Practical Standalone Tuning: Step 4: Base Ignition Timing/Fuel Pressure

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Step 4: Base Ignition Timing/Fuel Pressure

12.41

00:00	The next step of our process is to set our base ignition timing and our base fuel pressure.
00:06	These are two aspects that are, so often overlooked and they can be really critical to the success of our tuning.
00:13	Particularly with our ignition timing, if the base timing is too advanced, then the numbers that we're seeing in the laptop screen could seem completely reasonable and very conservative but the engine may actually be receiving maybe 5, 10 or 15° more ignition timing, making it very likely that knock could occur.
00:31	So, the process of setting our ignition timing essentially makes sure that the numbers that we're seeing on the laptop screen correspond directly to what the engine is actually receiving.
00:41	In order to do this we will require a timing light.
00:45	And this is just a light that pulses or flashes every time a spark occurs.
00:50	So, we can physically see with the timing marks on the crankshaft pulley, where the spark event is occurring.
00:57	Now, for our purposes we are using a relatively advanced snap on digital dial back timing light and that's completely not necessary in order to set the base timing, a very simple inductive timing light that you should be able to buy for $50-$70 USD from any car parts store will be absolutely adequate.
01:17	And actually with waste spark ignition systems like our Evo 9 is running, the dial back timing light can actually be misleading if you are using the advanced function in order to dial in your timing, so you're much better to either use a basic inductive light or if you're using a dial back, don't touch the dial back function, don't try adjusting the timing on the light, just let it flash exactly when the spark is occurring.
01:41	And the reason why this can be problematic is essentially with waste spark systems, the timing light is seeing two spark events occurring for every full engine cycle instead of the one that it's expecting to see.
01:54	This throws off both the RPM calculation as well as the timing if you are using that dial back functionality.
02:01	Let's start however with our fuel pressure because in the case of our Evo 9, this is really simple, there's nothing to do here because we are using a complete factory fuel system.
02:11	The factory fuel pressure regulator, there is no adjustability.
02:16	Even in this situation it doesn't hurt for a sanity check to temporarily connect a fuel pressure gauge to the fuel rail.
02:23	And this will allow us to check our base fuel pressure.
02:27	The way we wanna do this is to actually remove the vacuum hose from the fuel pressure regulator and ideally this really wants to be done in two stages.
02:35	We can set it basically with the engine not running and just priming the fuel pump, but the problem with this is we're only going to probably be supplying somewhere around about 12 to 12.5 volts to the fuel pump.
02:47	And this means that the fuel pump is not actually pumping or moving as much fuel as it would with the engine running and it receiving a full 14 volts.
02:56	This is absolutely adequate to get our base fuel pressure into the ballpark for the time being but what we'd want to do is readdress this once we've actually got the engine up and running which is why we've got that vacuum hose removed.
03:09	Once the engine is running at a consistent idle and we've got 14 volts to the pump, we'll come back and readdress that base fuel pressure and adjust it to exactly what we've set in the Link G5 software which you'll recall was 300 kPa or 3 bar 43.5 psi.
03:26	And this is a relatively common or standardised base fuel pressure for a manifold pressure referenced fuel system like our Evo 9 runs.
03:36	Anyway moving on from that because as I say we've got nothing to do here, we'll move onto our base timing.
03:42	Again just like our fuel pressure, this is going to be adjusted in two separate ways.
03:48	At the moment we haven't got our engine to a point where we're comfortable starting it.
03:52	So, what we want to do here is just set our base ignition timing, get it roughly in the ballpark, we should be able to get it within maybe a few degrees anyway, during cranking with our fuel system disabled, so that the engine won't start.
04:05	Now, this should be enough to get us into the ballpark, so the engine will start when we get to that step and then once we've got the engine idling comfortably, we can come back and fine tune our base ignition timing.
04:17	Now, the reason we want to do this once the engine is up and running is that at cranking speed, 150 to maybe 250 RPM, we're likely to see some fluctuation from one engine cycle to another on our base timing.
04:31	So, what I'm saying here is if we're watching the timing with our timing light, we're going to probably see the timing move around a little bit.
04:37	And while that's not a problem here, obviously we want to make sure that once we've got the engine running, our timing is absolutely pinpoint accurate.
04:47	The reason that our timing can jump around at cranking speed is simply due to the resolution of the inputs from the crank angle sensor that the ECU is seeing.
04:57	And this isn't really happening fast enough at cranking speed and this can lead to this inconsistency.
05:03	So, we're going to get it in the ballpark at cranking speed and we'll readdress this once we've got the engine running.
05:08	Generally, when I'm setting the base timing, I like to bring the RPM up to maybe 1500 or 2000 RPM and at that point it should again be solid, rock solid, pinpoint accurate, and we'll adjust the timing until it's exactly where it needs to be.
05:22	Alright, let's jump into our software, enough talking and we'll have a look at what we want to do.
05:26	So, if we press the escape key here, we can come across to our triggers and we want to come to our trigger calibrate.
05:33	And we can see here we've got three parameters available, we've got our trigger offset and our reference timing which are both locked.
05:42	In order to go through the calibrate process, what we want to do is actually click on the little spanner icon here with our set base timing and I'll just explain how this works.
05:51	So, first of all what we've got is, number one is lock ignition timing two.
05:55	This is relatively self explanatory, but this will lock the timing to whatever number we put in this box, irrespective of the numbers in the actual main table, irrespective to any compensations or corrections that are going on.
