Hey, Soo I know absolutely nothing about tuning and any of this but i hear it thrown around alot.. So basically I am wondering what exactly it does and if I should get one? My mods are listed in my sig and I'm not really planning on doing very much more to my engine.. just maybe add sway bars and new springs down the road. I never track my car and certainly dont consider it a ricer, so Is it really necessary to tune my car?

Also random question but does advancing the timing +2 give gains for 6mt as well as 5at?

 

when you modify your engine with performance parts, your air to fuel ratio can be affected and this is why you would need to get your engine/ecu tuned to get peak performance and ensure your car is running efficiently. When you have more air than the ideal air to fuel ratio, you would be considered to as running "lean." On the other hand, if you are running with more fuel in than the ideal air to fuel ratio, you are running "rich."

 

So how do you know which you are running? Am I due for a tune then?

 

The VQ tends to run lean up until around 4k, then it starts to run rich.

 

Yea..see that means nothing to me hah..

 

To find out if you are rich or lean you need a wideband. If you go to a tuner shop they can hook one up to your car and run it on the dyno or the street and get A/F readings. The way to tune it is to have additional engine managment like a Piggy back unit such as Utec, Split Second box or a standalone unit such as Haltech, F-Con or also ECU reflash would also work. However with your mods it is unlikely you need anything. Things like cold air intake, intake spacers, test pipes, headers and catback exhaust will lean your car out a bit...because each of those add more air or help to remove more air with out adding fuel. I had a cold air intake, a spacer and catback exhaust and I was still running safe Air Fuel ratios but you start getting headers and test pipes it may be good to have the AFRs checked by that point you will likely want some sort of engine managment in order to maximize the performance potential of your mods. I hope that helped without being confusing.

 

you dont need to tune it w/ those mods

the ECU will adjust it self if its been running lean or rich

now if you get a turbo or a supercharger than thats a whole diff story

 

if you tune you can get more power out of your mods. is it necessary at where you are? no. and why dont you go read about afr and what tuning does so at least you have a have a basic idea of the concept before you make a topic and are unable to even understand the answers being given to you?

 

^best advice so far. wikipedia is your friend

 

My Sig is what I have and I did the Orisis UpREV w/tune and dyno my A/F is 14.7 a little lean but safe..anywhere between 13.2-15 your car will be good to go...and I also have a pair of Strup headers...

 

Important to remember than oem installs safety factors in software to improve emissions, reliability, and durability to meet warranty goals.

Tuning is the reduction and removal [rev limit] of these safety factors to squeeze a little more out on dyno at the expense of long term safety and reliability.

If a tuner told you he was halving the peak engine life would you still get a ragged edge retune?
Going from 300k to 150k does not matter to everyone, as it depends on the frequency and duration of WOT per day, week, month, year.

 

Exactly what I needed to know, thanks alot!