Tuning my VY V6 Manual for 98 octane

[marcdinatale__]

Hey Guys,
I'm relatively new to tuning and i have mucked around with some basic things on my car using tuner pro. I would love to do a custom road tune for it on 98 octane. I am aware of the limitations of a road tune with my flash ecu. I would love some guidance on what to adjust to make some more power thru timing and fuel table adjustments to utilise 98 octane, as I am unsure where to start. Any advice and/or tips and guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[Deuce]

Do you have a wideband O2 sensor with output into your ECU?
Does it have a knock sensor/knock count?

These will allow you to get good information as feedback on your changes.

But I would think, without a compression increase that is finding the limitations of 95ron, is there much to gain by going to 98?

[Knackersjewels]

Start by flashing the1s enhanced tune onto it, it's already optimised for 98. You will notice the difference

[marcdinatale__]

Start by flashing the1s enhanced tune onto it, it's already optimised for 98. You will notice the difference

I've already got the enhanced tune flashed in. I think I'm going to start by slightly advancing the timing - nothing drastic atm

[marcdinatale__]

Do you have a wideband O2 sensor with output into your ECU?
Does it have a knock sensor/knock count?

I do have knock count but no wideband. is it necessary? and/or is there a way around it or an alternative?

[Wade]

You can tune without a wideband. but its easier with one. You can use the factory narrowband o2's for anything closed loop, But as soon as your under load or wide open throttle it'll switch to open loop. So no data after that. So a wideband is needed or you'll need to get familiar with reading plugs. But cutting up spark plugs and buying new sparks plugs every time will get costly quick. Easier to use a wideband and still just confirm the plugs are reading good every now an then. You can look at the spark plug strap, which will give you an indication on if its too hot or cold of a heat range and also how close the timing is. And also how close the AFR's are if you cut the porcelain part out, You can read the AFR ring ect. Drag racers with carby's been doing it that way for cars since the old days. get the engine to operating temp, push it to the start line, bang in a new set of plugs, and make a hit. shutting the engine off and rolling to a stop ect. Should be plenty of vids on YouTube about reading plugs.

[Wade]

You generally wanna get fuel sorted first as well. So do fuel first then timing.

[Wade]

I like to turn off anything that might influence my readings. So things like lean cruise or dfco and things like that. When tuning fuel and then ignition timing, it’s best to try your hardest to do it in steady state. So get the engine to operating temps and then try hit every load and rpm cell. I like to set my history table to running average. And then hold the engine in 1 load and rpm cell for as long as it takes for the numbers to stabilise. Then move on, next load cell and rpm cell ect. And break it up into sections. So idle area, light load cruise low rpm then high rpm ect ect. Tune 1 section at a time and make a note of it and then move on. I also like to view both the left and right long term fuel trims and aim on the side of caution. So I’ll aim to be on the richer side of both banks, if they both ain’t the same in that load cell and rpm cell. You can also look over sample counts with both right and left just to make sure it’s good data. More sample counts the better, and if you’ve stabilised every cell when data logging you should have plenty of counts. Sometimes you need to get creative with where you test and collect the data on the road.

[Wade]

Once you’ve got your afr’s matching as closely as possible to what’s commanded, then it’s time for ignition timing. Don’t forget that things like coolant temp and lat’s and power enrichment ect will influence what timing the engine receives as well. So once again, get the engine to operating temps. PE adds 1.56 degrees when active in the vy ecotec. And there’s also a multiplier of how much of that timing is used. So from 3200 to 5600rpm it’s all of that 1.56 degrees is added, but at 2400rpm only half. There’s also the activation tables based on tps and mgc load. Wide open throttle is around 550-650mgc. So you should be able to log what tps % is used to reach wot. The factory load setting is activated at 2200rpm and tps is set 60% tps at 2800rpm. I’ve noticed you can generally hit wot before those settings, so you could try just bringing on PE a little earlier which will give it that extra 1.56 degrees low down on up. Then you could try adding 1 degree at a time in PE while monitoring knock. I’ve noticed the stock Ecotec seems to bog down and really pick up around that 2800rpm on mark. Which funnily enough is right about where PE kicks in and adds almost 2deg . So you can definitely smooth that transition in a bit.

[Wade]

https://youtu.be/MecCoercp-s?si=Bp9V0NuXn8uz3fRK