06:08	So, essentially the G5 will ignore everything and just consistently output in this case zero degrees.
06:15	Now, this is a bit tricky to know what number to put in here.
06:19	At this stage just cranking it doesn't really matter, but what we want to do is choose a number that we can easily see on the crank pulley.
06:26	And depending on the vehicle, that can be easier said than done.
06:31	With modern cramped engine bays it can be very difficult to actually get a line of sight to the markings on that front cover and our crank pulley.
06:40	It also can be beneficial to mark the TDC marker or notch on our crank pulley with some whiteout or twink pen.
06:49	And this will just allow it to stand out when that timing light is flashing.
06:54	If it's just all black and grimy which we can see on high mileage engines, it can be very very difficult to spot this.
07:01	Another point when we are setting our base timing as well is to be aware of parallax error.
07:07	And what that means is if we're viewing our timing light against our timing marker and our crank pulley from a significant angle, this can actually give a visual illusion and basically end up with our timing out.
07:20	So, what we really want to do ideally is view in a straight line down our timing marker straight onto the crank pulley.
07:25	Again, sometimes easier said than done on particular vehicles.
07:29	Alright, so we know what we're going to do here, in order to get our timing light set up we also need to remove the centre cam cover from our 4G63 engine to gain access to our ignition coils.
07:41	And what we want to do here is connect our timing light to the number one ignition coil.
07:47	Now, with our waste spark system you'll note here that we have a coil that goes directly onto, in this case actually our number four spark plug.
07:55	And then we have an ignition lead that runs from that coil, the other post on that coil and runs to the number one cylinder.
08:02	And we're just clipping our inductive clamp onto that ignition lead.
08:06	Alright, so back to our software, that's our base timing.
08:10	The next parameter is adjust offset until timing matches the number above.
08:15	So, basically this is the timing offset and we're just going to adjust this until we actually see zero degrees in this case on our crank pulley.
08:25	Now, this is a somewhat unique situation because we do have a configured trigger system for the 4G63.
08:34	It's not like we have a distributor or a cam angle sensor that we can physically move and adjust on the engine, everything is fixed.
08:41	So, essentially this actually should have us almost bang on anyway right out of the box.
08:46	We still want to check this because there can be some machining tolerances that can affect this.
08:51	Right, the last parameter which we will not be able to adjust until we do have our engine running, and I did touch on this briefly, is our ignition delay.
08:59	And as I mentioned previously in the worked example, the idea behind this is that with a fixed timing being output, if we get this delay correct, we should not see any significant timing drift from let's say 1000 RPM idle up to 7, 8000 RPM.
09:16	60 microseconds is the default value and generally I have found that that is a pretty good place to start.
09:22	But also to understand that this is a parameter that never existed on earlier link ECUs, it's a parameter that doesn't exist on a lot of ECUs.
09:32	So, while I wouldn't say it's an irrelevant parameter, it's definitely not one that is completely mission critical.
09:38	And if we never adjust this or we set this to zero, essentially what we would be doing is baking in a correction for that into our main ignition table anyway.
09:48	What we're going to do is get a helper here.
09:51	I'm going to be out in the engine bay, we're going to get our helper to crank the engine and we're going to look at where that timing is and we're going to check that it is actually landing on zero degrees.
10:03	And again this can take a couple of goes to get a really good shot at the timing marks and make sure, that they are exactly where they should be.
10:11	Again at cranking speed we can expect a fluctuation of maybe a few degrees, but that should get us in the ballpark.
10:17	In our case here, after testing we found that the offset of zero was actually spot on, no need to make any adjustments to this, our timing was exactly where it should be.
10:28	And again with a trigger system for the Evo 7-9, this is essentially what we should expect, but we always want to confirm this, never make any assumptions.
10:39	Now, I will make one other point here as well, this isn't a situation where we get into with our waste spark system, but if we are running direct spark on an ignition system or a trigger system I should say, where we have no idea what that offset should be, what we can find is that we have our timing, what looks like to be absolutely perfect, but when we get to the point of actually trying to start the engine for the first time, we'll find that the engine just never ever tries to even fire or we might get the occasional pop through the exhaust.
11:12	And this can be really confusing.
11:15	Now, the reason typically for this is that we have the timing exactly correct, but it is 360 degrees out.
11:23	So, essentially what we're doing is firing the spark on the exhaust stroke as opposed to the compression stroke, so it's essentially doing nothing.
11:31	Now, in this case to correct that all we need to do is either add or subtract 360 from our offset, we can check our timing again.
11:39	By adding or subtracting 360 it should not have any influence on where we actually see the flash occurring.
11:45	Our timing should still be correct, but now we have it on the correct engine cycle and now if we test again our engine should start.
11:52	So, at this point we can come to our base timing box and click done.
11:56	And what we want to do as well is come back across to our fuel main and we want to re enable our sequential injection just, so that when we do go to start the engine, we haven't forgotten this, we're not wondering why the engine makes absolutely no attempt to start and we'll just press F4 to save that change.
12:15	So, at this point we've addressed our base fuel pressure.
12:17	Obviously, on our particular vehicle, nothing to do here.
12:20	However, even in this situation, we can of course check that base fuel pressure and make sure, it matches what we're expecting our base pressure to be set at inside the software and adjust if required.
12:29	We've checked our base ignition timing at cranking speed, we've re enabled our fuel injection, we're now ready to move on to the next step of our process.