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R34 Tune Up

Ericjayrol

By Ericjayrol,
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Ericjayrol Community Regular

Ericjayrol

Posted
Posted

Hey =)

I keep hearing people say get your car tuned to unlock its potential, but I'm unsure of what's involved in a tune up, as opposed to a service.

What is actually involved in tuning up a non turbo R34? Is it worth doing on a non turbo? I think it might involve ECU mods and tightening bolts maybe?

I'm also looking for a good place to get the tune up done, My family has been to ultra tune. To avoid the defamation rules, I won't say anything, but I do not wish to go there.

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

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Truffles Community Regular

Truffles

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Generally it does mean the ECU side of things. When designing/producing a car, there are certain standards/restrictions that need to be adheard to. This could be carbon emissions, reliability requirements or even fuel consumption.

When a car is tuned, the tuner alters the settings to specifically cater for the exact car and circumstances by changing things like fuel maps ect to gain the power that was de-tuned out of the engine oringally for the reasons above mentioned.

You can't go to any garage to have your ECU tuned. It would have to be a place with a dyno and specialist knowledge/equipment.

It is not cheap and the gains to be had by tuning what I'd assume is a largely stock N/A skyline are definitely not worth it.

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Truffles Community Regular

Truffles

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What about a stock turbo 34?? Would it be worth it then? Also do they jst tune ur ecu or u need a new one/computer??

Also my 34 has been converted to manual since owning it, would a tune be also beneficial do to it being tuned for an auto ?? Sorry for the dumb questions but gotta learn some how

If it's stock it will be roughly the same as mad said, maybe a little more.

It's when you start upgrading things like your cooling or fuel systems you can start playing around, as you can run things more towards their capacity.

If your car is completely stock, for the price of a nistune ($1000) you'd be best getting a FMIC and a boost controller and putting the boost up to 12psi. You will see a larger increase from stock then a tune alone.

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mad082 Grand Master

mad082

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Posted

What about a stock turbo 34?? Would it be worth it then? Also do they jst tune ur ecu or u need a new one/computer??

up to maybe 20kw on a r34 gt-t from a good tune if you are running a front mount, full exhaust and higher boost. if the car is dead stock then the gains would be much less. as was said, you will get more gains from doing those mods than just the tune. and on a r34 gt-t you can have a nistune installed in the stock ecu.

Also my 34 has been converted to manual since owning it, would a tune be also beneficial do to it being tuned for an auto ?? Sorry for the dumb questions but gotta learn some how

if it is still running the auto ecu then probably. it partly depends on how they did the wiring when they did the gearbox conversion. the autos are designed to only be able to be started in neutral or park. i'm pretty sure they send a signal to the ecu, which controls this. most people who put manual boxes in just trick the ecu into thinking it is in neutral or park all the time, so the car will start whenever needed. the downside to this is that the ecu has different mapping for park/neutral to when it's in gear. manual gearboxes have a switch in them which also tells the ecu when it's in gear so that it changes the mapping, but unlike the autos you can still start the car with it in gear.

long story short, if it's still running the auto ecu then i'd start by looking at getting a manual ecu for it and making sure that the gearbox switch is working properly. (a consult cable and progrum such as datascan can tell you this)

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  • 3 weeks later...
havoc34 Enthusiast

havoc34

Posted
Posted

up to maybe 20kw on a r34 gt-t from a good tune if you are running a front mount, full exhaust and higher boost. if the car is dead stock then the gains would be much less. as was said, you will get more gains from doing those mods than just the tune. and on a r34 gt-t you can have a nistune installed in the stock ecu.

if it is still running the auto ecu then probably. it partly depends on how they did the wiring when they did the gearbox conversion. the autos are designed to only be able to be started in neutral or park. i'm pretty sure they send a signal to the ecu, which controls this. most people who put manual boxes in just trick the ecu into thinking it is in neutral or park all the time, so the car will start whenever needed. the downside to this is that the ecu has different mapping for park/neutral to when it's in gear. manual gearboxes have a switch in them which also tells the ecu when it's in gear so that it changes the mapping, but unlike the autos you can still start the car with it in gear.

long story short, if it's still running the auto ecu then i'd start by looking at getting a manual ecu for it and making sure that the gearbox switch is working properly. (a consult cable and progrum such as datascan can tell you this)

Hi Mad,

So if i had mine converted to manual (R34Gtt, FMIC, aftermarket Radiator, Turbo Back exhuast) can i just plug and play the manual ECU? Or there is wirings I need to swap around or cut or rewire??

If need to cut and rewire or whatever do you know which wires are they on the harness or pin number to which?? Cos I'm experiencing Rev cut around 6k or 6.5k mark. Is this to do ith the ECU??

Thanks

Daniel

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