MY07 GT Spec.B ECU Upgrade / Tune & light performance mo

[overl0ad]

i didn't read it all...

but the choke point in our cars is the TMIC.

the access port thing, be careful as the US rates it fuel different to everyone else in the world.

[tehx]

A little more info on the ECU Upgrade! (Sorry its been a little while as I have been away for work)

I had the ECU flash done with Open Source software as ECUTek has the following issues I just cant live with:

a) Cost - a license fee is required for each flash, dramatically increasing the cost of each dyno tune.
b) You are locked out of your computer - which is a really sore point.
You now have to take it back to the original flasher to get a retune
You cant get error codes via the OBD port
You cant go back (from what I am told)

Feel free to correct me, as I may be wrong. I just don't like the thought of being locked into MRT prices, locked out of my computer and having to pay ECUTeck licensing on top of Dyno Costs.

Also be aware that Open Source software requires more skill to flash - so make sure you pick an experienced tuner.

Im very happy with the service and experience I got from Pulse Racing btw.

[tehx]

A little update for everyone:

I had the following done by Pulse Racing and I have to say the GT is a whole new weapon:

*Custom Stainless Exhaust from Turbo Back (inc dump pipe & new CAT)
*CAI fabricated in Chrome and placed inside the front guard with aluminium plating fabricated to close off the font guard.
*Top mount intercooler that's the same width & length but twice the depth
*Organic Clutch
*Tuned with Open Source Software so no PIN on my ECU

The results:

Well I’m very impressed; there are very noticeable power & torque gains. Boost is made from the same point as stock however there is no loss of boost around 5.5-6k RPM as was in stock form. Boost is available right past redline until the rev limiter kicks in. Where I used to shift 500RPM before redline I can now shift on or just past this at 7kRPM. Low-end torque is much better, really plant you in the seat driving. The dyno shows 186kw at the wheels - I'll post the chart and soon.

With the groundwork now in place I’m now set for turbo / injector upgrades - but I’m holding back on that urge for now. I probably didn’t need to upgrade the intercooler at this stage but thought it would be good just to get the car at a base level for further mods. I was also reading that at high speeds (hwy driving) the bonnet air scoop starts to become ineffective due to air rushing past the scoop so that aided my decision to do the intercooler also.

Oh, and I was very impressed with Pulse Racing. Great service - great after sales service - and very knowledgeable folk indeed. Particular their knowledge in ECU Tuning with Open Source software as it is more complex than ECUTek. Given the cost of licensing and being locked out of your computer I think open source is the way to go.

[Boxer]

Thanks for the report I good to read and glad Paul Fisher has come up trumps again. Should make the Brisbane crew on the tuning GB more eager . Would be keen to see before and after graphs with AFR and Boost

[adam]

as some of you know i had my gt-b done by paul a couple of weeks ago. it is every thing you guys have said, great service, great after care and all for a great price. the after care i mention is that i had to go back and get him to dial down sport setting throttle sensitivity because my wife complained that she couldn't drive the car slowly anymore. now we have true husband 'n' wife settings
i would thoroughly reccomend paul to anyone considering a tune on this model.

[smythie]

now we have true husband 'n' wife settings

That's what you call an everyday performance car

[sundayDriver]

tehx, great post. I'm booked in with Pulse on the 29th of June, so I'm looking forward to see what they can do with my car.

I've just done the dump pipe and nothing else. But I'm sure I'll be grinning like the village idiot when I get my car back.

Interesting to note your comments about the stock TMIC being the restriction on the intake side and that the bonnet scoop starts reaching it's effectiveness threshold at 110km/h. I wonder if the two are related.

adam,
did Paul do different tunes for the different SI modes? 'cause that's I'm thinking of asking for drivability in S and all out performance in S#.

[WhiteGTB]

Excellent read, I am another who has had my car tuned by Paul at Pulse needless to say I am thrilled with my results, Dyno Sheets posted in this thread There is abit of a review of the cars driveability in there too.

Dunno much about MRT's packs but this is my 2nd GT via Paul and both times, service and results speak for themselves.

Post up some Dyno's when you get a chance

Mate, looks like you are in Sydney, come to the next meet. I wanna check out your CAI!

[tehx]

Yes, very impressed with the after sales service. I’m booked into Pulse on the 16th to have a final Dyno power run and as soon as I have the print out I'll post it up.

