Torqueflow report first week.
Discussion
I had my 450 Chimaera visit Eann last Saturday morning at 10 am. He got started and replaced my plenum with the modified 72mm inlet version and we fitted a 12mm tufnol spacer using longer plenum bolts (which Eann supplied for free). The lucas AFM was replaced with the torqueflow item and a nice shiny adjustable fuel pressure regulator complete with gauge was fitted into the fuel line.
The ECU was taken out and the chip was replaced with Eanns.
At this point it got technical when the Eann connected his laptop to the ECU along with an exhaust probe. When the car was warmed up with the fuel pressure set to 40psi Eann started to tweak the AFM setting the Air/Fuel ratios.
We discovered that only 1 lambda sensor was connected and after reconnecting this and a couple of runs on the motorway and the local bypass the final adjustments were made.
With a stop for coffee and sandwiches I was ready to go at 2pm.
I was to head for York raceway for the bank holidays drag racing and set off on the M62. The car was very smooth through the gears and at lower revs and when I accelerated onto the motorway didn’t realise I was doing 100mph with the slightest of pressure on the accelerator.
The car ran like a dream all the way from Eanns house in Warrington till I stopped in Goole.
It was at this point that something went wrong!
As I was only 12 miles from the track I decided to power wash the dead flies and road grime off the car. I always take care not to directly wash through the bonnet vents but some spay obviously gets through. It may be coincidence but shortly after when travelling much slower on the B roads from Howden to the track the car starting shunting and missing badly with clouds of black smoke on each gear change.
Something was seriously wrong as I just made it to the track using about 20 litres of V-power in just 12 miles.
I swapped the plugs which were now black but this didn’t help and phoned Eann.
Without question the next day Eann drove across with a fresh AFM and this solved the problem. He had forgot his exhaust probe so could only tune the new AFM by ear and I need to go back to his house to get it set up properly again.
Despite this I went out on track and ran a new personal best of 13.0 @ 107.8 mph without nitrous. By my calculations this equates to an improvement of 22 bhp over a previous best of 13.2 @ 104.
The car never missed a beat all weekend and also ran a new best of 12.14 @ 116.8 despite only having a little nitrous to play with due to losing 1 full bottle when the safety valve failed and losing most of the other bottle when the nitrous line burst in the engine bay while Eann and I were working under the bonnet. This was my fault for not turning the bottle off and releasing the pressure before we removed the heat shield to the nitrous solenoids. The radiant heat off the manifold proved too much!
On the journey home the car developed a slight misfire and was down on power at lower revs when we were travelling in the rain through the Yorkshire Dales.
It got a bit better later on but still wasn’t 100% when I got home. I will be taking a look at the car this weekend to see if it’s something obvious before phoning Eann.
Watch this space.
In short the modification is a great improvement when all is working well. Maybe ive been a little unlucky or could have another non torqueflow related problem. Only time will tell.
The ECU was taken out and the chip was replaced with Eanns.
At this point it got technical when the Eann connected his laptop to the ECU along with an exhaust probe. When the car was warmed up with the fuel pressure set to 40psi Eann started to tweak the AFM setting the Air/Fuel ratios.
We discovered that only 1 lambda sensor was connected and after reconnecting this and a couple of runs on the motorway and the local bypass the final adjustments were made.
With a stop for coffee and sandwiches I was ready to go at 2pm.
I was to head for York raceway for the bank holidays drag racing and set off on the M62. The car was very smooth through the gears and at lower revs and when I accelerated onto the motorway didn’t realise I was doing 100mph with the slightest of pressure on the accelerator.
The car ran like a dream all the way from Eanns house in Warrington till I stopped in Goole.
It was at this point that something went wrong!
As I was only 12 miles from the track I decided to power wash the dead flies and road grime off the car. I always take care not to directly wash through the bonnet vents but some spay obviously gets through. It may be coincidence but shortly after when travelling much slower on the B roads from Howden to the track the car starting shunting and missing badly with clouds of black smoke on each gear change.
Something was seriously wrong as I just made it to the track using about 20 litres of V-power in just 12 miles.
I swapped the plugs which were now black but this didn’t help and phoned Eann.
Without question the next day Eann drove across with a fresh AFM and this solved the problem. He had forgot his exhaust probe so could only tune the new AFM by ear and I need to go back to his house to get it set up properly again.
Despite this I went out on track and ran a new personal best of 13.0 @ 107.8 mph without nitrous. By my calculations this equates to an improvement of 22 bhp over a previous best of 13.2 @ 104.
