The Opensource/Romraider route of engine management has grown in popularity and sophistication in the past couple years here in the Subaru community. I know quite a few people here in Subaru Tech tune their own cars, and a few tune for others as well. I wanted to start this thread so local people could help each other out instead of having to wait for help from someone hundreds or thousands of miles away over on RomRaider or NASIOC.

Things we can talk about:
-Your setup (year, engine, mods etc.)
-Your tune (the basics like boost - AFR - timing, aggressiveness, your approach)
-Things you are experimenting with (improving MPG, driveability, etc.)
-Problems you are having with your tune
-Getting started with tuning
-anything else related to tuning/logging/opensource etc.




Oh and please, lets keep the TRama out of this thread. Subaru Tech has been cranky about tuners lately, and I dont want to see a repeat of the SS thread awhile back. If you aren't adding to the discussion or helping someone out, DON'T POST.

 

I'll start things off...

My setup:
2005 EJ205
Blouch 8cm^2 18G
DW 740s
Walbro 255
STi TMIC
TBE
Perrin EBCS
GMS Turbo Inlet
Stock airbox
Stock headers

My tune is not all that aggressive IMO. I am running 21psi, 11.1 AFRs, and 19* at redline (12* at peak torque).

I am currently experimenting with disabling Closed Loop Fueling and running entirely in Open Loop.

 

I'm no tuner, but from what I've read on nasioc and iwsti, 11:1 afr's with a tmic is pretty aggressive no? I guess your timing evens it out a bit though.

 

Meh. Ive seen leaner and Ive seen richer. Its not knocking, so no reason to richen it up.

If you want a good read on AFR theory/strategy on Subarus in particular, check this out: Let's talk AFRs - NASIOC

 

Cool, yeah mine is tuned for around 11.3 with the front mount. 12.0afr with the Q16.

 

Guess I overestimated the amount of people that tune themselves....oh well.

 

i tune myself but utec and a g35

 

I tune myself... just havent got a chance to write a whole story about it. Mod list in the sig

My approach is pretty basic: see what others had done and shared and tweak it to run more boost/fuel/timing/etc to push the envelope then pull back if I knocked and/or overboost. One thing I've notice I havent liked about any map I've seen or made personally is boost/wgdc on a VF39. None of them seem to build boost as fast as I see some of the pros do on NASIOC (proven power). Or maybe 2 years with a TD04 spoiled me. But, thats something on the to do list. I try not to change too much stuff for each run to isolate changes.

I have some gremlins in the timing up top. I'm thinking its pulling timing due to low fuel pressure because of crappy stock fuel pump (need to log it, just never happen to have the laptop during high speed runs as they dont happen often). I'd like to get some dyno time really hone in on some parameters. I will be ordering a new FP on sunday so hopefully that fixes it but I'll def log/tweak/reflash after the install regardless.

I'm a big advocate of using 3port EBCS. I love my Grimmspeed, I think its responded very well and trust it more than MBC (I base this on no real experience but MBC and BOV seem to be that stereotypical ricer stuff, which I know isnt entirely true but whatever).

I wish I had more time to play with my tune lately but work has been killing me and it seems the weekends I don't go to work it rains all day. But my next project is to get a wideband to do more advanced tuning (open loop fueling, tip in, and open loop maf scaling) All seem pretty easy to do based off what I've read and between doing all three should yield some good gains.

So all in all its a never ending process but at the end of the day I'm happy with my power, fuel econ, drivability, etc so I cant complain.

 

So you've tuned your own car so far without a wideband??? You realize that the stock narrow-band front o2 sensor shows 11.0 whether it's actually 11.7 or 9.0 right??? Subaru stock sensors are not really acceptable to use for WOT tuning...

Siegel

 

You can play with your Turbo Dynamics table to help spool too. Just make sure you dont get too aggressive or youll get boost spikes in higher gears. I made that mistake and ended up with 25psi in 5th gear once .

Have you looked into running an MBC in parallel with your EBCS? The MBC gives great spool under WOT but you dont have the problems with part throttle/full boost because of the EBCS.

Oh and this^^^. Ive seen a full point difference between the stock sensor and my Innovate at WOT. Running someone's safe base map without a wideband is one thing, but I would never think of pushing it any further.