ECU remap fun

ECUs, intakes, turbos, fluids, transmissions, exhausts etc.
De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 15 Aug 2013, 7:21 pm

I'm about to pick up an old hobby again, Remapping / chiptuning cars.

Just equipped myself with original tools for VW, Audi, Seat (later also BMW) to start with.

Flash tools, original MPPS, Eprom writer, soldering station, ...

Diagnostic tools : Original CAN+ VCDS, Innovate OT-2, ELM327, ...

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Now i'm just looking to buy or find a nice Audi or VW (preferably golf GTI or golf/scirocco R) to start building experience with these european (turbo) petrol cars. Being european I was more into diesels before.

Let me know if some of you are interested in following the progress updates. Just need a car to work on first :-)

If anyone needs a detailed Diagnostic for Audi, VW or Seat, you can always shoot me a PM

hasu
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Post by hasu » 17 Aug 2013, 7:00 am

Great, You are more than welcome to come and pay a visit at my garage. I have a 2004 VW Passat in a rusty condition parked outside which might need some helpful diagnosing..i was originally trying to sell the car but can't seem to find a buyer for it. You can work on it in you free time :wink:

De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 20 Aug 2013, 1:45 pm

hasu wrote:Great, You are more than welcome to come and pay a visit at my garage. I have a 2004 VW Passat in a rusty condition parked outside which might need some helpful diagnosing..i was originally trying to sell the car but can't seem to find a buyer for it. You can work on it in you free time :wink:
Lol, i'm looking for a working car to Remap, chiptune. The diagnostic equipment is there to check if the changes actually take place the way one expects it when reprogramming, as the software has lots and lots of limiters and maps.

But if you want a diagnostic checkup, that can always be arranged :-)

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hasu
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Post by hasu » 21 Aug 2013, 8:32 am

haha, fair enough..the car is in working condition its just not in my use. I'll be opening a performance tuning garage too before the end of this year so Ill surely give you a buzz if you are around. :)

De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 21 Aug 2013, 2:32 pm

hasu wrote:haha, fair enough..the car is in working condition its just not in my use. I'll be opening a performance tuning garage too before the end of this year so Ill surely give you a buzz if you are around. :)
sounds good :)

De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 09 Oct 2013, 1:49 pm

I finally got my car ready for some chiptuning / remapping.

It's a 2006 Mk5 VW Golf GTI.

Here is the first round of logging. All logs are done in Third gear. Spoolup is a bit quicker in 4th.

For those interested in custom remapping, here is some info on what I did and why.

Getting the Lambda / mixture sorted is one of the first things you want to do when you start fiddling with your car's computer.

During turbo spool, it can be beneficial to add some fuel, hence the mixture curve. This is safe if you (accidentally) overboost.
Later you try to get the curve to look a bit nicer. Mind you, the scale of this chart is really small.
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In this log I aim to max out the stock K03 turbocharger (within reason of course). To see what it can do in this DXB heat.

So we ask the turbocharger a little bit more than we know it can handle. (you only do this if you are sure your fuel, timing, IAT correction maps, ... are adequately set up)
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Once you do a couple of logs and you have an idea about what the turbo can do, you make the ECU happy by not asking more than it can deliver. This avoids annoying DTC lights or other unwanted behaviour of the car.
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This is a log of the ignition advance. This is the stock timing. I didn't touch it yet during this logging session.
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Below are 2 logs of the inlet temperature, during runs. I did my best to heat-soak the Intercooler, as I want to know the cars reaction to these high IAT's .
It's a long and complex thing, but it comes down to this. The ECU will ask more load when the IAT's are higher, unless you get that sorted.
For example, on a stock Stage1 tune, made in a cold weather environment, the hot Dubai weather is not always accounted for. This could upset the ECU. Boost cut, jerking, misfires, ...

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That's it for the moment. I'm way further ahead now, but that's for later.

Now i'm working on different stuff, trying to incorporate 2 tunes in 1 flash :-) but this might take a bit of work for me to find out how I can get this done.

Let me know if you guys are interested in this topic.
Last edited by De_Fre on 25 Dec 2013, 2:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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7afe
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Post by 7afe » 10 Oct 2013, 3:19 am

Just wondering what you made the turbo charger do what it cannot do? turn up boost?
Also if you are on stock TC shouldnt it spool up at 2500rpm anyways?
Not trying to start an argument, just curious .
-Lokz

De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 10 Oct 2013, 11:20 am

My car is a bit old (144.000km) and I'm quite sure the catalyser is holding back way more than it should. The turbo isn't that new anymore either.

Spool up is faster in 4th gear (the gear they usually use on the dyno). Sadly I can't use that gear for logging, as the speed goes up too much and I don't like fines :-)

Just checked out average spoolup dyno's / logs on the internet. Full boost by 2.500rpm seems a bit too optimistic, but it would be fun though :-)
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4570949 shows their peak around 3.500rpm.
http://vwclub.co.za/forum/viewtopic.php?f=93&t=154393 manages 3.000rpm (dunno what the changes are to the car or what gear was used)

I'll see if I can get a log done in 4th gear in the next few days or so, but won't push past 4000-5000rpm, I just want to see/show the difference in spool up.

Indeed, I changed values in the ECU in order to get more boost and make more power.

De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 25 Dec 2013, 2:02 pm

Time seems to be a rare commodity, but I found some to do some logging and group my results so far.

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These are not 100% accurate, as they were done using calculated power (Airflow converted to power) corrected for temperature. So again, this is not a Dyno-graph, merely to see if adding parts resulted in more power.

The car itself has 144.000km, and the turbo is not 100% anymore.


Stock the car did not reach the power it should make. (+/- 190hp)

ECU reflash resulted in +/- 230hp , but as you see, power dropped at the end.

Adding a 3" downpipe (with stock catback) and changing the ECU flash, the car got up to around 250hp. there was a nice increase in spoolup down low.

Adding a CTS intake, there was a very nice respons from the engine, so I adjusted the ECU maps a bit. I also found a small airleak As the temperature was a bit cooler when I did this run, there was less heatsoak from the intercooler. The first run gave me approx 265hp, the second one was just shy of 260hp.

Now i'm installing a CTS intercooler on the car. Stay tuned for updates :-)
The intercooler should just keep the power more consistent (less heatsoak)


If you have 2.0TFSI or 2.0TSI and want some more power, drop me a message ;-)

De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 28 Jan 2014, 8:57 pm

Making some progress on another front. Managed to reset my flash counter to 1 (or whatever I want)

Initially I had 34 program attempts via OBD (33 successful due to bricking the ECU for testing recovery purposes)

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Here is the Reset to 1

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Just to make sure I did the change, I changed some more text :)

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On the other front, The car now has a K04 Turbo for the next stage :-)

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De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 30 Jan 2014, 2:58 pm

Moving on again, since I have time.

Soldered some BDM-pads to my ECU ...

Result is a Brick-free ECU that can be reflashed in less than 3 minutes.

Perfect for the upcoming Dyno-session.

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Not my straightest work, but it 'll do
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7afe
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Post by 7afe » 31 Jan 2014, 11:07 am

Do you only like messing with Euro cars? ANy interest American or Japanese?

De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 01 Feb 2014, 8:27 am

I haven't really looked into Japanese or american cars in detail yet, as they are easier to modify ( as far as ECU remapping goes ) and there are already lots of guys tuning them in Dubai.

Plus I don't have a test-mule for that ;) , but maybe later, who knows

De_Fre
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Post by De_Fre » 13 Mar 2014, 8:28 pm

The next step is coming. Upgraded fuelling for the K04 Turbo. Now we can shoot past 310hp (fuel limited)

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