pmor4243
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I thought I would provide some data from the recent tuning that I had done on my 19 GT in case it helps anyone else in their decision process.
I recently picked up a manual 19GT and very quickly had the car tuned after a lot of reading and a few discussions with tuners. The general consensus was that the 18+ platform with its compression is octane limited and would benefit from addition of E85 and the corresponding tune. After talking to Shaun at AED I went with a 91 performance tune (we only have 91 in Utah), a Flex Fuel Tune, and an E85 Tune. Keep in mind that my car is otherwise stock.
While the tunes did seem to make the car “feel” better, I was curious what the actual real world improvements were between them so I decided to do a couple of data logs in second gear since I could easily duplicate the results with the various tunes on the exact same road.
I did this all on the same day, under the same conditions, and on the same road. Since I had less than a 1/4 tank of E85 left, I did my data logging then drained the remaining ethanol and filled up a 1/2 tank of 91. I then flashed my Flex Fuel map and did about 20 minutes of driving to make sure anything in the lines had worked its way out. Then I did 2 pulls with the 91 map (one in normal mode and one in sport) and a 3rd with the car flashed back to stock (in sport mode).
What I noticed when reviewing all of this was that the E85 tune was in fact faster than the 91 and Stock tune, however, it was not what I would call a night and day difference. If you look at the data, the E85 tune was only about 2.5 mph faster. It picked up a little quicker at the bottom end than the other two but otherwise stayed pretty similar. On the other hand, the Stock and 91 tunes were nearly identical in their performance through 2nd gear.
https://datazap.me/u/pmor4243/final-tune-comparison?log=0&data=0-5-6-7-8
Another thing that was interesting to me was when I looked at the timing for each tune. Once again, and as has been pointed out by many, the E85 tune has more timing everywhere. What I didn’t expect to see was my stock tune actually commanding more timing than my 91 Tune.
https://datazap.me/u/pmor4243/final-tune-comparison?log=0&data=0-13-14-15-16
So all of that to say, I found these results interesting and thought I would share. Since 2nd gear is a gear I use on the street and around town all the time, I thought it would be interesting to see what or if I actually gained by tuning the car. I would say for the most part, at least for my specific car, it really doesn’t seem to make a difference in the real world unless you go with E85, but even then, the slightly faster acceleration probably wouldn’t compensate for the dramatic drop in fuel milage you get with it. What I will say is noticably different with any of the tunes over stock is the tip in throttle response, there is virtually no delay or ramp up with the tuned mas as where the stock tune has some smoothing built into the tune. This isn't necessarily good or bad, just depends on what you like.
Hopefully someone finds that helpful or interesting. I'm sure that my tests were not perfect but it was about as representative as I could be with what I had. If anyone has done something similar it would be interesting to see how things worked with your car.
I recently picked up a manual 19GT and very quickly had the car tuned after a lot of reading and a few discussions with tuners. The general consensus was that the 18+ platform with its compression is octane limited and would benefit from addition of E85 and the corresponding tune. After talking to Shaun at AED I went with a 91 performance tune (we only have 91 in Utah), a Flex Fuel Tune, and an E85 Tune. Keep in mind that my car is otherwise stock.
While the tunes did seem to make the car “feel” better, I was curious what the actual real world improvements were between them so I decided to do a couple of data logs in second gear since I could easily duplicate the results with the various tunes on the exact same road.
I did this all on the same day, under the same conditions, and on the same road. Since I had less than a 1/4 tank of E85 left, I did my data logging then drained the remaining ethanol and filled up a 1/2 tank of 91. I then flashed my Flex Fuel map and did about 20 minutes of driving to make sure anything in the lines had worked its way out. Then I did 2 pulls with the 91 map (one in normal mode and one in sport) and a 3rd with the car flashed back to stock (in sport mode).
What I noticed when reviewing all of this was that the E85 tune was in fact faster than the 91 and Stock tune, however, it was not what I would call a night and day difference. If you look at the data, the E85 tune was only about 2.5 mph faster. It picked up a little quicker at the bottom end than the other two but otherwise stayed pretty similar. On the other hand, the Stock and 91 tunes were nearly identical in their performance through 2nd gear.
https://datazap.me/u/pmor4243/final-tune-comparison?log=0&data=0-5-6-7-8
Another thing that was interesting to me was when I looked at the timing for each tune. Once again, and as has been pointed out by many, the E85 tune has more timing everywhere. What I didn’t expect to see was my stock tune actually commanding more timing than my 91 Tune.
https://datazap.me/u/pmor4243/final-tune-comparison?log=0&data=0-13-14-15-16
So all of that to say, I found these results interesting and thought I would share. Since 2nd gear is a gear I use on the street and around town all the time, I thought it would be interesting to see what or if I actually gained by tuning the car. I would say for the most part, at least for my specific car, it really doesn’t seem to make a difference in the real world unless you go with E85, but even then, the slightly faster acceleration probably wouldn’t compensate for the dramatic drop in fuel milage you get with it. What I will say is noticably different with any of the tunes over stock is the tip in throttle response, there is virtually no delay or ramp up with the tuned mas as where the stock tune has some smoothing built into the tune. This isn't necessarily good or bad, just depends on what you like.
Hopefully someone finds that helpful or interesting. I'm sure that my tests were not perfect but it was about as representative as I could be with what I had. If anyone has done something similar it would be interesting to see how things worked with your car.
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