Air Fuel Controller Unit

[i like beer]

hey every 1 ive got a skyline r34 naturally aspirated and im trying to get as much power out of it as i can, ive got pod filter and a good exhaust system with extractors and ive herd that a good afc can help boost peformance aswell?? is it worth getting???

cheers

[mad082]

an air fuel controller will give you both power gains and fuel economy gains, depending on how your car is currently running. if you car is currently running rich then you will get gains. if your car is currently running close to ideal AFR's then the gain will be minimal. it comes down to individual cars. i would stick your car on a dyno first and find out what sort of AFR's you are currently running as this will give you an idea of what sort of gains can be had.

the other thing that can affect how much you gain is the fact that air fuel controllers such as the safc simply bend the AFM signal. this also alters the timing so you can get pinging before you get to the ideal AFRs. something like an emanage ultimate allows you to alter the timing and fuel seperately (more like a stand alone ecu) giving larger gains, but it does cost more.

[i like beer]

ok thanks mate, ill definitly take it to a dyno before i decide on want im going to do. just gotta find a dyno to go to, is it very costly to get your car check at a dyno???

cheers

[N-DAWG]

The R34 N/A ECU is capable of relearning minor changes through breathing mods like exhaust and filters. The gains in power with a SAFC are going to be fairly minimal, and the cost of an eManage Ultimate + install + tuning could be spent on other mods.

If you're prepared to make bigger changes to the engine internally (eg: bigger cams, larger injectors, nitrous, port and polish) then that's where you WILL need aftermarket engine management and where you will get the most gains out of something like an eManage Ultimate.

You managed to get extractors, exhaust and pod ordered and fitted within a couple of days? After having all that done, disconnect the ground cable on the battery, put your foot ont he brake for 10-15 seconds, wait a bit and reconnect. Start the car up, then let it relearn your driving style and adjust to the changes.

[i like beer]

yea i managed to get all the parts i needed real quick for the exhaust and the pod, then got my mate to fit it all for me and he did a realy good job. dont have a whole lot of money left over got about $1500 for a last few mods until my next pay day. so would u reccomend getting the afc or spending it elsewhere???

thnx mate

[N-DAWG]

Nice! Good to have friends like that!

So I would imagine you went with DKNE extractors? Did you get them HPC coated or heat wrapped?

I would spend that money elsewhere to be honest. If you've done extractors, catback and pod, the next mods are very costly. Did you change the cat converter?

If it were me, $1500 would go straight to 30mm lowered springs and adjustable sway bars OR towards wheels and a good set of tyres.

If doing suspension you might as well sort out camber and castor bushings as well with some Whiteline adjustables. Get a professional wheel alignment done and all the bushings adjusted and the car will handle much better.

You'll barely pay for an eManage Ultimate installed and tuned for $1500, and to get best gains you'll want optional harnesses to adjust ignition timing. The gain that you would get with an EMU for the dollars spent = not worth it in my opinion.

Use suspension and tyres to assist with getting power to the ground and improve times.

If you're serious about going further with modding out the engine, then it's time to do some research and a lot of reading in the 'How To Get More Power From A Naturally Aspirated (na) Engine' thread.

It will cost more than $1500 to get more out of the engine, but there's a number of options including 3litre bottom end conversions if you want significant power gains. What you decide to do with the engine internally will ultimately help you decide which engine management to go with. It may be worth talking to a tuner who's done work with N/A Skylines and see what they advise for engine management as well. Every tuner has their preference though when it comes to ECU's and a piggy back air fuel controller may not be the greatest option depending on what you want to do.

btw... is your R34 Auto or Manual? That will also determine what ECU/Engine Management you'll be able to use.

[i like beer]

yea my mate usually helps me when he can saves me labour costs. yea i got dkne extractors heat wrapped, but nah i didnt change the cat converter, should i?. i have a good set of 19 inch rims with expensive set of dunlops on them, i find they are realy good. as far as mods for the peformance go i dont realy want to exceed $10 000 in mods, but i want to get as much peformance as i can within that price range. my r34 is a 5 speed manual

is your r34 naturally aspirated??

[N-DAWG]

Changing your cat converter with a high flow cat will relieve the last restriction in your exhaust system.

Seeing as you've already done wheels and tyres, I would look at a good suspension set up.

What sort of wheels are they? What's the weight on them?

Have you made a Cold Air Induction Box for the pod? (CAI Box). As your air intake filter is no longer in a box with a feed running to the front of the bonnet, it's no longer shielded from the engine bay heat and will reduce performance more than anything due to heat soak in the engine bay. A box will shield it from this heat, and a cold air feed into the box will ensure it gets cold air. Colder air = more power.

A manual means that you're not limited to a piggy back type ECU, so you can go for options like a PowerFC.

They cost more again, but it's a replacement ECU, no wires to splice in saves $ in labour. If you're going for big engine mods then a good engine management system will help ensure that you get the most out of it all, and when going for N/A power every bit counts.

How much of that 10k are you prepared to spend on modifying the engine? Set aside 1000-2000 for engine management and tuning depending on what you use.

My R34 was once naturally aspirated. I spent about half a year modifying everything besides the engine till I decided which way to go... keeping it N/A or forced induction.

