Suby Club

Car is finally back in my hands from the guy that did the engine and loom swap for me, it has also had a flash tune as it has some mods and was running very poor on the stock ecu. As I did not do the swap myself I have not posted much about the build yet except for in the introductions section. Mods include HKS GT2835 turbo, BIG injectors (unsure of size), Tomei headers & 3 inch dump. Dyno sheet below.




Car is running reasonably well but is showing signs of still running a bit rich, blowing black smoke in low to mid-range rpm, chugging (flooding) at cruise speeds and using ALOT of fuel even staying out of boost. For those who know a bit more about tuning than I do, does the AFR chart on the dyno sheet look like its running rich or not? The tuner said he left it a bit fat to be on the safe side but it just seems to be running a bit too rich to me. I am only running one CAT now as the dump I swapped to has no CAT, could this be the cause of the black smoke and rich fuel smell? Another thing is my CEL is on with code p0103- MAF high input. I have cleaned the MAF itself & connections also the air filter but still get this code. Time for new MAF I guess?? Could this also be contributing to my running rich issue?

The guy that tuned it (Steve Knight- Adelaide) is actually an EVO specialist but the guy that did the conversion for my put me onto him because other than S&J's (ECUTEK) there are limited options on flash tuning here in adelaide. Should I be getting back onto him about the tune being too rich or should I sort out my MAF & CAT issues first? Thanks for listening guys, any help much appreciated. Cheers, Brendon. - More pics of car in my gallery if ya interested!

Also the torque read out looks way dodgey to me.....895 NM. That cant be right can it?

I think that torque measurement is just to compare dynos. You have to calculate your torque figure using the motive force (8217.4N in your case) and plug it into the formula below, along with your wheel and gearing specs:

A dyno sheet usually won't have a direct conversion to Nm on it. They calculate power by reading the Tractive Effort (whats on the RHS of the sheet). This is the force required to spin the rollers. Since its a direct force, without any direction, its only measured in Newtons. To convert this to engine torque, you need the following calculation:

The tractive effort is obtained by multiplying the torque by the total ratio of the power train and dividing this sum by the rolling radius of the driving tyres.
T = (TE x r)/(1000 x R)

Where:
T= Motor torque in Nm
TE = Tractive Effort in N
R = Overall gear reduction including both axle and transmission
r = Rolling radius of loaded driving tyre in millimetres

Example:
TE = 5400
R = diff ratio X gear ratio (eg 3.45 diff x 1.00 Auto 3rd gear = 3.45)
r = 326.60 mm (18" rim/ with 235/40/18 tyre combo)

(Stolen from ls1.com.au)

Could I be pushing above the limits of the factory MAF sensor, causing the MAF trouble code? I have a horrible feeling I should have spent the extra ($1100!!) on the tune & gone to Sean at S&J, who is an ECUTEK & Subaru specialist. I doubt very much he would have given me the car back in this state, CEL on & running rich.

Aren't you basically "stuck" with Ecutek after it's done thou?

You can remove it, but you have to either pay ecutek, or yank out the ROM and directly write the original image onto it apparently.

Yeah these are the reasons I stayed away from it (ECUTEK), and the cost. Just not real happy with the way the car has come back with the MAF problem, think I'll get a new one and pray it fixes the CEL light. I'm also a bit surprised he would even complete a tune when there is a fault code relating to the MAF showing. I only know what the code is because I have a small OBD2 scanner of my own, he never even mentioned it.

Have you spoken to him about it?

p.s. Nice sleeper

either that of chuck in a Link g4

Gonna ring him today I reckon. I live out of the city about 90 mins away from him so just trying to avoid having to take it back. Some one once told me if a tuner cant do it right the first time, its time to find a new tuner....

Just rang him and he was really good. I think this was a bit of a learning curve for him to as he has only done a couple of subys before mine which were fairly stock. He said it could well be touching the limits of the factory MAF settings in the ECU, causing the MAF high input trouble code, so he is going to look into the rom to see where he can change the limit. He said he did leave it a bit richer than he would tune most EVOs but he just wanted to leave it on the safe side because he wast too experienced with how far to push the subaru engine. He said we could probably afford to trim it off just a bit. Will let ya all know how it goes

That's good to hear. At least he was cool about it.

Yeah I hate complaining coz most people get offended & it all turns to sh*t from there. But he was honest about his lack of experience on the Subys & wants to learn more too. He is massively respected in local EVO circles. Cant wait to sort this properly, 240kw atw while still having issues is a good start! Turbo takes a while to hit full boost, about 4500 rpm. But when it does... happy days