Nistune Forums

This post is partly because I am new to tuning, and partly because the documentation I've been reading relates mostly to turbo charged vehicles.
Allow me to quickly run down the status of my car.

It's a 1992 Nissan Maxima with a VE30DE DOHC engine with variable timing control. I had my ECU fitted with the type 1 board.

Go sort of fast upgrades include:

y-pipe
Z32 MAF
CAI
ASP lightened crank pulley
Fidanza lightened flywheel
bored throttle body
bored upper and lower intake manifolds
phenolic intake spacers
electric exhaust cutout
Innovate Wideband

So, no upgraded injectors, pump, turbo, etc...

Based on these specs where should I start my tuning journey? Where should my focus be in NIStune - and aside from the obvious like leaving the K constant alone, what should I be ignoring?
Last year was my first time at a track with the car in the 1/4 mile. I was pleased to be able to match the original Road & Track time considering their test was done with a new car, and I ran mine on a 17 year old motor.
My car was essentially stock when I made my first run. Now I want to put down some head-turning naturally aspirated numbers.
I appreciate your thoughts on this. All noobs have to start somewhere.

Thanks!

You might have to adjust your K constant a little for your Z32 MAF.
When you convert MAF's it adjust the K constant for you, but it's based on estimates.

I'm a NA ka24de, and have been tuning for ~1 year on the street.

You need to read as much as possible about your engine on forums etc..

I've read and read and read and bought books on engine management and read those and slowly formed my tuning theories. People aren't open about it at all..
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WAY 1 Street Tuning
Start with a stock timing map and a stock air fuel map.
You need to find as many Dyno's as possible that show AFR's.
If they make a "chip" for your car, and you can find a dyno with the AFR's of the chipped car then that's your best starting point. Other then that normally 12.5-13.5:1 afr's produce the most power under WOT. Once you decide what your target AFR is under WOT from reading etc. then you go into action. I made one with 12.9:1 and another with 12.5:1 to initially start off with. 12.5:1 seemed slower/too rich then 12.9:1, so I stuck with targeting for 12.9:1 (gas isn't that expensive in the U.S., even in the People's Republic of California.)

Setup nistune to log in stream mode. Setup the AFR wideband view to only show values from your wideband when you are WOT. (Set decel cut to like 4.3volts.) Then go and do some 2nd-3rd gear pulls.
Come home and adjust the cells in your air/fuel map so that they are closer to the afr's that you want.
I.E.
Say your innovate shows the cell at 4000rpms' and 90 load at WOT has an afr of 13.5:1 and you're aiming for 13.0:1. Then you'll adjust the same cell on the air/fuel table a few increments up, and then go log again. Rinse and repeat until you AFR's under WOT are all where you want them. (Turbo people have alot more to worry about..)

Once your AFR's are where you want them, then you turn timing up by 2 degrees.. This will change all your afrs, and you'll then adjust them all over again back to your target. Once they are perfect again with +2 degrees of timing, you increase the timing 2+ degrees again and tune
AFR's all over again..

After increasing timing 4-6 degrees I'd expect you'll knock on a hot day after the engine is heat-soaked, you then need to back of timing a bit and you're done. If you are like me you'll decrease the timing a little bit (1-2 degrees and throw in 1-2 colder range plugs.) Some people run a lower fuel to tune with, and then switch to a higher octane fuel once they hear knock.

Once again from reading on forums, those "in the know" seem to agree that for my engine (ka24de) 33 degrees of timing is where they saw the most HP/torque with the least likely hood of knocking. (Increase to 34 and you get maybe a little more power, buy I'm more likely to knock.)
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Way 2 Dyno Tune.
I'm not sure cause I've never done it.
I guess you throw your junk up, do a run, adjust afr's, do another run and find out what exact AFR's at each individual cell gives you the most HP. Then they just turn timing up and do a run, and turn timing up and do a run until they see little to no gain from increasing timing, that is where knock will start to happen, and they'll back off a little bit..

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I honestly know little besides what I've read for the last 2 years. I've read everything I can get my hands on though. Big name tuners don't like to talk about how they tune so I hope this thread spawns a large discussion on how people tune.

Thanks. I really appreciate your input. It's kind of like standing in a dirty room and deciding where to begin cleaning it. Figuring out what my priorities are for a fresh tune, and where I should be focused.
This helps nudge me in the right direction. Cheers.

hopefully someone on here might have done a VG30 tune

GSR steve likes the NA V8's and has some very impressive cars.. maybe he might be able to shed some light on your VG30 as he runs nistune as well..

viewtopic.php?t=946

i would be looking into some cams and playing around with the VCT a little IMO.. and more compression is good too... if your taking the head off.. for a bit of a port job.. and revised valve springs...

Tuning the WOT figures is easy done on the road using caution and also the light cruise can be done however mid throttle response is best done on the dyno as it is far easier and gets a more accurate result.. but if your patient enough and have a good driver or you can use my three button mouse approach.. but is is a little on the dangerous side..

Chris

chris2712au wrote:hopefully someone on here might have done a VG30 tune

GSR steve likes the NA V8's and has some very impressive cars.. maybe he might be able to shed some light on your VG30 as he runs nistune as well..

viewtopic.php?t=946

i would be looking into some cams and playing around with the VCT a little IMO.. and more compression is good too... if your taking the head off.. for a bit of a port job.. and revised valve springs...

Tuning the WOT figures is easy done on the road using caution and also the light cruise can be done however mid throttle response is best done on the dyno as it is far easier and gets a more accurate result.. but if your patient enough and have a good driver or you can use my three button mouse approach.. but is is a little on the dangerous side..

Chris

Thanks. I'm running a VE30DE not a VG30E. I know right off the bat there is nothing I can do with the cams. The earlier VG's had more options in that area, unfortunately we don't. Base timing will help a bit, but the valve springs and VTC is a grey area for me. Still on the learning curve.

What is the 3 button mouse approach exactly?