Adding performance parts is only half the battle. Tuning is key to unlocking the potential of those parts, and once Road Race Engineering installed the Cosworth MX1 cams, our Long-Term 2008 Evo GSR hit the dyno again.
The dyno for all of these runs is Road Race Engineering's Dynapack, which places a drive unit at each of the car's hubs.
All of the dyno data here is uncorrected for ambient conditions. Click the thumbnails for a larger view.
To recap, here's the baseline dyno chart of Project Evo X. It's what stock cams, AMS intercooler, intake, exhaust and reflash looks like.
In our case, it's 316 hp and 320 lb-ft.
Overlayed with a stock Evo X, our Long-Term 2008 Evo GSR enjoyed an additional 68 hp and 66 lb-ft of torque in this baseline state of tune.
See the lumpiness in the stock Evo's (red) result? Overfueling is a fairly common strategy used on stock turbocharged cars to keep the catalyst cool so that it can last 100k miles. Ironic, eh? Evo Xs run so rich at full load that the ignition system can barely punch through the mixture.
Once the Cosworth MX1 cams were in, we went back to the dyno. Click the jump for the results.
With no other changes than the addition of the Cosworth cams, the results were promising. Peak torque rose by 36 lb-ft, and power was lifted by 34 hp.
Still, we knew there was a lot more to gained by tuning. The Evo X has plenty of knobs to turn in its ECU--spark timing, fuel enrichment, boost, phasing of both the intake and exhaust ...
And when you change a major piece of hardware like cams, tuning can sometimes more than match the power increase gained from the hardware alone.
Knowing this, Mike Welch, owner of RRE, broke out the laptop and got to tuning. He uses EcuTek to reflash the existing ECU--by simply hooking his laptop to the OBD-II port under the dash, he can upload calibrations of his own creation. All tuning is done via this interface--there is no need for external piggybacks or other magic black boxes.
Although the platform is new, Mike's already tuned about thirty-five Evo Xs so far, and five of them had the Cosworth cams we're using. Right away, he noticed that a boost dip below 4000 rpm and some spots of aggressive ignition timing. He uploaded his base calibration developed from these cars and started doing dyno pulls on our car. Now the dip was plumped with a touch more boost, and over the course of a dozen and a half dyno pulls, he tweaked the timing and leaned out the fueling beyond 5000 rpm a bit.
A few hours later w
hen all was said and done, this was the result:
359 horsepower at 6,050 rpm
368 lb-ft of torque at 4,450 rpm
Note the gains across the entire rev range relative to our pre-cam result.
Just for kicks, here's an overlay of our newly invigorated Project Evo X with a stock Evo X. We're now +111 hp and +114 lb-ft of torque over stock. Saucy.
Okay, my eyes are going to bug out after all that Exceling.
Stay tuned (har har)--tomorrow we'll show what all this work translated to at the track.
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor @ 15,857 miles.
texases says:
08:09 PM, 01/27/09
Very impressive! Especially the software-generated power bump.
iancar says:
08:14 PM, 01/27/09
I gave up. Send me a corvette with 6AT.
Jason Kavanagh replied to comment from texases
09:49 PM, 01/27/09
texases--not sure what you mean. Unless you're talking about the spike at 3100 rpm where det was encountered, resulting in a timing pull. Not software-generated...
mihai says:
12:42 AM, 01/28/09
He was talking about the extra power gained from the software tuning.
No MBC? One of the biggest differences on my IX was adding one. It went from spiking to 19psi and tapering down to 14-15psi, to spiking to 21psi and tapering down to 19-20psi.
stingray454 says:
08:26 AM, 01/28/09
Those are some pretty stout numbers from a little 4-banger!
lazyhater says:
08:45 AM, 01/28/09
Very nice gain all the way across!
shaddai says:
09:10 AM, 01/28/09
How's the drivability? That's some freaking amazing gains, by the way.
m_thrizzle says:
10:03 AM, 01/28/09
The smoothing of the power delivery itself should improve driveability. That power increase is crazy!
joefrompa says:
10:30 AM, 01/28/09
2.0 liters, 360 awhp, stock internals (except cam now). Really amazing. This is why small, robustly built turbo engines can be such great platforms.
I wonder how it spools. I hate those cars with 500whp that take forever to spool. Dyno cars built to make big numbers.
Joe
allenychung says:
10:49 AM, 01/28/09
Wow, all for a 2.0 liter, I hope it doesn't blow up.
How much does it cost to have the computer work done?
allenychung says:
10:49 AM, 01/28/09
Meant "from" not "for".
subytrojan says:
11:06 AM, 01/28/09
360 hp at the wheels or hubs? If it's the latter, I'd like to see numbers at the wheels.
stingray454 says:
11:38 AM, 01/28/09
BTW, how much money in mods has been spent so far for this power level?
sealclubb3r says:
04:26 PM, 01/28/09
I'm probably the only one thinking this but I wonder much these mods will hurt fuel economy. I know the Evo X isn't quite a fuel sipper to begin with.
kitw says:
12:45 PM, 01/29/09
I've found that my Evo IX got better mileage when I was driving in anger, because it ran so rich from the factory. Of course, on boost, it got worse mileage, because it was making more power. My IX get ridiculously bad mileage for a 4 cyl car.
*mihai - the X boost assembly with just an upgraded pill does a great job of controlling boost from the ECU, no need to a kludgy fall off at redline MBC.
spdracerut says:
07:44 PM, 01/29/09
The stock boost control system is highly advanced and tuneable. It takes into consideration not only rpm but also TPS, so you can improve driveability.
Putting a MBC controller on the car is like switching from electronic fuel injection to carburetors.
spdracerut says:
07:45 PM, 01/29/09
The stock boost control system is highly advanced and tuneable. It takes into consideration not only rpm but also TPS, so you can improve driveability.
Putting a MBC controller on the car is like switching from electronic fuel injection to carburetors.