Go Back   AstinaGT Forums > Performance & Technical > Performance & General Maintenance

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 17-06-2008, 03:52 PM   #41
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
lighter wheels sounds like agood idea, but after the amount of $$$ i just recently spent on 18's, its not even a slight option....
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-06-2008, 04:58 PM   #42
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
what should i do now then as far as performance goes?
all iv got is a full exhaust, extractors and as k&n...
is there anything worth while?
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-06-2008, 05:00 PM   #43
marcs_sp20
Moderator
 
marcs_sp20's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ipswich, Queensland
Car: 2002 Mazda Astina SP20 2006 Mazda 6 GY Wagon
Posts: 9,769
Engine Management System, forged internals... the list is endless, baring in mind your budget...
__________________
[URL="http://www.astinagt.com/forums/vbpicgallery.php?do=view&g=590"]
marcs_sp20 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-06-2008, 07:00 PM   #44
LordWorm
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: .
Car: .
Posts: 1,689
Engine management would be my pick... probably the biggest single gain you'll get on the FPDE/FSDE engines, short of rebuilding the engine for mindnumbing turbo performance.....

When i went to a microtech, stock EVERYTHING ELSE, i pulled out an improvement of nearly 0.7s on the quartermile with a substantial improvement in mph. all that for a weekend of work on the car and change out of $2500... not too bad.

An aftermarket computer, however, might not "feel" like it gives a huge jump in power, because it lifts the entire curve.... expect anywhere from 4 to 10 (maybe more, depending on supporting mods) EVERYWHERE on the power curve - with improved fuel economy and a smoother power delivery to boot.
__________________

Need parts? Contact sales@b3motorsports.com
LordWorm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 17-06-2008, 08:23 PM   #45
twilightprotege
Driving a faster car now!
 
twilightprotege's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Work, always at bloody work...
Car: Lotus ....... .
Posts: 5,217
never did, no. te37's hae 205/50/15 on them, stockers have 205/50/16. not a fair comparison.

02-kq-lasr - well how bout going to smaller wheels? 18's will be robbing ***HUGE*** amounts of wheel power
twilightprotege is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 02:38 PM   #46
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordWorm View Post
Engine management would be my pick... probably the biggest single gain you'll get on the FPDE/FSDE engines, short of rebuilding the engine for mindnumbing turbo performance.....

When i went to a microtech, stock EVERYTHING ELSE, i pulled out an improvement of nearly 0.7s on the quartermile with a substantial improvement in mph. all that for a weekend of work on the car and change out of $2500... not too bad.

An aftermarket computer, however, might not "feel" like it gives a huge jump in power, because it lifts the entire curve.... expect anywhere from 4 to 10 (maybe more, depending on supporting mods) EVERYWHERE on the power curve - with improved fuel economy and a smoother power delivery to boot.
did you install it yourself?
if i install a new computer, and then decide later on i wanna turbo it, would i need to buy another computer?
how much kw do you think i would get? stock mines rated at about 80kw (flywheel, i presume)
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 02:40 PM   #47
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
Quote:
Originally Posted by twilightprotege View Post
never did, no. te37's hae 205/50/15 on them, stockers have 205/50/16. not a fair comparison.

02-kq-lasr - well how bout going to smaller wheels? 18's will be robbing ***HUGE*** amounts of wheel power
my cars basically designed for show/street first. i plan on trying to win autosalon awards with it one day, and i love the look of my new rims over smaller sizes.
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 02:54 PM   #48
twilightprotege
Driving a faster car now!
 
twilightprotege's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Work, always at bloody work...
Car: Lotus ....... .
Posts: 5,217
on the microtech, yes he did (with my help). computer is for the engine, no matter what you do to it. too hard to tell power gains, but expect a few kw at the wheels everywhere along your power curve
twilightprotege is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 02:58 PM   #49
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
did you tune it also? or just wire it up and install it?
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 02:59 PM   #50
70NYD
Veni, vidi, vici
 
