Twiggy Sticks Install, tuning and results thread

[niky]

They weren't all max power runs.

It took a while to try and (unseccessfully) smooth out the VICS and fix my rather poor quality "I'll finish it later" street tune. Shame I couldn't be there to play with the VICS etc.

I left the dyno and did 0-100kph(0-62mph) in 8.2 seconds. Don't laugh! It used to take me about 10.5 when stock, so that's over 20% quicker, still NA. I'm very happy with it . And it sounds sooo cool.

Don't feel bad about an 8.2... that's pretty good for this car on the street.

My best before was an 8.1 or an 8.2 with the Racelogic V-Box. The limiter is really traction. I've got maybe 8-10 more horses through the range than the time I did that, and my last run was at 8.4.

Lots of factors:

Tires - too little grip, too much wheelspin, too much grip, and bog unless you launch high.

Suspension/mounts - wheel hop, axle-hop, etcetera... still trying to dial in best launch on my adjustables... if I make my shocks to stiff, all I get is hop.

Ambient temperature / humidity / traction - Roads plain suck. I guess the only reason Car And Driver consistently get good times is because they probably launch on patches of dried Coca Cola.

Clutch - my new ACT doesn't help a lot... too much clutch grip leads to more bogging than before... before the clutch would slip a bit, letting the engine rev up after the tires bite... now... even at 4500 rpm I experience bogging... after the insane wheelspin. Time to learn throttle modulation.

 

[LordWorm]

but the 1/8th was slower due to 0 traction in 1st and 2nd gear

sub zero track temps will do that to you....
whichever numbscull thought putting a drag meet on in sydney in may ...*grumble grumble* ....it was f'n cold down there!

 

[niky]

D'oh... just found out why my 0-100 times this week were crap. Everything's busted. Ball joints, suspension bushings... everything. The whole suspension was moving around under acceleration, giving crap numbers.

Let's see what it does tomorrow.

 

[Crazee D]

Well, I am now running my cams as follows:

intake retarded 6 deg
exhaust advanced 4 deg

Idles much better now. CEL even went away for a minute!
Trying to get passed state inspection.
Tried higher idle and misfire goes away. But returns at regular idle rpms.

I should also mention that my head has been Decked so some milling has been done.

 

[Hughes412]

sub zero track temps will do that to you....
whichever numbscull thought putting a drag meet on in sydney in may ...*grumble grumble* ....it was f'n cold down there!

You mean in MAY it's cold in Sydney?? Hell it's 100+ here.

 

[LordWorm]

You mean in MAY it's cold in Sydney?? Hell it's 100+ here.

well.. our winter is your summer and so forth.
sydney is a fair way south of the equator..so yeah, it gets FKING COLD!

 

[Dpwhitehead1]

Well, I am now running my cams as follows:

intake retarded 6 deg
exhaust advanced 4 deg

Idles much better now. CEL even went away for a minute!
Trying to get passed state inspection.
Tried higher idle and misfire goes away. But returns at regular idle rpms.

I should also mention that my head has been Decked so some milling has been done.

dude, you're running the kaz gears?? i thought everyone was having problems with them??

 

[Hughes412]

well.. our winter is your summer and so forth.
sydney is a fair way south of the equator..so yeah, it gets FKING COLD!

Well now I know how Palin feels(uhm)(usa)! LOLOLOL

 

[Crazee D]

dont believe the hype

 

[LordWorm]

dont believe the hype

what? you're not getting a slight hiccup somewhere around the 3k mark?

 

[jimmysuite]

dont believe the hype

I dont think its hype its fact, the pickups are not the same as stock and MOVE when you adjust the timing on the exhaust.

 

[LordWorm]

I dont think its hype its fact, the pickups are not the same as stock and MOVE when you adjust the timing on the exhaust.

That was going to be my next statement...

When twiggy and I were installing a microtech for a friend, he had the cam gears in...there was a problem on the stock ecu at 0-0, an occasional missfire around 3k (i think?) - we put the microtech in and got all sorts of ref errors and so forth... Still at 0-0. The stock ecu can probably compensate to a degree, but the aftermarket computer couldn't...

if we were getting ref errors at roughly 0-0, moving the pickups would cause the engine not to fire at all...or at least run very poorly.

