Haxorz

$750 for the tune. I was quoted cheaper but I went with what I thought was 'the best'. Of course, I've got nothing to compare this to so I don't really know. One thing I've noticed is my take-off isn't as smooth as it used to be, but I'm being very picky about it and it's easy to just rev it a little more and it's fine. Right now I've just adjusted my driving style slighty. I guess a 2 days tune cannot compare to the millions of dollars of research Nissan has probably spent getting it right. It's very possible I'll get better than stock fuel economy. The fuel mixtures are very conservative stock and are much leaner on cruise now.

Yes.

I'm glad you asked. First tank - 12.85L/100km Second tank - 12.6L/100km Overall this seems about the same as what it was doing prior to the mods (obviously I'm putting my foot down a little more than usual given the newness of my extra power). This is city driving. Driving to work, start stop traffic, 40-70-80km/h zones. Will be interesting to see a highway cycle.

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I have just been offered a great price on a used Blitz LM intercooler. Dimensions are 610 x 266 x 68mm. This is the type that has the 180degree bend and utilises the stock IC piping. I've never been a fan of the FMIC upgrade on the R34, due to loss of response and all those posts I read about the stock IC being efficient up to 200rwkw, although this is at a price too good to refuse and I was a bit disappointed with my 180rwkw after my Power FC tune. Questions (Prefer personal R34 stories only): 1. Will fitting this alone and running the same boost (10psi) give me a power increase on my R34 GTt? 2a. Will fitting this allow me to run higher boost (say 12psi) safely? 2b. What sort of power increase could I expect? 3. Will I lose a noticeable amount of response due to the length of the pipes? 4. Is this cooler to big for the stock turbo? 5. Some people have noticed improved fuel economy. Is this the case? 6. How different will my power curve be? I just want zippy street performance up to the regular speed limits, I'm not into track. 7. Will boost come on later? Same? Earlier? 8. What will my power graph look like? Will it be better, worse or same below say 5000rpm? 8. Even at a low price is this modification worth it? From what I've read around here I'm guessing it'll take me to say 190rwkw @ 12psi and I'll lose some responsiveness. This to me seems to be a poor upgrade decision IMO unless I were definatley to go a turbo upgrade as well.

Glad I helped. I charted these figures up in Excel. Didn't turn out exactly as I wanted them but here you go (using only 7 data points). I'm not sure how scientific this is, as they were different dynos, but enjoy anyway!

BTW - What is this? Are you suggesting I post a dyno chart or some moderator should ban this thread? Is it OK if I pickup my car first? The dyno graph is attached for your enjoyment. It shows power and boost. As you can see the power curve isn't as nice as it was, but that's life I guess. As I mentioned previously, a lot of time was spent on this tune, and if the filename is any indication that looks like 41 runs on the dyno however this is just my guess and could be wrong. Notes on the limited driving I've done so far. I think the car revs a bit lower, around 800-900 now. Unfortunately I didn't take a measurement of my pre-tune idle so I may be incorrect. Anything other than wide open throttle the car drives also exactly as I remembered it. Obviously it pulls harder under throttle due to the increase in power. I was expecting a fraction more but it's still more fun nonetheless. I'll keep an eye out for fuel economy over the next few weeks and post some results. The car also seems to not choke as much if I boot it and then yank my foot off the accelerator. It sort of 'coasts' a little bit more, just like my R33 did when I first went the dump/front pipe. Boost now comes on harder due to the removal of the 2 stage thing. No suprises there. I guess the graph says most of it. Unfortunately all this dyno graph was all I got, no before 20x20 maps were talken although they were requested (and I don't have a hand controller so I can't give you any post maps). The car is very much still driveable, it's not like I'm driving a 'modified car' if that makes sense. I'm happy with this, it was one of my tuning aims and also the reason I went the Power FC over the S-AFC. I've driven some pretty wild 32's in the past, good power but as a daily driver they were awful. Tips for anyone getting a tune: - The car ended up being at workshop for 3 days even though the orignal estimate was 2. No big deal really, I'm paying these guys for their tuning ability not their estimation skills, but if I had have dropped the car off on a Thursday I would have been without a car for the weekend so keep this in mind I guess (same goes for any type of mechanical work really). - Ben @ Racepace knows these things like the back of his hand and inside out. His knowledge was evident during our discussion of the tune. Some lessons he learnt from the track were used in the tune. - Two of the check engine warning sensors were disabled, injector max and air meter max as my car is a long way away from making that power anyway. Just the knock sensor warning is enabled. - The tune took half a tank of petrol. Make sure to fill the car with whatever you normally run on it. Would I recommend it? Look, to me, the car drove great before, and now it's pretty much the same with a bit more power. No extra lag, nothing like that and hopefully economy will be unaffected. Was it worth the cash? That's really up to the individual. I guess the real question is was it an upgrade that 'made sense' at my level of modification. It's still early days, but I think the answer is yes. I wanted to get a bit more power but was uneasy with a few of the downsides of the FMIC (potential loss of response, attraction from police/theives, potentially modding engine bay, snorkle, fan, etc - now I know there are coolers that don't have ALL of these negatives but none are void of all). I also wanted to maintain driveablity. Another reason I went the Power FC before the FMIC was because I was under the impression that I could achieve something more like 190-195rwkw but for me this wasn't the case. I guess if I ran 12psi I probably would, but without a convenient way to switch this around (EBC or valve) I'd rather leave the thing set on 10ish and forget about it. In the meantime, if anyone has any specific questions on it feel free to ask. I hope my little write up helps any other Skyline boys and girls out there considering the Power FC.