70NYD's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Brisbane
Car: 1996 BA Hatch & 2005 RX8
Posts: 4,911
i dont know much bout microtech but i know that a haltech will do everything. gives you huge improvements like LordWorm was talking bout + acts as a turbo timer, boost controler and alot of other sht too. depends how u program it. friend of mine races MX5s n he has one in his car. thats the only thing he has in his engine bay thats aftermarket, oh and a pod filter, and apart from the fact that hes a really really bad driver the car has a huuge improvement. most other mx5s in his category(nonturbo) have extensive work done to the engine. he had a really worked engine, all internals were forged, lightened and balanced. but when he put the head together he used the old timing chain. with oversized pistons, when the chain let go in second lap, you could see bits of metal everywhere. there was a hole half the size of my head on the side of the block but since then he uses stock engines, mainly from lasers, and a mx5 sump, and haltech n does decent times. if he was a better driver he would b 2nd or 3rd easily every time. woa i went of on a tangent there completly
__________________
70NYD is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 03:02 PM   #51
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
so how is the 2500 spent?
arnet ecu's about 1400?
does it cost nearly a grand on install/tuning?
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 03:13 PM   #52
twilightprotege
Driving a faster car now!
 
twilightprotege's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Work, always at bloody work...
Car: Lotus ....... .
Posts: 5,217
i tuned LW's car, yeah. LW spent more than most people because of the extras...individual coils, wideband, onboard datalogging etc etc etc...none of which is required, just nice and what he wanted. $1065 (plus post) gets you a microtech LT10S which is more than enough for 95% of people. install and on road tuning doesnt cost that much through us, but you're in SA so that doesnt overly help. dyno tuning adds to the cost naturally.
twilightprotege is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 03:27 PM   #53
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
all the extra stuff lw got, is it reccommended? or is just the unit alone good enough? i dont wanna be stingy, and then pay for it afterwards...
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 03:57 PM   #54
twilightprotege
Driving a faster car now!
 
twilightprotege's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Work, always at bloody work...
Car: Lotus ....... .
Posts: 5,217
i certainly wouldnt recommend it in every circumstance, like for you (from what i can gather), the base unit is more than enough. a dash unit might be nice (shows what is going on, rpm, shift lights etc), but certainly not a requirement.
twilightprotege is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 04:45 PM   #55
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
how much is a dash unit?
does it run with the standard ecu?
can the unit be removed and the stock ecu ran again later on?
is it legal?
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18-06-2008, 05:26 PM   #56
LordWorm
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: .
Car: .
Posts: 1,689
Quote:
Originally Posted by 70NYD View Post
i dont know much bout microtech but i know that a haltech will do everything. gives you huge improvements like LordWorm was talking bout + acts as a turbo timer, boost controler and alot of other sht too. depends how u program it.
Just for clarification, any ECU which gives FULL control over fuel and timing will give simillar gains. the haltech is a technically nicer unit (more inputs, more outputs, more features, more load points which means greater finesse in the tune and more time taken to tune which means more dollars spent tuning) BUT at the end of the day, a budget unit like a microtech will do what most people want it to do, and will make the same kind of power - its all in the tune. The haltech costs substantially more to buy, install and tune due to all its extra features and complexity.

There are about a dozen brands of engine management systems out there that do the job, the microtech just happens to be the cheapest, and easiest to use, easiest to tune, and one of the easiest to install. the LT10S is also physically the smallest 4 injector driver EMS on the market - which is great for hiding it away from prying eyes

@ 02-KQ-LASR the extra stuff is nice, but not needed. the onboard wideband option is great if you intend on tuning it yourself, and the coil packs are useful if you think you are going to go ape sh!t on the build (massive RPM and/or massive amounts of boost)

The last installation Twilightprotege and I did was done to be totally reversable to stock (on a 2003 BJ2 SP20) with all wiring done inside the car. Just a case of swapping a few plugs over, and in the case of this particular car putting the stock coil packs back on as it had the individual coils installed with it. Thing is there isn't any real reason to turn it back, unless you sell the car, or get defected etc - the extra power coupled with better fuel economy and smoother delivery of power will make you never want to revert to stock. The stock ECU remains in the car, working in parallel with the microtech, to do the things that the microtech cannot do or does very poorly (such as idle control, altenator voltage regulation (which is controlled by the ECU in the BJ mazdas...assume its the same for the KQ lasers) intrument cluster and so on and so forth)

computer will be fine for turbo charging later....depending on what boost you intend to run, they do an upgrade to allow for more load points at higher boost levels, but for a streeter it'll work fine out of the box.

