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A REAL How TO tune honda/acura engines

64K views 54 replies 18 participants last post by  Butterscotceven 
#1 ·
***Grab a beer or drink, relax and read...a very informational writeup***

SUPERHONDA DISCLAIMER: THE FOLLOWING WRITEUP IS INTENDED TO BE USED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. ANY ACTION YOU DO TO YOUR CAR IS BY YOUR OWN HAND. SUPERHONDA.COM AND THE AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE WILL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR YOUR MISTAKES OR MISFORTUNES. IF THERE IS EVEN JUST ONE THING YOU ARE NOT CLEAR ABOUT, PLEASE VISIT A PROFESSIONAL TUNER. SUPERHONDA ALWAYS RECOMMENDS THAT YOU HAVE YOUR CAR PROFESSIONALLY DYNO TUNED. THANK YOU - staff


--This writeup is bought to you by FBTuning of Louisiana and Myself 9400rpms RevHigh productions--
[The information used in this writeup is info i've gathered threw my countless days and hours of tuning

ALOT of honda/acura engines with different mods and have seen great results on the street/track/dyno.

I will share the serects i've found out and created to a great tuning session to get the most out of your

motor. With that in mind if you need anymore help or more explaination my name is derek, my cell is listed

below in my sig as well as my email, my aim is TurboAcuraGSR]

Before you start lets go over the basics, as i will be using Crome to do instructions and give insight on the

tuning basics and methods.
Crome i use because i find it better then hondata or basically any other EMS out there, on top of that its

free..does everything else all the others do without bugs..
--Basically your goin to need a wideband, i use the innovate motorsports, the lc-1 or lm-1 is perferable, or

a AEM wideband.
--Tuning is always a two person job, One to tune / One to drive. The driver is your go to guy, he listens for

unusually things in the motor, or on the road, and its the safest way, to take down readings and make

adjustments.
--Sheet of paper / pen, you'll need this to record the readings of AFR at each RPM that we go threw and

it'll allow you to make the right adjustments instead of guessing
--1-2 Quarts of oil
-- Check your oil, coolent, belts and timing, Stock timing should be set on 16 TDC, i run 18 on my dizzy

cause i'm a Igition hooker..but run 16.
--Finally if your reading this and dont have the programs u need to tune, pgmfi.org or Tunewithcrome.com

Tuning is simple and pretty easy to work the tuning programs themselves its just commen thought..

+++Setting up+++
Put the Wideband on the car, before you start it!! Do that, then hook up your laptop and start up the car.

Immediately look at the air/fuel ratio the car is warming up at. When the car is warming up, it will tend to

be a little rich, like in the 13's:1 air fuel ratio. When the car gets past a certain temperature, like when

the temp gauge starts to move past the first line, the car should have an air/fuel ratio of 14.7:1. This is a

number you need to memorize. 14.7:1. During idle, and all normal driving under 30% throttle, you want

14.7:1 air fuel ratio. Anywhere between 14.3-14.8 is fine.. 14.7 is used as a perfect measurement

++++Setting Idle and Partial throttle+++++
this is the start of tuning, while your setting in your car waiting for it to warm up, watch your rpms..and

your wideband w/e your car is steady at it should be at 14.3-14.7



Your goin to need to adjust any number within the column i circled once you find the one that moves your

AFR up and down use that to make ur idle adjustments..
Driving under 30% throttle is goin to involve using the next 4 coloums of the maps you see to your right,

you may adjust those according as you have your friend driving, just drive regular no hardcore shit,

there's no need, i dont really get into tuning partial throttle but to be honest, anything between 13.8-14.7 i

usually leave be..lets get down to what you want to know, how to make your car fast..

+++++Tuning Low Cam (VTEC Disengaged / Non-VTEC cars)++++++
Go into Options you'll see a vtec tag called Vtec Engagement either uncheck it, or set it to a really high

rpms such as 12000..this will allow you to only tune the low cam.

Now to get started, most STOCK cams or aftermarket cams dont even make power on a car until 1500, so thats where we're goin to start, for starters all tunes on the street i recommend doing in 2nd gear..I also state that the driver calls out each rpms by 1000's..this will help the tuner to keep track of each AFR at each 1000 rpms..
!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOT (WIDE OPEN THROTTLE) on ALL MOTOR cars should be 12.7-12.9 Turbo/SC/Nitrous should see no higher then 11.8's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lets begin, 2nd gear pull from 1500-2500 and start.. Record the AFR between those rpms and make an adjustment in the columns, WOT is goin to involve the last 3 columns which is 80%+ throttle you'll move those up and down each 3 rows at a time.

