Added CAI & timing and lost performance

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01-09-2012, 11:10 AM

#11

speedycpu

1st Gear Member

Thread Starter

Join Date: Mar 2010

Location: Texas

Posts: 56

I just wanted to update you guys, I seem to have everything worked out. After replacing a failing alternator and getting a revised tune from Bamatunes and doing some testing vs the stock intake the Steeda CAI murders it (undoubtedly), especially with the tune.

So, I just wanted to make it clear I wasn't saying the Steeda CAI was bad I was just trying to figure out what was going on. Also, I installed some Steeda UDPs the other week and that was a very nice increase as well. I love it!

Better gas mileage when I'm not on it and more HP when I am. I highly recommend the Steeda UDPs to anyone that doesn't have them yet.

01-09-2012, 01:06 PM

#12

Derf00

Gentleman's Relish

Join Date: Feb 2005

Location: AZ

Posts: 13,090

Quote:

Originally Posted by speedycpu

I'll start off by saying I've been running the Bamatunes SCT SF3 with the stock air box & K&N filter, 4.10's and some Flowmasters on the 93 octane Performance tune. I am a radar technician and ran a quick before/after test which I found to be surprising.

Testing was done on the same day, same temperature, same road surface and WOT starting point.

I first tested my 30-50 and 30-70 mph time in 3rd gear with the stock air box, k&n box filter, 30.5 degrees total timing (default for that tune) during WOT and got 3.08 seconds 30-50 mph and 5.97 seconds 30-70 mph.

I then installed the Steeda CAI with high flow elbow and had Bamatunes send another tune modified for the Steeda CAI. I then added +2 global spark and retested. My 30-50 mph went to 3.20 seconds and 30-70 mph went to 6.26 seconds. I checked the datalogs during the runs, it showed no timing was pulled (32.5 all the way during WOT), MAF wasn't pegged and fuel rail pressure looked good.

Any idea what is going on?

The only thing I can see that could be wrong is you're not looking at the big picture as in a before and after graph of the dyno. A dyno graph would tell you not only how much power is there but how the power may have shifted from the before and after piece.

If you are not in the main part of the power band I could see the stock tune being faster than the upgraded tune.

To use Jeremy Clarkson as an example (but I don't recall the exact conditions and episode), Jeremy was test driving a Mitsubishi EVO (some special edition) with over 330 HP and gobs of Torque but he said it was almost useless in some cases because in the wrong gear it was actually slower than one of their test cars (something like a Vauxhaul equivalent to a Chevy Aveo).

Anyways, he proceed to put both cars in the highest gear from a dead stop and see which was faster. The putter car put a couple of car lengths on the Evo because it never got up to where the power was.