MoTeC M1 Software Tutorial: Engine Average Load
Watch This Course
$229 USD
-OR-
Or
8 easy payments of only $28.63
Instant access. Easy checkout. No fees.
Learn more
Engine Average Load
03.10
| 00:00 | How you choose to tune a particular engine will often depend on how the engine will be used. |
| 00:05 | For example if we optimise the ignition timing correctly at wide open throttle on the dyno, we may find that if we hold the engine at this same point for a long period of time, the increased combustion chamber temperature may be sufficient to cause detonation. |
| 00:20 | Likewise we may want to tune with a richer target mixture for an engine that will see sustained full power use, compared to one that only sees short bursts of high load. |
| 00:29 | Usually this means we need to decide on a compromise - Either risking the engine if it undergoes sustained high load use, or alternatively detuning it so that it makes less power during short bursts of full load. |
| 00:42 | The M1 includes a function called ‘Engine Load Average’ that works in the background and continuously calculates the average amount of load being placed on the engine. |
| 00:51 | We can then use the result of this calculation as an input to trim fuel mixture aim, ignition timing, boost or even the throttle target of engine speed limit. |
| 01:02 | If we head to the ‘All Calibrate’ worksheet and enter ‘Average Load’ in the search bar, all the parameters relating to the average load function will be displayed. |
| 01:11 | You can see that we have the a number trim tables which will let us adjust the tune based on the average load parameter. |
| 01:18 | We will look at those in a second, but first we need to configure the ‘Time Constant’ parameter which the ECU will use to calculate the average load. |
| 01:26 | This parameter can also be found in the ‘Engine Details’ worksheet in the ‘Initial Setup’ workbook. |
| 01:33 | The time constant defines how quickly the engine load average value will move due to changes in actual engine load. |
| 01:40 | Basically a value of ten for the time constant means that after ten seconds, the average engine load value will be sixty three percent of the instantaneous engine load normalised figure. |
| 01:53 | The longer the time constant is, the slower the average load channel will change and the correct value will depend on your application. |
| 02:01 | Once you have configured the time constant, the calculate ‘Average Load’ channel is displayed and we can then configure any trims we want based on the average load value. |
| 02:11 | Let’s look at trimming the ignition timing as an example. |
| 02:15 | If we click on the ‘Ignition Timing Trim’ parameter we can see that by default it is zero. |
| 02:20 | If we press the ‘A’ key to open the Axis Setup window, we can choose to configure the table as a two dimensional or three dimensional table depending how you want to use the trim feature. |
| 02:30 | For our example I’m going to go ahead and enable the ‘Engine Load Average’ axis and we will generate an axis between zero and two hundred percent with divisions every five percent. |
| 02:41 | If we click OK, we can now see the resultant table. |
| 02:45 | Now we can trim the ignition timing using this table as we wish. |
| 02:49 | Generally we would leave most of the table set to zero, and perhaps above one hundred and twenty percent we may want to start removing two or three degrees timing to add some safety. |
| 03:00 | The remaining tables can be configured in a similar manner to achieve whatever level of protection you feel is required for your application. |
