Poor tune - Can I tune it myselfe?
 

Hi, new here on the forum, and recently bought my first Subaru! its a 2002bug WRX, orgiginally a 2.0, but now has a built 2.5, VF39 turbo, DCCD 5spd tranny, AST 5300coilovers ++.

Im quite happy with the car, but the engine tune is terrible. First off, the boost control is terrible! I get 7 PSI at just over 2000rpm, then its a steady rise to 18ish PSI @ 4500rpm! Then it drops to 7500.

A Manual boost controller gave me 18PSI from 2500-7500rpm though, but then the AF (read from PSI3 ECU monitor) went close to, or above 14.7, which proves to lean mixtures with both wide and narrow band sensors (not shure yet what I have, but seems to accurate for a NB, detailing every spectre of my tune from 11:1 to 17:1).

Also, no matter what boost control I use, the knock correction is off the charts! 5-10 degrees over most of the powerband!!

Example: 2800RPM, 18PSI, advance 23degrees, knock correction 10degrees, AF 14.5!



I know the car had a ECUTECH tune from a tuner 300miles from here, but I dont want to visit him.. Ive tuned several cars before, mostly with megasquirt, so Id like to give this a shot. Who supplies the cable and software would I need to tune my car? I dont mind "open ecu", but Ive searched all day, and Im yet to find some good info. ECUTEC looks good, but costy?


Any help not involving "use the search button" would be great...

firstly welcome to scoobynet matey

http://forums.openecu.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2839

^^ thats the ecu explorer
http://www.romraider.com/RomRaider/Download

^^ thats romraider..

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWNX:IT

^^thats the lead i use to read codes and so on,, if its not that 1 then its the elm327 one you need:)

hope this helps.

wayne

Thanks a bunch, Ill look into those links! Appresiated :thumb::thumb::thumb:

For the experienced group, any recomendations? Theres so many to pick from :luxhello:

don't think you can read or write to the ecu with that cable, ok for error codes but thats it, you need a tactrix cable about £90 I think, but if its already ecutek tuned probably be locked out, although there are ways around it but you will lose the ecutek license on the ecu. If you want to do it yourself pick up a used stock ecu and start from there, but probably easier to invest £350 in a proper mapping session by someone experienced in these cars, you know it will be safe and it will be done in a couple of hours.

Can I buy ECUTEC?

I like to tune myselfe. The reason is the excact situation Im in now. The tuner, known to be the best btw, and the tune is OK at best with all that knock correction, and the fact that the tune has not taken into account that the spool up could improve, just shows how (some) tuners want you coming back in for every tiny mod you do. Id prefer a "chip" tune, before I visit a tuner.. Also, Ive tuned a few cars, and feel quite secure I can get this subaru tweeked to the better, given the tools.

Whats this license stuff btw? Does it mean I can buy ecutec and tune with my license?

Tactris? Ill look into that, thanks for the tip :thumb:

Im in the same situation. Just ordered a tactrix 2.0 direct for £120.63 delivered. Now looking for advise on tweaking my map.

Best way is try RomRaider forum http://www.romraider.com/forum/
these guys will help you or try your local mapper for help.

The simple answer is no, you need to be a dealer and they are quite fussy who they sell it to, what you can get is open source, but I will add a BIG note of caution when tuning these cars, they do go bang if you dont know what your doing :(
Oh, I shall say that a "tune up" will be cheaper than most other options as you already have the ecutek license so you dont have to pay a fortune for it ;)

Tony:)

Tune it? Yer struggling to spell it there mate. With a name like that though, I'll say yes.

Don't let me down.....

TonyBurns - 10/10 post son. Only taken ye 20,093 attempts. Keep up the good work.

You must have missed my post in 2001 when I had the PPP fitted to my turbo then :lol1:

Tony:D

It depends on what the mods are to how quickly the boost can be brought in using the ecu to control boost. Fitting a 3 port solenoid will help the ecu get more boost quickly on that year. Also the map may not have been done in its current modified state.

Do not trust the narrow band sensor. Verify it with a proper wideband sensor as they will be miles apart (even within the 11-17:1 region)

Knock correction is not the same as what you are thinking. The figure that is showing there is the total available advance correction - this is what is shown in the addditional timing map and is net of any knock control. I have never understood why the PSI3 showed that value as it has virtually no use.

For example the knock advance table may show 10 degrees of igntion advance but the engine may be detting heavily and removing 7 degrees of timing to try and protect itself. The knock correction figure would show 3 degrees but the engine really is not happy.

The map may also show 7 degrees of ignition advance and it may not be detting and removing additional timing.... the knock correction figure shown then would be 7 degrees but the engine is happy.

Just examples of how worthless that value is unless your map has been flattened and you are using that as a single starting point for the additional ignition advance calculations but I would doubt that has been done in this case.

Very different animal to the megasquirt system but there is plenty of info on the RomRaider forums and also on the OpenEcu forums.

Lots of open source tuners on here (myself included) that could do a first tune with you and talk you through what I have changed and why, so that you can take it over with tweaks beyond that ....

