X-Charger Xtreme numbers
05-23-2010, 12:14 AM
#1
X-Charger Xtreme numbers
While the west coast branch of the X-men were partying down with equipment upgrades and inducting a new member today, X-Charger Secret Agent Double-Naught 4 was on a dangerous covert assignment deep into the wilds of New Jersey.
Dave Vanek at EE and Jim D'Amore Sr of JDM Engineering had cooked up a plan to get an X-Charger Xtreme car down to JDM in Freehold, NJ so Jim Sr, could work his tuning magic on it. Since I was a mere 4.5 hours away (5.5 if one counts the traffic delay due to an accident being cleared on the highway in NYC) I took on the assignment.
I had to roll out at 4:00 am this morning from Boston in order to make it down to JDM bright and early for Jim to tackle the car (Big thanks to my daughter and her boyfriend for volunteering to tag along despite the crazy departure time)
We got to JDM and I met up with Jim's son, Jim Jr, and Ned Shortsleeve (Former staffer with Saleen and Techco, now at JDM) The guys were both great fun to hang out with for the better part of the day, as Jim Sr dug into tuning my car.
Now Jim Sr is not really the chatty type, in fact he can be downright gruff at times, but after you see him work, the focus and incredible attention to detail, you can't help but like the guy. And he knows tuning backwards and forwards. And most probably sideways.
He worked on creating a tune for the Xtreme setup for the best part of the day (with some necessary interruptions due to other JDM business) and let me tell you he was sucessful. REALLY sucessful imho.
I just got home about 11:00pm, and honestly, that ride home was the best fun I've ever had in a 'stang, and I wasn't even pushing it at all hard (well, ok, maybe a LITTLE...)
First the numbers, the baseline dyno run using the canned (non-JDM) tune came to a bit over 300HP on my car, and I had also noted my highway gas mileage was horrible (we're talking around 20mpg, when I was getting around 25 with the previous Wet-X canned tune. Jim actually asked me if the mileage was bad with the existing tune before I'd even brought it up.
After Jim tackled things, this is what we ended up with:
I assure you that bottomless well of torque feels about like you'd expect from the graph... Jim thinks there's even more possible with the Xtreme, especially with a couple suggested mods, but we both decided not to explore the outer limits today, and stick with the good, solid and very safe gains.
Jim took the car out for a bit to be sure he was happy with the tuning in the "real world", and signed off on it with two 20' strips of top quality Goodyear driveway sealant in front of the shop
This isn't the end of the story though. Not nearly.
Jim spent at least as much time tweaking the tune for drivability as he did on maxing the output. I don't know what magic he worked on the throttle system, but this is a different car now. The pedal is in full sync with the TB in a way I hadn't thought possible with the drive by wire setup in these cars. You can almost "feel" the linkage opening the throttle butterfly. I have no clue what he did, or how he did it, but my hat is off to the gentleman. The car is also far more responsive under normal (non-boost) operation, the mileage on the return trip was also up around 25 mpg, and that was with the top down and at least a bit of spirited "experimentation".
JDM may well be getting more involved with X-Charger stuff, and all I can say from my experience is I believe that to be a very good thing.
Dave Vanek at EE and Jim D'Amore Sr of JDM Engineering had cooked up a plan to get an X-Charger Xtreme car down to JDM in Freehold, NJ so Jim Sr, could work his tuning magic on it. Since I was a mere 4.5 hours away (5.5 if one counts the traffic delay due to an accident being cleared on the highway in NYC) I took on the assignment.
I had to roll out at 4:00 am this morning from Boston in order to make it down to JDM bright and early for Jim to tackle the car (Big thanks to my daughter and her boyfriend for volunteering to tag along despite the crazy departure time)
We got to JDM and I met up with Jim's son, Jim Jr, and Ned Shortsleeve (Former staffer with Saleen and Techco, now at JDM) The guys were both great fun to hang out with for the better part of the day, as Jim Sr dug into tuning my car.
Now Jim Sr is not really the chatty type, in fact he can be downright gruff at times, but after you see him work, the focus and incredible attention to detail, you can't help but like the guy. And he knows tuning backwards and forwards. And most probably sideways.
He worked on creating a tune for the Xtreme setup for the best part of the day (with some necessary interruptions due to other JDM business) and let me tell you he was sucessful. REALLY sucessful imho.
I just got home about 11:00pm, and honestly, that ride home was the best fun I've ever had in a 'stang, and I wasn't even pushing it at all hard (well, ok, maybe a LITTLE...)
First the numbers, the baseline dyno run using the canned (non-JDM) tune came to a bit over 300HP on my car, and I had also noted my highway gas mileage was horrible (we're talking around 20mpg, when I was getting around 25 with the previous Wet-X canned tune. Jim actually asked me if the mileage was bad with the existing tune before I'd even brought it up.
After Jim tackled things, this is what we ended up with:
I assure you that bottomless well of torque feels about like you'd expect from the graph... Jim thinks there's even more possible with the Xtreme, especially with a couple suggested mods, but we both decided not to explore the outer limits today, and stick with the good, solid and very safe gains.
Jim took the car out for a bit to be sure he was happy with the tuning in the "real world", and signed off on it with two 20' strips of top quality Goodyear driveway sealant in front of the shop
This isn't the end of the story though. Not nearly.
Jim spent at least as much time tweaking the tune for drivability as he did on maxing the output. I don't know what magic he worked on the throttle system, but this is a different car now. The pedal is in full sync with the TB in a way I hadn't thought possible with the drive by wire setup in these cars. You can almost "feel" the linkage opening the throttle butterfly. I have no clue what he did, or how he did it, but my hat is off to the gentleman. The car is also far more responsive under normal (non-boost) operation, the mileage on the return trip was also up around 25 mpg, and that was with the top down and at least a bit of spirited "experimentation".
JDM may well be getting more involved with X-Charger stuff, and all I can say from my experience is I believe that to be a very good thing.
Last edited by Torch_Vert; 05-23-2010 at 12:28 AM.
05-23-2010, 11:36 AM
#6
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 2,006
How did you get 12+ psi? I had belt slip on my dyno yesterday and only made 8.4psi on the 2.6 pulley but still made 302hp and 330 torque on 91 octane CA gas. man, if I could make 13psi (I don't think I want to lol) I could be making numbers like you!
05-23-2010, 12:37 PM
#7
The carbinite coated pulley seems to have been key in the lack of belt slip.
Last edited by Torch_Vert; 05-23-2010 at 12:51 PM.
05-23-2010, 12:40 PM
#8
Fuel pump is stock, and Jim Jr said there's plenty of headroom there.I'm not sure what total timing advance JDM's tune is running (I can verify it sure works though)
Last edited by Torch_Vert; 05-23-2010 at 01:48 PM.
05-23-2010, 01:14 PM
#9
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 2,006
05-23-2010, 01:47 PM
#10