Practical Reflash Tuning: Step 5: Optimising the Tune

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Step 5: Optimising the Tune

10.14

00:00	OK, we're now ready for step five of our six step process, we're going to be now optimising our tune and at this point we've obviously got our mass airflow sensor calibration dialled in, so we know that our fuelling is tracking our target.
00:13	Before we actually dive into starting to optimise our ignition timing and see where we can get to power wise, we also need to know what we're actually looking for in our logging, particularly in respect to ignition timing and knock.
00:27	So, let's jump back into our tuning software and we can see on our graphs at the moment I am on our predefined knock template here and of course we can move between those by opening up our drop down menu.
00:39	So, we can see here we've got four parameters that I am logging, knock retard, cylinder one through to cylinder four.
00:46	And chances are you may not actually have these PIDs available by default, but of course by right clicking here and going to define template, we can change these to whatever we actually require.
00:57	So, we've got those here, close that down and we can also see that we've got those PIDs down here as well, so we can watch these in real time while we're doing a ramp run.
01:07	So, it's also important to understand what we're looking for here.
01:10	This knock retard is an instantaneous response to knock occurring.
01:14	So, the ECU will remove timing, we've already looked at the table where we can define how much timing will be pulled.
01:21	And then once the knock is removed, then the timing is gradually ramped back in.
01:26	So, when we're getting a little bit of knock activity, we're going to get a bit of a sawtooth pattern occurring.
01:31	One or perhaps two occasional knock counts is not really an issue on an individual cylinder.
01:37	If we're getting repeated inconsistent knock occurring at the same point in every ramp run, that's the point where we know we actually have some work to do in our ignition tables, we need to remove some timing and stop that knock from occurring.
01:50	But if you try and make sure that you never see any knock activity, all you're going to end up doing is ultimately making your tune overly safe and you're going to be costing yourself some power and torque, so a little bit of occasional knock activity is OK, one, no more than two knock counts and then if we're getting that consistency, obviously, then we need to do some work.
02:12	OK, let's jump back into our software here and what we're going to do is just start by adding that timing in that we removed while we were calibrating our mass airflow sensor, so we'll come to our first ignition timing table here, remembering that these have all been set the same in this Hondata base map and what we're going to do is highlight from 110% air charge, Ctrl J and we'll add that two degrees back in.
02:36	So, this is just getting us back to where that base map was.
02:40	So, again we'll just speed this up, you don't need to watch me do this eight times, so we'll just get all of those tables adjusted to suit.
02:54	OK, we've got all of the tables adjusted, so we're back to, in terms of the ignition timing, where the Hondata base map was.
03:00	So, let's perform a run on the dyno, we'll log this, we'll also be watching for knock activity during the ramp run and see what we've got.
03:29	OK, so straight away on the dyno we can see a massive improvement in power just everywhere, we're now up to 358 horsepower at the wheels.
03:38	I will note that this is a new day, it's a little bit cooler and that's also showing in our intake air temperature which during that ramp run was significantly lower than what we were seeing while we were dialling in our mass airflow sensors.
03:52	So, some of that power gain from the timing, but some definitely from a cooler intake charge on a cooler day.
03:59	OK, let's jump into our graph here and have a look at our knock activity or at least we can see lack thereof.
04:06	So, if we do have this little bit of knock activity here where we tipped into the throttle, but again that's not really a concern, what we're looking for is, do we have any knock activity between the start and the end of the run? And the answer there of course is a resounding no.
04:24	Alright, so when we've got this sort of response where we've seen a gain in power and torque literally everywhere and we've added in some additional timing, we obviously want to go further and see if there's more power to be had.
04:38	What we want to do though is find out where we were actually operating.
04:40	So, let's come into our boost graphs and we want to look at our air charge.
04:45	So, we can see at the very start of the run we're at 1500 RPM wide open throttle, air charge is 135%.
04:52	We jump up to 235, 236% before dropping back to 176, let's call it 180%.
04:59	So, this can give us a bit of guidance as to where we're going to make our next set of changes.
05:04	I'm only going to add in some timing from 170% air charge and above.
05:09	We'll come up to our top ignition graph here.
05:12	So, let's just highlight 170% air charge out.