If theres a fix for it Crazee, perhaps you should share - plenty of people have these gears and would love a fix....

 

[niky]

The stock ECU can take a lot of crap... but there might be reference errors due to a lot of things... a friend had the stupid 2.5k hiccup go away just from installing a "voltage stabilizer".

With cam position or crank position sensor issues, the car will run on the stock ECU but it will lose power from going to a "safe" tune. (we've seen a loss of 10-20 hp). If the issue is serious (as with the SR gears), it won't run at all.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=113356

If that's the KasmanKK gear... maybe the same groove-deepening trick we used on the SRs will work, but I don't know what you can do about the incorrect bolt spacing... the double-bolt for the cam position sensor on the SRs are more correct, I think.

 

[Dpwhitehead1]

The stock ECU can take a lot of crap... but there might be reference errors due to a lot of things... a friend had the stupid 2.5k hiccup go away just from installing a "voltage stabilizer".

With cam position or crank position sensor issues, the car will run on the stock ECU but it will lose power from going to a "safe" tune. (we've seen a loss of 10-20 hp). If the issue is serious (as with the SR gears), it won't run at all.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=113356

If that's the KasmanKK gear... maybe the same groove-deepening trick we used on the SRs will work, but I don't know what you can do about the incorrect bolt spacing... the double-bolt for the cam position sensor on the SRs are more correct, I think.

god i hope there's a fix...

 

[Crazee D]

Here's what I can tell you.
On MY setup...(worked FS02 head, NA twiggys, 626 IM, KK adj gears, RR UDCP, Medieval acces, 4-1 OBX header, 2.5")
we DID have a signal drop showing on the o'scope, but it was NOT present after we twiddled with the cam gears and IAC.
thats all I think I understand right now

 

[LordWorm]

Here's what I can tell you.
On MY setup...(worked FS02 head, NA twiggys, 626 IM, KK adj gears, RR UDCP, Medieval acces, 4-1 OBX header, 2.5")
we DID have a signal drop showing on the o'scope, but it was NOT present after we twiddled with the cam gears and IAC.
thats all I think I understand right now

oddness... even though the pickup points move in line with advance and retard? perhaps the stock ecu can get around that stuff hrmmm... I know for a fact the microtech can't - it expects a signal at certain times and if it doesn't get it (or gets it at the wrong times) the engine either wont start, or it will run like garbage, or it will stall out.... stock ecu was showing a major stammer but seemed the stock ecu was able to get around it somewhat - still wasn't perfect...

perhaps all is not lost - for those with a standard ecu or piggy back that is...

 

[magnumP5]

Sub...

The issue with the cam gears is only on the exhaust side though, correct? So technically, one could run an adjustable gear on the intake side and just use the stocker on the exhaust? I don't know how much good adjusting the intake cam while not adjusting the exhaust would be but it's a thought.

 

[twilightprotege]

yep, exhaust side only - that's where the sensor is.

 

[Sleepy]

This is all weird, mine ran fine (stock ecu with piggyback) with SR except for an occaisional misfire around 2.5k when cold once I went back to 0-0.

 

[LordWorm]

This is all weird, mine ran fine (stock ecu with piggyback) with SR except for an occaisional misfire around 2.5k when cold once I went back to 0-0.

as we've speculated, the stock ecu possibly manages to solve the issue somewhat by working around it (altering the point where it expects the signal to the last reference it actually received) - missfire could be because its struggling to do so until it learns its way around it

a stand alone though, will have a value (in the case of the microtech, one you cannot edit) - stating a piston will be at the top of the motor X degrees of the crank rotation before or after it recieves the input signal from the cam sensor.

The crank sensor is always used as a reference - the cam sensor is used as a "home" (i.e. which cylinder is firing, not a cylinder is firing).

when this information is wrong, the engine will try and squirt fuel at the wrong time (possibly even when valves are CLOSED), and try and ignite the fuel at the wrong time - and the engine will generally behave like a horses ass...