"Finished" & On Road

[iani]

My TR6 is now on the road, running on an Emerald K6 ECU & Jenvey Heritage TB's, I'd like to thank all those who contributed to my requests for assistance on here and elsewhere.

Ian

 

 

[Mark]

Congratulations! Making good power as well.

[RedRooster]

Nice engine.

[TVR vixen]

Hi Ian,

congratulations and engine bay looks fantastic really happy that you got it all sorted.

by happenstance we are building a virtually identical setup in a TVR vixen, jenvey heritage TB , Newman ph2 cam, fresh 20 over motor unleaded and ported head. We have it up and running now and hot she is purring like a kitten but for the life of me I cannot get the cold start sorted out and reading the Emerald manual it says not to complete the cold start setup until the rest of the mapping is done, but that means every time you start it from cold you have to trim ignition and fuel to get it to run long enough to warm up. Tbh I am kind of surprised the base map isn’t a little closer to how the finished map might be and that’s why I selected the pre configured ecu when I bought the kit.

the base map emerald supplied doesn’t seem even close so I was wondering if you might be prepared to share you ignition and injection and cold start tables.

i was hoping to get it starting and running somewhat decently so that we could do some tuning on the road and then take it to the chassis dyno. The nearest is four hours away (Toronto) and they charge a pretty penny for time so I was hoping to keep the eventual dyno costs and time to a reasonable amount.

plus I actually would like to have a crack at driving and tuning and educate myself more on this topic as I am planning to convert another 4 cylinder vixen to efi.

I totally understand if you don’t want to share your map details as I know you have spent your good hard earned money paying Emerald to map yours.

tia or not either way any pointers would be super much appreciated 

regards

mark

[Nick Jones]

Don’t know anything about Emerald specifically but I wouldn’t hesitate to do some tuning of of the cold start/warm up map from the outset. Yes, you’ll likely have to revisit it later, but so what!

Better news is that these warm up pretty quick.

Edit: Does the Emerald have an auto-tune function? Or work with Tuner Studio?

[TVR vixen]

Thanks Nick 

I don’t think they have auto tune function but once it’s tuned there is a function to go closed loop which I assume allows the ecu to adjust things based on feedback from the lambda and other sensors. Steep learning curve for me at present.

i talked to Dave at emerald today and of course he makes it sounds so easy lol but in essence he said until it’s fully mapped just rough out a cold start by adding or subtracting fuel every ten degrees in temp rise up to about fifty C and leave the ignition alone until full mapping is done, that way it will be easier to fine tune later and won’t mess up the timing.

i will give it another go and see how I fair.

its interesting the tr6 motor doesn’t seem to have been tuned often because the ecu came with every other conceivable engine map preloaded, from bimmers to honda, to all manner of fords but no TR maps at all.

m

[Nick Jones]

Well, I have various maps but for Megasquirt. In fact, the ECU possibly matters less than the control philosophy being used. What are you using as your primary load signal? I’m assuming either TPS (alpha N) or a blend of TPS and MAP (manifold pressure), sometimes called ITB mode. This very much affects the look of the map.

Do you have a wideband fitted?

Also , before you do any serious tuning, do check the throttle balance between and adjust for matching flows. Then re-zero the TPS.  Nothing will work right without this.

[TVR vixen]

Primary load signal is TPS although when I get it all setup I will add the map sensor it’s just disabled atm.

yes we have a wideband fitted and working and yes we have the tb all nicely balanced thanks to my old trusty Weber vac gauge and yes always reset the tps, getting quite good at that bit now lol

thanks for all the suggestions 

[Nick Jones]

Excellent. You have the basics mastered 

Unfortunately my maps aren’t going to be very useful to you as I’ve never used TPS/Alpha N as primary control and the maps from that strategy look substantially different from their MAP or ITB based counterparts. Tuning my spare MS1 ECU in this way is on my “one day” list ……

If your car is road legal your options are to take it to a dyno or to try to tune it on the road.  For the latter, you need either the ability to data log or preferably IMO, a trusted accomplice to manually change the VE while you drive (or vice versa). Initially these road runs will be just low speed around the block while you build a feel for how the tuning process works and what the engine wants.  At low rpm, small throttle openings you should aim for mid 13s to mid 14s AFR. Go too lean and it gets jerky and hitchy, too rich and it’s flat. 

Tuning on the road by logging is a long process and will burn a lot of fuel and time. Tuning with a competent helper (or even just a driver who does what they are told and has some mechanical feel) speeds the process a lot.  Having the wideband is a massive benefit.

My initial tuning of my Vitesse on the road was done by solo logging with a narrow band (many sessions!) So, it can be done this way, though I don’t especially recommend it. Then a few sessions with a good mate who knew the car well was invaluable for dialling in the high end. I did eventually go to a decent local rolling road where the operator “drove” the car and I drove the laptop - we were done in 30 minutes, though that was partly because I’d got 95% there the hard way!

These days I “cheat” and use the Tuner Studio “autotune” function, which is a very powerful tool.  

However, you don’t appear to have anything like that available. I’m assuming that this is also a completely fresh engine so you also need to be mindful of its break-in needs at the same time - which is a little scary.