Newsletter No 84

　20 February 2020

G'day friends

We all know that the economy is bad. Most also realise it is not going to pick up soon.
So spend your money wisely !

In the past increasing the power of a turbo-diesel was as easy as increasing the boost and add more fuel.
Most modern vehicles are running on the edge of fuelling and boost- adding more would be foolish.
So we had to think of something else and that was to reduce intake restriction by adding a K&N as well as getting the turbo to spool easier= which resulted in a healthy horsepower increase.

Thereafter we adjust the fuelling, boost and pump timing to get even more power. Most of this is at low Rpm.
This particular graph is from a Ford 2.2 Bakkie and display rear wheel power.

Before you pop for just any “Free-flow” exhaust, consider that this has now become part of the engine parameters.
Just like adding a pipe to a 2-stroke you can lose an engine if designed incorrectly.
We have a comprehensive list of Stainless bolt on systems, which increases every few weeks.
If you own a VX200 twin turbo-we have designed a exhaust to make your palms sweat.
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With so many tuners coming onto the play, I noticed a lot of clients come to me confused about St2 and full-house &&&
Generally Full House on a 2.2 Ranger Bakkie, as above, would entail:
K&N for +- 1000 N$
Downpipe and complete system in SS N$ 7879.80 fitted
Unichip with Dynotuning N$ 4000
Improved IC 9500 fitted
Turbo upgrade 22 500
This should give you 185Kw and 520Nm. I seldom mention all this, because for such money you can probably upgrade to a 3.2 Motor and then do all of that for some serious power.
I am conservative and only mention what makes a serious difference without breaking the bank.

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I often get calls that ask “stel julle CO ?”
I do have 2 Exhaust gas analysers that measure 5 gasses.
We adjust CO and timing at different load and Rpm ranges on the Dyno using the Unichip to adjust this in real time, to guarantee you optimum fuel economy with maximum safe power.
To tune most ECU equipped vehicles cost 4000 N$ incl. with Carburetted vehicles starting at 1500.

But what most of these callers are referring to is CO at idle. This was popular in the previous century when cars were still fitted with Carburettors. This was mostly done after a carburettor rebuild, as most fuel systems do not go out of whack from their own accord. In other words “fingers” are usually responsible for the out of tune state.
Larger workshops had to acquire a CO-tester at considerable expense, therefore it was popular to charge clients after a service for checking CO and timing.
Mechanical fuel injection could also be adjusted manually and therefore also had to be returned to factory specs after skadu-boom mechanics had gotten hold of a screwdriver.
The competent and experienced technician usually adjusted these systems by ear and used the CO meter to back this up.

Electronic fuel injection were more complex to adjust and only a few brave, or drunk, souls tended to attack this unnecessarily.
Modern fuel injection systems have a baseline tune that is almost impossible to “adjust”, and rely on the oxygen sensor in the exhaust, to adjust fuelling at all part throttle fuel ranges up to about 2800 RPM.

I believe in only adjusting something if it makes a difference, and to charge somebody 600 bucks for something that does not is outside my scope of business.
That being said, if your car needs idle CO adjustment, we can do so after a consultation and time costs money. 600 N$ per hour, to be precise.
I believe that the intelligent solution is to have the vehicle tuned on a Dyno, to cover all load/rpm scenarios.

If you bring me an older car or project, reading this article will prove beneficial The Ultimate Dyno Session Preparation Guide
Look at what we achieved.
If you do a conversion, such as Lexus or a bigger motor into your car and use the stock ECU, we can tune it correctly with the Unichip. Prices start at N$ 4000 all inclusive.
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The Toyota V8 D4d single Turbo Unichip conversion on the Bakkie has been simplified.
We no longer offer the Plug ‘n Play system, as this is not programmable for your specific vehicle. We believe in Tuning cars, as I could otherwise work from the boot of my car.
So you still have the simple system for 4000 and the one with boost control etc. as referred to in Newsletter 83 for N$ 6000 but wired in.

