Engine management and tuning for drift, drag and street

It is very common for people to want to keep the cost of the job down and at the same time expect me to do things that they can do themselves first. And time is money. Here is a list of common things.

1. Fuel- You require approx 1/2 a tank of the fuel you wish to use or more for tuning. If I have to go and buy it you will be paying for my labour.

2. Oil- Does the engine oil need topping up? If the oil level is low you may lose oil pressure and cost you an engine.

3. Water- Does the cooling system have coolant in it and is it free from air locks?

4. Fluid leaks- Fluid leaks need to be fixed before tuning. If not I may decide that it must be done or if it is not too bad may continue but you will be charged for cleaning up the floor after the job is done.

5. Boost control- If you wish to alter your boost you need some sort of boost control. You cannot set the boost lower than the spring pressure of the wastegate. You can only go upwards and need some sort of control for this. Most engine management has the ability to do this but is not normally used.

6. Fuel pressure regulator- If for some crazy reason you decided you need one of these make sure it is made by Sard, Nissmo or some good brand even the copies are ok. Higher ratio like Malpassi 1.8:1 make for very difficult tuning as do some of the cheapo shiny ones you can buy.

7. Wastegate mounting- Its quite common for a car to overboost due to boost creep even with an external wastegate. A good way to test this is by running water or compressed air down the manifold with no wastegate fitted and see if you get flow out the wastegate flange. This is done before fitting manifold! If you get boost creep I cannot do anything about it without removing the wastegate and manifold and sending it to an engineer for mods.

8. Spark Plugs- The engine will require different plugs depending on the application and driver. Usual choice is 1 heat range colder for every 75-100hp over stock. Every heat range colder increases the chance of cold fouling and decreases the chance of overheating the plug causing engine damage.
I normally suggest the use of standard copper spark plugs eg. NGK BCPR7ES or Champion RC7YC. I have found that Iridium spark plugs are very prone to fouling and miss-fire. There may be nothing wrong with them but I usually remove them and fit coppers when chasing a miss. Most engine management requires resistor plugs to reduce R.F.I (radio frequency interference) that can cause problems.

9. Oxygen sensor- Your engine management quite likely wont look at it but the dyno requires one to be fitted for accurate readings of the air fuel ratio. Fitting it up the tailpipe does work but there is a lot of smoothing of the gasses by then which can hide rich or lean spots which is bad. Thread size is 18×1.5mm and the hole in the middle needs to be as big as the thread I.D.(15mm) Placement should be after the collector or turbo.

10. Fuel pump- Your fuel pump most likely will need upgrading to something like a Bosch 044 or Walbro 255l/hr which will in lots of cases require upgraded wiring to supply extra current for the pump.
Other- Plumbing that blows off under boost, seized wastegates and blow off valves, Split vacuum/boost hoses, Poor cooling systems causing overheating, Igniton system breakdown, Wiring problems etc etc

Remember time is money so if you can save me time you will save yourself money!

And as for reliability and what if things go bad the only safe option is to not modify your car at all. Which can still go bad! It all comes down to trusting who does your work and if it all turns pear shaped it was you that wanted it so you pay to fix it!!