Performance/Tuning 2003

As you could probably see on the site the truck got some major bolt ons. Since the configuration is radicaly different form last year I had to start the tuning from zero. Just to summ it up the major changes are 50 lb/hr injectors, PT52 turbo, external WG, L35 heads and 50's chips from Brian (thanks BG, I own you one). * After a few inintial startups and idleing in the garage I went out to test drivability. It was awsome for the first try, so I put a few miles into the new combo. Now I'm ready to test the truck at WOT. I'm planning to start from a rich mixture and low boost and moving into the right direction slowly. Just for the records, I'm not planning more boost than last year 17 psi at max. * The 50's ultimate v3 has built in fuel controll which I really like. You have two different timings, let's say low and high octane, respectively with ~14 and ~17 advance at WOT. With each timing you have seven different fueling options. Boost wise, since I've an external gate I'm not controlling boost from the chip any more. I started the testing with the base boost of the gate, which is currently 11-12 psi. I plan to replace springs until I get around 15 psi base. After this I'll use some kind of boost control, will talk about this later on. * Also since the increased power I'm try to babying my tranny as far as it's possible. I'll do 99% of my testing with no power starts at all. Hopefully this will help to converse the tranny for a while. Enough rambling, here is my first run in this year.



I was starting from idle. You can see that spool up is much slower with the PT52 compared to the stock turbo, but I can still get this 11 psi base in 1st. That's good enough. Also you can see that it's rich. Pls note, that - thanks to Dig -the WB logging code has been modified in the chip, so you can see the actual AFR ratio in DM. Nice, isn't it? So with 11 AFR it's rich, but I try to stay on the safe side, so I'll keep fueling here and gonna crank up the boost first. Spark retard is max 3 degree, which is not bad, of course 0 would be better. Will see what can I do with it. * The outside temp was in the mid 60's and you can see that the new Stewart stage II water pump is doing a wondeful job. The temp is not going over 160, which happen quite often with the stock WP last year during similar conditions. * I'm not really concerned performance wise at that point, but anyway, here is the performance of this run.



It's really identical with the performance of last year's runs. Hopefully a little more boost and tuning will help on this. * Also as you can see on my home page, shortly after this run my cooling fan went orbit destroying the radiator and the shrouds on its way. So testing is on hold till I can replace a radiator. Pls pray with me that the engine lived through the overheating which was caused by the skipping coolant. * Ok, the Sy is back on the road after the water pump issue, so I can continue to tune the new configuration. As a first step I raised the boost to the level, where I want to see it with this combo. I put in two springs into the Innovative Waste Gate and get 17 psi base boost. Perfect, I'd say, no need to use any boost control at this point, I want to tune the truck to run perfectly with this much boost, I don't need any more.



* As you can see I've some serious knock issue. That was the best run I've made so far, all the other ones were similar, but sometimes I got 12-13 degree of spark retard. I'm getting some knock even in no boost conditions, so I thought this should be false knock. I put in a fresh set of plugs and made some run, then checked the plugs. I can't see any sign of real knock on them. According to this at least some of this knocks are false one. An other argument beside the false knock theory that I can hear a strange clacking type of noise under acceleration. It's there even when I'm very easy on the throttle, but it's never there when I deccelarate ro when the truck is not in move. So my first priority now is to find the origin of this noise. I've a few tips, the strongest one, which I just realized, that my new 3" downpipe rubbing against the TC cover and against a header stud too. An other tip could be a loose TC bolt. Will check, and correct these things in week. Anyway here is the curent performance of the truck.



* Ok, I'd little progress in the past two weeks. Figthing against my knock issue I tried a bunch of things. I grinded down my tranny's house, the TC's cover and cut down the above mentioned header stud. Now none of them make contact with the downpipe any more. At the same time I realized that my downpipe is touching the frame too, a serious issue, which is not that easy to resolve. Now I'm using a spacer between my turbo and downpipe to position the dp a bit further from the frame. It looks better, but according to the signs on the dp it can still rub against it some time. I'm afraid I've to modify the second piece of the dp to correct this. No fun at all... * Talking about rubbing I've also realized that one of the turbo compressor's bolt could touch my passenger side accesorry bracket. I picked out the bracket and grinded it down, so now it's fine too. However after all that modification my knock is still there. My plans now to try out a couple of gallons Xilol. If knock goes away, then it was real, if not, well, I'll have to modify my dp then. * Just to make the tuning real fun I managed to develop an ignition problem in the mean time. Truck lost around 0.6s and 10 mph in the 1/8th. Even your but will get the performance loss of such an issue. Just for your education here is a shot showing a WOT run with ignition problems.



