well here goes,

Ive been through hell lately (not speedcrafts fault), but now its pretty much over..... till I go and get it tuned again.

I dropped my car off at dynamic autosports about 3 weeks ago to get my FCON S installed. And...at the same time, get rid of the FMU that comes with the SC turbo kit, and replace it with a 1:1 AEM FPR. Also, I swapped out the stock injectors with RC 550cc peak and hold injectors (which required the wiring of a 94' prelude resistor (because our injectors are saturated type).

Anyways, they were supposed to do it all in one day: Install the AEM FPR, injectors, FCONS system, along with the HKS 3bar mapsensor. Boy I was pretty freakin naive for thinking that they would finish that in a day.

So I ended up staying over at my friends house for about 2 days with only 1 pair of undeezzz and no necessities. I felt like a bum man. Anyways, the day I go to pick it up (dynamic is in Irvine by the way..about a 2 hour drive with your usual LA traffic) the tuning has not even started. They almost sent my ass back home untuned but with everything else installed. Well I pleaded with them and they agreed and tried finishing up around 11 at night even though they closed at 6. I even got free dinner from the owners parents.
Well it turns out that when things started to look good, my car kept overboosting. WE couldnt figure out why.......and to make a long story short....from the tuners perspective, This wastegate is believed to be overcapitized for the amount of boost that we would be able to run on stock internals. This wastegate that the SC kit comes with is normally used by the prodrag racers who boost like 2 bar. **please keep reading to see that Im not bashing on the wastegate or Speedcraft**

At first we thought it was the wrong size spring, but it ended up being the whole wastegate. WHICH really gets me because Im puzzled as to how everyone else with the speedcraft kit did not overboost. So it could be an odd situation. Anyways, just to make sure that it was the wastegate, we did a pressure test on the 46 mm wastegate that comes with the kit, as well as another identical 46 mm that Dynamic had. Turns out that the wastegate doesnt really open up until about 11 psi.
We also did a test on the wastegate before taking it off, by just hooking up the turbo straight to the wastegate instead of using the boost controller just to make sure that the boost controller wasnt the culprit.
So now, Im running a 35 mm Tial wastegate which has solved the problem. That whole procedure took about a week. I ended up driving a loaner car from then. AGAIN, I HAVE NO CLUE WHY THIS SETUP WITH THE 46 MM WASTEGATE DID NOT WORK, IT HAD THE RIGHT SPRING, BUT IT KEPT OVERBOOSTING. WHEN WE SWITCHED WG's , THE PROB WAS SOLVED.

The second time I went back, I ended up having to stay the night at my other friends house for about 3 days until the car was finished. In the mean time, we ended up installing the VAFC as well to control the VTEC because I remember that Derryck said it was crucial to move the VTEC engagement point. We ended up gaining about 10 Whp in the upper RPM range just by moving it to 6800.
But things were working out pretty good. The only upset, which is pretty big IMO is that at 8 psi of boost, on 91 octane, the highest HP I saw on the dyno was about 275. And Im driving on about 267 hp on the street. Now, I was pretty pissed... and was so bewildered by the fact that CBENDER's SC turbo S2k made 280 at only 6 psi with only a VAFC. while Im here boosting approx. 1.5 more pounds and getting about 5 less hp???? Even though the curve was very nice, I still wanted the 290+ HP that I paid for .

WHY do you ask?

