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Getting it all dialed in
A proper tune, on a proper dyno, can make a world of difference....
We're all about you learning to tune your car yourself, and for fuel tuning
that's usually very attainable with a good wideband a fair amount of time.
However for the DIYer, ignition tuning is usually either guesswork, or blind
trust in a map you pulled off forum on the internet, that is unless you have the
help of a good steady state dyno and know how to use it. Ignition timing
what you want to get right too-- that's where 90% of the power is.
Your MegaSquirt or MegaSquirtPNP EMS does need to be mapped to your car to
get you the best performance. I've hand tuned cars, pretty well actually, and
then fully mapped the same car on a good steady state dyno, and there is a world
of difference. Better throttle response, better powerband starting from
much lower in the rev range, higher peak torque and horsepower, better torque at
part throttle and at cruise even. And even more than that-- all of this
can be done without any guesswork at all when it's done on a steady state dyno.
The car can be kept well away from the knock threshold, allowing you to make the
most power possible without ever encountering detonation. Do NOT add
advance until you hear knock and then back it off-- that's a recipe for
disaster at worse, and at minimum it's very poor tuning technique. There
is a science to this, and it's fairly easy to dial a well built engine in on the
proper equipment, with the proper training and experience using that equipment.
There are steady state dyno's all over the country/world. The tuners
may or may not have worked with an MegaSquirt or MSPNP before but the tuning
software is easy to work with, you should bring your laptop already
setup/configured to communicate with your unit as there are various flavors of
firmware/hardware out there and you can't expect the dyno tuner to be ready for
every one of them.
You will definitely want a steady state/load bearing dyno, not
a simple inertia dyno. Dyno Dynamics, DynaPack or Mustang are high quality
steady state dyno manufacturers. Inertia dynos are pretty much a waste of time
when it comes to tuning, you can roughly map in wide-open-throttle (WOT), but
that's it, and you can't even do that right as you can't adjust the load to
anything that's realistic for the road.
Here are some links to locators and/or lists of owners of our recommended steady
state dynos, we can't personally vouch for any of these tuners, just that they
have the right equipment.
DynaPack
http://www.dynapackusa.com/links.htm
Dyno Dynamics
http://www.dynodynamics.com/dyno/controller/locator
Mustang
http://www.mustangdyne.com/locator.htm
You can call around to a couple shops and see what they charge as it varies
in different areas. Also find out if they've worked with MS before, or if
they're willing to work with it even if they haven't-- the software is very simple to work with.
Preparing to take your car to be tuned
You or your installer should insure of the following things
before taking the car to be tuned. Keep in mind that dyno time is not very
affordable diagnostic time, you don't want to be figuring out problems on the
dyno. The operator is more than likely going to have to charge you shop
rates even if the dyno isn't operating as you're still essentially using the
dyno and they can't have any other cars on it until your car is off.
Make sure your install is complete
You car should be running perfectly, just not tuned yet. What does that
mean? It doesn't mean you can drive your car at all...
- It does means that the car should be starting and idling reliably at all
different coolant temperatures that will be encountered.
- It means all sensors are reading properly in the tuning software.
- That you've properly calibrated the coolant and IAT sensors if need be.
(GM Sensors read correctly by default, others need calibration, see the
MegaManual)
- Your TPS sensor is calibrated.
- That you don't have any strange ignition misses, etc. If possible,
do enough research on tuning the car yourself, and with the help of a
wideband if available, free rev the engine a bit and keep the AFR in the
safe zone by dialing it in (while free revving, for the purposes of this
test, 14:1 is a good target AFR), you're really just looking to see if the
engine revs fairly well with no load on it to help ensure the EMS install is
complete and free of issues you need to work out.
- Make sure you've properly figured out your dwell settings as per the
MegaManual-- too little dwell can cause misfire, too much can burn things
up. The tuner is likely to guess at this number if he thinks it needs
to be changed, you have the information you need in the MegaManual though--
you or your installer should have this right before the tuning session.
- Forced induction cars-- Your IAT sensor MUST be AFTER the compressor,
and AFTER the intercooler. Preferably just before the throttle body
inlet. It needs to measure the actual actual air temp that's entering
the intake manifold, hence the name intake air temp (IAT) or manifold air
temp (MAT). If you are measuring ambient air temp just after the filter,
then heating the air with a compressor (SC or turbo) then maybe you cool it
with an intercooler, who knows what temp that air will be when it enters the
intake? The ECU surely doesn't, and your fueling calculations will
suffer badly.
- If you have a wideband, make sure it's reading properly (installed and
calibrated properly), and preferably have it's output piped into the MS
where it can be datalogged. Have MegaLogViewer loaded on your laptop
for quick log viewing.
- Your cooling system should be adequate-- much of the time spent on a
dyno is spent waiting for a car to cool down, the better your car manages
heat, the faster your tuning session will go.
Make sure your car is well maintained
- The spark plugs are in great condition, new is even better, and properly
gapped.
- NOTE: If you've installed forced induction on a stock n/a car,
you should got with a 'colder' plug, at least one step colder.
Also it's likely you will want to gap the plug a few thousands less than
stock. For example if stock is .035 maybe go to .028, if needed
later during tuning (misfires under boost) you could drop the gap a tiny
bit more. Check the plugs after driving the car a bit- if the
plugs are too cold they'll foul quickly, if they're too hot (as stock
n/a plugs may be with forced induction) then you could have
pre-ignition/detonation. Usually I start with 2 steps colder, then
read the plugs, if they're reading dark even though I know my fuel
mixture is right then I'll change to only one step colder than stock and
that's usually fine.
- Make sure the rest of your ignition system is in great condition--
wires, distributor cap, etc.
- Make sure all fluids are fresh and topped off. Oil/coolant/etc.
- Make sure you have your wheel lock keys if you're going to a hub dyno such
as a DynaPack!!! If the tuner can't remove your wheels it's a no-go...
We'll continue to update this page soon, plans are:
- A brief video series to help tuners get quickly up to speed with the
MegaTune and MegaLogViewer software, providing the highlights of what most
tuners will want to know.
- If we get some feedback from our customers on good MegaSquirt/MSPNP
friendly tuners, who fully map the ECUs on a steady state dyno, we'll begin
to build our own list here of known MS friendly tuning shops around the
country/world.
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