Re: Time For GIAC ECU Tuning?
Standard Equipment -- GIAC Dyno Room.
Once the car was strapped we started the dyno run, which sounds like a wide open full throttle run in 4th gear with probes on the y pipe (measuring boost) and exhaust (measuring EGT?), and inside the car (connecting to the car's central CPU) to collect a host of parameters, aka "data logging". I finally got a taste of my own medicine: listening to my car outside of it on full throttle. It was deafeningly, scarry loud. So loud that I had to use fingers to plug my ear in addition to the ear plugs above.
GIAC, interestingly enough, is directly underneath the path of landing jumbo jets at Orange County's International Airport. I was told this is the only reason their dyno's have been tolerated by neighbors as each sounds and shakes just like a landing jet! The only time that they got a complaint was with a CGT. (Which I guess could mean only one thing: That CGT is louder than a landing jet. )
On the subject of loudness, I was told that strictly from a power gain standpoint, a loud version of an exhaust, like Cargraphic Loud, is preferred over a more quiet version. (But I would most definitely NOT let this influence your decision of which exhaust to get, as I think "correct" sound level is critical to your enjoyment of the car. And please believe me this tune is making ENOUGH power.)
After each dyno run, the crew would look at a number of curves that flash on computer screen as a result of the dyno (I know what they look at but I will have to take the 5th here.) and rows and rows of data that they had collected from the data log (IAT, etc.). They would then change the tune's parameters to attempt to correct any data or curves that didn't look right. The new tune program was then re-flashed onto the ECU, then another dyno would be run to see the result. Basically they were fine tuning the program to fit the Cargraphic exhaust (This is why I have said a car with a RUF ECU should have a RUF exhaust.).
It is remarkable to me that Garrett nailed it every single time. Each time he re-wrote the program, the specific problem that had needed correction, was corrected.
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Regards,
Can
997 Turbo + Bilstein Damptronic ( Review ) + ECU Tune ( Review ) + Cargraphic Exhaust ( Oh heavenly noise! )