Split Second FTC

[grnsolara]

I have a Toyota dealership trying to calibrate the Split Second FTC. They were having some problems, and I was wondering if anyone could help us with answers.

Does the Split Second FTC have to be constantly adjusted? Do you have to set different settings for different driving conditions, or can we just set them and let the car drive?

To give a little more information...I have supra injectors and a 6 lb. URD pulley. I already have Jim's fuel upgrade system, but the computer is still trying to lean out the injectors at high rpm's, and I don't believe it is acknowledging the presence of the 6 lb pulley.

From what I've read in previous posts, Eric or JoeB had it dynotuned and used a wideband 02 sensor. Is this the only way to calibrate the air/fuel ration w/ the SS FTC?

Any info would be helpful. If possible...if anyone has a similar setup, could you please e-mail me the fuel mapping or the settings that are on your labtop, so I can see if I can apply them or to at least give me a general idea. My car has been in the shop for about a month now, and I'm getting really desperate for info. THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!

grnsolara

POST IN THE CORRECT FORUM!!!!!!!

[JoeB]

I'm not sure where to start so I' guess I'll just follow your email and try to reply. I'm not sure what you mean about constantly adjusting it. Since the car's ECU will naturally try to adjust for it's programmed value, you'll be working against the current and future learned fuel trims. That means you may have to adjust it a few times as they settle in together.

You don't have to adjust it for different driving conditions. Since the map is a full 3D map of RPM, boost and A/F, you are adjusting it for all driving conditions. I'll explain. Let's say you are adjusting the fuel at 5,000RPM. At 5psi, the engine is under load and it would be adjusted under 1 cell in the spreadsheet. Also at 5,000 RPM, you adjust the fuel at every other amount of load or psi (boost). That is what takes care of different driving conditions.

When you say the computer is still trying to lean out the injectors at high RPM, I think you are talking about the fact that our engine when supercharged especially at 6psi with larger injectors runs very rich at the high end. Somewhere around 4,700-4,800 I believe, mine dipped right off the chart to the rich side. The SAFC2 didn't have enough range to adjust mine up to 12:1 at the top end. The SS FTC has much more range and was able to adjust it up nicely.

Any good tuner will DEFINITELY be tuning your A/F using a WBO2 sensor. That is the ONLY way to do it. If they don't have that setup, they shouldn't be tuning it. You don't have to get one installed like I did, they should have a sensor they stick in the exhaust pipe.

An added bonus. Tell the tuner to work out the fuel first then look at timing. He should hopefully do that anyway. I found I didn't need the SS FTC to adjust timing. Our ECU handled that beautifully. Although, I'm not saying my tune is the best. I will probably always be tuning on it trying to get it perfect. I hope it helps and good luck. -JoeB

[Vampire]

Joe is correct but it may help if you understand fuel trims and how your ECU adjusts the A/F ratio. It is also very helpful to understand what closed loop and open loop is. Under closed loop the ECU uses the O2 sensor to constantly adjust the A/F ratio to the ideal 14.7:1. Under open loop the the O2 sensor is no longer used to adjust the A/F and the ECU sets fuel trims using an internal map. I have been advised a while back that anytime you change any of your closed loop cell values, you should reset the ECU and let it relearn the new map.
Closed loop values are usually adjusted by using an OBDII datalogger and comparing the Long Term Fuel Trims against what FTC cell is highlighted while driving. The idea is to adust the cell values so the Long Term Fuel Trim is dialed back to zero +/- 5 %.
Open loop is adjusted by use of a wide band O2 and has been mainly used to set your A/F ratio at WOT although it can also be used to set FTC cell values at other times the ECU is in open loop.
I feel your frustration as I had to teach my self this almost a year ago. I will soon be getting an rpm converter for my Innovate Motorsports wide band so I can plot rpm, MAP and A/F to look just like an FTC fuel map. This should help clean up some rough spots and allow me to adjust A/F values at open loop without having to constantly look at my laptop and the road.
Where are you from? If you purchased the FTC from URD, they have people in Cali who can do this for you. Good Luck.

[JoeB]

Paul, that was very well put and helpful. I was thinking a lot of that but not really sure how to get it out. It seemed like I was doing my usual rambling anyway. Do you know about Innovative's new Auxilary cable #3? That is HOT! I've been looking for a long time for a way to monitor all of these parameters at the same time. Of course I could always spend thosands of dollars on a stand-alone EMS and have a very good system but, too rich for me. This isn't cheap but I can't find anything that functional for anywhere near the price.

Instead of trying to tune the car only at WOT, I'll be able to drive it around under varying conditions, go back to the house, analyze the data and adjust the SS FTC accordingly. In addition to the Air/Fuel native to the Innovative LM1, it can record 5 more parameters. This was an example from their web site:

1. RPM with inductive pickup from Cyl. 1 spark plug wire (0-10,230 RPM)
2. Thermocouple input for Type K thermocouple wire
3. Dwell Meter (0..100%) for Ignition dwell or Injector Timing
4. Absolute Pressure Transducer with variable range (0..14.5 PSI or 0..29.5 PSI).
5. 2-axis accelerometer.

Still a little pricey though at $250 for the aux cable but I think it comes with the RPM adapter, K thermocouple wire and stuff like that. I'll be buying that plus the Innovative LM1 at the same time so it'll probably be a Christmas present. I think URD might be selling this, if so it'll probably be at a discount. -JoeB

[Mole]

now that's some hardcore advice!

[Nutty101]

The solara has a standalone EMS? I know some companies are claiming AEM makes one but if you talk to them they will say no. Unless you are bored and want to hack an entire wire harness to match the pinouts. Laugh, I couldn't imagine the time it would take to do that. Major headache if you ask me.

