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Safc Are They Worth It?

kidafa
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kidafa Veteran

kidafa

Posted
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Hi All,

Im trying to decide If its going to be worth buying a SAFC for the stagea. First up at the moemnt its stock except for a Electronic boost controller and a FMIC. These are all I plan to do for the moment, but I probably will install a more free flowing exhaust sometime in the future.

The only real reason Im tempted to install a SAFC is to improve fuel economy slightly. Truth be known power gains are not really of any concern as stock it had enough power behind it, especially coming from my first car a Hyundai Sonata hahah! (Yes stag is my 2nd car :D )

So a few questions:

How much will I be looking at to get the SAFC tuned?

Will I gain much in fuel economy?

Will A SAFC be ok or will I be better of with a SAFC2? (As i have Hi and Lo setting of boost)

The reason I'm unsure about getting one is Im not sure how much fuel I will save and I would sort of like to be able to draw a line somewhere with how much money I throw at this car.

Cheers,

Chris

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chuckie Mentor

chuckie

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G`day Chris having just put exhaust turbo back i would say do the free flow exhaust first ,no point in try to do other mod`s if you can not flow GASES,stock exhaust is a block let it flow somethink, some of the lad`s have gain 15 + kw from that a lone.good luck ,cheer` chuckie

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kidafa Veteran

kidafa

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Thanks for that chuckie, As i stated im not really after a power gain from the SAFC so dont really want to do a zhorst at the moment...

Trying to see how much fuel id save ect....

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chook Mentor

chook

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Ive installed an SAFC neo($400), dyno tuned($300), better power, but does nothing for fuel economy because SAFCs on Stageas are only effective in open loop, ie high throttle. In closed loop the ECU will read the O2 sensor and adjust fuel mixture accordingly no matter what the AFM is saying, to a point. My dyno tuner didnt even bother with the low throttle settings on my SAFC.

Ive found the best way to improve fuel economy is a good set of platinum plugs.

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chook Mentor

chook

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yeah, all depends when the ecu goes into open loop, probably around 20 to 40% throttle. So the SAFC will work when under power, but not cruising. If you do an experiment and sit on highway speed, try to lean out SAFC as much as possible, the ecu will quickly readjust back .

explained better here: http://www.turbo240.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18

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Mr_RS4 Rising Star

Mr_RS4

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exactly right^^^^^ It helped my afr's at higher loads and helped with power (made 160kw at all 4 with just zorst and fmic 10psi) but fuel is no better really. I'm going to do a manual conversion soon and go with an aftermarket ecu. Hoping this will help.

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Xmetal Mentor

Xmetal

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Do as Chuckie said and finish building your exhaust to get rid of the back pressure in the system.

If you're after better fuel economy change your coils to Splitfires and throw in a fresh set of plugs.

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RubyRS4 Grand Master

RubyRS4

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You're going to need one sooner or later. Better to get it now and remove it from your do-to list. Especially if you can find one at a good price.

:P

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kidafa Veteran

kidafa

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thanks to mcnamg I allready have Splitfires and a pretty fresh set of plugs....

Do as Chuckie said and finish building your exhaust to get rid of the back pressure in the system.

If you're after better fuel economy change your coils to Splitfires and throw in a fresh set of plugs.

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leetom Proficient

leetom

Posted
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Thanks for that chuckie, As i stated im not really after a power gain from the SAFC so dont really want to do a zhorst at the moment...

Trying to see how much fuel id save ect....

one of the 1st mods on any vehicle is to piss off the standard exhaust, more so on a turbo car, you say you want to address your fuel consumption well about the best way to do that is to install a well made quality system from the turbo back, you will notice an immediate improvement, then look at your tuning avenues.

goodluck.

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Xmetal Mentor

Xmetal

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thanks to mcnamg I allready have Splitfires and a pretty fresh set of plugs....

The other thing I can think of would be a new o2 sensor but apparently that's a debatable thing around here.

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IMPORTD Grand Master

IMPORTD

Posted
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kidafa are you in WA? should of bought my car. would of saved you a lot of effort :)

I have SAFCII, high flow cat back exhaust, profec B and splitfires lol

Whats your fuel economy now?

I'm geting around 480kms per tank and thats boosting every now and again...

Will be interesting to see what you get with each mod install.

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RSFour Collaborator

RSFour

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My experience with a safc2 was very positive. With an exhaust, air filter,fmic etc. I was averaging 360km on a full tank. I had the S-AFC tuned and boost increased to 10psi (bleed valve) and the economy went up to 420km+ with a nice increase in power. I then replaced the o2 sensor and the economy went up to around 450km per tank.

Mine was definitely tuned with low throttle settings.

I'm currently using an e-manage, which does more or less the same job.

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  • 2 months later...
kidafa Veteran

kidafa

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Well its time to bump this thread....

Ive had so many mixed answers about getting a SAFC to improve fuel usage... I see many posts that include people recomendind a SAFC to improve. But on the other hand many people say it wont be worth it due to them only working properly on full throttle.

I've spoken to onme of the tuners from Graham West Workshop and he said its not worth it, While many people on here say it is and some say it isnt...

Current mods are:

Boost controller (high set at 10psi)

FMIC

Splitfires

Getting at most 400k's out of a tank on my s1 1997 rsfour :D

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chef_stagea Grand Master

chef_stagea

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kid.. i rekn stagea girls display pic says it all :D unluckyy! harden up get outa the bike shop n earn sum real $ :banana: for what ya gna spend on mods n stuff.. zorst grand at the least. safc.. bout half that to get it tuned and installed.. for the extra 30km...(1 day of driving if not less) its probly not worth it! smartes move would be to buy shares in bp! :P it all rapes us once a week atleast!

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leetom Proficient

leetom

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Posted

i run a neo safc it didn't give me better fuel consumption it gave me 18 extra kw with the same consumption,what improved my consumption to 480-500 was a locally built s/steel split f/dump with full 3 1/2'' system

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Tangles Grand Master

Tangles

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So the verdict.... Not really worth it at the moment? Agreed?

INCORRECT

completley 100% worth it

100%

100 Tangley thumbs up for a Safc-II to every Stagea

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