On the day of initial tuning Paul did a couple of dyno runs to get the base level tune. He then spent some time in the car, laptop in hand, further fine-tuning it on the road. I was rather impressed that he took the time to drive around and perfect the tune on the road. Upon returning for the final power run (and the print out) the dyno decided that the Liberty was just too much to handle and popped a fuse. Subsequent fuses were installed however they also blew after being switched on. Now, being a Saturday there was no Dyno tech available so I had to book it in again to have the final run.

About two weeks after the mods I was driving to Sydney, when the engine check light and cruise control light started to flash. At the time it was set in cruise control at 110. I was on the road for about an hour before the error occurred. The car entered S mode and cruise was disabled. Having read something about this in prior research I was not too concerned and a quick phone call to Paul confirmed my understanding of the fault. After a new exhaust is fitted, particularly after fitting a turbo back exhaust, the emissions levels can change beyond the parameters set in the ECU. The solution is to adjust the parameters in the ECU to allow for the new setup. After about 4 hours of driving the error cleared. The error occurred about a month later and cleared two days after that (again, about 4 hours driving). It’s been a further few months of constant driving with no errors however I'll have the parameters modified on the 16th.

A little word on the exhaust note. I had the high powered silent-type cannon mufflers fitted as I wanted to try and maintain lower levels of noise emissions from the car. I was still after that wonderful boxer note, and hopefully the little ‘crackle’ of backfire upon up-shifting when driving in more aggressive style. The system delivered on all accounts! Upon first receiving the car I was a little concerned about noise (having a completely silent car before) however after a month or so of soot build-up in the system the exhaust note dampened to a deep rumble, which is really only heard as you power on. When you drive the car, in a relaxed fashion, there is very little noise; but push the throttle down and adopt a more aggressive approach and the engine lights up to be heard by all. There is almost a complete quiet spot at 2kRPM which is where I try to gear the car for cruising at a consent speed. Slightly above and below 2kRPM is that real lumpy, slow boxer note. The kind of; ‘I don’t want to stand out – but I know your looking around to see what I am’, kind of sound. When it’s play time, it’s just like your driving in race car; setup for the track. The noise is there – oh its there, the crackle upon changing gears at 6.5-7kRPM – wonderful. With the GT manual’s 6 speed you can pretty much select an RPM range that suits what ever you want to hear – even if what you want to hear is nothing at all.

The CAI has also added a nice note of turbo noise to the mix. As the turbo spools up it can be clearly heard both outside and inside the car. You hear the rush of air in the pipes, the turbo spool up and then finally that little ‘sneeze’ as you up-shift to the next gear.

The organic clutch has 40% more gripping power with the same weight required to depress the pedal. It feels like the factory clutch in almost all respects however it engages just a little quicker and firmer as you release the pedal. Clutch travel is almost nil – in fact when I first drove it I had to be rather careful that the clutch was fully depressed when changing gears. While the clutch was wearing in the gear leaver felt notchy and I had to use quite a bit of force to get it into gear, but this only lasted a week or so.

Throttle response has changed in S and S# modes with the most noticeable difference in S mode. It feels as if the throttle map for S mode has a very steep curve in the 0 to 10% region – almost like it ceases to become linear and more like an on-off switch. This is not felt in S# mode. I am going to quiz Paul about the setup as I rather like the S map better for faster take-off’s however it does make it harder to get a perfect smooth shift. Being a real driving enthusiast I enjoy getting every shift smooth, aiming for minimal wear on the clutch & gearbox. You can enjoy such precision when either cruising or up the thing - giving it the gas. I kind of imagine holding a bowl of water, on launch its going to tip up but from there on, all through the gears, it should not be spilling around the cabin as you shift up. Great throttle control, clutch control and timing are keys to getting this right and a predictable, linear, throttle map defiantly aids in this precision.

I’ll post a few photos on the Introductions section of the forums for those interested in looking at the mods. Oh and feel free to contact me if you want chat about my experience with the mods. In short, if you were thinking about it my answer would be - go for it. The gains from the Liberty (being a factory turbo and all) are really quite good in respect to the $$ spent. Its a great platform to further develop and an entertaining drive that's sure to turns heads.

[GTSPECB STI]

Wow thats a great report there mate. I have a couple of questions for you. Just curious to hear how you came to get The dyno shows 186kw at the wheels if the dyno was not working? Were Paul's dyno runs completed in 4th or 5th gear? What was the ambient temperature for the dyno runs? Does Paul get a torque figure for his tunes as well? Very interested in why you changed out the clutch too?

