Race Track - Tough Weekend

[Granger968]

I took my MSP to the track this weekend in Putnam Park, Indiana. The only mod I have to my car is an INJEN cold air intake.

I could not believe how bad the fuel maps are on this car. This "hesitation" that is know for MSPs made my life a nightmare. It gets worst when ambient temperature is hot, and this weekend was hot, especially on the track, and especially after running a few laps at full throttle. It has power till about 4000rpm, then drops horribly until 5000, and it jumps back on until 6500... Horrible for a race car.

Handling however is awesome. Had 42psi in front, 40psi in back, got perfect temperature distribution on my tires.

Can anybody PLEASE tell me you are having the same problems with your MSP? and the fix too.. I'm thinking UNICHIP... I talked to a distributor today who said he sold 40+ chips for MSPs and stopped selling them because he had too much trouble....

 

[mspHtown]

a/f controller would fix it but u also need to upgrade the small stock intercooler. heat soak is a b****

 

[Spooled]

Take it to the dealer and get the ECU reflashed. It's free and will take care of the hesitation, not to mention wil give you a MUCH smoother powerband and a bit more power to boot.

 

[BlkZoomZoom]

Get rid of the injen.

 

[Boosted Orange]

fmic, and a dsm AFC would cure your problems without a doubt

 

[TenaciousB]

get a downpipe with a high flow cat, or a catless one, fmic, and some sort of EMS. I just got the DSM AFC in the mail today, and I will be installing this weekend. I live in Indy, if you ever want to check out my ride.

 

[Granger968]

Thanks for the input... but more questions...

- The problem was worst with original intake. The air under the hood is hotter than behind the bumper, and my problem IS heat, so I won't put the stock intake back on.

- FMIC: definitely would help I think, but out of my budget for now.

- Exhaust: more performance for sure, but I don't think this addresses the hestitation issue. I'm sure we're looking at combustion problem, not what happens after.

- Reflash: My dealer must suck bc I asked a few different mechanics/service people about it and they all tell me there is no reflash for my car.

I've got a question about the AFC. Excuse my poor knowledge of tuning, but I didn't know what an AFC was, so I just read about them a little. Sounds like a patch for bad fuels maps to me... I'm from a motorsports background. On a formula car I worked on, we developed our own injection/ignition system, and of course our own maps to go with. An AFC sound like something that you would if you don't have a programmable chip... If i get a Unichip, I expect my tuner to put my car on the dyno and make the maps right for my car. Makes an AFC useless, or am I missing something?


Tenacious B: I have an autocross in Peoria, IL on Sept 11. I don't have Indianapolis in my plans anytime soon, but I'd sure like to see your car if you feel like driving over. Hopefully I won't have problems with my car during 1-minute-long runs (as opposed to 20-25 minutes last weekend)....

 

[03.5MSP]

I know what you mean. Its heat soak that is killing you, and the car is running very rich. What you need is some sort of programable unit, like the MPI tuner, unichip, aem ems, microtech. Here is a thread to help you out.
http://www.msprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89457&page=6&pp=15

 

[DSMConvert]

THe AFC is completely tunable....AFC stands for Air/Fuel controller, and as the name implies allows you to control and modify the air and fuel maps of the msp...the unichip will requre an authorized dealer to reprogram...the afc can be tuned on the fly via the provided r4 software and a laptop....if you'd like more info on our products you can either visit our webpage www.airflowlogistics.com or do a quick search and find numerous threads on our product and its performance...

 

[jeffmsp]

the Cold air intake isnt doing much to fight off heat, because it is going to get compressed anyways, it is more for reduced spool time. What it does do is allow the IAT sensor to read a little colder air coming into the motor, so it will not retard timing based on hot intake temps. The best intake for a turbo car is a filter right on the turbo(which you would need a stand alone ems or maf relocation to pull off) I would suggest getting an exhaust before anything. It will rid your motor of alot of heat, spool the turbo quicker and give you a nicer powerband all over.

 

[ChopstickHero]

exhaust, FMIC/SMIC, intake, and EMS .... some type of vented hood would help reduce underhood temps significantly.

I'm thinking UNICHIP... I talked to a distributor today who said he sold 40+ chips for MSPs and stopped selling them because he had too much trouble....

he stopped selling them because he had problems with the Unichip itself? or he had other troubles unrelated to the Unichip?

 

[jeffmsp]

i think unichip keeps making their tuners buy new software and they dont like that very much.

 

[ca_deal1]

First thing you should do is change the INJEN CAI into a SRI.
CAI took too long for the air into the trubo.

FMIC, AFC, DownPipe, etc would help a lot.

I would say get a downpipe first, its about $200 but it will get out at least 5-10whp

Then FMIC( 600-800 used unit) or Side mount upgrade(400-500)

AFC is about $285.00 It will help you tune you car.