05:17	Control J, this time we'll just be a little bit more conservative, we'll add one degree of timing here and again we'll just jump ahead, I've copied this change obviously to the remaining 7 maps.
05:33	OK, we've made that change to all 8 maps, so let's simply do another run.
05:37	And again during the run we're going to be monitoring the knock activity, so we can back out of the throttle and abort the run if we don't like what we're seeing.
05:45	Right, let's get our run underway.
06:07	Alright, so looking at our graphs overlaid there we can see that our green plot, our latest one, it's picked up a little bit, but really not too much for that extra degree of timing.
06:16	It looks like the gain that we have seen has really mostly been from about 5, 5500 RPM and above.
06:23	Let's have a look at our graphs though and see if we've got any knock activity, so we'll come back to our knock template and again we've got a little bit of knock activity down below before we really tip into the throttle.
06:35	So, that's interesting that we've got that consistently coming through there.
06:40	At the load that we're under in the RPM there, it's definitely not anything to be concerned about and looking through the actual ramp run area, again we're completely clean, no knock retard being displayed there at all.
06:53	So, that gives me the confidence that we can push on a little bit further with our ignition timing.
06:57	I don't sense we're probably going to see much further improvement from this, but let's just see what we can do.
07:03	So, let's come back into our top ignition timing table.
07:07	I'm gonna make the change from the same load point, but this time because we really only saw the effect of that additional degree of timing from about 5000 RPM, what I'm going to do is start by removing the timing that we added in up to 4500.
07:24	So, if we don't see an improvement from our timing then we don't want to leave it in there, there's obviously no benefit.
07:31	And then from 5500 RPM and above, I'm just going to add one to that area.
07:39	So, just small changes here, this time because I've made two changes, rather than trying to replicate those through the tables, I'm just going to copy the entirety of the table and paste it into the remaining tables.
07:50	Again the way Hondata have dealt with this, different to how Honda do it, personal preference there as to which way you want to do it.
07:57	But again we'll jump ahead and get these changes copied out to the remaining tables.
08:05	OK, we've got our changes copied across and we're ready for another run.
08:09	Probably a little bit late in the piece to bring this up, but just remembering that we must make sure that our little live icon or tick box is green here, otherwise, we won't actually have those changes take effect.
08:22	So, if you're making changes to a table and it doesn't really seem to be showing up in the results on the dyno, then just make sure that live tuning is actually enabled for the table that you're wanting to adjust.
08:32	Alright, we'll get our ramp run underway now.
08:55	Alright, so looking at our results on the dyno, we've actually again picked up quite an improvement there above 5000 RPM, we're up to almost 370 wheel horsepower now.
09:05	Pretty impressive gains for what we've got.
09:08	So, we actually can see that lower in the RPM range though, around about 3500, three and a half, four, maybe 4500 RPM, we actually have dropped a little bit of power and torque there.
09:19	So, it's possible that that degree that we just removed from the lower RPM range, we actually did want in there.
09:26	It's OK though, we can dial that back in.
09:28	Let's have a look at our logging now.
09:30	And we can see now we are just starting to get a little bit of noise occurring from our knock.
09:36	In this case we've got one degree knock retard on cylinder three.
09:39	So, I would say we're probably there or thereabouts.
09:42	What we're going to do is make one more round of modifications here.
09:45	We're still moving in the right direction, obviously at higher RPM.
09:49	My sense is that this next change is probably going to see an improvement in power and torque, but I think we're probably going to start seeing triggering more activity from our knock monitors.
09:59	So, I think we're gonna probably find that this is about where we want to be.
10:03	But just to prove that, let's go ahead and make one more change.
10:08	So, we'll come into our first ignition timing table.
10:11	And again here just from 170 kPa and above, sorry 170% air charge and above, Control J and we'll add one into that.
10:20	So, what this is doing is adding another degree at higher RPM and it's bringing our lower RPM table back to where we were prior to that last run.
10:29	Again we'll jump ahead and make that change to the remaining tables.
10:38	Alright, we've got our change made, let's get another run underway now.
11:00	OK, so our purple line, the one that we've just done there, looks like we've got back some of the mid range that we did lose.
11:08	We've got a tiny gain at higher RPM, we're up to 371 horsepower at the wheels.
11:14	However, let's have a look at our logging.