[Vampire]

I am looking seriously at the Auxbox and even emailed Gadget as I knew he would have it and would've played with it. Well, at this time he is having problems getting the rpm to read out or read correctly. Don't know which problem. It does look real attractive and and like you said it's much better to drive, analyze and adjust, rather than play the watch the road and laptop game. BTW, I called Split Second on a lark a while back and they said they've had an optional board they could've installed at manufacture that would've allowed the analog input from the Innovate unit to to read on the FTC fuel maps. The guy said you would just highlight a cell and the A/F ratio would be displayed. I assume this would occur when you log data. Anyway, they claim they can't retrofit it. Oh well. I'm still dreaming of a single system that would allow knock, rpm, map, fuel trims and A/F to be logged so you can just drive and tune all parameters later

[grnsolara]

oops...sorry about posting in the wrong forum.

My Solara will be getting dyno-ed thanks to your advice. They said they should have it back to me by the 20th of this month. A place called MC Racing in Overland Park, KS will be doing it, and I guess there the people to go to if you want an import tuned (due to the fact that in live in MO where everyone is all about V8 carb. engines).

They say they are one of the few people that have the WB02 sensor, so I'll see how it goes. (fingers crossed)

Thanks a lot for the help...it's definitely gonna help now and down the road.

[grnsolara]

Car was dyno-ed, and I ran into the same knock sensor problems that I've read about in here in the past. The company called Split Second. They told MC Racing to install resistors in the wiring for the knock sensors to make them less sensitive. After messin' it up once, they got it right the second time. However, the o2 sensors on banks 1 and 2 are trippin'. The codes come up that the sensors are not receiving sufficient temperature at the o2 sensor heaters. That's a new code for me personally. Now I have the Toyota dealership back on the task to determine the problems. I never had problems with any of the sensors in the past, and Toyota tried changing the 02 sensors, but the only solution they have for my problems are that the supra injectors are dumping too much fuel and causing it to cool the heaters on the o2 sensors, even though the fuel and timing have already been calibrated. Anyone seen this before???

[Alex(AUS)]

You will need to replace the knock sensors if they went off. Putting resistors on the line is only a temporary and dangerous fix. With a properly tuned Camry/Solara you should not have any knock sensor problems.

The fuel cooling the O2 sensor thing sounds a little bit far-fetched particularly when the mob that did your tune (with the wideband) would have setup a sensible A/F ratio (hopefully).

Alex(AUS)

[grnsolara]

They have identified the actual problem, and the ecu is throwing an insufficient temp 02 sensor code. When I hooked a scantool up during driving in closed loop, the fuel trims were WAY off in open loop. URD said to ensure that the dyno shop has the fuel trims equalling zero in closed loop, and it should fix the problem. I will find on the 30th of this month. If it doesn't fix it, then I don't know what the heck the problem is.

[JoeB]

Even if that doesn't fix the problem, all you are talking about is normal tuning. I'm surprised there is any confusion here at all. If the fuel trims are off, the FTC should be adjusted.

As URD mentioned, first you need to make sure it is adjusted to 0 values in closed loop. Once that is accomplished, start tuning in open loop. THe values from URD are probably a decent starting point but should still be tuned for every car.

Were you just having the car dyno tested or dyno tuned? Forget the dyno test, that is simply a brag sheet that won't do you a bit of good. The car should be dyno tuned. If they hooked up the WBO2 and proceded to blow your knock sensors AND let you leave without a good tune, I hope they didn't take any of your money! Unless you just told them you wanted it dyno tested?

The dyno test is simply hooking the car up on the dyno and running it wide open to measure the power as it is. With the dyno tune, the dyno machine is a good platform to be able to run the car in a convenient place with a good monitoring test mechanism (the dyno). The desired result is a good air/fuel and timing tune and you just happen to get a dyno slip as a by product. -JoeB

[grnsolara]

You're right, Joe. They dyno-tuned it. I didn't, however, get to see the slip that came with it to show the mapping on it or the fuel/timing curve.

I'm takin' it back on the 30th of this month, and they are supposed to see if they can identify the problem. I will definitely refer them to your post though, so they can see that I'm not full of S---.

I also had a toyota dealership do the free fuel pressure regulator mod, and I can imagine that will help with the lean condition too. I'll repost once I have more info on the whole situation for further use by the rest of forum (if it will help anyone). Thanks Joe.

grnsolara

[grnsolara]

Okay...after 2 weeks of work they've gotten - nowhere. They removed the EBC from the ecu (it's an auto btw), and the shifts are much smoother. However, I'm still experiencing the po125 insufficient 02 temp sens code in closed loop. They've changed out the o2 sensor on the malfunctioning bank twice now and cleared the code. After about 3 miles of driving, it pops right back up.

Also, it seems to be dumping boost when going from anywhere below 2800 rpms to acceleration. The charger will just scream for awhile, then not really go anywhere. Is there any possibility that TRD could've sent me a bad wastegate? Anyhow...I think I have the most problematic solara I've ever frickin' seen, judging by the posts I've read, and it's getting VERY frustrating (the thought of blowing up my car has jokingly entered my mind on several occasions). I can't find any threads that anyone else has had this problem, but if anyone else has info...I'm all for suggestions.

[Vampire]

I have one question. Did they replace the O2 sensor with a genuine Toyota replacement part or use a cross referenced part from NAPA (or whoever). I can't remeber when it happened but Toyota does not use the classical old style O2 sensors anymore but uses A/F ratio sensors. There seems to be some problems with a few auto parts stores referencing the wrong sensor and it always gives a temp code. Replacement with the correct sensor fixes the problem. Unfortunately, they are pricey. If you can get a cheap one from the recyclers or know of someone who might let you use theirs to test it out before buying , that may be the way to go.