In the end I went forced induction. Still costs a lot but the dollar per gain made it an attractive option. That and the fact that I have all the ground work laid out for future modification (eg: rebuild, aftermarket turbo etc..)

In some ways I wouldn't have mind keeping it N/A and going for big power that way. N/A power is a different type of power, but turbocharging is easy power really.

[mad082]

Nice! Good to have friends like that!

So I would imagine you went with DKNE extractors? Did you get them HPC coated or heat wrapped?

I would spend that money elsewhere to be honest. If you've done extractors, catback and pod, the next mods are very costly. Did you change the cat converter?

If it were me, $1500 would go straight to 30mm lowered springs and adjustable sway bars OR towards wheels and a good set of tyres.

If doing suspension you might as well sort out camber and castor bushings as well with some Whiteline adjustables. Get a professional wheel alignment done and all the bushings adjusted and the car will handle much better.

You'll barely pay for an eManage Ultimate installed and tuned for $1500, and to get best gains you'll want optional harnesses to adjust ignition timing. The gain that you would get with an EMU for the dollars spent = not worth it in my opinion.

Use suspension and tyres to assist with getting power to the ground and improve times.

If you're serious about going further with modding out the engine, then it's time to do some research and a lot of reading in the 'How To Get More Power From A Naturally Aspirated (na) Engine' thread.

It will cost more than $1500 to get more out of the engine, but there's a number of options including 3litre bottom end conversions if you want significant power gains. What you decide to do with the engine internally will ultimately help you decide which engine management to go with. It may be worth talking to a tuner who's done work with N/A Skylines and see what they advise for engine management as well. Every tuner has their preference though when it comes to ECU's and a piggy back air fuel controller may not be the greatest option depending on what you want to do.

btw... is your R34 Auto or Manual? That will also determine what ECU/Engine Management you'll be able to use.

the emanage ultimate with a plug and play harness will do ignition. an emanage ultimate with a harness will set you back about $1000 plus tune.

[i like beer]

hey yea ill look into getting a high flow cat, the new exhaust and extractors along with the pod filter made quite a noticeable difference in the power. and yea i bought a cold air box along with the pod filter to contain it and i hav cold air running in from up under the front bumper which works well.

im not sure on the weight of my tires but ill definitly look into getting good suspension. im looking at spending around $8000 on the engine then leave a few thousand for tuning and what not.

come back from the darkside to the N/A cars

more fun to modify

cheers

[dori34]

yeah you should get one,

it gives you heaps more power & its worth the $$$.

you gain like 40-50kw.

it does amazing things!

you'll be suprised....

[mick2nv]

Good luck with all the modding.

Make sure you tell us the results later.

Cheers

[Eug]

get the hardware to back up the software to see the major gains.

like nathan said the best results are from doing power mods and then using the SAFC to tweak the optimal settings of the new setup

[AYW550]

whats this about the n/a r34 computer being able to re-learn?

ive now done the wheels and suspension along the pod with box and CAI (just modified the stock one to direct air onto the pod like i saw someone else on here did) plus just the other day got coby extractors and high flow resonator and exhaust and i was wondering if it would be worth it to dyno and tune, but this mention of the ecu being able to relearn is interresting...

will the ecu adapt to the new mods? how long do you need to drive it for? or let it idle?

im currently waiting on new coils at the moment tho, wasnt too bad before, but the engine light comes on cronically now that ive got the high flow exhaust system!

[N-DAWG]

Relearn meaning it will adapt to small modifications like breathing mods. They can't be remapped on a dyno, to do this you will either need a standalone ECU (eg. PowerFC) or piggy back to remap the signal (eg: GReddy eManage).

To answer your question, no not really worth it at the moment looking at the '$ vs Performance Gain'.

To reset your ECU:

Step 1: Turn car off

Step 2: Remove negative lead from battery

Step 3: Put foot on brake for 5-10 seconds (this will drain out any power holding capacity in the electrical system)

Step 4: Reconnect negative lead

Step 5: Start the car

Step 6: Go for a drive and let the ECU adapt to your driving style and auto adjust to the changes in the exhaust system.

[mad082]

the self learn mostly has to do with fuel economy settings.

as for your engine light coming on, that sounds a little bit suss. i didn't think the stock ecu flashed the engine light for problems like coils breaking down (my 33 sure as hell didn't). i would invest in a consult cable to check for fault codes (better than just looking at a flashing light) and that will alow you to reset the self learn codes as well as monitor readings

[N-DAWG]

the self learn mostly has to do with fuel economy settings.

as for your engine light coming on, that sounds a little bit suss. i didn't think the stock ecu flashed the engine light for problems like coils breaking down (my 33 sure as hell didn't). i would invest in a consult cable to check for fault codes (better than just looking at a flashing light) and that will alow you to reset the self learn codes as well as monitor readings

Mine didn't... but that's because the Ignition Signal adapter on the eManage must have been blocking it.

[AYW550]

yeah engine light just comes on cos of primary ignition fault 21 error code, aka needs new coils, but now with the exhaust mod its on cronically

[TZH]

Good luck with all the modding.