Power Commander Tuning Tips?

[RussMcB]

I started a thread over on the Sports Racers forum. I figured they may have a decent body of experience.

http://dsrforum.yuku.com/topic/6947

It says:

I'm taking my F1000 with '07 ZX-10R to the chassis dyno tonight. I have what I think is a good basic plan (see below), but looking for any advice. I've practiced making fuel map changes in my garage, but this will be my first time tuning a Power Commander for real.

I'm anticipating 5-10 runs. The first three will be to determine which map I will use as a starting point. The three I have chosen are the custom map that came with this used PCIII (I ran it at Barber, seemed OK), a 'zero' map and one of the available maps from the Power Commander web site.

Once that has been determined, I'll make full throttle runs, then look at the power and air/fuel ratio graphs. If I see dips in the power and corresponding, non-optimum AFR, I'll make a fuel map change for those RPM ranges and make another run.

Does that sound like a good plan?

I don't think I need to be concerned about any part throttle conditions. Would you agree?

Thanks.

[carnut169]

It would be neat if you could find someone local that has tuning experience to join you. What time are you going?

[RussMcB]

Appointment is at 5:00. There is a guy from ZX-10R.net who will be there. He's got some experience. I considered hiring a guy, but didn't want to spend the money. Besides, I thought, how hard can it be? Of course, that's the same stupid thought that got me into the F1000 conversion bidness. :-).

[sracing]

Russ, your plan would seem adequate except...... Engine cylinder head and fluid temps are critical. (even gear box oils). You will see variances of 3 to 4 HP from ambient to full operating temps. To do what you are going to do, I would suggest MANY more runs.

Several pulls to speed and cruise using the eddy current load (or brake load). THEN do your tunes and comparisons. I would do 3 runs with each fuel map for comparisons.
(and then reload an earlier map to compare again)

We do tuning every day so we have some experience.

Maybe you can get up this way some time (Lexington, KY) and you can spened a couple hours on the dyno doing it right. (and cheaper )

Jim
SR

[RussMcB]

Thanks for the offer, Jim. That's tempting, except for the cost of getting up there. My dyno session today cost $100. That seemed like a pretty good deal. I got there at 5:00 PM, made 8 runs, was productive and back home by 8:00 PM. I was able to see where my AFR was off a bit, make changes and see improvements.

It was definitely worthwhile. It was nice to hear the engine scream to the rev limiter and sound healthy. Gives me a little more confidence going into a race weekend, knowing the power plant is good.

Also saw very high oil pressure (90 lb.) - enough to make me consider lighter weight oil. I've got 15W-50 in there now.

Lastly, it was good to see this '07 engine is a little better than the '05 I had before. All in all a good experience.

[Mike B]

Lastly, it was good to see this '07 engine is a little better than the '05 I had before.

...and the results were?

[RussMcB]

...and the results were?

I've got the data files, trying to download the DynoJet viewer software now so I can analyze.

Bottom line - went from 142 to 149 RWHP.

Have no idea how this might compare to other FB engines. That would be nice to know, but I'm happy with my improvement.

[RussMcB]

This was my next to last run.

[Mike B]

What does the peak HP at 80 mph convert to in RPM?

[sracing]

HP always = RPM x Torque / 5252.

So it looks like his peak HP occurs at ~14180. (assuming his peak torque was ~55 when his peak HP was at 148.5. Hard to see on the graph)

Jim
SR

[RussMcB]

What does the peak HP at 80 mph convert to in RPM?

Y'know, I don't know why he kept giving me info via MPH. I mentioned a few times I didn't care about that - that I cared about RPMs. Must be a drag racing thing.

I think you're looking at the torque curve, not HP. HP kept climbing right up to redline (a little over 13,000 RPM). Max torque was around 8,500 RPM, I think. We did our runs using 4th gear.