14/04/2022
Hi All ! Been quite busy of late I have been getting involved with some other software stuff outside of tuning and been really enjoying it ! This specific industry is quite thin in talent so I may venture off in this direction but still love my tuning !
Of late the flavour has been Turbo And Blown LS and have achieved some very good results with very high power levels , fast spool times on minimal boost . I like doing the LS as the drivability thing is where it’s at. However I have been getting quite a lot of contacts regarding tuning Microtechs . Evidently no one wants to tune them . I can understand new tuners with not much experience and also tuners with a lot of experience now go towards Haltech and I don’t blame people they are a good platform with plenty of support . Once everything is configured away you go . It’s a great way to learn efi . In saying that tuning is tuning and the same traps catch people out ! I have been lucky enough ( well maybe not that lucky ) to have experience with the older style ecus and most people tell me that they can’t find anyone to tune the Microtechs or the workshops push them towards Haltech or other brands . I can 100 percent see why . But at the same time if your car has a Microtech and it’s working and has good wiring . No reason it can’t stay. I find them quite easy to tune and can get through the maps quite fast. They also have an IAT option which can help with temp swings. What they don’t have is effective idle control . They are more or less a carb in this scenario. I do find they still control larger injectors quite well it’s just a matter of doing a few things to make these work but all good. The main thing is clean fuel system and filters .consistent voltage output from alternator and if it’s turboed ensure the wastegate is fitted in right location to ensure boost control is stable. These ecus also don’t have knock control , but do remember that the more modern ecu requires the tuner to listen for noise and real knock and setup the knock features in the software to suit and unless this is done. Not a lot of point using it if not setup, as the ecu can pull timing from just noise but also not pick up real knock ! The other thing is a lot of new tuners are relying on PID control to tune fuel maps but I tend to find auto tune can leave holes in VE tables. It’s a matter of first knowing how to tune the PID to work and then configuring the transients and ensure the closed loop operation ( if long term is enabled) is not correcting the transient effect which tends to make the VE table learn leaner in certain parts of the map . This is why many tuners use the correction feature to rough out the VE but then turn the correction off and calibrate the table in Open loop . We then ensure the dead times are correct and the right voltage correction is in place and also fuel pressure correction . If the pressure drops or increases the ecu will follow suit in Open loop . The next thing is IAT correction . Once this is all in place , closed loop can do its thing and can be limited . Remember a bad O2 sensor can send the wrong info back to your ecu and if long terms are enabled it will wreck your VE table so open loop is the go to get things right . Closed loop is also used in fly by wire and it’s why you see so many VE commodores running like crap at idle or the tuners use over aggressive timing control at idle . This causes the car to sound awful and results in poor drivability . It also causes the machine gun sound on back off and back firing . As the timing is being over compensated . They aren’t using the airflow tables right to get the car idling right so go to other measures. In other scenarios they relax the timing control but then the cars surge and don’t hold idle . This is generally more so with bigger camshafts as they usually just drill a hole in TB and run a factory idle map .
They also use PID control for boost and if open loop is setup right in background it’s not an issue. Or if PID is right it’s also ok . But what happens here is the car Will overboost or surge on deepend of the track.
Knock control - as previously mentioned also has a long term feature . So this maybe turned on and your ecu learns down to the point it has no timing in it at all and won’t perform .
As we can see here to configure these new ECUs correctly takes a bit of work . One can watch Joe Simspon on YouTube and he explains this.
So one can just run with the “base tune” and make money but you may not be getting what you paid for. I can say for a fact a lot of the time this isn’t right and it’s why I consult and teach novices and even some Pro tuners .
So all this hard work to be done can be applied to the Microtech , there is no easy way out and I have had to tune many ecus from some very well reknowned tuners and shops to the point where the customer couldn’t even get the car on the trailer and I’ve had to remote in. So closed loop functionality. While it’s great it doesn’t cover laziness and incompetence.
Next thing - a lot are wiring up cars before it comes to me and I am finding I am going down rabbit holes to sort things. If you are reading this and are a customer , I’m not worried and not annoyed . I enjoy helping all the customers . It’s more for people who are buying bits and pieces and being told it will work and clearly it doesn’t . We can do things cheaper and more effective !
Another thing - sorry to the guys If I have been able to tune your car yet.
I am thinking of running a campaign style tuning wkd . I just have to see how things pan out the next few months . I will be offering a big discount to correct LS calibrations for drivability it appears it’s a big hit atm .
Have a happy and safe Easter !