This vehicle has more Achilles’ heels, than its marginal clutch.
The stock Turbo will give way if an unscrupulous “tuner” has a go at it. We now offer an upgraded unit on exchange for N$ 15 525 and a 6-month guarantee.

Through work done on the GDi Hilux and D4d Cruiser we have run across some flashtuned vehicles and made the following observations:
Most people are blissfully unaware what mapping entails
These “tuners” seem to not care about reliability and their clients do not ask either.

Often the dealer cannot find the flash with his diagnostics, because it tells him that no update is required. Only if you look at the calibration code, do you realise it is bogus.
Reflashing the OEM coding onto the computer does not always work and can give weird results, such as a motor that is scary RICH @ 3000 Rpm and too lean at 2500 whilst being so so @ 4000.
Please tell me if you suspect or know that your ECU has been tampered with, as it can become expensive if I only find out during a tune.

I quite often get requests, such as “Would it help to remap a normal aspirated engine”:
Please let me clarify that on a gasoline powered turbo engine it is very easy to make more power- just add boost until just before the engine makes boom. This is not tuning and I am too conservative to subscribe to such practice.
I like to tune normally aspirated gasoline motors as well as Turbo diesels, as it is highly unlikely to cause panicked midnite calls of clients who have just lost a motor outside of Grunau.
I do tune Turbo gasoline racing engines where myself and the client know the conditions they are run at.

Remapping, flash or chip tuning usually refer to hardware or software changes inside the engines ECU. Often only the particular “tuner” who did this can reverse or change it again. And since doing this does not necessitate any diagnostics equipment, such as a Dyno set-up, a lot of people do this “tuning” from the boot of their car.

I think Nick’s Racing track-record counts as being reliable and making a positive difference.
Tuning in Namibia since 1993

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS69owXpGdY
Not only do K&N airfilters make more power, they also save you fuel.
And since you never need to buy another Airfilter, it will save you money over time.
Commercial clients have also told me that testing on oils samples revealed a K&N passing less dust through than the stock filters over their service period.

Did you know that K&N also produce pollen in-car filters and those for HVAC’s ?

Finally, where a stock filter needs replacement every 5000 to 10 000 km’s most K&N can easily do 10x that before they need cleaning. I brush mine off with a soft brush every 10 000 km service and ran it over 170 000 km’s before I cleaned it on my Land Cruiser. I did not have to, but thought it about time.

We have now printed these stickers for our clients:

So is it not about time that you bought yours before going on your next trip ?
Be it Henties for Easter or the dust-fields of Etoscha.

Remember that we also carry oil filters for most motorbikes and ATV's, as well as some cars.

Please check

http://www.nicksracing.com/K&N%20Prices.htm

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Recall on post-2011 2.5D4d’s- Euro 4- fitted before 15 November 2018

We have tried contacting all clients where a Unichip was installed on these vehicles by us, to have their mapping corrected. What happens is that at extremely low RPM (below 1800) and under high load, such as accelerating around a corner in 5’th gear instead of 2’nd or 3’rd the engine strains to such an extent, that it throws a P0093 Fuel system large leak error.

This is only on cars with a single dual rail pressure sensor (6-wires per sensor), i.e. 3-plugs on the Injector drivers mounted to the firewall.
So far we only had this on vehicles with a retrofitted Intercooler.

If yours is such a Euro-4 vehicles, please let me have the registration number to see if you qualify for a No-cost recall. The fix will take less than 20 minutes and costs nothing, of course. This is only valid on vehicles tuned by us !
Should you want a re-tune, I can do this for 750 N$ instead of the usual 1500. Though it should not be necessary.

The 2.5 & 3L D4d bakkies were notorious for their failing injectors.
It is good to have fuel delivery & injectors checked if you believe there is a fault.

To cap it off “my trade is making the engine more efficient” less fuel with more safe power

Nick