Beginners Guide to Tuning with Ktuner

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

Oct 4, 2019 | 11:38 AM

Jasonvicktory86

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jul 2019

Posts: 32

From: Princeton

Beginners Guide to Tuning with Ktuner

Beginners Guide to Tuning with Ktuner.

HUGE DISCLAIMER!
THIS IS A GUIDE TO GIVE YOU AN INTERPRETATION OF LOGS AND CONCEPTS WHILE USING THE KTUNER SOFTWARE!
YOU AND YOU ALONE ARE TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR CAR
IF THE CAR DOESN'T RUN RIGHT, STOP AND FIGURE OUT WHY
DON'T TUNE YOUR CAR IF IT'S NOT 100% REPAIRED OR RUNNING
IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPTS , DO NOT TUNE THE CAR. HIRE A PROFESSIONAL!

- This guide is intended to provide an interpretation of datalogs and how to adjust the fuel tables and retard the ignition tables.
- This does not go deeper into settings such as: Fuel Correction, Ignition Correction, IAT Correction, ECT Correction, Closed Loop Settings, Fuel Cut Settings, MAF Scaling, DBW Maps, Disables/Monitors, or other features.
- Bolt-ons can be compensated for with these guidelines, however adding new internals, camshafts, port and polish, forced induction, or major adjustments require advanced knowledge of tuning not available in this guide.
- DO NOT make modifications if you, the user, do not understand the concepts or how to use the software.
- Adjusting the fuel table and retarding the timing for knock will not yield large, advertised power increases. It will increase driveability and may affect power. However if a company advertises that their headers will increase horsepower by 20hp, don’t expect to see a 20hp increase with adjusting the fuel table.
- This does not go into tuning boost tables or VTC cam gears.

Last edited by Jasonvicktory86; Nov 20, 2019 at 12:42 PM. Reason: disclaimer

Oct 4, 2019 | 11:41 AM

Jasonvicktory86

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jul 2019

Posts: 32

From: Princeton

Understanding your logs

Concepts:

Short Term Fuel Trim:
- STFT allows the ECU to adjust fuel dynamically to reach the target lambda ratio.
- This number is the percentage of fuel added or removed.
- Adjustments up to 10 percent plus or minus are considered normal. Over that adjustments to the tune should be applied.

Fuel State
2: Closed Loop
- Applies fuel directly from the fuel map without adjustments

4: Open Loop - Drive
- This uses Short Term Fuel Trims

8: Error
- Error turns the car into limp mode

Knock Count
- Engine knock is caused by many factors but commonly found when the car runs lean and or too much ignition advance has been requested.
- “Phantom Knock” can be detected when exhaust or other modifications can trip the knock sensor.
- A few knocks is to be expected when crossing the VTEC threshold.
- Tuning based on engine knock is effective but since phantom knock and actual knock cannot be separated by the log, it can give false positives.
- Knock count will only reset when the car is turned off.

Knock Control
- Knock control ranges from 0.00 to 1.30
- This shows the level of “danger” of knock occurring to the tune.
- The higher the value, the more ignition retard will be applied.
- This is the best way to adjust your tune. Although no tune will have a 0.00 completely through the tune, it is a consistent way to adjust the tune.
- Knock control value will change while driving.

Align:
- This column shows the actual ignition applied to the engine.
- Knock control table, IAT retard, Knock retard table, ECT retard, and other factors will all play into this number

Fuel Duty Cycle:
- Fuel injector duty cycle shows the percentage of time open to inject fuel.
- Smaller injectors can heat up when they are forced to stay open longer.
- Duty cycle values of 80% or more indicate bigger injectors are needed.

VTEC Crossover
Upper / Lower / Engage / Disengage
- Lower engagement uses the RPM specified and pressure from the “VTEC Engagement Window”
- Upper Engage disregards the “VTEC Engagement Window”

Be careful not to use lower VTEC engagement below 3000 rpm due to low oil pressure issues.
VTEC crossover can cause knock. This is not “Phantom Knock”.

Fuel Injector Size and delay
- Stock injectors are pre-set
- Aftermarket injectors need to have their size, delay (ms), and voltage entered.
- Also note that some injectors flow differently at different PSI. They may say 750cc at 40psi but will flow at 820cc at 50psi.
- Inputting the wrong fuel injector size will cause tuning inconsistencies.
- Dead Times / Latency need to be inputted for the entire voltage range. Some chinese fuel injectors only have the 12v delay. If you only receive this, consider returning them and purchasing from a reputable brand or seller.