The car never missed a beat all weekend and also ran a new best of 12.14 @ 116.8 despite only having a little nitrous to play with due to losing 1 full bottle when the safety valve failed and losing most of the other bottle when the nitrous line burst in the engine bay while Eann and I were working under the bonnet. This was my fault for not turning the bottle off and releasing the pressure before we removed the heat shield to the nitrous solenoids. The radiant heat off the manifold proved too much!
On the journey home the car developed a slight misfire and was down on power at lower revs when we were travelling in the rain through the Yorkshire Dales.
It got a bit better later on but still wasn’t 100% when I got home. I will be taking a look at the car this weekend to see if it’s something obvious before phoning Eann.
Watch this space.
In short the modification is a great improvement when all is working well. Maybe ive been a little unlucky or could have another non torqueflow related problem. Only time will tell.
I finally got round to emptying the cars boot of my camping gear from last weekend and decided to take it out for a little spin.
It started perfectly as always, and drove smoothly as i warmed it up.
When warm i took it onto a nice open road and gave it some and must admit was very impressed with the performance.
I always take the car to a local hand wash where our Polish friands use jet washes etc so i will get it washed this afternoon then go for a drive to see wether the damp is an issue or it was a coincedence with another problem.
It started perfectly as always, and drove smoothly as i warmed it up.
When warm i took it onto a nice open road and gave it some and must admit was very impressed with the performance.
I always take the car to a local hand wash where our Polish friands use jet washes etc so i will get it washed this afternoon then go for a drive to see wether the damp is an issue or it was a coincedence with another problem.
The car was given a good soaking when washed and ran ok.
I now believe there is no problem as far as damp is concerned but as i had my AFM replaced at York and Eann had forgot the exhaust probe he could only tune by ear on the day.
The car is running rich at lower revs which on the long gentle run home caused the plugs to coke up and miss. A quick blast cleared this temporarily.
I will be having the car tuned properly this Saturday so hopefully it will all be good news from then
I now believe there is no problem as far as damp is concerned but as i had my AFM replaced at York and Eann had forgot the exhaust probe he could only tune by ear on the day.
The car is running rich at lower revs which on the long gentle run home caused the plugs to coke up and miss. A quick blast cleared this temporarily.
I will be having the car tuned properly this Saturday so hopefully it will all be good news from then
I had the car retuned as promised by Eann FOC on Saturday 13th (it was good of him to give up his Saturday morning lie in) and headed straight to the same rolling road i had been on a couple months previous at Awesome GTI in Irlam (Manc).
I had to wait until 19 Audi TTs ran on the rollers first before getting my car on.
It gave 237 bhp @ wheels. This was an improvement of only 7 bhp but the day was a lot hotter than the previous session.
The torque curve was nice smooth and a little 'fatter' at the top end.
After this it was off to Stratford to pitch the tent for testing the car out on the drag strip Sunday. People spoke of PBs on the Saturday and a guy with a 4ltr Tuscan had ran a 12.3 @ 110.
On the Sunday morning i was on track early and ran a 12.4 then a 12.3 with gas.
Then my nitrous system stopped playing so i got a chance to test the car off gas.
I ran 13.3's at 106 but the track was giving no grip. The guy in the Tuscan couldnt run less than 13 all day. Needless to say i never broke any records or run that elusive 11 but my terminal speeds showed i had good power.
The car has never missed a beat since and is running better than ever thanks to Eann.
Ive ordered a more suitable pair of tyres for the track and am looking forward to testing them at York on the 4th/5th.
I had to wait until 19 Audi TTs ran on the rollers first before getting my car on.
It gave 237 bhp @ wheels. This was an improvement of only 7 bhp but the day was a lot hotter than the previous session.
The torque curve was nice smooth and a little 'fatter' at the top end.
After this it was off to Stratford to pitch the tent for testing the car out on the drag strip Sunday. People spoke of PBs on the Saturday and a guy with a 4ltr Tuscan had ran a 12.3 @ 110.
On the Sunday morning i was on track early and ran a 12.4 then a 12.3 with gas.
Then my nitrous system stopped playing so i got a chance to test the car off gas.
I ran 13.3's at 106 but the track was giving no grip. The guy in the Tuscan couldnt run less than 13 all day. Needless to say i never broke any records or run that elusive 11 but my terminal speeds showed i had good power.
The car has never missed a beat since and is running better than ever thanks to Eann.
Ive ordered a more suitable pair of tyres for the track and am looking forward to testing them at York on the 4th/5th.
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