As you can see the AFR ratio started to roller cost above 3000 RPM and I lost around 1 PSI of boost. My RPM also a bit shaky. What could make this? One of the cylinders has a bad spark, so it doesn't contribute into the exhaust pressure that much, which gave me the 1 PSI drop in boost. The shaky AFR also tells the same story. To make it short, it was a crack on a spark plug boot. Idle was acceptable, but under WOT this small crack was enough for the spark to find an other way. Anyway it's corrected now, but since I had no a fresh set of plug wires I used an old one. I'm still not satisfied ignition wise, so I'll replace the whole set soon enough. * Ok, so what's next? I'll run with Xilol and report back. I've also realized that the clanking noise I was talking about above is an exhaust leak. Mot probably it's leaking at the copper SC gasket between the heads and headers. I've already ordered set of gaskets from a regular 4.3 V6, which I'll put on. * Ok. I've made some progress again. Made two runs with Xilol, the knock was the same. This just ensured me that I'm dealing with false knock here. Ok, I know that my downpipe is rubbing against the frame, that's my first suspect. I picked down the dp and deformed it with a hammer. Since this was not enough I had to use a klingerit gasket at the V-band clamp between the two halves of the dp. Belive me it was not easy to put there. Before I could make a test run I aslo modified one more thing. Removed the copper SCE header gasket from the passenger's side. This reintroduced a new problem into the equation. My turbo's compressor side touching the bolt, which holds the AC delete pulley at place in the accessory bracket. Damm... Have to correct this too. Anyway before any other changes I went to a test drive.



And whoala. I know that one run is not enough, but I wanna belive that I found the main cause of my false knock. Retard was almost non existent in 1st and 2nd, which couldn't be accidental. That damm dp... I still got some serious retard in 3rd though. Have to address this... I'd like to belive it's false as well. I still have too spots where metal could bang against other metal. First there is this compressor vs bracket issue. Second my exhaust is resting on the crossmember behind the cat. Not good. I'll address them ASAP and will do an other test. BTW, my supposed to be exhaust leaking is still there. It might be a bit less louder, but the majority is still there. I guess I'll remove the other header gasket too. Anyway here is the performance of the above run.



As you can see it is improving. Hopefully I'm not at the end of this road. I must mention that I'm very pleased with my IC. This was a quite warm day, mid 70's outside. Still my temps were in the 90's range. That run as all of the above was done with no cool down time of course. The run was done from idle and I let off well before the 1/4 mile. * It's raining outside now. Hopefully I'll be able to do an other test this weekend... * Well, here comes an update again. I made a radical step last weekend and removed the knock sensor. Actually it's still under the hood just not where it was designed to be. I'm not happy with this move, but I just simply went out of ideas. One last time I tried to put it in the lower intake in the front. It was picking up definitely more noise than in its original place. I was getting spark retard at the slightest throttle, so I just went crazy and removed the bitch. I guess I'll calm down in a while and might have new ideas to try out. I've ordered a new sensor as well, will try this out once it arrives. If you have any ideas, I'm welcome them... * Ok. So. Knock sensor removed. Let's go testing. Of course the weather is just breaking hundred year old records now, it was like 85 F around sunset. Anyway I was eager to see what the truck will do. Since I'm not THAT stupid I put in 4 gallons of Xylene before this test.



I locked the TC and was building boost till I could see a positive number on the boost gauge and let it go. It took significantly more time to spool it up to a positive number. I could sit there for a longer time, but I didn't want to stress it more at the first try. The launch felt good, it was not brutal, but still gave me a grin or two. Since my test road is not safe for 1/4 mile runs I had to let off well before the theoretical 1/4 mile line. * Don't mind the +20 PSI readings, it was like 3 PSI less than this (look at the Baro value - bug in our ECM, I was talking about this before). So in general that was a good run.



