EFI Tunning Tips Here

[robains]

E.D.,

EFI has nothing to do with the alarm system -- I disable the alarm prior to turning the key (not the other way around).

A year or so ago (when I used to let people other than me work on my car), ForcedFed were struggling with a similar issue with my car -- just would not start -- in fact FF struggled so much trying to start it that they left a 6 inch long ground down spot on my flywheel (which causes some issues even now).

After I rescued my car from FF, what I discovered was an Injector wire grounding on fuel rail, ground wire held on with one copper strand (rest of strands were frayed), throttle wire was bent so that it broke inside the insulation, fuel pump fuse was blown but the wires had actually melted together so it "sporadically" worked, and finally my Radio fuse had blown (no idea how that happened). I was told by FF I had a faulty immobilizer -- odd since after I corrected the wiring issues I found, my immobilizer has been working just fine for the past year.

So it's unlikely your immobilizer, but FYI, the immobilizer is located close to the fuel pump behind the driver seat behind the plastic bulkhead -- in case you need to find it. Your owners manual will go over how to rekey the immobilizer just in case you think it needs it. But if the car ran for 10 seconds, it's not the immobilizer as that wouldn't let the car start at all.

I'd suggest you keep a trickle charge on the battery after you locate any possible wiring faults (disconnect the battery while checking). Might wanna dump out your fuel also and put some fresh fuel in

EFI do sell a stand alone "race" wire harness that might be worth looking into -- that way you can dump the stock ECU completely.

RCHARD,

I know with SC cars the latest EFI firmware fixed the hysteresis with fan control (on/off/on/off) -- not sure if you Turbo guys got that same fix or not? I ended up wiring a manual AC switch to ensure the AC is OFF when it's supposed to be OFF -- but unfortunately even with the lastest firmware it didn't fix the AC problem.

Rob.

[turbophil]

RCHAD- Glad things came together with all the latest updates I'd just adjust your fan on temp a bit higher so that it's not in a normal operating temp for the car.

E.D.- If you want, maybe we can arrange a time to visit over the phone to help trouble shoot what may have happened to the car in transit... If the installation went well, most cars basically start right up and drive without issue... You have a few more variables with your head work and compression, but nothing that should cause anything too far out of the norm...

Take care,

TP

[RCHAD]

hey phil...final numbers at 11psi were 281 rwhp and 206 tq...the real fun happened after the buttometer got to feel the extra 30 horsies and nearly 50 torque improvements...it was 94 degrees yesterday and this morning the car made 15 psi...i think i will turn down the high boost a little but afr's were good (11.2:1)...one thing though, the tuner used 6000 rpm as the cam switchover point...seemed high but the dyne showed best torque with it up there. if anyone needs a high altitude map for reference (4500ft) feel free to pm me...or just call kris or phil. (they know what they are doing)

[turbophil]

Hey Chad,

That's great! 281/206 at 11psi is pretty darn awesome. Especially at nearly a mile high

Don't sweat the cam change point. There's a whole bunch of factors that contribute to where/when the VE is optimal for the cam switch. You may find that you want to lower it regardless of what the dyno says on the race track if its wanting to switch right in the middle of a long sweeper or something similar where super smooth power is paramount... That's a large part of the reason I keep mine where it is-- so it's not in the way of being smooth at the track. If I were drag racing, I'd be more worried about the perfect spot to switch for the best power on the dyno and strip...

...That's just my cam strategy. Others may feel different and that's the beauty of the system. You can do what you want

Happy driving my friend!

Phil

Originally Posted by RCHAD

hey phil...final numbers at 11psi were 281 rwhp and 206 tq...the real fun happened after the buttometer got to feel the extra 30 horsies and nearly 50 torque improvements...it was 94 degrees yesterday and this morning the car made 15 psi...i think i will turn down the high boost a little but afr's were good (11.2:1)...one thing though, the tuner used 6000 rpm as the cam switchover point...seemed high but the dyne showed best torque with it up there. if anyone needs a high altitude map for reference (4500ft) feel free to pm me...or just call kris or phil. (they know what they are doing)

[RCHAD]

IT IS largely due to yours and kris' help with the tuning and i am pretty ecstatic with the end results due to it is the first full turbo system that i have been able to fab up the manifold and piping and the intercooler all by me self. the car only put down 253 and 160tq without tuning.

Originally Posted by turbophil

Hey Chad,

That's great! 281/206 at 11psi is pretty darn awesome. Especially at nearly a mile high

Don't sweat the cam change point. There's a whole bunch of factors that contribute to where/when the VE is optimal for the cam switch. You may find that you want to lower it regardless of what the dyno says on the race track if its wanting to switch right in the middle of a long sweeper or something similar where super smooth power is paramount... That's a large part of the reason I keep mine where it is-- so it's not in the way of being smooth at the track. If I were drag racing, I'd be more worried about the perfect spot to switch for the best power on the dyno and strip...

...That's just my cam strategy. Others may feel different and that's the beauty of the system. You can do what you want

Happy driving my friend!

Phil

[Kris from DRS]

Originally Posted by RCHAD

IT IS largely due to yours and kris' help with the tuning and i am pretty ecstatic with the end results due to it is the first full turbo system that i have been able to fab up the manifold and piping and the intercooler all by me self. the car only put down 253 and 160tq without tuning.

Chad, thanks for the kind words. I'm glad the car is runnign so well. Good work on your self-made turbo kit!

Kris

[Kris from DRS]

Originally Posted by E.D.

I updated the EFI in my car yesterday with latest firmware + updated map from Phil.

Because of corrosion in the various plugs, created during the transport US --> Europe (thank you transport company), the electrical system in my car has issues: when pushing the start button car tries to start, but not enough electricity, so start motor quits, electricity goes up again so car tries to start again, not enough electricity, so start motor quits etc.etc. It was sort of oscillating except for one time when the car finally started for about 10sec then died again.
During the time I needed to complete the EFI update this oscillating effect stopped…when pushing the start button nothing happens anymore. Fuses are OK, and it’s not a problem with not properly grounding the car. The mechanic says it looks the alarm process isn’t fully finished: it keeps blocking the start button after turning the key and disabling the alarm, my light of the traction control on the console is also flashing very quickly. Weird. I said the EFI doesn’t do anything with the alarm since this is still controlled by the Lotus ECU. So something else broke coincidentally during the update process.
Q: Is my statement correct about the EFI not having anything to do w/the alarm?

The garage will start looking into this problem later this week, cleaning all contacts further etc. measuring the electrical stuff bit by bit to figure out where the hell the problem is.
After that we only need the repair the front clam, get the front grill and the left rear small plastic vents back on, getting the A/F meter working again. God I love this transport company…I’ll try so also send me the repair bill for all this sh*t problems they created, we’ll see how that will end…

ED, sounds like your car went thru hell during the trip across the pond.

You might want to get a new battery for good measure. Or at least try a long slow charge and make sure it has at least 11 to 11.5 Volts during cranking (10 V or below will not allow the engine to start well, of at all).

Phil has made recent progress with improving the DBW cars to idle smoother without the use of the DBW controller. I am still in favor of the controller for other reasons (more so for racign cars), but it works without it too so you should have a smooth idle no matter what.

Like Robains stated, the EFI has nothing to do with the alarm or imobilizer, but going back to dead battery for a moment...this will affect the electronics as a whole.

For example, when cranking if volts drop below 10V and then raise again briefly once your finger comes off the start button this causes a "reset" of the electronics (ECU, alarm, imobilizer, etc...) in some cases there will be evidence of this on the dash. Ever seen your tach or speed-o hang up and not resume to zero?

Try a new battery if yours will not take a full charge. Also, volts are one aspect, but amps is another variable, goes back to the capacity of the battery itself...a good mechanic will be able to diagnose it quickly.


Hope that helps a little.

Kris

[RCHAD]

ok next wierd issue, while the coasting fuel shutoff is enabled the car has terrible pops and backfires during coast and between shifts. the tuner guy at the dyne had mentioned that the level of fuel the car gets during coasting is adjustable but i cant seem to find it...so for now there is no fuel cutout on my car. any suggestions??
btw i had idle issues and the solution was a hole drilled in the throttle plate 0.0105, just smaller that a 1/8 drill bit and lower my pedal position a bit. to help the dying issue with low throttle settings i increased the ign timing to 28degrees at 800 rpm. seems to have worked.