Draxxus
11-22-2009, 02:32 AM
Thought i would start a thread on the process and results on tuning my 07 2.5i Impreza for those interested in this as an option and for anyone who might have questions, as well as heads up on some of the complications i had, to help your tune go smooth.
So my upgrades at the time of tune were CosmoRacing CAI and Magnaflow 2.75" Cat-Back exhaust. I purchased the Accessport through Rallitek Witch was just an awesome experience, Just great customer service. I was contacted by email to start with my data logs, i was to install the stock map on the AP and do 3 data logs Idle, Cruise and 3rd gear WOT. I then sent my logs to Sean(Ralliteks VP and tuner). Soon after i got a call and we went over my logs. I found out that something was causing my car to lean out dramatically. I had fuel trim as much as 16 (+&-) percent threw my whole rev band and my advance dynamic multi was sitting around .55 and i need to to be closer to 1 to even begin to tune.
We figured it was a toss up between car learning its bad habits, 02 sensor or my intake. So i reset my ecu to eliminate the first thought and still no fix. So i was at a cross roads and figured if it was my 02 sensor thing would be much worse and scattered everywhere in the logs witch made me think it must be the intake screwing up the MAF sensor.
I have heard and read plenty about aftermarket intakes causing are cars to less then par performance and figured its either this particular intake or just swapping the intake all together but something to consider for those who plan on tuning.
So I decided to do some surgery and replaced my stock air box and resonator and cut the main piece of the CAI to fit from the throttle body to the MAF(Converted to hybrid) Witch is when i began to notice that the aftermarket intake was causing my MAF to be at somewhat of a weird angle compared to stock as well as the whole angle of the runner pipe that replaced the intake box and ran into the fender witch was that little change that cause MAF misreadings and have the car to adjust accordingly (for the worst in my case). Once everything was done i reset the ecu and data logged again and found my suspicion was correct all was back to normal (or pretty damn close if you will) but good enough to tune! Some variables in the fuel trim tables needed some forcing to stay low but thats where Rallitek comes in, I sent the logs and soon after received a call from Sean needing to know a couple other things like octane i logged on was the ecu reset ect... A couple hours later i had my stage 1 maps Witch are 89,91 and 93 octane maps as well as economy...
Takes about 2 min to load the maps on the AP and less than that to load on car depending on type of flash. i had a full tank of 89 octane so i decided to do 10 dyno, 0-60 and 1/4 mile runs before i loaded the map to have a good before and after base. I then proceeded to load the map go for a cruise and like i stated finish doing the runs for improvement basis.
My First impression was well "finally" the throttle was the most immediate noticeable Change. The best part of this AP is the tuned throttle tables you just realize how much the factory has lagged/dimmed things down in that area. Before if i were to stab the throttle it would hesitate for a second then slowly open the throttle body and finnaly start to squat and go. Now it would take a magnifying glass (figuratively speaking) to see it wasn't a cable throttle. the response was awesome and the everything was on demand and much more precise.
Next i noticed how it smoothed the whole car out it went to a kinda ruff sounding ruff running (again probably not the best word the car never ran bad) to a smooth well oiled machine from start up to full throttle pulls. It would rev out so nicely. Before it would give me the feeling in the back of my mind and in my senses that it was just hurting my car to let the rpms climb, but now it begs to go higher and does climb faster as well.
The power, what everyone is wondering im sure, like many of you have prob read in many other forums if your expecting turbo like gains you will be far off base. The best i can prepare you on what to expect is this. You do get very nice gains probably the second most cost effective gains other than cams but those are not exactly cost effective now that i think of it i purchased Ralliteks cams and still am saving to put them on. The gains are like if you got perfect world gains out of every aftermarket part plus a little extra for you effort. Its no 30 or 40 HP like close to when i do my cams with stage 2 tune but its like when you buy an intake and they say 10 HP and you install it and you can conservatively feel/see 4 HP this pulls out the power that your ecu adjusted out to bring the engine back to its comfort level and like i said plus a little more.
