Just got my car back and am breaking it in (350 miles last night driving )

My erratic new A/F meter which apparently isn't 'broken in' per manual has settled down at least in narrower ranges and it and my nose tell me the base maps are way rich on my car.

In any event, except at idle and just starting off my knock sensor bar is up way high, many times at 100 almost 95% of the time. I hear no knocking.

I've been keeping it around 3,000-4000 rpm, boost under 7 thus far. 300 of those 350 miles were on Interstate. In 4th gear particularly the knocjk bar is at 100 with rpms around 3,000-4,000. Slightly lower usually in 5th or 3rd.

Any ideas? Mods in sig.

 

check your knock sensor, if the engine was just rebuilt there might be a chance thet the sensor is lose on the engine and that many times this causes a false reading. anyways take it easy on the engine until you are sure where is your problem

 

mine does the same thing how long have you had your pfc and where did you get it from?

 

but the knock readings aren't so high

 

I got it from Pettit who ordered it from someone (I decided I wanted something more flexible than their ECU and since I hadn't installed it yet, they hooked me up and credited me back theres at a good price).

Oddly enough I checked my base maps and 'Base Map 1' matched my Fuel Inj correction but the IGL and IGT were both identical to the so called 'Base Map 2'.

The Base Map 1/2 difference in Fuel Inj corrections are small, like a total of 7 boxes and I noticed most other maps 'undo' them anyway so I ignored them.

I have since remapped using the 'Michel' RXtt95 or whatever map exccept the lower right quadrant (I'll do that on a dyno and I'm not boosting now anyway at least not past 7 psi). The Michel map seems to give me some better results (stalls out more now since I undid the 1000rpm PIM setting and put it back to 100% from 92% - Idle improved after a few days so I wanted to restore as close to base before making Fuel Inj corrections).

I still get high knock sensors. Still my nose and A/F meter, however erratic, tells me I'm way Rich 8-9 or probably okay 10-12. I go 'lean' on the meter only on decelration (I assume normal) and sometimes at idle it sits at 14.5.

I know I'm running rich because my fuel pressure is often going to 5 kg/cm2. I have about 600 miles on the engine now and have yet to hear it knock even though my Knock bar is almost always at max.

 

DavidDeco,

I have found, in the sampling of FD's here in my local area, that each has a different "normal" experience with knock. I have not spent any time researching this, yet, but as long as you don't vary on the high side of that norm, you should be okay. Also, if you have access to a datalogit, datalog and chart your next dyno run and use the KNOCK reading to see what it is doing. If you get HUGE jumps, then you know something could be wrong. If it's a fairly smooth curve, then you could be okay. You have to remember that the sensor is something like a microphone.

BTW, not to flame, but your sig is way to huge for my tastes, and you really don't need to use a sig that big every time you post

 

Point taken, I edited it last night after a few beers and got a little carried away . I've rarely used my signature in most posts anyway. Only when I thought it was useful to show mods.

 

Hey David,

I updated the the chart on the first post to show you what my knock was at my last dyno run. Link here

 

Thanks! I should have my car back tomorrow again and my Datalogit has come in now so I'll run some comparisons over the weekend.

 

Dataloging is your friend

 

Yeah, the software looks killer. Wish I had it 2 days before it came so I didn't have to enter the maps I did via the commander (argh!). Just fyi: I used the Michel map except for the lower right quadrant on Inj - I found the patterns consistent with maps with overlapping mods like mine and was able to reaonsably isolate most except that higher boost/higher rpm area which I won't be entering anyway for about 1000 more miles.

I love some of the 'hidden' features it can get to like the fans. I'm really dying to delve into this. I'm seriously considering buying a wideband and selling the A/F gauge I got now. Just wish I would have bought the wideband first, I know I'm going to take a serious hit on trying to sell this one.

I'm swapping out the FPR in the morning to hopefully solve one issue, a mechanic here's looking into my turbo issue (won't get past 5-7 psi), and I should get it back in the afternoon. Can't run it too much yet since it's still breaking in from the rebuild but I want to take it on a 3-4 hr cruise with the Datalogit to get familiar with it and try to tweak a few things like idle and water temp.

I'm ashamed that I waited so many years to start modifying the FD. I was just happy keeping it running
Oh well, now at least I'm rewarded for all those years preoccupied with work and have the dough to spend on it now. God bless the dealer who sold me the 7 year/100k extended warranty for $1k back in '94.

 

Two bulls sitting on top of hill inspecting a heard of cows.

The young says: "Let's run down there and get us one!"

The older, wiser, one ponders this and replies "Let's walk down and get them all!"

You're smart if you didn't trail blaze.

My hats off to Kevin W., Trev, Brooks, Wael, Jeff Nappi, and even Gordon, Steve Kan, Ari, Peter F., Petit (as a whole) KDR, Pineapple, and all the others that "saw the magic" and helped us out with their passion.

But I enjoyed my car stock up until last spring. I went from 222RWHP in '96, to 337 2 weeks ago. All I know is that I spent time and money to get there. But it was an easy path because of people on the bleeding edge.

When you get your diploma, no one ever asks you how long it took.