My tuning experience - any help is welcome!

VTEC Inside · Post by **VTEC Inside** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 6:30 pm

I decided to make a thread to tell you about my setup, ask questions and to see what is your opinion on my car. I live in Bulgaria, Europe and my English may not be so good so please excuse me for that. So I have a 1990 Prelude 4WS with B20A9 I bought it like 3 years ago and not long after that I decided to turbocharge it. So here is the setup that is already done: Wiseco pistons with 9:1 CR, 81.5mm CP piston rings Crower rods ACL Race main and Duraglide rod bearings Custom head gasket ColtCams TriFlow regrinds Adjustable cam gears â€“ still havenâ€™t played with them Turbonetics T3/T04E 50 stg.2 .63A/R LSD turbo mani 3â€� downpipe with resonator and Apexi N1 Universal muffler Innovative engine mounts Fidanza 4.3 clutch - 6 puck, sprung, ceramic pads Fidanza CV Shafts Super Pro polyurethane bushings all the way AEM gauges - Oil temp., Oil press., UEGO and TRU Boost eCtuned

From the beginning I wanted to learn how to tune my car by myself. So after the rebuilt I started with Crome and I friend of mine helped me with some tuning the basemap and after reading, reading and some more reading I started playing with it and when I got the money I bought eCtune Pro since itâ€™s the best tuning solution with OEM ECU (from what Iâ€™ve read at different places). Now Iâ€™m driving my Lude with a map that I started from 0. I used a basemap for H23 to start with and the AFRs are good enough I think. Now I have to start playing with ignition tables which scares me a little. I made myself a det can but as I read the most important thing is to read the spark plugs. I read at different places about spark plugs reading and Iâ€™m starting to watch the plugs. The first question is what do you use to clean the plugs before reading it? I tried with gasoline but is there something else that is better? And how do you read the ceramic that is deeper in the plug which should be for the WOT fueling? I will try to make some pictures asap. Here is my calibration and some logs(I'll be more then happy to hear what do you think ):

dbsharp · Post by **dbsharp** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 12:47 am

I don't know why, but trying to open your 2nd .elf file, made ectune crash on my computer.

TopMountGSR · Post by **TopMountGSR** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 2:45 am

One thing I saw that you need to learn is smoothness.. The smoother your rows are in fuel and timing maps, the smoother the car will run. For instance; Instead of trying to hit exactly 14.7 thoughout partial throttles, try just shooting for a safe range, say 14.0-15.2. This will smooth your rows out and take the jagged-ness out. Look at other ectune tuners posted maps, Burgermass for example is excellent at making all the rows nice and smooth. I would venture to say all of the cars he tunes run smooth as glass. Dont be scared of the timing maps.. But understand when you smooth them all out it will change your air fuels and your fuel tables will now need some work. A good place to start is smooth all your timing maps out never exceeding 28 degrees in your 10th column then just doing a normal step retard for the boost tables. Also when the fuel tables start to \"drop\" off say 2000rpms towards redline, start increasing timing to redline in small 0.25-0.5 degree amounts. If you do this to your 10th column when you step retard it all the boost tables will have this progressive timing increase after peak torque carrying your tq curve out farther. Hope this helps, dk

VTEC Inside · Post by **VTEC Inside** » Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:42 pm

Of course this helps. Everything helps since I'm a noob

I played with the fuel maps today and tried to make them smoother as you sugested. As for the timing maps don't they look smooth? I still haven't touch them thogh. I guess the best way to tune timing is on the dyno but since it's so expensive and I am a noob is it safe to add timing and to read spark pugs(which I'm learning now) and listen the det can or I shouldn't do that before I can afford the dyno.

TopMountGSR wrote:One thing I saw that you need to learn is smoothness.. The smoother your rows are in fuel and timing maps, the smoother the car will run. For instance; Instead of trying to hit exactly 14.7 thoughout partial throttles, try just shooting for a safe range, say 14.0-15.2. This will smooth your rows out and take the jagged-ness out. Look at other ectune tuners posted maps, Burgermass for example is excellent at making all the rows nice and smooth. I would venture to say all of the cars he tunes run smooth as glass. Dont be scared of the timing maps.. But understand when you smooth them all out it will change your air fuels and your fuel tables will now need some work. A good place to start is smooth all your timing maps out never exceeding 28 degrees in your 10th column then just doing a normal step retard for the boost tables. Also when the fuel tables start to "drop" off say 2000rpms towards redline, start increasing timing to redline in small 0.25-0.5 degree amounts. If you do this to your 10th column when you step retard it all the boost tables will have this progressive timing increase after peak torque carrying your tq curve out farther. Hope this helps, dk

dbsharp · Post by **dbsharp** » Mon Jul 20, 2009 7:36 pm

det can is good and so is reading spark plugs. I found the following thread helpful for reading plugs. http://forum.ectune.com/viewtopic.php?t ... sc&start=0

