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Old 07-11-2007, 09:15 PM
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Default Tuning warning

For the new tuners that might not know.Watch out how you tune in this hot weather. Cars can take lot more timing due to poor air quality.The side affect is when the weather cools down the engine's start to detinate.This is a huge problem with FI cars.You see alot of these cars tuned in the hot months then blow #7 piston in the fall.

Just a heads up
Old 07-11-2007, 09:19 PM
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Good tip Don

Old 07-11-2007, 09:20 PM
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Originally Posted by Slowhawk
For the new tuners that might not know.Watch out how you tune in this hot weather. Cars can take lot more timing due to poor air quality.The side affect is when the weather cools down the engine's start to detinate.This is a huge problem with FI cars.You see alot of these cars tuned in the hot months then blow #7 piston in the fall.

Just a heads up
Good point. And good tip. Saw a couple Lightnings pop last winter. Tuned by another shop.
Old 07-11-2007, 09:45 PM
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thanks for the info i was just concidering adding little timing since im not getting any detonation. so would you recommend adding timing when it cools down ,i was told it was easier to tune in the winter, i guess that was more bad info i got from old mechanic
Old 07-11-2007, 09:51 PM
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Good word of warning!
Old 07-12-2007, 04:43 AM
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I played with a car yesterday that I know only likes 26 degree's of timing in the cool weather.It was 94 degree's out and I ran 32 degree's of timing on it without any KR HP stayed the same as 26 degree's. Of course we put it back after.

FI cars are famous. We get a ton of blown up Mustangs in the fall and ussually 2-3 LS1's. All ussually have too much timing from being tuned in the heat.Atleast the shops around here keep us busy
Old 07-12-2007, 07:10 AM
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I've always heard/experienced that the hotter/warmer weather is when we'll see KR and can't run as much timing...

in the winter/cooler weather though, the air is MORE dense, thus resulting in a better air charge, sucking in more air and we can increase timing/spark.

This has been my experience anyway...
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Old 07-12-2007, 02:02 PM
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Originally Posted by 06MonteSS
I've always heard/experienced that the hotter/warmer weather is when we'll see KR and can't run as much timing...

in the winter/cooler weather though, the air is MORE dense, thus resulting in a better air charge, sucking in more air and we can increase timing/spark.

This has been my experience anyway...
Same here .
Hot air leaner , Cold air richer as far as AFR goes , phatter AFR more timing .
???????

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Old 07-12-2007, 02:18 PM
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actually, colder air should make you leaner shouldn't it? since it's more dense, you're pulling/sucking in MORE air....

hotter air is less dense, therefore less air is coming in, making it run richer... no??
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Old 07-12-2007, 02:34 PM
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No , I have watched with wideband and colder air seems to run richer AFRs , at the track a guy had his car Dynoed that day at 80* and was running 11.5 AFR at the track that night he was running 10.8 AFR @ 55* .
Old 07-12-2007, 02:47 PM
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aaah, ok... makes sense now that I think about it...

colder, more dense air means we're pulling in more air by volume, so the ECM adds more fuel to keep the AFR in check...

warmer, less dense air means we're pulling in less air by volume, so the ECM subtracts fuel...

gotcha...

thx!

EDIT: but then, how could the issue mentioned in post #1 happen then? if you tune in the hotter weather, then when it gets colder the AFR should go richer - so why would that blow the engine?? I could see if it went leaner when it got colder, but what we're saying here is that it gets richer when it gets colder... Hmmm...
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Old 07-12-2007, 04:42 PM
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Originally Posted by 06MonteSS
EDIT: but then, how could the issue mentioned in post #1 happen then? if you tune in the hotter weather, then when it gets colder the AFR should go richer - so why would that blow the engine?? I could see if it went leaner when it got colder, but what we're saying here is that it gets richer when it gets colder... Hmmm...
Tune your car in the hot weather and see what happens in the cold weather The change is more drastic on FI cars.Most people here deal with there own cars.I'm lucky enough to tune a ton of cars and see the difference.
Old 07-12-2007, 07:03 PM
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You can put more charge into the motor when the air
is denser.

With more charge in it, you would really like to not
light it off in a place where it can't easily expand
into work delivered to the crank. Your motor might
tolerate early ignition (after TDC, but away from
best crank angle) if it's a punk charge but break
something at a higher charge that has nowhere to
go (for a few tens of crank degrees ATDC, cylinder
volume changes not much, so pressure and temp
must remain high and the aluminum doesn't really
like either one). You want peak pressure to develop
around peak leverage angle I believe. Not early and
not late. Early breaks stuff, late burns stuff.

None of this has to do with mixture really. Though
you could add problems that way.
Old 07-12-2007, 07:43 PM
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Originally Posted by jimmyblue
You can put more charge into the motor when the air
is denser.

With more charge in it, you would really like to not
light it off in a place where it can't easily expand
into work delivered to the crank. Your motor might
tolerate early ignition (after TDC, but away from
best crank angle) if it's a punk charge but break
something at a higher charge that has nowhere to
go (for a few tens of crank degrees ATDC, cylinder
volume changes not much, so pressure and temp
must remain high and the aluminum doesn't really
like either one). You want peak pressure to develop
around peak leverage angle I believe. Not early and
not late. Early breaks stuff, late burns stuff.

None of this has to do with mixture really. Though
you could add problems that way.
Can someone explain this in English to me








Just messing with ya
Old 07-12-2007, 08:35 PM
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Slowhawk I am gonna be running 9lbs of boost in my car. It is getting tuned down in Southeast Florida in about a week and a half hopefully. Obviously it is summer here and will be tuned for the weather accordingly. Now should I also have it retuned in the winter months here as well? It doesn't get that cold here at all usually in the winter. If it does it may be for no longer than a week at a time usually, and by no means is it cold compared to where you are located. What are your thoughts? I appreciate any advice you can throw my way.
Old 07-12-2007, 10:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Slowhawk
Tune your car in the hot weather and see what happens in the cold weather The change is more drastic on FI cars.Most people here deal with there own cars.I'm lucky enough to tune a ton of cars and see the difference.
DUDE! no need to get friggin' snotty... I'm just questioning/curious, as I'd like to learn what is actually happening when it comes to hotter/colder temps so I can tune correctly...

geez....

rough day??!!
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Old 07-13-2007, 12:44 AM
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None of this really makes any sense.
If your sensors are reporting correctly & you have tuned properly for the variations then your AFR shouldnt change. Only if your sensors are giving bad info like with heatsoak not giving an accurate description of air temp should you have an issue.
I realise it isnt a perfect world but from what Ive seen in my car from an early morning log with the ambient air being around 0 degC to an afternoon temp of 28 degC is less than 1% variation on my Ben Maps. Not an engine destroying scenario.
Old 07-13-2007, 08:33 AM
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^^^but if you're running alot more timing due to tuning in warm weather... when it gets cold that timing is overkill and potentially dangerous (especially for FI instances)

I suppose you could use the IAT timing modifier table to account for changes.. however there's no reason to run more timing than you need... (no reason to run 35* when running 26* makes the same power)
Old 07-13-2007, 09:12 AM
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Yep...I agree...

On the GTP in say 30* weather I can see as much as 1-1.5 psi more boost than in say 70* weather. That extra boost, even though its a colder charge, makes KR more likely. Gotta be way conservative on timing...

One thing does the LS1 PCM have a table to adjust spark based on AFR? The GTP does and for some reason it adds timing when the A/F gets richer. So colder often makes the WOT AFR richer and then adds timing on top.....
Old 07-13-2007, 09:30 AM
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maybe thats why i have heard of some things being blown up in the past 3-5 months...go figure.



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