Target A/F (Idle and WOT)
- Stoich is 14.7:1. This is what a stock Open Loop will be set at.
- WOT can be determined in the “WOT Enrichment table”

Oct 4, 2019 | 11:42 AM

Jasonvicktory86

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jul 2019

Posts: 32

From: Princeton

Test Drive Suggestions for logging:

DRIVE SMART! Speeding? Distracted by watching your V2 tuner? Watching the tach? Watching cat videos? Do everything safely. You don’t want to risk causing an accident or going to jail just by taking logs.
Drive it easy. As much as you want to go WOT and see what the car will do… DO NOT DO THIS!
Until you get used to interpreting logs, feel free to take small logs based on different driving habits.
Example: Try to drive the whole RPM range between 400mbar and 600mbar and end the log.
Logs are most accurate in mid-gear. First gear WOT will not yield correct results.
Roll on the throttle. Don’t floor it at the VTEC crossover.
- Either hit WOT before or after the VTEC engagement but not at the crossover.
- Tuning lower rpm can be difficult because the differences between the cells is much smaller than higher rpm. Unless you plan on flooring it everywhere at 1500 rpm, do not do this.
Let your car cool off!
- Running logs are hard on your car.
- This is especially true for WOT Closed Loop logs.
- Give your car a few minutes to cool off before stopping.
- This is a MUST for turbo or supercharged vehicles.

Oct 4, 2019 | 11:43 AM

Jasonvicktory86

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jul 2019

Posts: 32

From: Princeton

Tuning Tips:

Look at the ENTIRE log before making changes.
Be conscious of which cells you’ve adjusted. You don’t want to adjust the same cell twice!
The stock ignition map is fine for most applications.
Advancing timing is dangerous and is the easiest way to blow a rod through the block.
Focus on one thing at a time. Don’t adjust fuel, ignition, vtec crossover, closed loop target, and redline all at once.
Drive slowly when making major parts changes. Removing emissions, changing camshafts, larger exhaust, and other changes will require new tuning.
If it doesn’t feel right, then stop driving it hard! Know your car. If something doesn’t seem right then drive it back easy and figure out what happened.

Easiest Ways to Destroy Your Engine / Things not to do:

Run extra lean: Running an A/F of more than 16:1 can cause detonation.
Knock Count: Knock is a physical sound detected by the wrist pin on the piston and the connecting rod. The rods and pistons can only take so much knock before physically breaking.
Advancing ignition / Detonation: too much ignition timing can cause the explosion that’s meant for the block and pistons to happen inside the exhaust valves and header.
Run extra rich: LAM.ADJ will only go to 10.1:1. You can dump in more fuel and it will not detect it. Too much fuel can cause your car to stall or melt your pistons.
Too much boost: Know your MAP sensor limits. Typical MAP sensors for N/A cars only go to 10.5psi. If you go past 10psi, then it will just use the values for 10psi. So if you’re running 15psi, then you’re using the fuel and ignition timing for the 10psi column.

Oct 4, 2019 | 11:44 AM

Jasonvicktory86

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jul 2019

Posts: 32

From: Princeton

Setting up a CSV file for logs

Hide the following columns

C - MAP (mbar)
- You will use D - MAP (Conv) which converts to the units in the ktuner settings
E and F - MAF.v / MAF
- Speed Density tunes do not use MAF sensors.
G - PWMDC
- Not available on most platforms
I - TPS.CMD
- Unnecessary. Use H (TPS)
J through M - VTC Cam
- Only needed if the vehicle has VTC Gear
P - FP1
R - LTFT
- Not needed for tuning.
S - LAM
- Uses T (LAM.ADJ) which adjusts to better parameters.
AC - BAT
- Unneeded for tuning.

Select all of row 1 and enable “Filter”

Select all of row 1 and “Freeze Top Row”

Oct 4, 2019 | 11:47 AM

Jasonvicktory86

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jul 2019

Posts: 32

From: Princeton

Tuning Idle:

Apply filters:

(B - RPM): Below 2000
(D - MAP (Conv) ): Below 400mbr
(V - FUEL.STAT): 2
(Y - ECT F): Above 170

Sort:

(B - RPM) lowest to highest

Logs:

Watch Q (STFT) short term fuel trims.
Since the log is sorted by RPM, look for similarities of STFT.
Take the percentage of STFT and subtract 10% initially.