That sucks. I was thinking of bying a ECU, so I can keep the licenced ECU just in case.

But whats so special with a EJ VS any other engine? Worth to note is that JE pistons and upgraded rods are already in place in my EJ257/EJ205 hybrid.

Thanks

That would be very much appresiated. Im more a stand alone guy, so this OEM tweaking will need some introduction I suppose.

A small "getting started guide" would be great?

Here ya go http://www.romraider.com/Documentation/GettingStarted :)

Its a Subaru, the EJ is a special engine thats a tempremental swine :lol1: roll on next year and the next gen engines are out ;)
Why do you think there are so many bearing failures on these? :( tempremental (plus it could be that they just need lots of pampering :lol1:;) )

Tony:D

Hi matey probably best bet is RomRaider or OpenECU forums and ask guys and these guys will help you.
Register on these above forums and you will see.:thumb:


Jura

So ECU flash to get the image from the ECU, then ROMRAIDER to log and tune? Can I simply swap the NB for a WB with romraider?

Probably smart to register on those forums, Ill try that when I get started. Now all I need is a ECU.

By the way, downloaded the romraider, but I need a ECU flash to play with it.. Does anyone have one?

Hi there from this website you can download standard ECU image http://www.scoobypedia.co.uk/index.p...patibilityList

And recommend you little bit have look at this thread about this http://www.scoobypedia.co.uk/index.php/Knowledge/ECU

Curious. Whats so special? Dont get me wrong here, but last I checked I had a WRC winning boxer 4 cyl under there :confused:

Bearing failures? Well, again, new with Subarus, but like all other cars from Japan, I suppose its heat. Most commonly oil temps, but also water temps kill all engines.

A proper sized thermostat controlled oil cooler will be placed in my giant hood air intake, and a humongous radiator was just installed, soon to be combined with a high flow 70 or 77C thermostat. Hopefully this will keep the temps down.

Now all I need is a properly sized turbo, that can keep up with my spirited driving. Bloody VF39`s got little other than spoolup to show for..

20G will be minimum, but Im still working on some info on exhaust housings here.. As a Garrett fan for 8 years, all I really know is AR XX with stage X wheels, haha.. :freak3: The turbine really is what defines the engines powerband the most..

Oh, and any tips here on modifying the yellow 530 (550 whatever?) injectors to over 700? Some yank told me hed heard of it on the phone, but didnt know the juicy details.. Suppose selling them and buying 740s would be easier, still..

Hi matey you will need Tactrix OpenPort 2.0 Cable for writing image to ECU



Jura

:notworthy:notworthy:notworthy

Nice. Just what I was looking for (I hope). My girlfriends definately going to kill me now. "No tuning the scoob right, 270 whp is more then enough!!"

But turbos brake all the time, right?

Hi matey everything depend on other factors,not just turbo like injectors,TMIC(WRX TMIC will be maxed at 320-330BHP)/FMIC and other factors.


Jura

The RomRaider site will tell you what wideband sensors are compatible with the software, you just load the plugin for your wideband and with it connected to the laptop and romraider running you can log AFR's.

Humongous FMIC in place, 550`s will probably become 740s. Its not my first tune, just the first scoob, but thanks for the consern :thumb:

Bearings are smaller than average on the EJ engines, oil pump issues, oil starvation issues, you normally find that they give up the ghost after an oil change, this is either down to the pump failing (common issue due to the pump design, there are upgraded pumps out there though) or due to oil starvation because the oil filter has not been filled.
Also the position of the bearings in the engine with a tighter oil tract (note the improvement on the twin scroll engines to get oil to the bearings quicker with the cross drilled cranks), so they have their issues and are quite sensitive to the oil that you use, ie they are not overkeen on 0w cold.

Though if you look at a wrc engine out of a grp A car, totally different, just the flat 4 configuration, the rest just doesnt look the same :o

Tony:D

Huh, interesting. Any links to more info on this? Does the EJ257`s have the same issues? Any remedies?

You mention oil. Does that mean they prefer a thicker oil?

This car is intended to beat lap times on the local tracks, so this type of info is greatly appresiated. :thumb:

If your going to track then I would suggest a baffled sump, the other annoying issue is fuel starvation, though I shall get abck to you on that one ;)

The EJ257's have more issues that the 2ltrs, headgaskets can be troublesome, the liners have a tendancy to crack, your running forged pistons so your going to be ok there and unless your running 400+ you wont need to worry too much about the liners :)
Oil wise, 5w40 fully synthetic, you can run a 5w30 fully synth on the new age cars but it may be a little noisy and a 10w50 may be better for the track, a 10w60 is a little thick though people will say they run it ok, its still like tar ;)

Tony:)

Sounds normal then oilwise then.

I got the closed deck block, so not too worried for the liners. Oh, headgaskets should do fine as well ;)

Oh, and the oil pan locked good to me? Do they actually cause problems?

Closed deck 2.5 ?

Are you sure?