To my knowledge, yes. It's this cat . I know you got 190rwkw with your rom tune. Do you have a Jap brand exhaust? I really thought my exhaust was pretty good (even though it's custom) and only have one muffler as well (albeit not a huge one)! Boost starts at about 9, goes up to 10.5, then back to about 10. From what he described it seems to follow a similar curve as the one on the dyno graphs posted before, without the 2 stage thing though. Dyno graphs and other information will be posted once I get them.

Results back in for the Power FC install and tune. R34 GTt + Full Exhaust + Power FC = 180rwkw. Will be picking up car after work today. Was a little disappointed, was hoping for 190rwkw, but all dynos and cars are different I suppose. No 'before' run on that dyno was taken unfortunately. I was told the car needed some serious re-mapping. Practically EVERY value on the maps were changed and it took the tuner a long time. The cruise was leaned out nicely for good economy. The power curve isn't the nicest but it drives much better than it looks. So, if the two dynos were at least somewhat compareable, the Power FC gave me an extra 15rwkw top end (which seems about right) and hopefully some better economy. Hopefully a really sweet mid as well. I was told my limitations are basically either the turbo or the exhaust. I have a Bos importing split dump/front, catco (small) high flow cat and custom 3" cat back (consisting of one 4" resonator and a magnaflow muffler with a 4" tip). I'll add some more comments after I drive the car, do a few tanks through it and have been driving it for a bit.

Yes. 1 bar = 14.7 psi, so around 0.61. Yeah, hopefully 10psi after tune, all going well. Not 100% sure of the restrictor location. I thought it was to the wastegate solenoid or acutator spring or something. I really can't rememeber, I have a novated lease now so I leave all that stuff to the workshops now.

From what I've read around here, on an R34, stock turbo and cooler 12psi is pushing it. I'd have mine at say 10psi max if you want some reliability. Yes, the exhaust made the car boost 'too much' and it started to misfire. A performance garage put the restrictor in.

Hahaha, that's good - cause I have no idea what you're on about! I take it your happy with Ben's tune? Edit: whoops, missed your previous post. Great to hear and thanks for the info.

Good advice. I will be speaking to him about that, I don't want a high max power with crap fuel economy. The tune will take 2 days, as the tuner said in order to do the cold start 100% you need to do a real life cold start. He said he could get it 99% right if it were just a 1 day tune. Leaning out the cruise sounds like a great idea. I'm hoping he'll be doing that anyway, but it doens't hurt to re-iterate it. It's getting done by Ben @ Racepace, who has come highly recommended and has done some great work with friends cars. Oooooohhhh so excited! :PBJ:

It's all happening so fast! I really need to take note tonight of the 'before' picture. What do we want to know? I can think of: 1. Boost (when it comes on, how it holds without an EBC). 2. Fuel economy 3. Driveablity 4. Idle / cold start 5. Power curve (low down, mid range especially) 6. Responsiveness 7. Heat soak on stock intercooler 8. Tuner review 9. Dyno graphs (before and after)

Update - just picked up a Power FC. Getting installed and tuned tomorrow. Will do a little before and after write up with my R34 + full exhaust + Power FC with stock cooler. I'll be happy if I get 190rwkw, but I'm secretly hoping for 200rwkw.

x

Some extra information I thought might help others. I just spoke to a respectable Melbourne tuner and he even suggests gapping to 0.6mm on the GTt's to prevent misfiring on high boost. He even said they've gone as low as 0.5mm on R34 GTR's. It's his opinion that the ignition system on the R34's are weak as piss. Failing that, swap around the coils and then eventually new Splitfires.

No noticable heat soak? I take it you still don't have a FMIC...? After that comment I'm really leaning against one. Maybe just fix my dodgy coil/ignition issue, get a Power FC installed and tuned and then re-asses. I know if I go a FMIC I'll cop another tune, but from your comment I can't really see the point (for me - as I just do the odd squirt and don't need consistent performance)?

Just FYI my tuner today said he reckons 12psi without a cooler and 14psi with a cooler is OK with the stock GTt turbo, so I guess what I said above was NQR. Looks like its my ignition system that's now robbing me of power (i.e. and allowing to only run 9psi).

I take it you went the splitfires? Did you try to tape or epoxy them first? For me the regap and boost reduction for the most has fixed the issue, although I got the enging warning light (code 21 - Ignition) again so this bandaid didn't fix it entirely. Just unsure to bite the bullet and order splitfires or to try the tape/epoxy fix.

Got it scanned. Thanks Godzilla32. Code 21 - Ignition problem. Was related to this misfiring problem. Some good suggestions at this thread.

x

SOLD.

Ahhh cool, so I could expect a similar figure by adding the Power FC. Did you find the heat soak an issue in your daily driving? I mean, could it even be tuned properly (wouldn't the cooler be heat soaked after one run?).

I'd bet it's exactly what I had... check this thread.

One thing. I can deduce from my dyno graphs that a 9psi -> 12psi boost increase will give me a max power increase of around 20rwkw alone. So, in going from 165 up to 200, the boost increase from 9psi -> 11psi would probably account for 13 of those kw (I know this isn't exact science, just my dodgy maths). 11psi would only be safely achieveable with a FMIC, so yeah, it looks like the Power FC is the best bang for buck. If I could reach 190rwkw or higher and have great driveability with a Power FC, stock cooler, full exhaust, panel filter, no EBC and still run say 9psi I'd be very happy. What would happen if I was driving around on a hot day with the stock cooler and Power FC? Would it just run slightly worse (like it would today) or are there issues with knocking/engine damage as all of those stock 'engine protection things' like rich and retard are no longer there? I'm looking through the Power FC FAQ but it's assuming a FMIC be in place to start.