The best thing is knowing that my car was in the ruff zone and now i have everything to where the car likes it plus gains off of it (perfect world) Piece of mind if you will and some "GO" as well...
Before tuning i pushed out 10 runs, my AP calculated a average of 140HP at the wheels, 0-60 was right around what was advertised at and average of 7.75 and 1/4 at 15.8 (all an average out of 10 runs for each/ and run times was beating the living snot out of the car plan on longer is you want to take it easy on the clutch)
Now after the tune the power was an average of 147 at wheel on the 89 octane map
0-60 and average of 7.45 and 1/4 an average of 15.6 more than i expected but it gets better...
I then did tests on the 93 octane map and let me say this is a much more aggressive map from throttle response and sensitivity to the power output, this is when the car really came alive and fuel economy went to hell and a hand bag at WOT (at 4800 rpm 3.6 mpg for a few hundred rpms but an average of 8.9 mpg under full throttle)
The average at the wheels 158 to my surprise 0-60 an average of 7.13 I mean holy *&#$ and 1/4 an average of 15.1 so even though the power is no "crazy butt load" theirs a lot of other aspects of improvements that as a sum just make the car a whole different car to drive in my mind the way it should of been to begin with. I couldn't imagine driving it the way it was before after driving her now. Last the economy map. I though to be honest that Ralliteks claims were unrealistic and they are if you have a lead foot and cant practice easy throttle control for the fact that the tune goes 110% the opposite direction.
The throttle is set even more conservative than factory the response is... well there's not much to speak of it kinda drives like dare i say a Kia lol. But to my surprise i was averaging with very soft foot and easy highway driving at 65mph 38 mile a gallon. But this map is designed to not ever drive more than half throttle or be revved over 4k rpm if you do you will cause the cars timing adjust and totally ruin the benefits of the map..
So i hope this helps all those who are considering this as a option and hope those who have gone this route steps in and adds to or gives there opinons as well. Feel free if anyone has any questions or ask about anything that i did not cover...
So my upgrades at the time of tune were CosmoRacing CAI and Magnaflow 2.75" Cat-Back exhaust. I purchased the Accessport through Rallitek Witch was just an awesome experience, Just great customer service. I was contacted by email to start with my data logs, i was to install the stock map on the AP and do 3 data logs Idle, Cruise and 3rd gear WOT. I then sent my logs to Sean(Ralliteks VP and tuner). Soon after i got a call and we went over my logs. I found out that something was causing my car to lean out dramatically. I had fuel trim as much as 16 (+&-) percent threw my whole rev band and my advance dynamic multi was sitting around .55 and i need to to be closer to 1 to even begin to tune.
We figured it was a toss up between car learning its bad habits, 02 sensor or my intake. So i reset my ecu to eliminate the first thought and still no fix. So i was at a cross roads and figured if it was my 02 sensor thing would be much worse and scattered everywhere in the logs witch made me think it must be the intake screwing up the MAF sensor.
I have heard and read plenty about aftermarket intakes causing are cars to less then par performance and figured its either this particular intake or just swapping the intake all together but something to consider for those who plan on tuning.
So I decided to do some surgery and replaced my stock air box and resonator and cut the main piece of the CAI to fit from the throttle body to the MAF(Converted to hybrid) Witch is when i began to notice that the aftermarket intake was causing my MAF to be at somewhat of a weird angle compared to stock as well as the whole angle of the runner pipe that replaced the intake box and ran into the fender witch was that little change that cause MAF misreadings and have the car to adjust accordingly (for the worst in my case). Once everything was done i reset the ecu and data logged again and found my suspicion was correct all was back to normal (or pretty damn close if you will) but good enough to tune! Some variables in the fuel trim tables needed some forcing to stay low but thats where Rallitek comes in, I sent the logs and soon after received a call from Sean needing to know a couple other things like octane i logged on was the ecu reset ect... A couple hours later i had my stage 1 maps Witch are 89,91 and 93 octane maps as well as economy...
Takes about 2 min to load the maps on the AP and less than that to load on car depending on type of flash. i had a full tank of 89 octane so i decided to do 10 dyno, 0-60 and 1/4 mile runs before i loaded the map to have a good before and after base. I then proceeded to load the map go for a cruise and like i stated finish doing the runs for improvement basis.
My First impression was well "finally" the throttle was the most immediate noticeable Change. The best part of this AP is the tuned throttle tables you just realize how much the factory has lagged/dimmed things down in that area. Before if i were to stab the throttle it would hesitate for a second then slowly open the throttle body and finnaly start to squat and go. Now it would take a magnifying glass (figuratively speaking) to see it wasn't a cable throttle. the response was awesome and the everything was on demand and much more precise.
Next i noticed how it smoothed the whole car out it went to a kinda ruff sounding ruff running (again probably not the best word the car never ran bad) to a smooth well oiled machine from start up to full throttle pulls. It would rev out so nicely. Before it would give me the feeling in the back of my mind and in my senses that it was just hurting my car to let the rpms climb, but now it begs to go higher and does climb faster as well.
The power, what everyone is wondering im sure, like many of you have prob read in many other forums if your expecting turbo like gains you will be far off base. The best i can prepare you on what to expect is this. You do get very nice gains probably the second most cost effective gains other than cams but those are not exactly cost effective now that i think of it i purchased Ralliteks cams and still am saving to put them on. The gains are like if you got perfect world gains out of every aftermarket part plus a little extra for you effort. Its no 30 or 40 HP like close to when i do my cams with stage 2 tune but its like when you buy an intake and they say 10 HP and you install it and you can conservatively feel/see 4 HP this pulls out the power that your ecu adjusted out to bring the engine back to its comfort level and like i said plus a little more.
The best thing is knowing that my car was in the ruff zone and now i have everything to where the car likes it plus gains off of it (perfect world) Piece of mind if you will and some "GO" as well...
Before tuning i pushed out 10 runs, my AP calculated a average of 140HP at the wheels, 0-60 was right around what was advertised at and average of 7.75 and 1/4 at 15.8 (all an average out of 10 runs for each/ and run times was beating the living snot out of the car plan on longer is you want to take it easy on the clutch)
Now after the tune the power was an average of 147 at wheel on the 89 octane map
0-60 and average of 7.45 and 1/4 an average of 15.6 more than i expected but it gets better...
I then did tests on the 93 octane map and let me say this is a much more aggressive map from throttle response and sensitivity to the power output, this is when the car really came alive and fuel economy went to hell and a hand bag at WOT (at 4800 rpm 3.6 mpg for a few hundred rpms but an average of 8.9 mpg under full throttle)
The average at the wheels 158 to my surprise 0-60 an average of 7.13 I mean holy *&#$ and 1/4 an average of 15.1 so even though the power is no "crazy butt load" theirs a lot of other aspects of improvements that as a sum just make the car a whole different car to drive in my mind the way it should of been to begin with. I couldn't imagine driving it the way it was before after driving her now. Last the economy map. I though to be honest that Ralliteks claims were unrealistic and they are if you have a lead foot and cant practice easy throttle control for the fact that the tune goes 110% the opposite direction.
The throttle is set even more conservative than factory the response is... well there's not much to speak of it kinda drives like dare i say a Kia lol. But to my surprise i was averaging with very soft foot and easy highway driving at 65mph 38 mile a gallon. But this map is designed to not ever drive more than half throttle or be revved over 4k rpm if you do you will cause the cars timing adjust and totally ruin the benefits of the map..
So i hope this helps all those who are considering this as a option and hope those who have gone this route steps in and adds to or gives there opinons as well. Feel free if anyone has any questions or ask about anything that i did not cover...