RomRaider

Hi all, have decided to have a go at self tuning my 04 Forester xt EJ255 5MT. The car is basically stock except for cat deletes, Hyperflow TMIC and Turbosmart BOV. Shooting for around 16psi peak boost using a MBC. Just hoping someone with some experience could have a glance at my base timing and knock advance maps and tell me if I'm safe or way off. KCAM map was copied from Patricks ULT Stage 1 haha. I've rescaled the load as I was seeing up to 2.55 during test pulls, and as you can see the 2.4 and 2.6 load ranges are very heavily retarded because I'm just trying to create a super safe starting point, tuning timing feels alot more involved (and scary) than anything else and I really don't want to hurt the car. Thanks in advance to anyone willing to have a look (:

i would say overall you probably have too much timing, taking the advance map from someone elses tune but not the base timing as well rarely works out. Remember the ECU is adding both of these tables together and using that as the target value so at say 2.4 load you'd be up over 24 degrees total at high RPM which is likely too much.


when adjusting the base/kca maps add them together first to see what you are actually working and compare them between roms in their combined format - you can add them up pretty quickly in excel/spreadsheet apps

Yep, makes sense, thanks for the advice. If you don't mind another question, in this case would you be editing the base timing map or the KCA map? From what I've read it can be helpful to have a 6-8 degrees in the KCA map so that the ecu has a fair bit of power to automatically adjust timing, so I'd assume editing the base timing is where i want to make changes.

Just on a side note, I've done a fair bit of logging and using my diy det cans and haven't had any noticeable knock on this map, which makes me curious as to how well the ECU can adjust to avoid knock even with fairly high base timing like this? Or is it better to have a low, safe baseline and let KCA do the advance? Thanks again

Maybe a silly question but I feel like I need to understands this. If the ECU adds these two tables, how come it adds upp to 24 degrees when the biggest value in the base map table at 2.4 load is 15.86 and KCA is 5.98?

My guess is bludgod was slightly off on the math, but there are a couple other tables that can add or decrease timing. IAT is one. That usually adds 3 degrees or so when IAT are low. It doesn't take much to get from 21.8 -> 24.

For your other question, I always work on the base timing table and leave the kca map. That way if you IAM(DAM) does drop if has timing to take out. My $0.02 is that you would want more timing in the KCA map in the higher load. Right now if your IAM drops to .5 you are only pulling 3ish degrees from the high load area and 4 degrees from the low loads. Personally I'd rather pull more from the high load and less from the low load.

Someone will correct me if I'm way wrong though

Thanks for clarifying. I'll check my own tables later when I get home.

So I have checked the tables for my 2013 EDM STi and instead of the "Base Timing" table I have "Base Timing Primary Cruise" and "Base Timing Primary Non-cruise" tables defined instead. Am I right in assuming these tables are the same as the one OP posted, except that it's divided into Open loop and Closed loop?

Also @aziwazzi I'm sorry for hijacking your thread.

not open loop and closed loop, but TGV status open vs closed. There are tables to define when the valves should be closed (rpm/tps/maf/load readings etc) and otherwise they are open so your ECU has 2 sets of tables that it switches between based on the TGV status.

Since my TGVs all cruise and non-cruise table should be the same then? I found some that are not. Or maybe the ECU just uses 1 set of tables now?

if you have removed the TGV's then yes tables should be the same, if you still have them then the tables would be different between open and shut status.