive Inc.
1606 Lockness Pl
Torrance, CA 90501

 

That's a great idea. I was actually on the phone with Dan at Harman about dyno'ing my car on their AWD dyno. Dan at Vivid Racing turned me on to them. I'll try to see you there tomorrow, and hopefully a spot opens up for me to dyno my car as well.

I am almost certain there's an issue with the wrong flash having been used - i.e. mismatch to my turbos. I also think there may be a problem with a vacuum hose or something because of my miserable gas mileage. I will keep you all updated.

 

The plot thickens. Thank you to Dan @ Vivid Racing who has been very generous with his time. Thank you also to Claudio @ Foreign Sport Technicians for digging up the information needed. I found out that I have K24/26 Turbos in my S, along with ECU tuning from PowerChip. My guess is that there is a total mismatch between the PowerChip ECU tuning and the Turbos - Claudio mentioned that he used Powerchip because the previous owner didn't want to wait for the ECU to be sent to his normal programmer in Switzerland.

Does anyone have information on the best K24/26 program to go with? I believe that technically this would be a Stage III system, since I'm running stock headers, but I'm not sure. Dan is looking into programs available from Softronic - not sure if others already exist.

 

Protomotive has a K24/26 file.

 

Oh God... I dont even know where to begin on this thread...
Good luck and hope you choose the right direction,
markski