How To Tune

[Baz]

Just a curious question.

When people tune cars what value's do they tune against or what process do they go through to correctly tune a car for the mods that it has? Do they tune to aim for a certain air/fuel ratio under all different loads (ie. full throttle, cruising, deceleration)? Wind in more boost and more timing til it starts to ping ? Or something else that I am missing completely?

Only asking because in the next couple of weeks I am getting an adaptor welded into my dump pipe to be able to suit a wideband 02 sensor using a product that I am still undecided on at this stage with suitable logging software, so I can start to teach myself some of the basics. I'm starting off by using an SAFC2 as a starting point and then seeing how I go move on bigger and better things if all goes well...

[Baz]

Anyone? I'm sure someone on this website has done some form of tuning before...

[RB30-POWER]

A good tuner will usually tune for maximum torque at every load point on the ecu map.

No single AFR value or ignition timing value will determine this. Some load points might make max torque with less fuel and less timing, some might be better with more fuel and more timing and vice versa.

You need a dyno to really determine if your making more power/torque.

On the road your only guessing really, whats what.

[Sass]

if you get an aftermarket tune done most tuners will tune for max power and make sure its nice and safe. since owning an aftermarket ecu and doing some tuniunig things i have found myself:

do light load / cruise ignition timing yourself

do light load / cruise afr tuning yourself

those two will give you some good fuel economy and a nice crisp feeling when driving.

[Baz]

Ok so if I was going to aim for a consistant AFR of say 12.1 across the range. It wouldn't necessarily mean that I would be getting maximum power across the a full rpm map. So the only way you can do a true tune is by using a dyno?

[R31Nismoid]

yes, 12.1 might not be the best, some AFR's ive seen move around a bit indeed.

Some people say you can street tune... especially on NS.com, even my dog could tune according to one of thier sponsors

Dyno is the best and safest way.

Small ups and downs in torque/power arent noticable on the street... plus to give full song in 4th gear, not a good idea on the street.

[Baz]

Yeah you are probably right. Just that I wanted to have a bash at trying to tune my own car myself considering the concept of tuning really isn't that difficult once you know what to look for. But if the dyno is the only way then it looks like I might have to bite the bullet and pay for a tune myself....

[RB30-POWER]

You can always have a go at the road tune, and if you are unsure or want to improve the results get it thrown on the dyno to fine tune it. Save some dollars that way.

[Robo's]

Generally you need 14.7-1 for light cruising, around 13-1 for zero boost and around 12-1 for full throttle. So you need to progressively increase fuel as load increases.