Driving to dyno/tuner questions

[96atawd]

Hello Tuners, I have some questions about tuning and safely getting/driving my car to the dyno/tuner. I drive a 96 gsx that is pretty much completely stock, besides Injen intake and Greddy IC pipes/bov. Stock engine, stock turbo, stock smic, stock fuel, stock ecu. Everything stock besides Injen intake and Greddy pipes/bov. Next upgrades on the list (after tune-up and preventative maintenance) are boost gauge, wbo2 gauge, wally 190 re-wired and boost controller. My future plans are to (spend alot of time to find a used FP Big28 (or comparable "big" t28) turbo, used Dejon "big/super"(or comparable) smic, Evo3 exh manifold, 2.5" o2 housing, 2.5" downpipe, 3" catback, and 650cc (or other, need suggestions) injectors, and DSM/ECMLink.

Now my question. After installing all of this, how can I safely drive my car to my tuner/dyno? It is about 150 miles to his shop/dyno. Is it safe to socket the ecu, put stock eprom back in the socketed ecu, install all of the upgrades, then drive my car to the tuner on stock eprom and stock injectors on low (5? 7? 10psi?) boost, trying to avoid boosting on the drive there, then install upgraded injectors at the shop before tuning? The reason I ask is because I want to drive the car a little on low to medium boost before taking it all the way to the dyno/tuner to get professionally dyno tuned, so that I know there are no mechanical problems, compared to installing everything and towing or flatbedding the car all the way there, just to find I have a bunch of problems that need to be taken care of before tuning.


Thanks Tuners
New DSMer

 

[tomas123]

On a safe base tune you should be able to make it in my opinion without a problem as long as you dont have a lead foot.. Obviously take it around the block and test it out to see how everything is functioning. You could also "beat" on it a bit locally so you get that feel of the car and then flat bed it. After installing AEM and setting up his supra for e85 my uncle ended up flat bedding his car to the tuner. It all depends how confident you are

 

[96atawd]

On a safe base tune you should be able to make it in my opinion without a problem as long as you dont have a lead foot..

How would I go about getting a "safe base tune" before getting the car to the dyno/tuner? Not trying to be an a$$, just curious, because I do not feel confident in tuning my self. This is the ONLY part of modding a car I do not feel confident doing, and would much rather pay a very experienced pro tuner to do.


I'm just curious how much boost I could safely run on stock eprom and stock injectors with a"big"t28, "big"smic, hard ic pipes/bov, intake, exh mani, o2 housing, downpipe, catback, rewired 190fp, before installing 650cc injectors and dyno tuning? Im just almost positive it would be bad to run the 650's without a real tune, and I dont know how to tune, so I will be limited to stock 450's untill the car gets on a dyno, in the hands of an experience tuner, but, I would like to be able to drive the car before getting tuned, on stock injectors, to make sure everything is mechanically sound. Would it be safe to run this setup at 15psi? 12 psi? 10psi? on stock eprom/stock injectors before hitting a dyno and actually getting tuned?

 

[dot45]

If you set your injector size and dead times in link, you should be fine to drive it 150miles. Just don't beat on it and you will stay well within safe limits on the engine.

Leave it at stock boost levels, but put in the larger injectors. You want to stay out of boost on the drive there, since your turbo will flow much more air you would run lean in boost.

 

[tomas123]

With AEM i know there are base maps which you are able to adjust only slightly and have the car run well for you. I would assume that with dsmlink this is the same? But like dot45 said you need to stay away from boosting the car on your way there regardless and besides that i dont see why you couldn't make the trip as long as you drive nice ;p even though thats hard to do especially on a 150mile trip

Edit: if it makes you feel any better i turboed a 1990 bmw and made it run on a base map i found on the forums. The guy had a similar setup to mine and i just copied his tune and drove it to the tuner without a single problem.

 

[96atawd]

What is "dead times" exactly? Sorry I am very new to tuning. Would it not be safe at all to drive it at 10psi or less on stock injectors with these 'mild' mods? I think Tomas has persuaded me to just tow/flatbed the car to the dyno/tuner, but I would still like to drive the car a little bit without trying to tune myself, as I am afraid I will completely screw up using Link myself. Once I get my boost and wbo2 gauges hooked up, would it be ok to drive on stock injectors for a while just to test everything, then tow/flatbed the car to the dyno and install the larger injectors and let the pro work his magic on the dyno with Link? I'd just really like to drive the car a little while on stock ecu, stock injectors, on about 10psi with the 'mild' mods to test everything before taking it all the way to the tuner to find out I have to fix something before he can tune it.

 

[boosting_pwr]

I don't know how set you are on taking it to this particular tuner but if you don't feel comfortable driving 150 miles I would contact a freelance tuner on this website. As long as you have access to your email they can fully tune your car or just send you off with a base tune to eliminate the worries. I personally have worked with MY1GDSM and I've had nothing but a good experience. I'm sure there's others on here that would be willing to help out.

 

[tomas123]

What is "dead times" exactly? Sorry I am very new to tuning. Would it not be safe at all to drive it at 10psi or less on stock injectors with these 'mild' mods? I think Tomas has persuaded me to just tow/flatbed the car to the dyno/tuner, but I would still like to drive the car a little bit without trying to tune myself, as I am afraid I will completely screw up using Link myself. Once I get my boost and wbo2 gauges hooked up, would it be ok to drive on stock injectors for a while just to test everything, then tow/flatbed the car to the dyno and install the larger injectors and let the pro work his magic on the dyno with Link? I'd just really like to drive the car a little while on stock ecu, stock injectors, on about 10psi with the 'mild' mods to test everything before taking it all the way to the tuner to find out I have to fix something before he can tune it.

Trust me if i can do it. You can do it. Just make sure you do some homework before hand and grasp the basic concept of link. You can test the car out, i mean its just bolt ons, correct? You just wont feel 100% power but enough to know the car is mechanically sound

 

[Afizzle]

Just keep your eye on that wideband. Normal AFRs at idle and cruise are 14.7. If youre running rich thats okay (10-15.0:1) but anything more lean than 15:0 and you will need to make some throttle adjustments. If youre gassing it to get up to speed and you see it go full lean (---) you need to come off the gas and move up slower so you can stay in the safe range.

Also after you install everything make sure you do an extremely thorough boost leak test or the entire dyno session will be useless. You will discover problems later on and fix them and itll completely throw your tune off. Make sure your entire intake system is TIGHT as hell at 5 psi above what youre going to be running before you even think about dyno'ing the car.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8F79160CDC152E38