I like the 0-60MPH and the 12.8 riding the brakes... The 60 ft could be improved, last year's 1.70's would give me a 7s run in the 1/8. After this run I found a freshly developed kink in my IC line, so intake temps should not rise like this. A cooler weather could help as well. * I'd say 7.70's are possible under ideal circumstances. * One day after the previous run I decided to go on the last race of the spring season at Tokol. It was even warmer than last night. Temps was around the 80's at the whole night. I fixed my IC line kink, so I was getting much lower intake temps (110's vs 130's). However I lost 0.5-1.0 PSI boost somewhere.



It was surging after when it hit second. Also it was dropping the RPM's under 3000 after the second shift, which I've never seen before. I still don't know the reason of this. On the other hand, less boost and leaner AFR could indicate that one of the cylinders doesn't do his share that well.



Anyway here comes the performance numbers. I like the MPH at the 1/8th mile. Overall it was a stronger run than the one at last night. More MPH and very near ET with less boost, worse short time and with funny shifts. The short time was in the 1.95-2.00 range the whole night. Since they are not measuring net times (they didn't even tell you your reaction times), I was trying to let it go at the third yellow. * Anyway I made a compression test after the runs and it was okay. I also checked all my spark plugs and spark wires. Everything seems to be fine. I don't know what's the reason behind the above problems. Hopefully it's not my transmission giving up. Could be an ignition problem elsewhere, but I doubt it since everything is new. I'm planning to do a verification run in a few days and we will see after then. * I made quite a few runs and it seems to be I still have an ignition problem. Finally I replaced the distributor and truck was running flawlessly for a while. First I made a run, starting from idle, still on 17 psi, outside temp in the 80's.



With my new Ford Taurus fan my cooling issues seems to be solved. The fan is really doing a great job. On the other hand I had to realize that my intake air temp can raise around 30F during a run. There are no wonders out there, my stock upper IC can't handle the PT52 better than this. In the mean time I also got my Ultimate 50v4 from Brian, so my TC is locking up again automatically.



As you can see this was my best 'from idle' run ever. After this run the speed bug got me and I put in my Turbonetics pressure regulator. With a MityVac I dialed in it to regulate to 3 psi. This way I raised my boost to 20 psi and went to do a run. I also reset the gaps on my plugs to 0.032". This time I was power starting and the temps was in the 80's again. I got the same beautiful, flat boost with the Turbonetics as with the WG's base boost. On a side note, I let the ECM lock the TC. So far so good.



The run felt very smooth, I liked it, but I though it's a high 7. I went home and immediately checked my logs. Big grin came to my face instantly. Let's see why.



The best run ever. With an appropriate converter this could be even better and locking my TC manually also could help a little. I'd say a 7.50 is not impossible. But beside the 1/8 mile ET I really like my trap speed and my 60 MPH. I guess this would be a very low 12 in the 1/4. Bad thing I had to brake quite hard... * Anyway I felt a lot more relaxed after this run. That is the level of performance I awaited this year. Hopefully I'll be improve it and make it last... * One day after the above run a drove the truck again and realized that my ignition problem developed back itself again. It is not that bad than before, but still there. I removed all the plugs, checked them and realized that the straight plugs (two of them, on 1st and 4th) are sitting a little loosely on the plugs. I corrected this and went to a run again. Ignition problem went away again. I don't want to say anything right now, we will see... * Made a run so far, starting from idle, temps in the high 70's (it was late night). The truck run flawlesly. I could say it's the best off idle run ever. Boost is on 17 psi. It seems to be apparent that with this new build my IC couldn't keep up the way it did last year. My temps are rising 20-30F during a run. It's still not that bad, but last year result - where I was able to show up the same temps at the end of a run - went away.



I can't say too much new things about this run. My ignition problem did not show up. My shifts points are much closer to the expected one, because this time my tranny temps was in the 150F. During my test the tranny oil temp is lower than this because of the short trip before the test. This time I was travelling through the city before the test. Anyway here is the performance.



I like it. Good MPH, good time. Now we can say that the truck is almost perform the same 1/8 mile numbers starfing from idle that it did with the hardest power start last year. * Just to make me think on something again the truck developped a stalling problem. It salled three or four times already, once after hard braking, three times during gear changes at idle. Quite a few things could cause this, will try to log such an event and I'll see, what can come up with... * I'm still figthing with my stalling problem, which caused by a lean condition at idle. Most probably the cause of the lean condition is a vacuum leak, either at the throttly body's shaft or at one of the intake manifold gaskets. I'm waiting for my new BBK TB, it should arrive soon. Will report back once I installed it. * In the mean time I'm also tested a little WOT performance.



