Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hey guys,

Just got home from a dyno day at Autoworx with my club West Coast Cruisers, really not happy with my car...

Long story short, it was converted to GTT using parts from a donor car about 2 months ago. At the time, KYP (the garage that did the conversion) had the car dynoed at Autoworx to make sure the AFR's were ok, car made 220rwhp @10psi with FMIC, EBC, stock exhaust except for the crappy mild steel 2.5" cat-back it had from when it was NA, stock non-turbo fuel pump, Apexi pod filter, and Splitfire coilpacks. They also replaced all the serviceable items, so new o2 sensor, new water pump, new timing belt, new gaskets, etc.

Soon after getting it back from KYP I got a custom 3" straight-cut stainless steel cat-back exhaust (made by Kermit), 5" high-flow cat, and 3" bellmouth Tomei dump/front pipe. Then I installed a 550hp Walbro fuel pump, and made up a heatshield for my pod filter. 2 weeks ago I got a NIStune ecu installed and tuned by Andrew at Hyperdrive, one of SAUWA's sponsors and a very reputable tuner in WA... He set high boost on the EBC to 13.5psi, and the car made 243.0rwhp. Doesn't seem too flash, but Hyperdrives dyno is known to read about 20-30hp below, so Andrew told me my car was realistically making about 265-270rwhp.

Since then the car has seemed to drive really well, it feels fast and it was a lot smoother than before it was tuned. But my fuel economy became shocking. I was getting about 280kms to a tank of fuel, driving on low boost and hardly ever hitting boost (I'm pretty relaxed, I drive it like it is a normal car). It is no better on high boost, and no better if I put my foot down all the time. Before the car was tuned I was getting about 360kms to a tank.

Now today, I ran my car at Autoworx again and the result was 233.5rwhp. 10 less than I got at Hyperdrive which is meant to read low, and only 13 more than when it ran at Autoworx a couple of months earlier, despite all my modifications since then. The worst part is my fuel consumption. I filled my car up in the morning before heading to Autoworx, and when I got home my fuel gauge was sitting on the half way mark and I've only done 85kms...

So I don't understand what the problem is... Bad tune is the only thing I can come up with. I have asked Andrew about it, but he said the only thing he can do is put it back on the dyno but I don't really want to pay for more dyno time and then find he still can't tell me what the problem is...

Any suggestions? I will upload the two dyno charts for comparison in a sec... I tried to be as detailed as I could, but feel free to ask me anthing if I missed something, I'm all ears.

Thanks guys,

Martin.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/337389-not-happy-something-is-wrong/
Share on other sites

First thing i'd do is check that closed loop control is working correctly via CONSULT (use the nistune cable and software if you have it) The o2 sensor readout should flick back and forth during light load as the ECU changes to the fuel delivery hunting for stoichiometric. Generally the tuner mostly tunes the full load cells (which dont use closed loop). If you're babying it around the econ shouldnt change much at all AFAIK.

If closed loop is not working it could be o2 sensor, or the tuner forgot to turn it back on (IIRC there's a number of different ways to toggle closed loop with nistune)

Personally, I would have the current tune backed up then cut my losses and have it re-tuned elsewhere.

I doubt it can be much more than that when you gained so little HP from all those mods, combined with poor economy it seems like it should be tune related. If there was a separate issue it would throw the tune out when fixed anyway.

Ok thanks mate, I have been racking my brains trying to think of what else it could be other than a dodgy tune as Hyperdrive are supposed to be NIStune specialists :D I'll get on the phone to Andrew tomorrow then.

Strange dude...

My tune at the moment was done by Andrew. It's got its flaws its not perfect, he only spent a few runs tuning my car originally, but I trust Andrew, never had a problem with his tune/work in over 30,000kms.

Here's my most recent graph from his tune:

P1000847.jpg

Even with weird AFRs like that its still safe and hasn't caused me any problems...

I'd encourage you to give it (tuning) a go yourself. (I'll lend ya my lambda sensor and AFR gauge if ya really want!) Depends on the Nistune software (how easy it is to use), but my EMS software wasn't hard at all.

Since then I've done a bit of my own tuning, tuned out a rough spot around 3k rpm and -10mmhg vacuum and i'm attempting to tune out another one at about 2k rpm and similar load.

