Hey guys

I've got a manual TE V6 and i don't think the car is tuned for 98RON. Can any of you guys tell me how can i get it tuned and how much will it cost. I just want better fuel economy. I was told to get a chip installed but i don't know which one.

If anyone in Melbourne has done the tuning would you be able to tell where i can do it and how much it costs.

Can you notice the difference after the chip has been installed?

Cheers

yep you'll need a 'chip' - or more accurately a piggyback ecu. The most popular options for magna's are unichip, haltech (interceptor, I think?), or GReddy E-manage. Running any of these systems should allow advancing the timing, which as far as I understand is what takes advantage of the higher octane rating of 98RON fuel.

Tuning to run premium will deliver fairly significant gains even on a car with minimal mods. From memory, a member called EGO was the test mule for the Haltech unit in Magnas and picked up something in the vicinity of 5kW* in what I'm pretty sure was a fairly stock VRX at the time.

As far as wether getting a piggyback ecu is worth while; they generally aren't cheap, and most ppl don't get them done til they have done all or most 'breathing' mods. Be warned - if you get one when car is stock, and then add mods later - you will have to keep retuning the ecu as mods are added. Here in Brisbane tuning is charged at around $150/ hour.

Try doing a search of these forums for more info.

*Edited: my first guess was waaaay off.

the point should be made however that you dont HAVE to get the car specially tuned to run 98 RON fuel! Your cars ECU is kinda "self learning" and it will pick up that you are running higher octane fuel and will, to a degree, tune itself to suit the fuel. You will get the performance and economy gains of using the 98 RON fuel without doing any mods at all, its just you will get even greater improvements if you do change the ECU.. but for around 1000-1500 buks.. i wouldnt bother

3rd gens don't have knock sensors, so they don't have any facility to
automagically advance the timing until the engine knocks then back it off a click.

(Trial & Error is how all knock-sensored engines do it.)

3rd gens don't have knock sensors, so they don't have any facility to
automagically advance the timing until the engine knocks then back it off a click.

(Trial & Error is how all knock-sensored engines do it.)

agreed but i was under the impression that the ECU was still slightly "self learning"?? or is that just the automatic gearbox's shift pattern?

As far as I know the only 'learning' capability of the ECU is with regard to closed-loop operation where it will dynamically adjust injector duty-cycle to keep mixtures around 14.7:1.

Note that to the best of my knowledge the ECU doesn't adjust ignition timing in closed-loop mode.

Hey guys

I've got a manual TE V6 and i don't think the car is tuned for 98RON. Can any of you guys tell me how can i get it tuned and how much will it cost. I just want better fuel economy. I was told to get a chip installed but i don't know which one.

If anyone in Melbourne has done the tuning would you be able to tell where i can do it and how much it costs.

Can you notice the difference after the chip has been installed?

Cheers

Had a unichip in my old TE with pod(w/ CAI) and just a muffler change (lukey LR2779) picked up 12kW ATW. Installed and tuned for $1100 made the car much more resposive and used a bit less fuel.

Engine has ECU.
There's a Bosch exhaust gas O2 sensor so it knows how rich/lean its running
and ECU can adjust that by adjusting the time the injectors are squirting.
But ECU don't have a knock sensor so it can't tell if its knocking.

Tranny has its own ECU, deals with shift pattern.



Driver also has an ECU, "Economically Coupled Unity" aka WIFE.

Commonly issued signals from WIFE ECU are:-
- "don't accelerate so hard, you'll make me chuck my lunch"
- "don't brake so hard, you'll make me chuck my lunch"
- "you've spent $5 petrol driving around to find a station for 2c less"
- "don't corner so hard or I'll go flying out the door" :confused: