Tuning my DR750s on Chrome

[Greg E]

I rrrreally hope you dont run into any issues with this also Chris. Greg is very confident it can be resolved with a few key strokes though.

I wish I could have been there. Between ray and I that car would have been great with the ARC.

[familyMAN]

Do you have a tuning guide for knock sensor? Each engine will have its own "signature" depending on PTW clearance, type of pistons, stroke, etc. Would be wise for anyone running chrome and a non-OEM shortblock to tune the knock cal. In AEM, after syncing timing, a knock cal is one of the first things to do.

[futurevr4man]

The 3.5 is worth it for the sound alone, getting to hear two cars with the same exhausts, 1 a 3L and 1 and 3.5, the 3.5 sounds just boss as hell and the 3L sounds weak in comparison.

I will be very curious if you have the stock knock sensor calibration issues Todd is having with his car. Stroker is noisier than a 3L and we've yet to make any decent power with the car on the new engine. Makes around 400awhp/torque right now(which is slow as shit btw) drowned in fuel/meth to keep the engine quiet enough to keep the timing from getting yanked and making even less power(makes more but power just skydives when the timing gets pulled due to wha the ecu thinks is knock)

Jason

This is interesting for me to hear. I know it's not apples to apples comparing a 72 with 74 crank to a 74 with 75 crank, but it is non stock vs non stock.

My car is significantly more noisy (basing this strictly off the CEL on knock, not the raw voltage) at low RPMs. But only low RPM's. I can't get the thing to knock up top. I haven't tried pushing it yet though, for many reasons. Curious what the raw voltage looks like on mine. We need to start a thread up comparing knock sensor related readings

[Greg E]

Do you have a tuning guide for knock sensor? Each engine will have its own "signature" depending on PTW clearance, type of pistons, stroke, etc. Would be wise for anyone running chrome and a non-OEM shortblock to tune the knock cal. In AEM, after syncing timing, a knock cal is one of the first things to do.

I've been avoiding it because there are people out there who will destroy their engines and blame me for it. It's absolutely nothing like any stand alone out there and I didn't include ALL the variables in Chrome. Now that we have cars out there making some real power with the flash ECU, I'm wishing I would have included them now. Have you read about how the EVO knock sum calculation works on the SH7 ECUs? It's in Merlins Guide to Tuning an EVO.

[mb3000]

Greg, maybe you could give out the info on a need to know basis? I think that would be the best solution.

[familyMAN]

Do you really want people emailing you on each build? That seems like even more liability. Give the option, make a disclaimer and move on. No one is paying you to tune each engine you give away the software for. Seems like a huge headache and waste of your time answering email and PMs. What's worse a couple idiots blowing up their engine or respected members and tuners not being able to make any power on a modded engine?

[Greg E]

Do you really want people emailing you on each build? That seems like even more liability. Give the option, make a disclaimer and move on. No one is paying you to tune each engine you give away the software for. Seems like a huge headache and waste of your time answering email and PMs. What's worse a couple idiots blowing up their engine or respected members and tuners not being able to make any power on a modded engine?

At this point, I'm more concerned about getting results from my own hands on experience so I can be more qualified to guide everyone else. All the 450-500whp tunes I've done haven't needed much of any tweaking done to the tables as in this territory, no one runs pump gas anymore and the engine noise itself hasn't gotten severe enough to cause false sums. E85 cars can't even use the stock knock sensor anyway.

Everyone emails me anyway.

[futurevr4man]

1. I run pump gas, whore.

2. I don't email, I text you. <3

[Ray Pampena]

Ray, can you expand on what you have seen and what we should look out for on e85 plug temp? The suggested autolites are much colder than what other platforms are running in similar or greater hp range.

Is this small frame turbo specific (td04/05) because of intake temps and backpressure when cranked up or does it apply to larger frame turbo setups as well.

My understanding is preignition leads to catastrophic failure. Did you have to break some parts to find this info out?

Thanks in advance for any additional insight!!!

the autolite plugs i listed are on the super safe cold ond for high boost, hot cylinder temps and long pulls. ive been using the NGK number i listed and so far that has been good. if i plan on doing any top end runs ill switch to the autolites though. i found this out because my car would fall off at the end of 4th ONLY if i made a run from a stop. if i did 4th gear alone it was fine. the cylinder temps needed to be really up there for it to happen. i am certain that my 1/4 mile mph will pick up from 135 to probably 138 or so because of it.
when the car would fall over.. many times it would get some oil from the breathers.. so i knew something was going on. i did a freshen up on the engine over this winter and found the rod bushings on my china rods were all beat out.. so i upgraded to the olivers i sell. the pistons and rings were perfect.

when i put it back together, it did the same thing. only when id run though all 4 gears from a stop. i was planning on switching to the chroome ecu so i could pull timing out. then, i little light in my brain flickered.. if i could make a pull through 4th and be fine but couldnt do 1st through 4th.. it HAS to be lighting off before my spark so timing would do nothing. i switched to the cold plug and its fixed. car is now perfect.

on the subject of the 3.5 of Todds and knock... when we were tuning it.. i was on the phone with Greg and he was giving me knock settings to try. i tried them all.. going to extremes in each direction. for example.. if a number were 6 and he said move it up to 9.. i tried that. it still pulled timing so id try 90 instead and it still pulled timing. i tried that with all of the settings. so unless there are more settings somewhere, i dont know what else can be done. ive tuned many huge power cars and trust me when i say Todds knock noise was nothing compared to tuning a 900whp car with a stroker. i like the chrome ecu but so far i dont like the knock control. AEMs knock control is awesome.

[JasonY]

Take trades Ray? 3 grand worth of piggy backs for an AEM S2 and tune? lol

Jason