(1) The dyno tuner believes that it is unsafe to run a leaner program , especially at 9000 RPM. He says that he's dyno'ed alot of turbo cars, and sure, 20+ additional hp is great, but he says that from experience, they've all ran into problems down the early road. So now, Im stuck at the crossroads trying to figure out if I should get the car retuned at another place and lean out the Maps that this tuner has created for me. Or if I should stick with what I have for now and not worry about blowing some piston rings. Of course everytime I asked what the what the A/F ratios were in the higher RPM range, I didnt really get a straight answer except that he richened up the fuel since 6000RPM.
So heres what Im thinking, ...I would like to get it tuned again by another HKS prodealer and have him lean it out if in fact, the A/F readings are way too rich. That way Ill have another chance to get the maximum HP that is SUPPOSED to be acheived by this kit.
For the others with the Speedcraft kit, could you please tell me what the A/F readings were when you tuned your setup? That way I can see how RICH I am running in fuel because I can even tell that the Maps that Im running right now are really rich because when I hit the upper RPM ranges, I can feel it kind of lag, ..black smoke is shitting out of my exhaust, and Plus, the guy even told me he was increasing the fuel all the way up since 6 or so.

** By the way, Im not trying to discredit dynamic motorsports. They are awesome. Very nice and friendly people as you can see. Very knowledgable as well. ***

Hows the kit doing?
Well the kit is great. No oil leaks, no cracked manifolds, even though I didnt make the amount of HP that I wished for....(*FOR NOW) I still am enjoying the car very much so. Its seriously a rocket...even at this HP. I was on the freeway coming back from picking my car up and this FIREBIRD( one of the new ones, tried playing with me) We didnt get a chance to race because he had to exit, but when I downshifted and took off, I saw his face, and by the looks of it, he seemed pretty surprised by the way I took off, and Especially the sound of the car. ...which is really mean.


I dont have a scanner so I don't have pics of the dynosheet. But stats are.
Dyno run .019 86.3 deg. F 29.46-0.44 in Hg. 200 ft. CF=1.02
Max power =275.1 Max Torque= 187.1

heres some pics of my current setup.

 

If I had the money to spend you like you did, I would be pretty pissed and demand results as advertised. Because 290hp+ was the incentive to buy.

I would lower the piston compression and run higher boost. I'm now expert,but have consulted with many people that have been boosting imports for years.

I am also looking at boosting in the future, but the more times I read threads such as yours it scares me away from it.

 

Ouch, you let Dynamics tunr your car? I've heard a lot of horror stories about them when it comes to turbo tunning. I know this guy who tuned his turbo GS-R there. He only got 200Hp to the wheels, and his car still got messed up down the line. You'd be better off going to a different shop. Try Area 51 in Irvine. a little pricey, but VERY good! The people that I know that used to go to Dynamics for everything now goes to Area 51, wonder why.

 

haha. maybe I should huh. Well the thing is that I hear mixed stories about dynamics tuning. Some say its good, some say its bad.

Personally I havent received this good of a service from an import place ever!

but ..yes ..tuning is different from service. Well I will try another HKS prodealer. Unfortunately Area 51 isn't a prodealer, so I doubt that they have the software to tune the FCON S.

..

oh also, please remember, that its not Speedcrafts fault for my results. Not yet at least hehe. j/k.
so until I go to another tuner, I will not base any judgements on the quality of the kit yet. Im pretty happy so far. Just want that extra 20 hp hehe.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by CMiS2K
[B]If I had the money to spend you like you did, I would be pretty pissed and demand results as advertised. Because 290hp+ was the incentive to buy.

I would lower the piston compression and run higher boost. I'm now expert,but have consulted with many people that have been boosting imports for years.

 

by the way, what other stories have you heard?.....

 

Team Hybrid, looking into buying an S2K within a year and already I am looking at what mods I plan on doing to it :-)

I think that you mentioned this but I wanted to clarify, you did the turbo mod without changing any of the rod, pistons or any engine changes??/

A buddy of mine who is into mods pretty heavy mentioned that I probably would have to redo the engine rods and pistons if I was to add a turbo to an S2K. True??

 

Well I am having some horror stories with my car too. I keep frying my stand alone for some reason. I am running about 12 psi on my car. Every time we go to the dyno the computer starts to fail. I have a new computer coming now and hopefully customs wont x ray it b/c we think this is problem.. I will let you know how it goes !!

 

how much $$ did you spend on it?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Infamous S2000
[B]Well I am having some horror stories with my car too.