The weather is still quite hot out there, it was in the high 80's. Started with a modest launch, around 1 psi on the boost gauge. No TC lock-up, base boost, mucho fuel. I'm satisified, it was pulling hard, and the time is good, especially with this kind of short time.



* Well. I made a lot of things to improve my idle and get rif off the stalling problem. I've replaced my throttle body with a BBK 58 mm unit. I've also replaced the upper-to-lower intake gasket. No improvement... In the meantime I was also racing the truck two times at Hungaroring. The performance was somehow disappointing. At the last time, what ever I done, I couldn't get better short times than 1.95. After this race I get home and looked after the truck. I could hear a loud hissing around the intake manifold. As I tried to move the vacuum hoses, I touched the PCV valve-to-TB hose. The sound changed immediately. I stopped the engine and picked out this hose. It was cutted through almost half way of its diameter at the TB's end. I shorted the hose and put it back and vent to a test drive.



Pls disregard the 22 psi reading, I've forgotten to restart the truck after power cut, so my pressure readings are off with the usual 3 psi (look at the Baro reading). Anyway the truck performed wonderfully.



What could I say. I was shocked. It was clearly the best launch of this year. I've almost forgotten this feeling, it was as violent as with the old config. Wow!Actually my mobile phone hit me on the shoulder as it launched from the cup holder. Also I kept my foot on, shocked somehow till the speedo almost burried at 120. That was the first time I went this fast with the truck. Wath could I say. The numbers speak for themselves. I love them. The best run ever. These were the numbers I was hoping for all year. I'll not touch the truck till the next race, where hopefully I'll be able to reproduce this numbers at the track. * Anyway a few thoughts around this run. My theory that the vacuum leak was there for sime time, but it was smaller in the begining, so I couldn't hear it hissing. The better launch is because I could build around 9 psi at the line. The turbo spooled up much sooner than before. It could be because the vacuum leak too. Hopefully this is all true and all my problems won't come back suddenly again. * The converter was not locked manually. The weather was very nice, sunny, with low 80's. As you can see an intercooler upgrade could be in order, as my temps go up 50 F during the run. This is a dramatic change compared to last year runs. The stock IC can't keep up at this power level. Also I was running 113 mph at the 1/4 mile, which is 5250 RPM. This RPM is well out of the powerband of the current combo and dangerous too. Either I should manually shift up into OD at the end of the run or try to change my tires to increase the wheel diameter. We will see, this will be a question of the next year. * The weater starts to became ugly out here, so this might be my last update to this page in this year. Not a bad way to finish this page, though. Ave were log a run yesterday with his g-meter. I could manage to take back the first place on his page, and since I was also logging, I could experience my best performance, ever. The outside temps were in the low 20's, no Xylene this time, but I'm using 2x1mm jets to inject the alky/water mix. Thanks to this my intake temps haven't raised more than 5 degrees during the run.



What could I say. It was my best short time ever, with a 8.8 psi launch. This made the difference compared to the previous run here. After this the Sy performed almost the same. My 0-60MPH is realy close to a 2.x number and I like my 11.8 at the 1320ft, riding the brakes...



* I'm still not sure what the reason of my RPM drops in 3rd gear at the track runs. I had no similar experience this time, nor any time at the street. It could be a converter issue, or it could be Xylene related. This will be a question for the new year. Tranny rebuild is in order, especially because a launch like this requires more the 3 sec of spoolup with the stock converter, which doesn't make my life easier when racing against the light. * I though, I won't update this page any more. However I've made one finall run last weekend. The main purpose of the run was to record some data with the TC locked manually at the 1st to 2nd shift. I've also adjusted my pspark plug gaps to 0.032, because my ignition breaked up a little at the last run. I've not run the Sy like this in the past few months so I was curious. It was really chilly out there, but I couldn't get a cold intake temperature because I had to idle for a while before I could start the run.



The pavement was full with pebbles, so I got a little wheelspin at the start. Compared to the previous run I gained 1.5 mph, and could get a 100 rpm less at the 1/4 mile finish line. So locking the TC till gives me a little more power. Also this is the best run of the year quarter mile wise. Ave also logged this run and measured 7.87 in the 1/8 mile. I'm really satisfied. I wish I could reproduce this on the track earlier this year. This will be the task of the next year.



See you next year with a new page and hopefully with better performance too...