Alright, got a couple questions...

I know you're supposed to dyno in the gear that's closest to 1:1 which in our case would be 4th gear. Has anyone ever dyno'd in 3rd and 4th and compared the results? The reason I ask is because I'm almost afraid it'd be hard on the car dynoing in 4th. I read on an MR2 forum about a guy who dynos in 3rd because he only got a 3whp difference in reading between dynoing in 3rd and 4th. End result was he wasn't as hard on the drivetrain and still got a pretty much accurate reading. What's your opinions on this?

My next question is about Air/fuel tuning. What's a safe ratio that's good for daily driving and making some good power?

What about timing? What should I watch for?

Are there any other variables that need to be tuned? I plan to start with a basemap so I'll have something to go off of. What should I have present? A wideband and an EGT gauge I would presume would be enough?

I plan to take the car to gotham in the early spring or late winter, sometime in that range to have a new motor go in and get it tuned by steve, but once I start compiling the parts I'd like to go ahead and put a PFC on. This of course means tuning. The guy who I'd have it tuned by has tuned a rotary before, but he's not all that familiar with them, but knows the software. I figured if I could get enough info from you guys he could get me a safe tune and make some decent power too.

Thanks in advance.

 

I have dynoed in 3rd gear and the pickup on the dyno had a hard time reading HP and torque because of how fast it was going thru third gear. Never got an accurate number, but that could be specific to that dyno.
You really want to tune the car in 4th gear. When racing you will be using 4th gear most of the time and want to play it safe by tuning thru 4th.
Most say a 11.5:1 AF is safe. I would tune for a low 11:1.

The key to tuning is getting the timing correct. Anyone can tune by changing the fuel maps, but you need to make sure the timing maps are correct.
I would also recommend tuning on a dyno and not the street. You will gain alot more power by doing this. Street tuning is only a rough tune. Dyno tuning will let you see the how changes in the timing are changing overall HP.

 

Thanks for the info Jason.

How will I know if I'm going too far advance with the timing or if I have room to advance it more?

 

bump

 

one last BUMP^

SOMEONE has to be able to help me out

 

If you're gonna take it to Steve, I'd go ahead and just get the PFC tuned by him too.

Getting a 7 tuned by someone who doesn't know them that well is asking for an engine to pop because of his lack of skill and finesse with the motor.

 

Yes, I've read of many FD motors that failed on the dyno...

 

I agree with cavellm. Did that guy tune the 7 that popped it's motor a few months back?

Besides, you'll be fine running around for awhile with the Power FC maps tweaked a little bit. No need to try and squeeze more power out of it via ignition timing since you'll have a pro tuning it later.

I've got a datalogit if you just want to tweak fan turn-on temps and such.

 

ok thanks for the info.

Oh, and the guy who would be tuning it is extremely experienced with tuning other cars, just not so much with a rotary. He has tuned one before, and yes it did pop probably a month later but that was due to several reasons. The motor had 99k original miles, and the owner requested it was tuned fairly lean to see what he could get out of it (12.5:1 a/f) since he knew it would go soon anyway. He would go richer if I told him too.

Anyway, skot I'm assuming you're familiar with it and I'll be geting the datalogit too. When I get into all that I'll let you know, maybe you could help me out in tuning her a bit.

Thanks again.