11:16	OK, so now we can see that at higher RPM we do have a little bit more knock activity.
11:22	So, this has pretty much gone exactly how I expected.
11:25	We don't have any knock activity happening in the lower RPM range.
11:29	But of course we've also noticed that we're really not seeing any improvement in power and torque as a result of the additional timing there.
11:36	So, as I expected there, the result of that is we're going to remove that timing.
11:41	We did add a degree everywhere, we picked up a little bit back in that mid range area as I just mentioned, so the actual issue that we're having here is from around about 4500 RPM.
11:52	So, we can be a little bit more selective and just take the timing out from 4500 RPM and above, so we'll do exactly that.
12:00	I'll just highlight down to 170% air charge, control J and minus one.
12:07	Right, again we'll make this change to the remaining tables before we decide on what we're going to do next.
12:19	OK, we've made our change to our ignition timing and I imagine that's probably going to be about where we'll end up leaving our timing, at least for the dyno segment.
12:27	I'm going to just show you one more change that we can make as well.
12:31	Whether or not we're going to see an improvement from it is arguable, but we'll come to our VTEC table here and we could possibly end up seeing an improvement by either raising or lowering the VTEC changeover point.
12:43	We've obviously got a comparison run on the dyno right now, so how are we going to make this change, let's just bring our changeover point down a little bit.
12:51	So, what we'll do is we will just modify, keeping our hysteresis values there, control J and we can set selected cells to, and we'll set that to one.
13:04	And control J, 100.
13:07	And that's just going to bring our VTEC changeover point down a little bit.
13:11	So, what we're going to do is overlay this with our last run.
13:13	Normally, when I'm doing this, what I'll do is I'll do one run with the VTEC coming in reasonably low, maybe around 3500 RPM, maybe 3250 RPM.
13:22	And then I'll do another run with the VTEC changeover point set quite high, at maybe 4500 RPM and then we can really see the bounds of where the two dyno plots cross over and that's where we want to set our VTEC changeover.
13:35	Anyway let's get a run underway, we'll log this again and just see if that's cleared up our knock at higher RPM and see whether the VTEC changeover point has had any effect.
13:45	Actually, one point to make, which I would have just had a problem with, is that this table is currently not ticked for live tuning.
13:52	So, what I've just done there would have actually made no change.
13:56	So, it is an easy trap to fall into if you're starting to delve into tables that you haven't selected previously for live tuning.
14:03	Anyway let's get our run underway now.
14:21	Alright, so if we actually look at our plots there, overlaid, I've just removed the other ones that aren't relevant.
14:27	We can see that we've actually got a bit of a dip now in our cyan line where we've brought in that VTEC changeover point a little bit earlier.
14:36	So, that wasn't a positive gain, but it's not always going to be.
14:39	This is the process that you can go through to optimise your VTEC changeover point.
14:43	Interestingly, we can see that above about 4500 RPM we have lost a little bit of power and torque there.
14:50	Let's just jump into our logging and see what we've got going on.
14:52	We do still have a little bit of knock retard occurring here.
14:56	So, this is on cylinder three, we've got two degrees there.
14:59	So, I definitely don't want to be putting some timing back into it.
15:03	And this is one of the areas you can sort of get yourself stuck in when you've made a change to make sure the engine is going to be healthy and safe, in this case removing timing.
15:13	You look at the dyno and you're disappointed because you've lost some power and torque.
15:16	But of course the reliability and safety of the engine comes above all else.
15:21	So, it doesn't really matter how much power you're making if the engine isn't going to hold together.
15:26	In our case I suspect we've probably got a little bit of run to run variation from a bit of heat soak in there as everything's starting to warm up a little bit as well.
15:35	So, because I've got that knock retard still occurring, I don't want to be adding any more timing in, so we're going to leave that exactly where it is.
15:43	In this case it would definitely put the VTEC changeover point back to where we previously had it as well, no gain there.
15:50	At this point essentially we've got everything dialled in on the dyno, we've made a massive improvement, up to 370 wheel horsepower.
15:57	Now, it's a massive gain from essentially what is just a tune only with no hardware changes.
16:04	What we're going to do now is get the car off the dyno, out into the real world and make sure that everything we saw on the dyno stacks up.