The Outcomes Of Valve Springs & Pwr I/c

[dingah2]

The key parts of the tuning history of my T (a 2004 Series I auto) were as follows:

It started with APS Phase I and some months later moved to an APS Phase II which provided a very solid and reliable performance package producing some 278 RWKW.

In November last year the Unichip of the APS Phase II system was replaced by CAPA Edited software. The initial attempts with Edit were plagued with problems, initially the car’s PCM was wiped of its software, requiring factory re-flashing, subsequent tunes provided some 30 RWKW less power with very audible pinging.

At CAPA’s insistence I undertook my first trip down to Mexico to put my car under the experienced and knowledgeable team at Nizpro Turbo charging, based in Bayswater, in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. After Simon and Dave finished going through their Edit routines I left for Canberra sporting a very tractable 290RWKW, two other tunes for 95 and 91 RON fuel and greatly improved transmission performance. The auto transmission had already been modified, fitted with a large cooler and modified valve body, however, the Edit modifications allowed the low speed/low power changes to be considerably smoother, whilst retaining higher speed and firmer changes under power.

As the first of the attached graphs shows, due in part to the increased boost, a couple of the valve springs failed to operate correctly at the top end causing a massive loss of power above 5000RPM…..approx 70 RWKW drop off in 500RPM. This had not previously been encountered with the APS Phase II as the boost had been limited to 10psi with the APS system; the NizEDIT adding some 3psi which precipitated the valve spring issue.

Keen to address this issue and also to gain the added insurance provided by tougher valve springs, work commitments in Melbourne provided me the opportunity to again leave my T with Simon and Dave. The plan was to fit the Nizpro valve springs and a larger (approx 3 times larger) PWR intercooler to provide greater assurance of safe and repeatable performance under most conditions.

With the intercooler fitted (sprayed black to match the OEM I/c and piping to match), new valve springs fitted in next to no time (another good job Ryan!) the initial re-mapping of the Edit software was undertaken for the 95RON map. No issues were encountered and the (Woolies Caltex) 95 RON map now produced a power curve that almost matched the previous 98RON map with 282 RWKW – a darn nice and firm, general use set-up.

The fuel system was then fully drained and 40 litres of Mobil Synergy 8000 98RON was poured into the tank and the high power map was run on the dyno –here the fun began!

Behold; the 98RON map decided to produce exactly the same results as the 95RON map and when I say exactly the same that’s precisely what we mean – a dead match. It was now late in the day and after copious theories were postulated, the T just refused to accept any timing advance so we elected to head off to our various appointments with the plan to re-convene later the following afternoon. In the meantime I spent the evening sprinting between traffic lights all over east Melbourne until late that evening, trying to expend the “98RON” fuel so that I could put a new 98RON fuel load in from a different fuel station. Just to make matters worse, the T refused to eat up the fuel, averaging 15l/100km under repeated hard sprinting – typical!!...they never do what you want when you want them.

The following afternoon having filled up with another load of Synergy 8000 I returned to Bayswater, feeling like one the myth-busters attempting to disprove once and for all the all-too-often used excuse for poor performance of a poor fuel load.

Well….. the geniuses of Nizpro were proved right again and three flashes later the job was declared complete with a 98 RON map producing just over 309 RWKW with not a ping to be heard, knock sensor on or off. So it appears that the clever dicks at the local Mobil outlet had provided Nizpro with 95RON fuel from a 98RON pump charged at 98RON prices. Nevertheless the saga now had many happy endings:

91RON map 220 RWKW

95RON map 282 RWKW

98RON map 309 RWKW and 850Nm torque….notably apart from one tiny spike of 14psi at about 3000RPM, this peak power was achieved at 12.5psi boost.

New Nizpro valve springs and the PWR I/c had allowed a consistent and repeatable 20 RWKW gain in available power in both the 95RON and 98RON maps, with ‘mint’ AFRs....see the second scanned image.

The 95RON map was now producing power almost equivalent to the previous 98RON map.

The valve springs recovered more than 70 RWKW power at 5500 RPM....see the first of the scanned image which shows the original 98RON map with old springs versus the new 98RON map with new valve springs.

The power appears to be sustained at these levels consistently, with little or no losses despite repeated runs and considerable heat soak.

The fuel consumption has improved with 10.4l/100km achieved on the highway return and 14.7 l/100km around the city.

Happy……..you betcha!

PS...avoid the Mobil servo on the corner of Dorset in Bayswater they cannot tell the difference between 95RON and 98RON!

Edited 26/02/06 11:29 AM by bcl

[GOLDIE]

Well done to all concern that isa great resualt.

Ian

[G6ET8U]

That's a great result for you mate! It must be a weapon on the road! And those fuel consumption figures are excellent!

When I first went to Nizpro a few months back I was provided an info pack and your letter of thanks to them was part of it, and I must say it played some part in influencing my decision to use them for my edit, pity it's still over a month away... I want it now!

Jack

[summoner]

Brilliant! My car gets the Nizpro touch this week as well and this just helps get me more excited :D

[Adam]

Very good write up Dingah!

Congrats on the results.

[Chooka]

Great results ding, glad you are finally happy with the edit!

That fuel economy at those power levels are awesome!

Only complaint....... Had to stand on my head to read the dyno results!!

Chooka

Edited 24/02/06 03:51 AM by Chooka

[Ralph Wiggum]

Good stuff Dingah glad that the edit has finally come good and furfiled your expectations after the god awful first experience!....

[bugster70]

Yup, damn fine result there Dingah, I'm really glad it all worked out so well for you in the end. It must be a huge relief to finally have the sort of power you were after with the reliability and fuel economy you were hoping for, well done for persevering!

[turbotom]

That's good to see you've got it all sorted and are happy now.

Those fuel figures are same as mine..... power outputs are also comparable.

Have you any intentions of running down the strip?

I'd be keen to hear how you go.....

tom

[fish_351]

That's great news Dingah, as it happens I'm going to get the exact same treatment late next month.

I have a Nizpro Stage 1 , with Niz valves and bored injectors. They managed 270rw then, hopefully we'll bust the 300 with a PWR cooler