I dont get tuning. How do you tune a solara?

[DatSRBoi]

Well It just hitted my head. Im going to dyno my car since Im getting it done cheap and I wanted to see what the car is putting...But then I started reading about all these tuning and how you can tune your car on the dyno.. Well... My solara is N/A with just injen intake (soon to be CAI Extended) and cat back exhaust.. Those are the only mods I can think of that I did to the motor. Can I tune the car to crank out more hp from just these mods? If so, What do I need and How in the world can I tune a solara? Do I have to buy a laptop and some new ECU and plug it up? I hear how our top solara in this forums are doing that tuning thing.. But how is it done? And what do I need or buy to tune my car?

Also what gains can I have if I buy what ever I need and tune it? 2hp? 10hp? And I hope our headers come out soon.... I wish they came out already..

[Mole]

you tune a solara by cussing a lot. eventually down the road, you'll get some extra power from it.

but at what you have done, just go for baseline runs.

[StockSolara]

Tuning is what the A'pexi S-AFC and SS-FTC is for and now soon we will be using the GReddy E-Manage Ultimate. . . Since you have those mods the tuning will only squeeze out and extra 5-10 hp if you're lucky. . .

[Fletch]

OBDI cars were easier to tune, pre OBDI cars were easier than that, carburated and the old so called "muscle cars" are tuned mechanically.

Others on the forum have much more experience and knowledge than me on this, but nowadays tuning consists of getting around the ECU constraints and still having to pass emissions in many cases. Toyota ECU's happen to be very stubborn and not have chips like many other manufacturers, lucky us.

[JoeB]

To tune your engine, you'll need a piggy-back EMS to tune with. With your mods, this won't help much The reason people talk about dyno tuning is when you change from the factory fuel delivery or air flow, the engine doesn't run the way it was originally engineered. On the low end, you could cause problems with the ECU and possibly get CELs. On the high throttle end, you could lean out the Air/Fuel mixture and damage your engine or run too rich and foul things up. At your point in modifications, if you go to the dyno, it should be just to do a dyno run to see how much power you have. 1 or 2 runs is all you want to do. Since they aren't changing anything, don't let them talk you into paying for more and subjecting your engine to that.

Pay the couple dollars extra and get the A/F hookup. That way you can see how the A/F mixture is on the high end. If you see you are getting too lean or rich, maybe you want to go ahead and invest in an EMS like the SAFC2. Then you can tune. It allows you to fake out the sensor readings to the ECU to control the A/F mixture in open loop (high throttle).

The dyno is the place to do full throttle tuning - not the road. However, you NEED to do the closed loop (low throttle) tuning before you go to the dyno. I have never seen a dyno shop adjust the low map or at least not do it correctly. All those stories you hear from idiots saying the ECU learns around the EMS is because they do not know how to tune the low map corectly. Gadget wrote a great tuning guide and posted a link to it in this thread http://www.solaraguy.org/viewtopic.php?t=13835. When you are ready to tune, read that. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. -JoeB

[Ian]

I saw this product on one of the tuner shows on t.v. This looks to be more advanced than a piggy back system, but I am not sure. See the fully programmable engine management unit on www.034efi.com.

[DatSRBoi]

Wow...looks like its allot harder and riskier then I thought it to be. Because the guys Im doing it at is said I can tune it at the basic dyno price just because I go there allot.... If I do basic they will put in that O2 probe...what ever that is... SO I guess its not worth it to tune the car with the sfac since Im seeing that it can be dangerious unless your a major pro and have experience at it....Be nice to have that 10 hp though.. But not worth it to put my baby on risk of damaging...

[Turbosolara]

lean = more power but more dangerous

[xyntax]

lean = more power as long as you can keep temps at proper levels. Anything higher will cause detonation or knocking. That could be fatal to your engine almost 80% of the case. This is why when your engine is boosted, it is wise to keep an AFR of 12:1 or below. For some engines, 12 is even too high (lean) to be driven.

Basic tuning to my understanding is manipulating A/F Ratios by adding or reducing fuel and adding or reducing ignition advance. To do it right, you need to have a good idea of how the engine is acting through sensors or logs in your laptop that is equipped with scanning software.

I have not played with tuning a Solara, but on my 8 I use my laptop for logging what is going on in my car through the CAN Bus port. I use E-manage and its support software to change maps. Dyno tuning can be expensive, but it is the best way to tune. Street tuning is dangerous, but it is free. You just need to know when, where, and how to go about your tuning process.