Most dyno places will charge between $125 and $200 an hour for tuning. On a dyno if the tuner knows what they are doing a microtech should take no more than 2 hours to tune from nothing. Installation cost might sting you a bit and theres a few "BJ Specific" tricks that need to be sorted out - if the person installing it doesn't know about them, they'll spend countless hours trying to work it all out.

as for being stingy now and paying later, think VERY hard about what you want to do to the car - because each of the upgrades (except the dash unit or hand controller which plug straight in and just work) REQUIRE the computer to be sent back to microtech for a reflash and its not at all cheap - so better to do it now in preparation for the future, assuming you have it clear in your head what direction you are going to go in. Individual coils require a change to the program to replace batch fire with individual fire ignition, wideband requires a component change so the O2 sensor reads 0-5v instead of 0-1v (standard its set up for narrow band O2), and data logging requires a component to be installed inside the computer and a software change to activate it.

having said that, the americans make some pretty awesome turbo power with standard coils - and you can always get seperate wideband gauge.

legal? technically not.... even if you tune to pass emissions, the fact that the tune CAN be altered will mean the EPA will frown at it. But then, most mods that get done have a less than nice effect on the environment - and if you have the thing installed to be cold-swappable back to stock, you can always get your defects cleared then swap back and have more fun.
__________________

Need parts? Contact sales@b3motorsports.com

Last edited by LordWorm; 18-06-2008 at 05:41 PM.
LordWorm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19-06-2008, 03:06 PM   #57
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
i have no idea exactly what im going to do with the car, at the moment i just want a nice car that has a bit more ooomph to hopefully give some ppl a few surprises....
im under the impression that this is the next move for me to do after what i currently have done, and because an engine conversion isnt worth while, this seems to be the best option i have.

i would want the unit to be able to be removed in the case of a defect, and i have no idea about the other fancy stuff... honestly, id like to turbo it one day, but i am unsure when or if it will happen... so it would probably be reasonable to assume that i would slowly install things onto the engine for more power, gradually, with the intent in mind that i could turbo if needed...
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19-06-2008, 06:23 PM   #58
LordWorm
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: .
Car: .
Posts: 1,689
Quote:
Originally Posted by 02-KQ-LASR View Post
i have no idea exactly what im going to do with the car, at the moment i just want a nice car that has a bit more ooomph to hopefully give some ppl a few surprises....
im under the impression that this is the next move for me to do after what i currently have done, and because an engine conversion isnt worth while, this seems to be the best option i have.

i would want the unit to be able to be removed in the case of a defect, and i have no idea about the other fancy stuff... honestly, id like to turbo it one day, but i am unsure when or if it will happen... so it would probably be reasonable to assume that i would slowly install things onto the engine for more power, gradually, with the intent in mind that i could turbo if needed...
all that is doable - reverting to stock can be done with plugs so its no more than a 10 minute job to switch back (and most of that would be getting the kick panel off)
__________________

Need parts? Contact sales@b3motorsports.com
LordWorm is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-06-2008, 11:29 AM   #59
02-KQ-LASR
SHO~247
 
02-KQ-LASR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: SA
Car: laser kq 2002
Posts: 2,024
so what would you reccommend i look out to buy?
what model etc?
02-KQ-LASR is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 21-06-2008, 06:17 PM   #60
LordWorm
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: .
Car: .
Posts: 1,689
Quote:
Originally Posted by 02-KQ-LASR View Post
so what would you reccommend i look out to buy?
what model etc?
Microtech LT10S
$1065 from us (plus post)

in reality its all you need - naturally there are extras if you really want them - send us an email if you want to discuss your individual requirements. sales@b3motorsports.com
__________________

Need parts? Contact sales@b3motorsports.com
LordWorm is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +10. The time now is 04:13 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
2001- 2010 AstinaGT