As you can see here, tuning out the low cam isn't goin to really give you any big humps or massive fuel sucking in because well your not turboed or SC or using Nitrous
Remember we're shooting for 12.7-12.9
********keep in mind since i'm a all motor hooker freak, this is based on n/a tuning all tuning used here can be used for sc/turbo/nitrous, it just varies on how the maps look***************

You'll make your pulls so on from 1500-6000 is where we'll finish tuning the low cam, go by 1000rpms and make ur adjustments as needed up or down.

++++++++Tuning High Cam (Vtec engaged)
as you come to a close at 6 grand your going to go back to options, engage vtec at either 3000 or 4000 rpms, and do the same all the way till redline, i suggest stock b18c's or b16's do not go above 8500rpms.
Now your wondering why so low?? answer is?? to tune out the whole map see where vtec actually makes that difference..The point of vtec is to pick up where the low cam primaries leave off.. Setting vtec really low, or really high has no effect on power what so ever..you think i'm lying but i'm not..see most people who run big cams without a good tune usually say set your vtec high and be done wrong..completely wrong this is stupidly retarded..because vtec is a smooth change over to the high cam you shouldn't FEEL the ***** Kick only hear it..and feel it start to make a gradual pull on you..

++++++++++++Setting vtec++++++++++++++++
Yes as i stated no matter where you put it, it wont make a difference just how the car feels will only vary but lets set this baby the RIGHT WAY..look at your Low cam map.

Now notice your low cam stops wanting fuel around 5000ish??
Now lets look at your high cam

The motor starts to suck in fuel at what 5100 rpms?? retardedly alot too

Setting your vtec should be easy from here, you stopped adding fuel on your low cam at 5000? High cam took off at 5100? 5100 or 5200 will be just a fine setup..Lemme go into detail about this, Look at your maps, Adding and taking away fuel will allow for more power always.. as u can see on my stock type-r motor i stopped adding fuel around 7000rpms..but on my dyno i made power all the way up until 8100rpms, my power didn't even drop until 8300, now just because u stopped adding fuel doesn't mean a thing it doesn't mean u stopped making power it just means that since the car is spinning at high rpms and the air is rushing in and out so thin u dont need all that fuel to igitite.

With your vtec set, your low/high cam tuned, lets make a few pulls threw 1-3rd in a disclosed road, watch the wideband for any lean spots and adjust as needed remember wot for best results is 12.9-12.7 for n/a motors, ANy FI motor should START at 11.8 partial driving and idle will still remain at 14.7.
This is the BASICS to tuning.. both low and high cam are tuned the same way, and as i stated, you dont want to ever feel vtec's instant pull.


++++igition Timing++++
I dont take too kindly to people that dont know this fooling with it, so i'll run it down quickly... Advancing or retarding your timing is tricky and can cause alot of problems if you aren't careful.. i suggest if your goin to do igition timing, after fully tuning your low cam maps, adjust your timing by +2 degress WOT

Remember for WOT we adjust the last 3 columns and make a past, if your car runs insanely rich..your too advanced and not making any power.. But if you start to run lean..your burning more fuel = your making more power..
Add some more fuel and advance by 1 degree until you start running rich, then back it off by 2 degress, this will allow a safe advancement of timing without the knock :) Basically thats tuning igition in a nutshell its all about watching the wideband..its a very great tool and i suggest it..I'll add on to this writeup shortly but i wanted to get it up..please if u have any questions or comments plz lemme know

thx for reading, Derek Dunbar.
 
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#54 ·
WHAT HAVE THIS WORLD COME TO ???, I READ SOMEONE POSTS AND HE WANT ME TO SEND HIM $200.00, NEXT IT WILL BE SEND ME ALL YOUR MONEY AND VOTE FOR ME AND I WILL SET YOU FREE !!! THINGS THAT MAY YOU WANT TO SAY MMM, ( DR.DADDYDAVE ) !!! OK WHO NEXT IN LINE. ( small note very important I CAN BE BROKE BY MYSELF, HALF A GREAT DAY MY FRIEND . OK WHO NEXT THE RACEWAY OPEN AT 7:00pm FOR TEST& TUNE C/YA.
 
#55 ·
With your vtec set, your low/high cam tuned, lets make a few pulls threw 1-3rd in a disclosed road, watch the wideband for any lean spots and adjust as needed remember wot for best results is 12.9-12.7 for n/a motors, ANy FI motor should START at 11.8 partial driving and idle will still remain at 14.7.
This is the BASICS to tuning.. both low and high cam are tuned the same way, and as i stated, you dont want to ever feel vtec's instant pull.
 
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