Thread: Tuning My Calum R/T

Thank-you.

Threw the N1's in yesterday!! Nothing broke, so that's good! Made sure everything was okay with 30 min of driving at different RPM's, my own personal break-in of the slightly used cams.

Have the high cam kicking in at 5400 right now but will definitely need to play with the timing. I can already tell the N1's will require more work with the big lobe tuning. Noticed a big dip in power at 5400 RPM when cams switch. Feels like I lose 5+ whp. That's typical though as I hadn't done much with the maps at the switch point. Will need to increase timing and fuel I think at the switch. Feels great after 6500 RPM though! Car idles nicer and seems smoother as well. Maybe has something to do with the slight bit of extra lift on the N1 exhaust low lobe.

Just waiting on a few more parts this week, also some minor exhaust work and then FINALLY the dyno should be next!

Weird I felt a big dip activating before 4800 rpm, now I do 4800 RPM and it's very linear.

Tune it out, you will like the "fatter" power band afterwards. I was disappointed at first, but then I was gunning it while going up a hill and really noticed it.

Vadim, you are switching your N1's at 4800? The small lobes on the N1's in my car feel nice all the way up to 5400. The extra lift on the exhaust cam, over the regular 2.0 VE cams is definitely noticeable. I think you are missing out on some 'low-lobe fun! At this point I am enjoying the smaller profile better than the higher profile lobes. I think it has to do with my exhaust though. The 2 into 1 collector on my hot-shot header is small so I am probably not feeling the top-end as I should. The need for a tune is evident as well.


In regards to tuning the N1's on the high cam, I gather from reading, that I need to add some timing and fuel at the switch point. Some people seem to add some just before the switch point. I think I will do it right at switch and see what happens.

Now, should I use the 0 vacuum number (from fuel map adjustment) as a sort of loose guide to know where to start adding timing for the N1 big lobes? Basically it doesn't make sense to me to just add timing in at 5400 RPM right across the TP scale. So should I just add the timing in under moderate and heavy load conditions?

I will certainly experiment with different settings but I ask these questions not only for myself but for others who will read this thread (mercy on them :rofl in the future. I will do my best to try and document what I see with my adjustments.

Feel free, anyone, to post up your experiences with tuning a VE with N1's on a real-time ECU! More specifically what you did for fuel and timing requirements at the small-to-high lobe switch point!



On a side note; I have had a miss in my engine since the swap. You could hear it in the exhaust note. It would be steady and then there would be a blip. Sometimes it would miss a lot and other times not so bad. I adjusted/replaced almost everything under the sun in order to get rid of the 'miss' in the engine. I was unsuccessful. The cam swap got rid of the engine missfire. It must have had something to do with the cams themselves. The gears/links/crank position were all good, so I don't know. The only thing I can see as a possibility was the exhaust cam. When I took it out I noticed a bit of scoring on a couple of the low lobes for cylinder four...



I am not convinced that these blemishes are enough to have caused the misfire but it had to have been the cams. No misfire was detected elsewhere. You can feel the darkened area is not smooth like the rest of the lobe. Anyway, glad to get one more issue resolved.

It's good to know what your TP is at 0 vacuum, easiest way to tell is while map tracing in 5th gear and low rpms (2k rpm or so), open the throttle all of the way and watch what number it jumps to and go from there. For me it jumps to 60 TP instantly and keeps on raising slowly from there.

Anyway, low load timing will always be higher, I wouldn't worry about it as much the full throttle parts of the map .

I tried that. I got 120! Lol I will have to try again and look at the graph sooner.

What maf/injectors?

E60 MAF and stock VE injectors.

Then that's not too high, your K value must be fairly high too right?

K value is 308. I think I messed something up though when I did it. I didn't ever see above high 70's TP load with the stock cams under WOT near redline.