rx8 - smooth!

Firstly the title. Loomy Tunes I have been evaluating the Ric Shaw ECU Piggy Back unit which has been Hymee enhanced (with the aid of a silent partner) so that it can be plugged straight into the factory wiring loom without the need to splice any wires. Very tidy job too! Hence the title Loomey Tunes - Funny heh?

Back to the story. I went to Hymees GHQ the other night and we fitted the unit to my car. The installation went smoothly and after about half an hour we fired the car up with the unit fitted. Perfect - no problems. The next thing we did was to plug Hymees lap top into the diagnostic port on the car to check air fuel ratios. We did a brief road test and they were fine. We did trigger a CEL light on the first really hard bit of acceleration but we turned the ignition off and the problem disappeared. If anything the air fuel ratios were still a little rich. Maybe this was due to the tune that is in the unit being done in Hymees car which has his exhaust fitted allowing it to breath a little easier so therefore my car with the stock exhaust could be leaned out a little more.

After making sure that the A/F ratios were safe we did some more testing at Hymee's secret test track. Hymee has an accelerometer and we recorded times from 40 klm to 105 klm in 2nd gear. This removes any variables such as gear changes etc.
The attached graph shows the increase with the unit switched on and off. We basically alternated 3 runs with the unit on and 3 runs with the unit off. We did a total of about 16 runs in all, so we had a reasonably good sample.


We could definitely feel a difference in the car especially from about 5,000rpm onwards. The best way to describe the diference is that the car feels crisper and more alive to throttle inputs.

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

I would like to add a little to this so people get a broader perspective from where I am coming from.

I don't currently have a financial interest in the Ric Shaw unit. Smoothy does not have any financial interest either - I just let him try it out on his car for a good few days. All gratius.

So I don't need to get on here and make raving claims to justify my investment, nor does Smoothy.

The silent partner, who I have started to refer to as GTP, owns the controller. I have invested real money in some of the parts for the Loom, along with my time. I have provided a car and fuel for testing etc. GTP bought the controller - so I suppose he has an interest there. But what he is trying to do is help out sort out what is really available fromn this baby. We plan on doing the same excercise with the CZ unit, and another locally sourced unit.

I would like to thank Smoothy for contributing a very non-sensational thread. It puts the facts as he sees them.

Another thing Smoothy can attest to, if I prod him a bit - was the absolute repeatability we witnessed during the tests. We averaged runs in both directions, but each sample set did not differ my more the 0.05s (for the "ON" tests) and 0.06s for the "OFF" tests. That was quite evident. You read it correctly - 6 one hundreths of a second maximum spread, or 1%.

The AFR's in Smoothies car where not quite as optimised as mine - perhaps the exhaust has something to do with it, but I believe this is another thing that seems like it is starting to show up: The optimum "tune-up" for any one car is different for the optimum for the next one off the production line. I.e. It is best to have the car custom tuned. I also have heard around the traps that people are experiencing different results with the latest CZ "tune" even though they all have the American "L" flash. Why?? Good uestion, but I would suggest manufacturing tolerances would have a fair bit to do with it.

Cheers,
Hymee

PS - I hope I didn't get crossed up - I replied to 2 threads at once, and I really want to get out into the garage to test the new version of my ODBII interface that arrived today :D

Kas

I'd like to see around 20HP minimum on the stock unit. Again it depends on the price but you do need to factor the $$ per HP.

Great work, i love reading your progress with anticipation that big HP numbers will be attainable!!

Hymee

iTrader: (1)

Thanks Kas - I love writing them.

But I thought you already got 19kW = a big 25HP with your Promaz??

You also need to consider how "highly tuned" they already are. We already know we are not going to get easy gains like you can get from a LS1.

Cheers,
Hymee.