[tehx]

Hey GTSPECB STI,

A couple of dyno runs were done in the morning, followed by quite a bit of tuning on the road. It was when he returned it to the dyno later that day that it failed. I did'nt bother with the initial runs as I hoped to return the following week to perform a final run. With work sending me away for a few months and finding time to get from Canberra to Sydney quite a few months have since past. This figure 186kw was what Paul indicated he saw on the initial runs. On the 16th of July I'll be back in to get more dyno time and grab the graphs so I can post em up. I'm actually eager to get all the specifics nailed down myself. Temperature was a rather hot summers day (early Feb) - about 35deg outside, probably more in the workshop. During this run I'll be sure to note what gear, temperature and request torque & power figures if available - thx for the heads up.

I changed the clutch as it had a bit of travel in the pedal, even with its very short 30,000km of life. It was not slipping at all but I figured that while I had made the pilgrimage to Sydney (and back) I would get it changed out at the same time I did the rest of the work. I am the second owner of the car, so maybe the first had a thing for riding the clutch? Although, from posts I have seen on the forums they seem to expire rather quickly!? It would have cost me more in time and accommodation etc. to get it done later. Also, personally I would rather support a local tuner (like Paul) rather than have had it done at the dealership.

BTW: Pic above in post

[adam]

adam,
did Paul do different tunes for the different SI modes? 'cause that's I'm thinking of asking for drivability in S and all out performance in S#.

i think the way it was explained to me was that the power is a constant but it's just about where in the acc. pedal travel you get that power. alot like before. but i think S is better (performance wise) and more user friendly than S# was previously.
if you give it the curry in S then you can feel that is the case, it's just that the delivery is much less aggressive, esp initially.
for every day cruising, or even driving with a little bit of... intent S is perfect.
but when that SS or rex pulls up next to you S# is where you want to be. all the way to the speed limit of course.

[GTSPECB STI]

all the way to the speed limit of course.

you mean second gear adam

[tehx]

I too would like so more info on the SI modes of operation. I noticed that the MRT site has more info on the Liberty's and mentions that they can now change the boost levels with ECUTek. A friend who recently purchased a second hand liberty, with the MRT tune, informs that there is 11psi on S and 15psi on S# - that I need to confirm.

I would like to know if the SI drive changes the throttle response in such a way that it reduces the throttle travel and/or throttle opening/response over a period of time. In the first instance you can think of throttle travel as 0% (not pressed down) and 100% (foot to the floor). In this way S# would take the 80% point and remap that to 100% of engine throttle - electronically. This would mean that the last 20% of movement in the throttle - does nothing. The other method (using a factor of time) would work like this. You press the throttle to 100% and the ECU brings the engine revs up to 100% in say 2 seconds. In S# mode that 2 seconds would be reduced to say 1.5 seconds. The ECU would use a single parameter for delay or a lookup table if the delay were to change, relevant to throttle position. It's an electronic throttle so you have control over both the throttle travel and how long (delay in time) it takes to respond to a given input.

When I look at the little SI graph on the dash I think the y axis (up and down) is the throttle opening 0% to 100% and the x axis (right) is time. It then seems that 'I' mode both reduces the amount of throttle opening you can have, and throttle response (over time) is extended out. S and S# give you full throttle opening but the time taken to get that full throttle is slightly reduced in S#.

So in effect the only mode that changes throttle travel is 'I' mode - it makes the 100% point of throttle movement (foot flat) equal only about 75% of throttle opening. S and S# always give you 100% of throttle opening, but adjust the time it takes to get to that point.

As I remember it, Paul's take on S and S#, was to tune both modes for the best tune eg. max boost. Then just let SI mode choose the throttle response. I will ask for more clarification when I next see Paul but am keen to find a definitive answer on this one.

[WhiteGTB]

So in effect the only mode that changes throttle travel is 'I' mode - it makes the 100% point of throttle movement (foot flat) equal only about 75% of throttle opening. S and S# always give you 100% of throttle opening, but adjust the time it takes to get to that point.

This is exactly what I thought too! Similar to those of you who are familiar with the sprint booster, basically works the same way.

In a manual, I find it abit difficult to drive at times cause of the response. You might be used to driving in S then when you switch, it takes a few sets of lights before you realise.... different throttle response all over again. Bunny hop a few then it's all good again with your pedal feel adjusted.

I'll PM you about the clutch.. currently looking at my options