How much boost are you generally getting out of these? I'm particularly interested in those on 91 octane.

I've got some math to work through.

Jim

 

Hi
DOnt understand the question... boost is dependent on thew WGs... the settings as well as the tune... usually on 91 you will not run more then 1.2.... well, at least we do not on our tunes... more timing less boost.. less boost more timing... same result...

 

Thus the math I need to do.

I'm the hated customer who knows which questions to ask.

Timing vs boost works to a point.
Aircharge temperature.
Engine load factor.
A few more things. I've got 2 years worth of data streams on this stuff. I wanted to ask what people were running so I could estimate the tune parameters different companies are using since its unlikely they will have a long talk with me.

Anyway, if you have these, you are boosting to 1.2 per the OBC? Which tuners package are you using? Softronic etc?

Jim

Edit: My goal is to have a safety factor of at least 10% built in from what I think the safe limit is. I'm not interested in the fastest car. I will be happy with whatever power I can get out of it with a conservative tune on 91 pump gas.

 

Your not building a custom 900 HP car trying to figure if you should go mafless, gt 30rs vs 35r... direct replacement or external Wgs... etc etc... your talking about 530whp entry level set up.. that should not take 2 years... Im sorta confused...
talk 10 minutes to 3 tuners... see how they "sell" vs. how they listen.... look at price, quality... but most of all support after.... you are buying experience not parts... because parts alone will not make your car fast....
we use our own billet wheel upgrades and we have Protomotive based tuning for our kits... we custom tune via logs too.... etc.

entry level stuff is k16 with some wheel upgrade... 5 bar.. bmc filter, dvs, and exhaust... a good tune... thats it.. this is as basic as it gets...
then you can add injectors, wgs, ICs, and intake from filter to turbos... and I would stop...

I've seen members spend countless of nights killing themselves in making such decisions... in the end they did nothing and got tired of the car... I changed my kit at least 5 times... 4 clutches... 3 sets of axles, Ive had 3 different versions of Gt35 rs on my car... this is a passion... and I did all that before I became a "tuner".

Good luck on your search....
markski

 

^^^ Now that's some sound advice. And he's still not done modding...

 

I understand my questions and methods are not always apparent nor is my personality always as smooth it should be. I apologize.

I sometimes ask direct questions. Other times I ask very general questions. I do it on purpose. Trust me, I'm not looking to make this overly difficult. I have no problem pulling the trigger. I just like to know not only what I'm buying but why.

Jim

Edit: I agree with most of what you propose except using a FPR to supply increased fuel. I'm sorry but that's a lazy, unstable hack.

 

1.3-1.5 on 93,

 

Lower New York or upstate in the mountains? Do you ever feel like the system is getting heat soaked and losing power?

Jim

 

LI, No i dont feel like its getting heat soaked or loosing power, I also DO NOT DD the car, and only drive it on nice days on the weekends @ home (I work in NYC)

 

I'm guesstimating that I'll have to limit boost to 1.2 but I don't have any data on the effects of the new intercoolers I bought. Heat just kills cars out here. Besides the ambient heat and the mountains, once you get out of civilization here you can flog a car for miles at a time which a lot of people in heavy urban areas never get to do.

I'm going to have a friend of mine, Jim Conforti, take a look at some data I'm collecting and an after-shot when I install everything. Basically my plan with all mods I do is to always ask "Is this the way the factory would do it?" If I can't answer yes to that, I either don't do it, modify it or take it off.

Jim

 

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Sounds like your having fun which is what counts. Just curious, are you planning on doing your own tuning or work with a tuner to adjust the tune to your specifications? Also, what do you exactly mean by keeping a 10% safety margin?

 

I'll start with a purchased tune and then send before and after data to a friend of mine who is well known for this type of thing. If he has any recommendations I'll have some other track buddies of mine change the code.

I do my own on my M3 but it has a complete ECU replacement and everything is much more accessible and understandable with that and I can tweak a thing or two and friends have taught me how to basically take data from a previous run under certain weather conditions and correlate that to new results taken after changing parameters. I also go VERY slow in changing one thing at a time.

I don't have that luxury with this car.

By 10% safety I'm saying I will probably back off boost and timing a bit to take into account that I don't drive this car often and gas sitting in your car or in the ground loses octane at a steady rate. People should keep idle cars topped off and consider Stabil etc. since VOC's bleed off pretty rapidly just sitting around.

If I had a car that was pushing out big power I would not run gas that was more than a week old.

Jim

 

Sounds like fun. So do you think most off-the-self tunes out there are not within a 10% safety margin? Or do you think there's room for further improvement in performance gains while keeping this 10% safety margin? Do you think you can achieve finding MBT by street tuning without a dyno? I know my tuner provides a very safe product that delivers very impressive performance gains. It will be interesting to see where you end up in relation to these tunes. Also, I'm not so convinced about gas losing octane in a week. I guess if you left the container wide-open exposed to hot ambient conditions, the composition of the fuel would change. But if it's sitting in your tank, somewhat sealed, I think you will be fine. Most of the highly VOC are not high octane ingredients anyhow. So if those evaporate off, you might even see an increase in octane. Just my opinion.

 

You have to tune on a dyno. You can tweak on the street but you have to keep notes and recheck it on the dyno. The O2 sensors in the car do not have the ability to tell you detail like that.

As far as gas, I rely on my friends at VP racing fuel to tell me the truth. They state that high performance gas loses roughly one octane number per week in the ground or drum. It stabilizes at 94 octane'ish.

My concern isn't with pump gas. I'm going with a pump gas tune. My comments were more directed to those that are pushing the limits by overboosting or asking too much of timing. If you are at the edge, losing 1 or 2 octane would make detonation much more likely. While knock sensors can save you its like brushing your teeth after eating cotton candy. Its better than nothing but you shouldn't eat the candy.

I get it. The boost **** is like heroin. I've popped my share of head gaskets. I'm just not going to play that game in this particular car. Its not worth it. It weighs a billion pounds.