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Safc Are They Worth It?

kidafa
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wolverine Grand Master

wolverine

Posted
Posted

it is going to improve things on increases throttle changes not steady state driving as the factory ecu will lean it back to stoic if the O2 sensor is working on steady state.

ultimately the best option is full engine management but the SAFC is TOTALLY WORTH IT (i'm with tangles).

kidafa Veteran

kidafa

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Fuc# yeah.. this is what i want to hear.... Any one want to make an estimated guess on how many k's i might pick up per tank?

Also Installing it woudlnt be to hard by the looks of things... Many people do it themselves?

Cheers.

IMPORTD Grand Master

IMPORTD

Posted
Posted

ok well going on your mods and what I already have, I am now getting 500 to the tank... I push my car that little further and she gets me up to the 500km mark everytime and I fill her up in time lol

so you'd gain an extra 100ks per tank

Oh this is on 98 vortex, bp ultimate gets me about 40ks less...

kidafa Veteran

kidafa

Posted
  • Author
Posted

currently sitting on 350k's to this tank on BP 98... Havent driven it hard at all and im just waiting for the light to come on saying shes thirsty.

So do you guys recomend i install one my self?

Should i get a SAFC, SAFC2, SAFC neo? what you recomend?

RubyRS4 Grand Master

RubyRS4

Posted
Posted (edited)

A second hand SAFC2 for $200-$250 with all the gear is reasonable, or a new SAFC Neo off ebay for the <$390 mark is a good buy.

When I get mine, I'll install it myself, then get Shaun to tune it.

:D

Edited by RubyRS4
Tangles Grand Master

Tangles

Posted
Posted

If you can find an SITC and SAFC2 for around $500-$550 all up delivered, thats good

$200-$250 install & tune at Boostwerks getting everything right

with stock exhaust you'll get much better fuel economy

however with full exhaust you'll get better economy and more powah !! :D

KiwiRS4T Grand Master

KiwiRS4T

Posted
Posted
do I really need the SITC as well as the SAFC?

When you lean out the A/F with the SAFC you may get detonation (pinking or knocking). Without a SITC you will have to retard the base timing to get rid of it. With a SITC you can tailor the timing throughout the rev range to get maximum advance without knock. So it is desirable but not necessary - you may want to spend your money on a new front pipe first.

pixel8r Mentor

pixel8r

Posted
Posted (edited)

The SAFC is definitely worthwhile!! and if you're keen, as mentioned above, get the SITC as well for extra tuneability. However you can make do with a SAFC very well and the SITC's are quite rare so you may find them difficult to get hold of anyway. I only had an SAFC on my old stagea s2 and it had 160awkw comfortably. The SAFC will be fine for anything up to around 200awkw, and after that you'd probably want to look at some more advanced ecu's for better tuning capabilities.

People who say the SAFC wont affect fuel economy aren't giving the full story.

Basically the SAFC ONLY works when the throttle is past 50%. Below that, the SAFC doesn't do anything as far as I know. Above that, (ie. anything from 50% up to full throttle) it will modify the airflow signal that the ecu sees, making it supply less (or more) fuel than it otherwise would have. Usually you want to lean it out a bit, particularly at the higher revs, so this is where the SAFC will do its stuff. The theory goes that if its causing the ecu to supply less fuel at any point, then you will be saving on fuel at that point. Its more complex than this too, because the SAFC on its own will also affect ignition timing, but its still safe to say it could potentially save a bit on fuel.

Sure, it wont save you on fuel if you just cruise around and it wont affect your highway economy much since you'll only be using light throttle all the time. However, if your driving style involves heavy throttle a lot, then you WILL save on fuel. You'll only be using less fuel when the throttle is more than 50% but its a fuel saving nonetheless.

It may get you a few extra kw but for me the most thing I noticed was increased fuel efficiency and therefore more power in the low-midrange.

Since you'll need to tune it on a dyno, its a good idea to advance the timing a bit at the same time (keeping in mind that the safc will also advance the timing depending on how different the settings are to stock). By using a combination of safc tuning and advancing the base timing (at BOOSTWORX - yes, do go there!!) I managed 10kw extra at the top end and the car just felt so much more responsive right across the revs. AND I saved over 1.5L/100km in fuel economy from that point onwards. Admittedly the advanced timing meant I couldn't use anything but 98 octane fuel, but you should probably use this anyway :D

Lastly I'll just mention that just adding an exhaust to your car, will probably be enough to make it run too rich, and will require tuning of some sort. For this sort of mild tuning, the SAFC is excellent value. and if you know what you're doing, its simple enough to make small changes yourself afterwards. Just be sure to write down the settings before changing them and then you can always return to these settings later.

good luck with it :D

Edited by pixel8r

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