hjtrbo

Log the IAT (after turbo) and let the data push you in the right direction for your power level. Be interesting to see what you get.

Yeah was really loose aye. 10mm bolt to remove under the fuse box to get the boost solenoid bracket out. Then pull the bottom hose off the solenoid and blow into with your mouth as a quick easy test. Mine pissed out with air just by using my breath.

Fark, this forum is good. I read this thread today Anyway, whilst doing an air check on the wastegate it was leaking big time. Thought the boost seemed a little high lol. The actuator is a Turbosmart IWG-75. All the o-rings in the banjo fitting had gone hard and weren't sealing. Trip to Pirtek and 63 cents for 3 off appropriately sized o-rings and she's all fixed. Boost pressure is back to 14psi, way lower than the 22psi it was running with the banjo fitting leak. Man, so so lucky the engine didn't go pop! Thanks to this forum!

Log shot attached

Took me a while. Have got an accessible tune now which is awesome. Ended up keeping the stock dump and went with a 3.5" cat pipe and gutted cat to bolt up to the already existing 3.5" cat back system that came with the car when I bought it. To get a roadie I had to put a cat on and that caused a 2psi boost spike around the point where the wastegate opened. Now with the new system she's boosting mint (I think, still learning).   Still learning this turbo stuff. My other is a Expensive Daewoo with a PD blower and that is much easier to tune. The Fords are a different beast to get used to.   Without pulling the turbo off to test the pre-load with a mityvac I am presuming that the point in the attached graph where the initial boost rise rolls over is the rough cracking pressure of the gate? I did a pull with the WGDC set at 0% and the boost curve is very similar albeit a couple of psi down up top. The wastegate preload would have been set by Maxx Performance when the turbo was replaced with the F6 unit that is on the car now.   And lastly, the knock system is pulling up to 0.8deg on standard knock sensor settings. Is that normal or should I pull some timing / boost out to see if it goes away? AFR is spot on commanded (0.8 to 0.82 lambda on 98)

Assuming rocker cover leak, perhaps a quick sanity check of your breather as well just to make sure it's not blocked. I.e. pressuring the rocker cover and blowing out seals when on boost.

Hey, not sure on the credits. I haven't looked into it but a quick support email to PCMtec will answer that for me if the need arose... Can get the air compressor out and make some notes whilst adjusting half a turn at a time. Will be a good learning exercise for me. I'll also get some better logs of the MAP and a few other bits and will update the thread.

Back on track. Normally I'd use HP or Forscan to log; just used the phone on this occasion as it was an opportunistic data capture. @Puffwagon a quick education please. The little spike showing on the graph, this is the bit the actuator preload can help with right? This is the current setup with factory dump.

Yeah, on the pcmtec forums it's described as a soft lock. Need the worskhop version to set it and the professional or workshop versions can unset it. Don't how strong it is. If it's just a case of flipping a bit in the offline file then someone will bypass it no time. The software appears to make a 'call back to base' everytime it's opened so I'm leaning towards something a lot more complex than just bit flipping.... Just theories....

Roland at Pcmtec certainly missed out on a guaranteed sale. Would have been more than happy to buy the professional version along with the 5 or whatever it was credits for the custom OS mods that the car has. About $1200 or something like that when including a cable. Hell, I was more than happy to pay the $800 odd it cost me to get control of my VF with HP Tuners to sort out some driveability issues. Better than going back and forward with the tuner 3 or 7 times to get the little sh*t dialled in. At least APS looked after me with getting me in the tune so I could f@ck around with the VE table to sort an off idle miss. Its not so much the money sometimes it's the principal.

I bought the car already tuned. So it's my fault for not doing due diligence prior to purchase to see if the tune could be read and edited. Hoping my experience might help others. It might not seem a big deal at the time accepting a locked tune, but down the road when circumstances change such as taking job opportunities and moving away for one example, or a potential purchaser of your car pulls out of the sale as another example. Attractive re-sale is important too. As mods happen in the future you're up for a start again tune from someone else and the sour taste that goes with it. Of course of Zane is on here and will unlock my tune I'll make a large donation to the forum to have this thread taken down.