Tune:

Adjust the entire column (not row) based on MAP by the percentage of STFT less 10%.
Example: STFT says 25% added fuel. Adjust the table by 15%
ECT fuel adjustments will automatically be applied at lower temperature. Wait for the car to get to operating temperature before looking at the logs to adjust fuel.

Oct 4, 2019 | 11:48 AM

Jasonvicktory86

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jul 2019

Posts: 32

From: Princeton

Tune Low Fuel Map:

Apply filters:

(B - RPM): Above 1500
(D - MAP (Conv) ): Above 400mbr
(H - TPS): Above 10
(Q - STFT): Greater than: 15 or Less than -15 (Only one at a time, not both)
(V - FUEL.STAT): 2
(Y - ECT F): Above 170
(AD - VTEC): 0

Sort:

(B - RPM) Lowest to Highest

Logs:

Keeping your test drive in mind, look for STFT trims over 15% and under -15%
Adjust the fuel map cells to the average STFT less 10%.
- Example: STFT says 25%, adjust fuel map by 15%
- Example: STFT says -25%, adjust fuel map by -15%

Notes:

Once you’ve adjusted individual cells, you’ll see spikes and cells that are not in line with the curve.

Adjust the percentages of the cells between edited cells in the same MAP column.
- Example: If you added 20% to 394 @ 2000 and 15% to 394 @ 4000
- Highlight the cells and click the “Column” adjustment button

Adjust the rest of the column going up in RPM. Take the lower adjustment percentage and apply it to the rest of the column to finish out the curve.
Example: If the last adjustment was 15% to 394 @ 4000, then select 394 @ 4500 through 394 @ 7000 and increase by 15%

Make minor adjustments to smooth out the curves.

Oct 4, 2019 | 11:49 AM

Jasonvicktory86

Thread Starter

Member

Joined: Jul 2019

Posts: 32

From: Princeton

Tune High Fuel Map:

Apply filters:

(B - RPM): Above 1500
(D - MAP (Conv) ): Above 400mbr
(H - TPS): Above 10
(Y - ECT F): Above 170
(AD - VTEC): 1

Sort:

(B - RPM) Lowest to Highest

Logs:

Keeping your test drive in mind, look for STFT trims over 15% and under -15%
Adjust the fuel map cells to the average STFT less 10%.

Notes:

The process is the same as tuning low fuel map, except you may encounter a (V - FUEL.STAT): 4. This is “Closed Loop” and will not yield a STFT value because it no longer uses STFT but rather the actual fuel value.
You can google a percentage calculator to find the percentage difference between T (LAM.ADJ) and U (LAM.CMD).
Adjust based on this difference and not compared to stotch! If T (LAM.ADJ) says 13.0 you want to get it closer to U (LAM.CMD) and not stoich (14.7)! Closed loop will automatically calculate and adjust the fuel value to Open Loop (14.7) or Closed Loop (12.5).
Adjusting a closed loop LAM.ADJ to stoich will cause the engine to run dangerously lean!
Smooth the same way as you would in Low Fuel map.

Knock Compensation:

Apply filters:

Clear all filters

Sort:

(B - RPM) Lowest to Highest

Logs:
Knock Count:

Take short trips but hit multiple rpm and map ranges.
Scroll through the looking at W (KNK.C). When the number changes look at the cells before. This will be the cause of the knock.
If the STFT is within 15% remove 2 degrees of ignition timing from that cell’s column.
If the STFT is over +/- 15% then adjust the fueling and run the logs again before adjusting ignition timing. .

Knock Control:

Knock control shows the “Danger” of your tune.
Look for spikes in X (KNK.CTRL) and adjust the tune down 1 degree on the column.
Before you adjust a column, check to see if the knock control value increase is the same under conditions.

Notes:

Knock is caused by either inadequate fuel or too much ignition timing.
Once knock has been adjusted in the shorter logs, take a longer trip to see what conditions cause knock.
Adjust by columns (map) and not rows (rpm).
Do not adjust fuel and ignition at the same time. Adjust fuel first, run new logs, and then adjust ignition if the STFT is in range.
Knock Control will retard timing based on the danger of the tune. If you notice that the car detects knock in one log with a lower X (KNK.CTRL) but then another log it does not knock with a higher X (KNK.CTRL), check the N (AIGN) to see if the values are similar between the two logs.