Car Tuning and Overclocking

[purple stain]

I know this is not the right forum for this but it does somewhat relate.

Curious if anyone with car knowledge can tell me what tuning is? Is it basically like overclocking your engine? In the sense that your making it work harder than it was originally designed? Do they normally handle it well?

 

[Kurdain1]

Tuning a car is far different than overclocking a PC.

Basically you are reprogramming your engine control unit (cars computer) to achieve optimum performance. Many vehicles are conservatively tuned, especially if they have turbos or superchargers. Changing these tunes can greatly improve power and in some cases if it is done right, your engine will burn cleaner overall.

For example a turbo car might run exceptionally rich during wide open throttle, this is done for a variety or reasons, but mainly to protect the combustion chamber to keep it cooler with unspent fuel, again this is helpful for a number of reasons. BUT a rich condition robs you of power, if you tune the ECU, in many cases this takes a new ECU or a 'stand-alone', you can dial your throttle-air-fuel mixture curve across the entire RPM spectrum to ideal specs and gain quite a bit of power in some cases.

Drawback is if you run lean (too little fuel) or run bad fuel or non-premium or any other out of control variable your engine can go BOOM in seconds. It is not-uncommon for high-end engines to have multi-dimensional fuel maps for air, fuel, throttle position, flex-fuel, boost, knock detection,etc... many are now integrated into the transmission too for optimum torque curves and RPM.....I DIGRESS.....

There are VOLUMES written on car tuning and on top of that every tuner has their own opinions, methods and 'tricks of the trade'.

Does that help at all?

 

[purple stain]

Yes that does. It sounds like it's optimal but again as you stated their are risks. I'll have to read up more on it. I'm assuming a engine with a turbo is geared to be able to handle that extra pressure but i'm not sure if it's the quality of the engine. Anyway i'm planning on getting a Kia Optima SXL turbo. Just starting to poke around and see what kind of extra performance i can get out of it.I'm definitly going to be getting a cold air intake and exhaust but was curious about the tune.From a glance it sounds great but that's why i asked because i'm curious about the negatives. Espically if it's still under warranty xD

 

[Kurdain1]

Do your research. Intakes are far less important, at least for early intakes, than a good exhaust for turbos.
A boost controller is usually one of the first upgrades you can do.

Again DO YOUR RESEARCH, it takes 1 mistake, a lean condition, and you are buying a new motor.

I have a 425 RWHP MR2, the engine blew in less than a second on the track because the fuel pump went out, well actually it lost some power just enough to maintain enough pressure to keep the ECU from triggering a fail safe and cut ignition but not enough to prevent the lean condition, and the engine went lean before I could pull my foot off the gas, it's that fast and that was with me watching the gauges. So I rebuilt a brand new motor...again. 🙁

Good luck and happy tuning.

Oh 1 other thing is be wary of tuning shops, they seem to be on every corner and most are in and out of business on regular cycles. Find a well known reputable shop that will put their work and warranties in writing. I went through an issue with a well known shop that was all friends until I had an issue I wanted him to stand behind, and since I trusted word of mouth I was out $8000.