Tuned! UpRev "Tune-A". My Impressions.

AlphaSnacks

Background:

I've owned my UpRev cable for a number of years now. I tuned my 350Z with it, and it made a superb difference in everyday driving. When I sold the 350Z for the 370Z, removing the license and driving the car totally stock to the dealer felt...lame. The car lost a lot of its balls. Anyway, I couldn't wait to tune the 370Z, but of course I had no choice but to do so. First, I wanted to break the motor in with a few thousand miles. And then of course, I had to get my mods done:

MotorDyne ART Pipes
Invidia Gemini
Oil Cooler
HPS Intake Tubes + K&N Filters

The above mods definitely helped pick up quite a bit of power over stock, there was no question about it. I'd say the ART Pipes and exhaust are the most beneficial, and the Oil Cooler allows me to retain all of that power throughout the entire drive (as opposed to gradually losing power as the car gets hotter and hotter - I URGE everyone to spend the $500 to get this installed, most shops include an oil change in that price - that's $100+ right there).

Power and AFR After Mods

The colder weather made it pretty difficult to do any proper tune logging with Cipher, as traction was just a nightmare. But as the weather got a little bit warmer, I decided to finally put it all together and do my log sets. I already knew that one focus of these logs should be the 2K-3K RPM area, as breather mods made my car extremely lean in that region - AFRs in the 14s and 15s needed to be addressed. Then towards redline, the mixture was getting a bit too rich, dipping into the 11s and 10s past 6000RPM.

I ran a multitude of logs to collect as much data as possible across various gears, at various speeds (0-100, 50-70 6th gear, 40-60 5th gear, town driving, highway cruising, 3rd gear pull from 30MPH). I carefully inspected everything and noted all of the troubled spots and everything that needed attention.

Tune "A"

Within 24 hours of talking to UpRev, I had my first working ROM: Tune-A. A pair of maps, map 1 where AFRs under WOT will hit an average target of ~12.5, and map 2 where targets are in the ~12.8 region. Map 1 is the more aggressive map and man does it bark. Map 2 is solid, linear and smooth, but Map 1 is how the Z is meant to behave everyday.

Low-end torque is much, much improved. No more flat spots in the 2K-3K RPM range. And once the needle climbs past 3K RPM, no matter the gear, there is notable surge in power that pins you into the seat with every tip of the throttle. It simply feels amazing. The rear end snaps and barks (no worries, Michelin SuperSports are getting mounted in a few weeks) and the car just feels alive and eager. The 350Z felt great with the tune, but the 370Z feels transformed. Driving down the boulevard where the speedlimit is 40, before tune I'd be in 4th, because 5th felt a bit too strained and weak. Now after the tune, 5th is ideal and provides plenty of kick. It feels as if I've gained an extra gear, if that makes any sense. Highway cruising feels spectacular, allowing me easy passes with the low-end torque.

More to Come

Now, there's a reason why this is called "Tune A". I'm still working with UpRev on improvements and adjustments. I believe there are still timing adjustments that can be made, in addition to possible massaging of the AFRs some more once the weather properly warms up and I can hook better to get new logs done - I think aiming at a target mixture of lower 12s is where I want to be, even if it causes me to p*ss out a bit more fuel. Lastly, I want to try out a new throttle table - specifically the "2300" table to see if it gets rid of the annoying rev hang our cars do after they get a little hot. So there's still more work to do; more logs for me to log and inspect cell by cell during every run.

But all in all, there's no sense in modding your 370Z if you're not going to finish the bolt-ons with a tune.

370ZilverZ

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370ZilverZ Journal

BMW Z4

AlphaSnacks

Tune-B is done.

Timing and throttle adjusted. Will upload tonight and let everyone know how it feels.

Zrider79

hey Arnold, i belive we got the art pipes from motordyne around the sametime for the 350z. I remember reading your reviews. What color was your 350z !

AlphaSnacks

Daytona Blue.

sfearl1

^^ the best 350 color ever! i miss mine from time to time

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Scott

AlphaSnacks

Same here. I loved it. It broke necks left and right, it was just so stunning.

Someone on the forum here painted their 370Z Daytona Blue. It comes up every now and then on the main page. Unreal.

sfearl1

i've seen it... it's so beautiful!

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Scott

Laf

I'm curious when it comes to tuning ignition on the street...I would be interested to know how. Thank you and thumbs up!

AlphaSnacks

I haven't had much time to drive my car due to a number of reasons. But I did sample out my changes with Throttle Map 2300, Idle bump to 850RPM, and slight timing advance...it definitely builds and improves on the original tune.

I do suggest bumping the idle of our cars a little higher, there is virtually no difference in sound or fuel consumption, and it's much easier to accelerate smoother too, especially if in case you pop the clutch a little too soon - instead of the needle diving to 500 or 600RPM, it'll dive to the 700-850 mark where there is naturally a bit more power to send, which won't make your mistake as jarring.

Coon-azz

So being new to the 370z all together, I have to ask what kind of RWHP gains (in general) are people seeing with aftermarket exhaust, CAI, and a tune (maybe downpipe). I was hitting 289 RWHP on my Pontiac Solstice but it was turbo charged. I'd expect to see more from the Z or would I?

I know different parts can increase/degrees by a few HP, but in general what are we seeing?

AlphaSnacks

Hey dude, no offense but that's a topic for a different thread.

The quick answer to your question is: full bolt ons + ECU will net you anywhere from 330-340WHP without headers. All depends on the dyno and a billion other variables.

Coon-azz

My apologies. I'm still trying to find my way around this forum. Where would this topic go if not under tuning?

AlphaSnacks

You have to start a different thread in the tuning section.

AlphaSnacks

So after driving the car around a bit today, once it got really warm I noticed throttle response virtually disappeared with Tune B using Map 1. Throttle or power (I'm still not sure) from 2-3K RPM was just dead, until 3K and then the car would pick up steam. My oil temps were approaching 220 because of the slow moving local traffic I was stuck at, going up a bunch of hills, lights, stop signs, etc.

It won't go above 220 because of the oil cooler, but I'm suspecting that the ECU is seeing extra timing dialed in and pulling even more timing in the lower RPMs once the oil temps rise a bit. I doubt it's the throttle map, since even if I buried the throttle the car wouldn't really respond in the 2K-3K range. When I switched to map 2, the car drove fine and dandy.

I'm having the timing pulled back on map 1 to see if that fixes it. Anyone have any ideas of their own? Is the timing increase causing this lack of power or the throttle map being adjusted?