The poor fuel economy could be caused by decelleration fuel cut or maybe your cruising AFRs are too rich. I've been working for the WA sporting car club today @ barbagallo today, and I've seen numerous cars with Hyperdrive stickers on them, so I doubt Andrew would've given your car back without it having a decent enough tune...

put it on a dyno and check the basics. so many variables and so many things changed.

everyone is quick to blame the workshop so before you go doing any of that, get it all checked and check the basics on the dyno. check the tune, check the timing, check the fuel, check the fuel pump (walbro's can be ass sometimes) check the AFR's

excessive fuel usuage is usually

poor tune

poor closed loop

constant loading the car up / bring it on boost repeatedly

a good check is to give the car to your girlfriend or mum and let her drive it for a few days

i bet the economy doulbes or triples when they drive it (ie they baby it and dont bring it on boost constantly)

i know you said you dont do it, but its a simple mechnical check, if if they get same ass economy its not your driving

a good check is to give the car to your girlfriend or mum and let her drive it for a few days

i bet the economy doulbes or triples when they drive it (ie they baby it and dont bring it on boost constantly)

That is a sure way to use more fuel with Ms Wolv behind the wheel. She is always ramping it onto boost.

Everyones dyno "reads low", its the new black.

:D

The car needs to go back to the tuner, there is little else you can do.....

Everyones dyno "reads low", its the new black.

Yeah but that's easy to say when your car makes 450kw mate! haha

I'm the first person to add 30hp to my dyno graph above, cos it was on HD's dyno hahaha

My car might only make 223hp there, but im still convinced its a fast car. I've driven some pretty half decent cars around Barbagallo (mk1 esky with 350hp turbo cosworth, 300hp rb25 s13), and my car isn't that dissimilar in feel and accelleration... There's def something wrong with that dyno haha Maybe it needs a re-calibration?

'Street-tuning-yourself-and-using-your-butt-dyno' is the new black... lol That was me about 5 minutes ago :D

andrew seams to ignore light load tuning and only do full load tunes when hes busy. if he didnt spend much time on it then i dare say you have a rich light load map with no where near enough timing. i'm in perth and have nistune software if you want me to take a look at it for you?

Would you mind mate? You want beer or something? I'm not sure how long he spent working on it, it was there all day but he had a couple of other cars to do and he had to install the board in my ecu so may not have spent that much time actually tuning it...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • To plug the hole. The engine plant may not have known whether the car it was going into had a gauge or not. It was a long time ago and the integrations might not have been fully modern. Or they might not have cared because the extra inventory and processes to save a few cents on the sender might have cost more anyway. But please tell me you are not still confusing the idea of a pressure gauge sender, and an oil pressure light switch. The switch will be out there. In a separate hole. Probably with only one wire running to it. Running the light.
    • Blower needs to go low on the exhaust side, displacing the AC and PS, which you have to decide whether you want to keep and how and where to relocate if you do. Electric option for PS is, at least, helpful. Sadly, there is no workable 12V electric AC of any value. Whilst the blower is the last compression step before the throttle, and so it might seem a good idea to have it near the inlet manifold (as mentioned above), you probably want it to go through an intercooler first, so, having it on the opposite side of the car facilitates that air flow path. The turbo discharges into the blower, so proximity of the turbo's compressor outlet to the blower's inlet is nice. But then you might want to intercool that too, before boosting it again....which would probably be a ball ache. Routing pipes out to the front and back could be a bit shit. If there was room for (at least) a small (but preferably larger) water to air core on that side, then that would probably be the best approach. I guess a reasonable alternative would be to locate the blower where the alternator is (more or less, associated with the inlet manifold, per Matt's thought), and somehow incorporate a water to air core into the manifold, sort of like they do for modern blown V8s. The big difference here though is that those V8s have only the one throttle (upstream the blower) and only the one compression step (the blower) and no need for too much in the way of bypass/blowoff valves. Whereas in a twin charged 6, you do need to think about one or two bypass valves associated with the 2 compressors and you would prefer to have the intercooling done before the air has to pass through the throttle. You'd like the throttle to work approx the same no matter what the compression is doing. But if it is located in hot air stream before a cooler, then sometimes the air will be real hot, sometimes it will be quite cool, and the throttle mapping/response will be quite different between those two cases. The throttle, if sized for hot air, would be too large for cold conditions. It's all a ball ache.
    • Package SC on exhaust side. Remote mount turbo. Still a fair bit of room when you get creative on the inlet side of the motor too. Especially if you can get really creative with the welding, and effectively build it into the bottom of the inlet manifold. Would definitely take some design work, and some trial and error, to make sure flow works well still! Might be easier to just start with the Nissan March though... All the work is already done for you...
    • I'll sit down and get a post together 馃榿
    • The factory oil pressure sender is no longer in the car that's what is confusing me. In the Taarks adapter I have an aftermarket Bosch style pressure/temp sender and the factory temp sender only. Oil pressure is perfect. Where does the factory oil temp sender go to if there were never any gauges? Why was it there from the factory?
  • Create New...