Dyno Tuning @ Area 51

[NSXTC]

For those of you who are curious, my recent dyno tuning resulted in a fantastic power increase (about 20hp & 20ft/lbs). The car feels faster than it has ever been….scary fast! Those Pantera guys better watch out next weekend at Willow Springs!

A big “Mahalo” to Mike and the guys at Area 51 Fabricators for fixing me up! I was a bit of a skeptic before regarding dyno tuning, but no longer. If you follow the Speedvision series, you know that PD Cunningham did a bunch of dyno work to remain competitive after the series rulemakers decided to cut his boost in half. It seems that most everyone in the NSX community is of the mindset of simply bolting-on their mods. Labor intensive mods seem to scare folks away. Take short gears. It costs a bit more to install them than to buy the parts. All said and done, short gears installed will cost you about the same as headers and exhaust installed. Most people who know will agree that short gears get you more of am bang than headers and exhaust, however more people spring for headers and exhaust. Maybe so they can take them off and sell them when they sell their car? I donno. It’s kinda the same deal with dyno tuning. The secret? Well, it’s the skill of the tuner, who has to create a fuel map for your particular car. Mike really knows his stuff. You should have see my car rigged up with remote O2 sensors and all sorts of computerized diagnostic equipment. You may be interested in looking at the little black box that I now have installed in my car that maintains and can be used to edit this new fuel map: http://www.roadraceengineering.com/newafc.htm This little do-hickey is a heck of a lot cheaper than a Motec! It and the hour or so of dyno time that it entails is probably about the best bang for the buck for a supercharged car.

 

[netNSX]

It was great seeing you there at the shop! When it comes to tuning Mike and his team are the top of the class. I had them tune my SC also and the improvements were amazing.
Have a great time next weekend! I wish I could be there.

Ken

 

[ilya]

I'm a big believer in quality dyno tuning by a pro and have done it to every one of my cars. I will also do it for my NSX, but not until I have done the mods I want. When you add/change performance parts, the car should be retuned for the change. That can get expensive quickly if you keep adding mods.

I'm interested. Has Mike done a lot of NSXs in the past? It usually requires a solid knowledge of a particular car and it's programming. I had this done to my C5 by a man named Steve Cole who is known for doing C5s and he is awesome. He always has a waiting list of 3+ months to have this done for a C5.
Does Mike have similar experience with NSXs? I will have to give him a buzz and talk to him.

The reason I say this is that there are a lot of things to consider. Someone who may be a great tuner, but not particularly familiar with a particular car may do something that is detrimental in regards to longevity, even though it increases horsepower. The person who tuned my C5 had been doing them since release. He knew their design and programming inside and out (having worked with their engineers) and had tons of experience having done so on many vettes in the past. He knew how every change would effect everything else, what to do, and what not to do even though it would increase power (but damage reliability and cause other problems in the long run).

PDs application is strictly racing, but we have to worry about not running the engine in conditions that will be detrimental in the long run.

I am definitely interested and will give him a call. I'd like to know what he does and how much experience they have with the NSX.
I would also love to know what changes they make, but a lot of times they don't divulge that info. You have to go by reputation and experience with particular cars.

BTW- Larry Garcia has been known to pull quite a bit more power out of the Comptech SC without increasing PSI... at least another 20-30hp, only with better fuel management. Doug's CT SCed NSX is running 396hp at the wheels, but that's extreme because of all his other modifications.

[This message has been edited by ilya (edited 29 October 2001).]

 

[DanO]

Originally posted by NSXTC:
Most people who know will agree that short gears get you more of am bang than headers and exhaust...

Errr…I hate to pull things off topic here, but I would like to, with all respect, comment on the short gear statement above. “Most people who know will agree” that there is nothing really to be gained or lost by re-gearing a vehicle—it all depends on the application and more specifically, the track bring run. Gearing the car to help at certain speeds ALWAYS comes at a cost at certain other speeds. For further reading please look at http://www.nsxprime.com/FAQ/Performance/gears.htm. So, if you want to increase your HP generally across the board, “people who know” know that aftermarket headers and exhaust can increase torque under the curve—but all gears can do is distribute the torque to the wheels.

DanO

Short gears are not as good at a high-speed track like Road America last week.



[This message has been edited by DanO (edited 29 October 2001).]

 

[netNSX]

What is most impressive to me is the amount of torque and the way in which it is delivered. Cleaning up the torque band was the most noticable difference when I had my car done.

 

[BryanZublin]

To NSXTC:

The device listed at: http://www.roadraceengineering.com/newafc.htm

is for engines with air fuel meters which the NSX does not have. How is this device being used to modify the air fuel ratio of your NSX?

20 HP and 20 ft-lbs of improvement are huge gains for just a dyno tune. What were your before and after dyno measurements?

Regards,
Bryan Zublin

------------------
Zublin Engineering
http://www.zublin.com

 

[SpeedDemon]

Originally posted by BryanZublin:
To NSXTC:

The device listed at: http://www.roadraceengineering.com/newafc.htm

is for engines with air fuel meters which the NSX does not have. How is this device being used to modify the air fuel ratio of your NSX?

Hi Bryan!

I could be wrong, but I believe the S-AFC works on speed-density systems as well. I think it does so by intercepting and modifying the voltage from the MAP sensor. (IE, it richens the fuel by faking a higher-pressure). I've used an S-AFC before and loved it, but it seems worthless for a forced-NSX since we're not using the stock ECU to meter our (boosted) fuel, and the MAP sensor is being prohibited from seeing boost.

Best,
Marc


[This message has been edited by SpeedDemon (edited 03 November 2001).]