I got my 370Z dyno-tuned at Lightspeed Innovations on June 15. They are located in Red Deer, Alberta, which is almost half way between Edmonton and Calgary. They recently purchased the pro-tuner license for Uprev to serve the Nissan/Infiniti community after Cobb stopped supporting N/A cars from 2010 on. There are no other Uprev tuners in northern Alberta that I'm aware of (not sure about southern Alberta). I've heard good things about Cam and Lightspeed Innovations from various sources both inside and outside the Nissan community, so hearing that he wanted to be able to use Uprev to tune the 370Z was welcome news. I'm done with my non-forced induced breather mods, so naturally an ECU tune was the next logical step to optimize my power and torque curves and clean up the AFR. And due to the reputation Cam's built over the years, driving about 1.5 hours to get it done wasn't an issue.
Refer to these threads for more background information on Lightspeed Innovations:
Anyone Interested in "uprev" in Alberta?
370Z on Lightspeeds Dyno
As I walked into the shop, they had a welcoming and comfortable lounge area. The staff was friendly, and they all seemed to be car enthusiasts in some manner. Cam came out a few minutes later to introduce himself. He apologized to me and explained that he was having a really busy day where things weren't working out as planned, and as a result he couldn't start tuning my car at the appointment time we agreed upon, but if I was OK to wait, he would gladly stay and work on it as long as he needed to to finish the job. He was able start work on my car a little while later.
They have a AWD Dynapack 4000 dyno that connects directly onto the drive hubs. The staff was very careful removing my rear wheels. Cam accessed the intake manifold to hook up knock sensors. While he was tuning, he stopped to explain what he was doing and was patient in answering my questions. 3 baseline pulls were done. The results were very consistent and he proceeded to "tweak" and dyno to check the results. A total of about 9 or 10 tuning pulls were done.
I was impressed with how meticulous Cam was. He tweaked and dyno'd a couple more times beyond the point where he thought he had already achieved maximal gains, and it paid off, as he was able to positively change a consistent and annoying torque dip around 2600-2900 rpm.
You can check out the picture of the before and after curves in my dyno-tune album. In summary, my dyno-tune results were similar to what others have reported (ie. HP results not as high as I would have hoped, but there was a sizeable change in the acceleration feel): there was a net gain of 9 HP and 11 lb-ft at peak. The HP gains, though slight, were throughout the RPM range (and not only at the upper end), and peak HP was reached 300 RPM sooner after the tune. The torque curve was especially increased between the 2600-2900 range by 16 lb-ft.
My 370Z was the first one that Cam had tuned with Uprev. It took about 3 hours to do. However I'm thinking for successive 370Z tunes, he could start with my file and tweak each car from there, which means it could be done in a shorter amount of time.
Right away while hard accelerating on Cam's "personal 1/4 mile strip" and on the way home I noticed more ummphh on acceleration. The car seemed to rev much more willingly. That was definitely clear on the butt dyno.
Even my wife noticed it when she test drove it the next day. My car was running rich before the tune. The tailpipes used to get very black shortly after a wash, but not the case now. I'd be curious to see if my fuel economy changes a tiny bit now, especially with highway driving.
Other benefits of the Uprev tune:
- AFR 12.8-13.0 through the RPM range was what Cam found works well for our cars.
- the speed limiter was raised to 290 kph (180 mph).
- rev limiter raised to 8200 rpm.
- O2 sensor input from the HFC was omitted (I've had 2 CELs related to this in a span of 1 year).
- WOT limiter removed.
- programmed a "Valet" mode (speed limited to 50 kph, rev limited to 3000 rpm).
I am very happy with my results and would not hesitate to recommend that others go to him for their tuning needs. Cam gave me a tour of his facility and it is impressive. Thanks Cam for doing a great job on my dyno-tune!
