TheMagikMan

For more experienced tuners, what are the little tips and tricks that you think everyone should use to improve their tunes? Whether it be smoothness, power, or throttle response. Something that you do nearly every time you make a tune that always seems to be better than tunes without it. And if this is a post that has been made before, please let me know.

I know we have the big long form post with all the links stickied at the top, but think of this as a kind of 'for dummies' version of marginal tune improvements that may add up to everyone's tunes being far better.

Kevin91Z

iTrader: (1)

Increase timing in the upper RPM's by around 5 degrees.

Lower fan-turn on temps by 10 degrees.

Increase torque converter lock-up by 5 MPH.

TheMagikMan

I personally found recently that the richest point in the PE vs RPM table should be the same RPM as the earliest all-in timing RPM. I've found that this is ideal for knock prevention as well as power. The car feels so much better now.

ULTM8Z

In terms of throttle response... In 8D... (the below parameter/table descriptions are with respect to S_AUJP v7).

There's a AE parameter "AE-TPS, Forced Index for Entry into Pump Shot Table"

The description says "When AE-TPS is first invoked, the index for accessing the AE-TPS Pump Shot Table (0x53B) is initially =0 to allow accessing the first element of that Table to provide a maximum pump shot. But if the TPS% change in 12.5ms is < 3.9, the index into the Table is changed to this value. This causes the 4th and subsequent elements of the 8 element Table to be accessed, thereby limiting AE-TPS PW."
Factory Default = 3

I'm not a code expert, so I can't fully explain this any more simply. But, what I did was to set this to 0.

I then took the "AE-TPS PW Factor for Pump Shot" table and set locations 0 and 1 to the maximum of 4.00. Everything else zero.

The Miniram (and probably other similar short runner manifolds... and maybe even the TPI??) likes a very large shot of AE and then tapering off very quickly.

This modification (if I understand the descriptions correctly) ensures that the AE delta TPS always starts on row 0, continues through row 1, and then ends. I get the maximum delta TPS value whenever I engage delta-TPS AE. This also seemed to have the effect of making the throttle blip in park/neutral very crisp and clean (something I'd never been able to achieve before). But since it goes to zero very quickly, it produces a very crisp, linear feel to the throttle.

In terms of how long the delta TPS AE lasts, I reduced the Distributor Reference Pulse Counter to 8 (factory was 12). That's a constant value "AE-TPS, Done if DRP Counter =". This goes toward the philosophy of a quick shot of AE that disappears very quickly.

Everything else on delta TPS AE stuff was a direct copy and paste from DA3 LT1.

On the Delta-MAP side...

Again, very large shot of AE initially and then disappearing very quickly. I started with DA3 LT1, but the overall shot of delta MAP AE is significantly reduced from what GM did.

On the table AE-MAP, TPS%-based Factor for AE-MAP PW Calc, after 10kPa, I significantly reduced the slope of the curve, ending with 160 kPa at 50kPa vs GM's .262. Except at 0kPa, I increased from .128 to .150. The 0kPa value has a big effect on light throttle take off from a stand still, where the Miniram has it's notorious tip in stumble.

I also changed the table for the AE Delta MAP decay rate... at full coolant temp, I have it set to 85%, up from GM's 46% for the DA3 LT1's. Again, having the AE lingering around too much causes a laggy feel to the throttle.

Lastly, the engine seems to like different AE delta MAP volumes at different throttle positions. For the table AE-MAP, TPS%-based Factor for AE-MAP PW Calc, I increased the 0% TPS value by 20%, then leaning out the values by 10-15% for TPS values above 10%. Again, from the throttle closed position, the Miniram likes a large, quick, but short duration shot of AE.