How Reliable Is The Pfc Handcontroller?

[DECIM8]

A few things to mention...

Highflowed turbo pulled 262.5 with wastegate bleeding down to 16psi and will need to be adjustable..

However taking it for a road run the car monitors knock and reports 100-125 knock which is obviously bad but for some reason laptop returned the highest read of 18-20 knock..

What should I trust? Should I put her on another dyno?

Cheers

Edited July 31, 2008 by DECIM8

[paulr33]

there are some precautions you need to undertake when using the laptop and datalogit

the main one is dont use both, dont have the hand controller and datalogit plugged in at the same time

they share the bandwidth and fight for clock cycles on the channel so one 1 clock cycle the hand controller may see 120 knock and the engine light will flash

and the next clock cycle the datalogit box gets a value and the knock is say 20

i have seen this in the wild, others have to

so when logging and using datalogit dont plug in the hand controller

the hand controller is a firmware device with its own cpu, its bulletproof

[DECIM8]

So what are you saying??

The handcontroller is right telling me its knocking a 125?

Or the hand controller is only showing the result because he had it hooked up at the same time?

And from what understand as they had been in together and I got a reading of 125 does that mean my knock level is more like perhaps 25?

Edited July 31, 2008 by DECIM8

[paulr33]

There are two issues at hand

1) hand controller and datalogit both plugged in at the same time

the share the bandwidth and its common for one to miss a value - dont use both, only have one plugged in at a time when logging

- OR -

2) on street load is different to a dyno

as soon as you get the car and trash it on the street it knocks differently to whats on the dyno

i wish workshops would stop doing this its so annoying - its covered in the PFC FAQ

the load on the road is different to the dyno so when you punch the crap out of it on the street

you touch a few different cells and it knocks - after a dyno tune the car really needs to be taken on the street

for a complete 2 and 3rd gear trash run to confirm the timing is ok - so often the car knocks different on the street vs dyno

so in summary if you have #2 fix the timing yourself (PFC FAQ tells you how) or take it back and get them to do a road tune

[DECIM8]

We did a road tune and it was monitored with the laptop with a top knock at one stage of 40 which was fixed after this we pulled 18 knock as max...

So the workshop did well.. they did both just obviously forgot to disconnect the pfc controller which is weird I guess.

Can I rectify this by reseting the pfc with the laptop?

BTW I didnt think Id need to upgrade my brakes but now I know I do.. Man its hard to pull up

Edited July 31, 2008 by DECIM8

[NYTSKY]

Firstly Nathaniel great result!

And the 100 knock you are seeing,is it everytime you gas it or just some of the time?

Dynos cannot simulate the load that road can on an engine if you havent already go for a spin with your tuner and get him to plug the laptop in.

Seeing a 100 reading could be the knock sensors picking up something else which is making noise in the engine bay.

But if you hear pinging when it reads 100 then there is obviously a problem.

When i had a PFC in my car i would get high knock sometimes, i freaked out myself the first time. But with multiple tuners saying the tune was fine i put it down to the knock sensors picking up other things.

[paulr33]

We did a road tune and it was monitored with the laptop with a top knock at one stage of 40 which was fixed after this we pulled 18 knock as max...

So the workshop did well.. they did both just obviously forgot to disconnect the pfc controller which is weird I guess.

Can I rectify this by reseting the pfc with the laptop?

BTW I didnt think Id need to upgrade my brakes but now I know I do.. Man its hard to pull up

oh ok sorry - my bad assumption

the fix for you is to drive around with datalogit plugged in and hand controller unplugged

start logging, then drive around, trash the pants off it, stop logging

then view knock map watch and trim some of the cells with high knocking

[DECIM8]

I cant hear anything.. from what I figure knock/pinging is very definate sound and i cant hear a thing (the car is exceptionally loud) however I may think it could be my diff as it clicks - alot.

The turbo comes in a 4G which i found weird but power is insane, He expects 270+ when we get the wastegate sorted which is impressive for a highflow.

Guess Ill just have to take her back on saturday..

Oh I must mention driving around recorded 36 knock in a hour drive until I smashed it and it flew to 125.

[DECIM8]

Alright thanks Paul, No wonder you wrote that PFC manual thingo..

Now anyone know where I can get a R33 adjustable wastegate? Dave its not a vq30 wastegate on there is it?

[NYTSKY]

Stock R33GTST actuator.

The HKS ones are adjustable i think.

Do you have a EBC?

[DECIM8]

Yeap.. Supposedly couldnt tune it out.. I guess I can turn it up lol

[paulr33]

4 grand is wrong for a highflow - bass junky had this issue, he had to bend his actuator rod i think it came on at 2500rpm after that

[NYTSKY]

The reason its bleeding off is because the gas coming out of the wastegate is a bit much for size of the hole its coming out of. If you want to run higher boost i would port out the wastegate hole and get a bigger flap put on. That way your boost will be more stable.

But thats for a later time, im sure you want to enjoy it for a while before pulling the turbo out again.

[DECIM8]

The Actuator is an aftermarket HKS item that is a bolt-on replacement for the stock item. It has a threaded pushrod so that the wastegate preload can be wound up and hence boost increased. Sort of like putting an R32 actuator on a R33 turbo but fully adjustable and looks stock.

I love google..

[NYTSKY]

4 grand is wrong for a highflow - bass junky had this issue, he had to bend his actuator rod i think it came on at 2500rpm after that

I saw full boost by 3500rpm but started spooling around 22000rpmish.

[DECIM8]

It spools less than that but dyno'd its full boost at 4g exactly... Interesting as its obvious id be pushing alot more air... Neo engine and all..

Prob wastegate..

[7heavn]

Reset the hand controller after starting ?.A s the knock can be disrupted on start up

[QUICKY]

out of curiosity, is ur "check engine" light flashing when the hand controller is picking up those high readings?

[Guilt-Toy]

What will normally happen is the hand controller will lose the battle for bandwidth and stop logging and the laptop will get all the info.

if it read 100 then it hit 100, the readings wont change it just might not pick it up.

just cos it does not knock on the dyno it can knock on the road.

[paulr33]

i agree %200

more often than not knock sensors are correct

ignoring knock values on the hand controller is a bad idea and is likely to be fatal