Maxx performance. I can't complain with the tune he's done. Its very good. There is only some minor personality stuff I would change to suit my own taste. As a seat of the pants comparison I have a 470rwkw VF tuned by APS and the xr6 drives better than the tune in that. So for that I rate his tune. But... Just can't stand it that he won't unlock it so I ask everyone to please stay away.

And a crash course on preload, I found a thread you helped a fellow member with. Will be suitable for me to. Thanks puff And on a side note, if anyone reading this is thinking of going for their first tune, or buying an existing tuned car, ask the tuner if the tune will be or is locked. If they do, I ask you kindly to please tell them no thanks and take your money elsewhere. If a quarter of their potential customers start telling them no, I hope they will change there practices. Would be nice if I could get a movement started. Unlocked Tunes Matter or something like that...

Excellent, I'll try that. I'll post up before and after MAP logs in due course. Thanks.

He kept it very simple for me. Its proprietary and he won't do it. Kept my cool throughout the discussion and pleeded every angle. He had the face of a stone. Kinda of like a cops face when you're giving it back to them. Emotionless. The only concession he gave was a remote tune, and that was with conditions that I had to hire a dyno and buy the pcmtec software. Refused to entertain the idea of 4th gear pulls on a back road. Dont know why, he only has to adjust the boost controller. Fuelling and spark shouldnt change. Anyway, dyno hire cost plus software puts me close to retune dollars. This is how ridiculous it is, I have a 2nd factory PCM that I have to install just to allow me to edit the trans cal. Then, I put the locked one back in just to test my change.

Vic. Out in Gippsland.

Hp only locks out other hp users. Its pretty archaic and easily bypassed if you know who to talk to. Or just a quick Google, there are plenty on eBay offering to unlock for around $90. Would happily pay 3x more once someone cracks the pcmtec unlock.

Tuner was very clear with their response. Couldn't have cried any poorer even if I was on centrelink. He wouldn't budge. Pcmtec didn't have to implement it. Hp tuners doesn't for example. $2k, I would have thought is ball park. He said $700 just for your basic single fuel tune with no custom OS mods. This is a flex tune so there is a fair bit of dyno time getting the maps set for the blending of fuels. Also running boost per gear so if you're familiar with pcmtec there is a fair amount of credits involved in that cost also. And extra cold start time to get the e85 right. I've done basic tuning in the past so have an appreciation of what needs to be done.

I have already. No dice. Have to flash back to stock. Local tuner gave an estimate of $2k for a new flex tune. Pretty sh*t I have to pay this and am filthy with Pcmtec about this unfair feature. Logging with Forscan or any other tool gives the timing, fuel injector, boost profile, wideband logging for air fuel ratios also. They havent done anything special that any other decemt tuner couldn't do. Dont understand why it would be locked except to f%ck over customers. If it was a competition tune running against other workshops at the track or drags then fair enough, but for a canned 'stage x' daily drive package that every tuner offers its bullsh*t.

Don't want to mention. If you know someone who can unlock without losing the tune please pm me.

They refused.

Righto... So that's the bit I'm hoping to avoid. PCMtec tune is tuner locked and I live no where near where the original tuner (lessons have been learnt on staying close for after sales care)

Thanks guys. Will get the 3.5" ordered and keep an eye on the MAP data logs for the first few weeks.

Hey all, good to be back in a turbo again. Picked up a FG MK1 XR6T ute with 330 - 400rwkw 98 to E85 flex tune in front of a standard ZF box with a true-trac rear end. Current setup is F6 turbo with flapper and actuator mod, process west intercooler and piping, 1000cc injectors, fuel pump, & valve springs. Has stock dump, cat pipe section is 3" with gutted cat and then into x-Force single 3.5" cat back system. What I want to know is how will I go with bolting on either a 3.5" or 4" dump pipe? Will that still cause boost spike issues? And if no, at my power level is 3.5" dump and 3.5" cat delete pipe more than enough? (No further power increase planned) Can grab some Forscan logs of MAP if that would help anyone in answering my question.