Safc - Tuning

[SLDN-31]

Hey guys just a quick question I just acquired an Apexi SAFC, now I know this unit is not as good as a nistune or a PFC but it was given to me buy a mate so it was free. My car is fairly stock , it has a front mount cooler, 3.5 inch turbo back exhaust, walbro fuel pump, HKS Pod and a turbo smart boost controller. My car will stay like this for quite some time so I dont see the need in getting a nistune or Power FC at the moment. Im about to start looking for someone that can tune this for me but first i have a couple of question for you guys.

1. My car hits fuel cut sometimes as my boost is set at 12 PSI, Can the SAFC eliminate this problem?

2. For a car as stock as mine does it realy need a tune? or am I wasting my coin

3. I have been told that i should get better fuel economy from my car after a tune do you agree? (I dont care if the car gets better fuel economy or not, if i did care i would of brought another car)

4. If you have an SAFC who did you get to tune it

Any help or extra input would be great guys thanks.

[Mayuri Krab]

1. My car hits fuel cut sometimes as my boost is set at 12 PSI, Can the SAFC eliminate this problem?

2. For a car as stock as mine does it realy need a tune? or am I wasting my coin

3. I have been told that i should get better fuel economy from my car after a tune do you agree? (I dont care if the car gets better fuel economy or not, if i did care i would of brought another car)

4. If you have an SAFC who did you get to tune it

My car has similar mods to yours & this is from my experience:

1) Most likely, I'm runing 10PSI through my bleed valve with a SAFC 2 & I've no R&R problem when I go WOT at over 6k rpm

2) If you have R&R (& you saying you have) it is worth a shot trying to fix it with SAFC, other opinion is to lower boost & see if it fixes the R&R.

3) Most likely won't be noticable (I didn't notice much).

4) I got mine tuned at All Star Garage (a import shop in WA), SAFC is a pretty basic signal bender unit & hence any 1/2 decent shop should have no problem.

[KiwiRS4T]

If you're not planning any mods SAFC will be better than nothing ( I had one once). Should fix your R&R but get it tuned on a dyno just to satisfy yourself that everything is safe (shouldn't cost too much). And you are unlikely to get better economy - if it goes better you will go faster!

[paulr33]

if its tuned properly and you dont flog it consistently you will get better economy yes

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Get a wideband with a serial output that you can map onto your PC, let your tuning adventures begin

AEM UEGO is a good neat unit you could get for cheap or Innovate LC-1 Gauge Kit since the USD vs AUD is fantastic!

[SLDN-31]

Get a wideband with a serial output that you can map onto your PC, let your tuning adventures begin

AEM UEGO is a good neat unit you could get for cheap or Innovate LC-1 Gauge Kit since the USD vs AUD is fantastic!

Hey johnnilicte are you sugesting to give it a go myself? Tuning is one job i always thought should be left to the pros?

[DVS JEZ]

yep, can easily go wrong if you don't know.

[Mayuri Krab]

Most shops only charge like $100 - $150 or something for SAFC tuning anyway...

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Hey johnnilicte are you sugesting to give it a go myself? Tuning is one job i always thought should be left to the pros?

that's a myth, I've street tuned my friend's EVO 8, CA18DET Pulsar ET and my previous R33 none of them kapow'ed yet and still going strong.

It's about knowing what to do, doesn't necessarily mean you need a pro. When I didn't know anything about tuning, I paid a tuner to tune my car. He made a dog's breakfast out of my tune. I had WOT A/Fs at 12.7:1 with about 14 degrees of timing dialed into row 15 and even more timing dialed into rows 16. Nevertheless, it was then I went "fk this" I'm going to learn how to do it myself.

He didn't even touch my Injector latency settings or anything either, he said "I always leave them at 100%"... I took his word for it.

Just start reading up, but a SAFC is a great way to learn, as it only deals with the A/F.

[paulr33]

whilist i agree just be careful with the SAFC and understand what it is doing and how it affects the ECU

be sure to note it BENDS the AFM signal to the std computer and it uses this way to make the car rich/lean and more/less timing

so if you can get your head around that (not hard) then its easy

the computer looks at the airflow meter signal and throttle body sensor to work out how hard the engine is working

based off "how hard" the engine is working it then computes ignition timing and air/fuel injection control (ie what ratio to aim for)

the SAFC sits between your airflow meter and the std computer to "BEND" or "Fake" the signal

the the SAFC will say the engine is under less load that it really is, which in turn makes the computer throw in less fuel and/or more timing

so you get a leaner ratio (more power) but you also get more timing (not always good). so its juggling act, balancing both.

on a system like a powerfc or nistune you can edit both maps seperately - the ignition and fuel injection maps

and say whatever XYZ degrees at XYZ RPM and XYZ AF/R at XYZ rpm etc etc

on the SAFC you simply say bend + or - XXX increments from 2800rpm to 3200rpm

so say -2 at 2800rpm to 3200rpm

then -4 at 3200rpm to 3600rpm

so you basically juggle the beinding to get the best comprimise

back in the day, everyone had SAFC'S and got good reuslts and not many hand standalones

a lot has changed since then and most just go straight for stand alone ECUS like nistune or powerfc

but the SAFC is cheap, easy to setup yourself and away you go, good results for fraction of the price (just remember the comprimise/juggle operability)

[SLDN-31]

thanks for the input guys, I have never given tuning a thought but maybe ill have a look around on the net and do some reading and see what i can learn. Mayuri Krab I know the tuning for an safc is very cheap the most i got quoted was 250 but at the moment no one has touched my car everything that has been done to it has been done buy me or mates and in our garages id like to keep it that way at least i can say i built this (or blew it up) and not that i payed for this!