Well I did some fine-tuning on Voodoo's car & finally got the chance to go test a small change I made from 5500rpm. Car made 238kw on pump fuel with no hardware. ZERO hardware.
Now I have been tuning the N54 engine since May 2007. So that's 3 years of experience with this engine at altitude. So let me cast my analytical mind on this graph and maybe George can jump in if he agree/disagree's.
1stly, the torque is low. And peak torque is DIRECTLY proportional to boost (all things being equal), on this engine. So it's pretty obvious the boost is low. 0.9bar to be exact, or only 0.2 bar above stock up here.
This car made 188kw at Snail stock. So the gain was exactly 50wheel kw. 50 killerwhales with s/w only! 50 of them! unbelievable, what a dream of an engine! So this is exactly what you want. The most power gain, with the least boost increase.
So we have established that the boost is low. Timing is dependant on the octane as the N54 has a very advanced & reactive timing control system. It will run the max advance it can for the given octane. So the extra power is not from boost or timing. At altitude with a car with no hardware, you have to come up with other ways of maximising airflow at high rpm when the turbos start falling flat on their face. And it has nothing to do with boost. And unfortunately, these controls are instructed directly from within maps in the ECU. Piggies can't control them. Piggies intercept the Crank angle sensor to phase timing, the factory 02 sensors to bias them for fuelling, and of course attenuate the MAP sensor to control boost.
All other functions cannot be touched by piggies. Running more boost may well be enough at sea-level where the turbo's have enough "spare capacity" to boost more reasonable efficiently. But it's not gonna' cut it up here. Here you need to manipulate more variables in the map to try to get the engine breathing better once you past the midrange boost. Now that is on a car with no hardware. If the car has hardware, then you can crank the boost and make more power as the duty cycle on the wastegate does go down when you throw hardware at the car.
But now we on the right track, I believe we can get the N54 to around 245kw at Snail s/w only. Will go back soon to try hit that mark.
Now I have been tuning the N54 engine since May 2007. So that's 3 years of experience with this engine at altitude. So let me cast my analytical mind on this graph and maybe George can jump in if he agree/disagree's.
1stly, the torque is low. And peak torque is DIRECTLY proportional to boost (all things being equal), on this engine. So it's pretty obvious the boost is low. 0.9bar to be exact, or only 0.2 bar above stock up here.
This car made 188kw at Snail stock. So the gain was exactly 50wheel kw. 50 killerwhales with s/w only! 50 of them! unbelievable, what a dream of an engine! So this is exactly what you want. The most power gain, with the least boost increase.
So we have established that the boost is low. Timing is dependant on the octane as the N54 has a very advanced & reactive timing control system. It will run the max advance it can for the given octane. So the extra power is not from boost or timing. At altitude with a car with no hardware, you have to come up with other ways of maximising airflow at high rpm when the turbos start falling flat on their face. And it has nothing to do with boost. And unfortunately, these controls are instructed directly from within maps in the ECU. Piggies can't control them. Piggies intercept the Crank angle sensor to phase timing, the factory 02 sensors to bias them for fuelling, and of course attenuate the MAP sensor to control boost.
All other functions cannot be touched by piggies. Running more boost may well be enough at sea-level where the turbo's have enough "spare capacity" to boost more reasonable efficiently. But it's not gonna' cut it up here. Here you need to manipulate more variables in the map to try to get the engine breathing better once you past the midrange boost. Now that is on a car with no hardware. If the car has hardware, then you can crank the boost and make more power as the duty cycle on the wastegate does go down when you throw hardware at the car.
But now we on the right track, I believe we can get the N54 to around 245kw at Snail s/w only. Will go back soon to try hit that mark.