VTEC Inside · Post by **VTEC Inside** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:20 am

Thanks for the help. I already read this thread and it really helps. I just wonder if the plugs need to be new to be read. And what do you use to clean them prior reading - gasoline works? I'm waitin for some NGK 4554s and 10x magnifying dlass to arrive and will be playing with reading the plugs and will ask more questions

dbsharp wrote:det can is good and so is reading spark plugs. I found the following thread helpful for reading plugs. http://forum.ectune.com/viewtopic.php?t ... sc&start=0

VTEC Inside · Post by **VTEC Inside** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 2:41 am

OK. I was driving the other day and was trying to read my spark plugs. Around 5000rpm I hear detonations and I stopped the engine right when it is detonating and changed the plugs and later took pictures to show them to you all and hear what you can say from looking at the pictures. So here are the pictures: Cleaned with brake cleaner (cyl#1)

Not cleaned (cyl#4)

Everybody is welcome to share his opinion!

b20beast · Post by **b20beast** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:47 am

VTEC Inside wrote:OK. I was driving the other day and was trying to read my spark plugs. Around 5000rpm I hear detonations and I stopped the engine right when it is detonating and changed the plugs and later took pictures to show them to you all and hear what you can say from looking at the pictures. So here are the pictures: Cleaned with brake cleaner (cyl#1) Not cleaned (cyl#4) Everybody is welcome to share his opinion!

What is the AFR looks like you need more fuel. timing looks okay

dbsharp · Post by **dbsharp** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:32 am

Are those iridium plugs? I still consider myself noobish to reading plugs but based off of the one picture I can see, I think those plugs are too hot. The ground strap looks good, but if the plugs are too hot, then you shouldn't rely on the timing mark. If your getting detonation, try reducing the timing. -Get some copper plugs. -Try a colder plug. -Reduce timing until the detonation is gone.

VTEC Inside · Post by **VTEC Inside** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:34 am

dbsharp wrote:Are those iridium plugs? I still consider myself noobish to reading plugs but based off of the one picture I can see, I think those plugs are too hot. The ground strap looks good, but if the plugs are too hot, then you shouldn't rely on the timing mark. If your getting detonation, try reducing the timing. -Get some copper plugs. -Try a colder plug. -Reduce timing until the detonation is gone.

Yes they are Iridium plugs, 8 heat range. I have now NGK 4554s and will be playing with them. The pictures are from driving around 14 psi. I guess I will need 9 heat range to try. The strange thing is that I have detonations when I am at around 5000rpm and push rapidly the gas pedal. If I push it from 3000 for example and let it go to 6000 it won't detonate. So I guess it may be because of the Tip in. May be it gets lean from the tip in and that's why detonating. Make sense?

VTEC Inside · Post by **VTEC Inside** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 4:47 am

What is the AFR looks like you need more fuel. timing looks okay

The AFR is 10.5-11 Here is a link to the album with all the pictures if you can't see all of them: http://picasaweb.google.com/VTEC.MMF/Sp ... directlink

b20beast · Post by **b20beast** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 9:11 am

VTEC Inside wrote:
What is the AFR looks like you need more fuel. timing looks okay
The AFR is 10.5-11 Here is a link to the album with all the pictures if you can't see all of them: http://picasaweb.google.com/VTEC.MMF/Sp ... directlink

10.5 IS too rich Also you can either add fuel in cols 1 and 2 or adjust your tip in.

dbsharp · Post by **dbsharp** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:30 am

you should try using less throttle and see if the detonation is happening at a lighter load/ lower psi. high 11's is good for most street turbo setups imo. Its not uber rich, but still a nice cushion for sub par gas or other irregularities. You could run leaner than that and be fine (and probably make more power), but the power increase from leaning out is marginal. Run thoes 4554's and see how they look, then go colder if needed. try to get rid of the detonation asap.

98vtec · Post by **98vtec** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:01 am

get rid of that iridium BS. copper or bust.

VTEC Inside · Post by **VTEC Inside** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:27 am

98vtec wrote:get rid of that iridium BS. copper or bust.

Hahaha I hear you Blake - I guess it's you from PreludePower.com I'm already using 4554s but didn't have a chance to see how they look. When I do I will make pictures and share with you all.

eCtune

My tuning experience - any help is welcome!

My tuning experience - any help is welcome!

Spark Plug Reading

Re: Spark Plug Reading

Spark Plug Reading