Communication and juggling, what do they have in common?

December 28, 2011

Lots of balls?

Seriously though, as you can see from my last post (which was a long time coming!) there are more then a few things going on that I’m trying to make progress on.

  • Support of existing customers install and tuning
  • Meeting current orders in a reasonable period of time
  • Pre-sale support/Q&A
  • Tuning local and remote installs
  • Developing new products/innovation
  • VW Drag Racing program

Now that I wrote it down, I think that’s more then what it has seemed!! Each of those things requires some head space, and there are things that ALL of you can do to help me out:

  • Include history in your emails
  • When calling leave messages including call back numbers/email
  • Text messaging – include your name/contact info especially if you are a new customer or someone whom I don’t talk to regularly
  • Be patient – I get lots of calls, and when I do have free time at home it’s not always easy to call back due to ambient noise level (parents will understand that one!)

As always don’t hesitate to contact us, we will try to be as accommodating as possible. However, going a short way to help us help you, it will make information turns much quicker.

Again, thanks to all of our existing and future customers for their interest in KPTuned!

Contact:
Paul Kiernan
610-248-6490 (cell/txt/pic msg)
kandpperformance@gmail.com


Has it really been that long??

December 18, 2011

I’ve been busy but never *this* busy! It’s been awhile since I’ve updated to the site so over the next few weeks look for some page updates and some new content.

Current shipping time on MS ECU’s is 3-4wk for new orders. Custom harnesses are on indefinite back order until I clear up some time to work on them. Std flying lead harnesses are unaffected and will ship with ECU purchases.

The KPTuned GTI is still moving along, although slowly. Sometimes you have to wait to get the best… more on that later!

Anyway, thanks to those who visit for hanging in there and we’ll be back with more shortly.

Stay KPTuned!


KPTuned ALL MOTOR GTI – 2011 Re-Build

April 26, 2011

Finally taking the time to work on the car, and find time for some updates here at KPTuned.com!

So, what the heck is going on over at KPTuned.com? We’ve been churning out Megasquirt(R) standalone systems one after another.. tuning cars both in person and over electronic means.. and had a little boy adding to the KPTuned family, all of which is keeping us QUITE busy!

The KPTuned ALLMOTOR GTI had a good, but short run with the 3.2 R32 based motor. Unfortunately, it’s moved on, destined for another car that we’ll be doing all the wiring and an MS3/3x install on. With added complexity of a full engine bay shave, and wire tuck… stay tuned for and update of that one as it gets built.

The current plan for the car is to go back to ‘simple’ a bit, but change things up at the same time. I’m throwing a 12v together with spare parts trying to take out the ‘spray’ record.. if I can find one. Goals for the car are just to keep it light, keep it together, and keep it (relatively) cheap. 2150lbs is the weight goal we want to make, and make enough power to go 11.50 flat no matter what. It will feature a slick KPTuned Megasquirt ECU setup utilizing MS3/3x (of course?) along with Jean Belanger’s Jbperf IO/X board for additional I/O like individual cylinder EGT, dual WBo2 over serial communications, and some other sensors and outputs we’d like to try like dual water temp sensors, closed loop electric waterpump and fan control. One goal is to help develop a more integrated electronic dashboard as well…

The KPTuned ALLMOTOR GTI is getting some much needed attention in the fabrication department, with great thanks to Jim @ Racecraft Fabrication in Millville, NJ. I’ve known Jim for quite a long time and there’s no other I’d trust to make my parts! You might remember him from previous updates, he did the manifold welding on Derek Baker’s “KPTuned” ITB’d VR6 MK2 GLI. This time around, Jim’s being tasked to build a KPTuned rough designed intake manifold (to our exacting specs!), large tube downpipe with Burns Vband collector, proper seat mounts, and finally a proper crossmember with traction bar mounts and all our accessory items integrated in. Luckily Kurtis @ MBS already came through with a killer 3.5″ full aluminum exhaust, with integrated v-bands, and Magnaflow muffler. Should make the rest of the fab go nice and quick!

Now for the pictures!!

Lots of pan clearance, thank you OEM Mk5 junk…

New exhaust thanks to Kurtis @ MBS

MY way to mount 02J shifter

He’s got a lot of parts and much work to do…

Stay KPTuned for further details as things come together.


Back, Back, Back!!

August 4, 2010

Site has been down for a bit, and I accidentally lost some data. I’ll have it back in the next week or so.

In the meantime just a quick update from Waterfest ran a 12.90@106 at 2500lbs with the new engine setup with LOTS of room for improvement.


We’re back!

December 11, 2009

Ok, honestly we have been for a few days now, but we’re just getting all caught up. It’ll take us a little bit of time to get to 100% but some space has been cleared for our electronics lab and it’s all back up and running. We’ll be a little bit longer to take installs but it’s all in process right now. Again, thanks to everyone for being patient with our communications black out during the move.


KPTuned is moving!

November 18, 2009

KPTuned is happy to announce that we’re moving. Along with a new personal property will come a new larger space for Megasquirt system assembly, repair, development and testing. We will also have much more room for installs, which has been a big limitation for us over the last few years.

The new address will be:
105 Sunset Rd
Oxford, PA 19363

Please DO NOT send anything to us for modification/repair without speaking to us first!

Due to the move we will be closed from 11/25-12/2 and have limited internet usage during that time. Stay tuned for further updates!


KPTuned now an official B&G Megasquirt Reseller

October 6, 2009

Press release info:

As an approved Megasquirt® reseller, KPTuned offers a line of fully assembled, developed and integrated Megasquirt® engine management packages for VW, Audi and other import vehicles. Each KPTuned Megasquirt® ECU is specifically modified for the intended installation with all additional circuits installed, a custom wiring diagram provided, pre-configured software and vehicle start-up support available. Wiring, installation and tuning services are also available on site upon request. ECU repair and modification services are available at reasonable cost.

KPTuned


MS3 Beta Testing

August 28, 2009

Some of you MS savvy folk may already know, but MS3 beta testing is going on right now. Luckily, I am in possession of one of the Beta units and I’m going to share some information and all of my experiences with the MS3.

First off I’d like to start off with a link to the MS3 information for those of you who don’t know what’s in store

http://www.ms3efi.com/index.html

Similar to the MS2 upgrade, MS3 is a processor core replacement in addition to quite a few features aimed at further expansion. The two obvious features are the on board USB and the SD car port.

The testing in this phase is targeted for ‘upgrade’ mode from an MS1 or MS2 processor. In the near future, an MS3X board will offer expanded I/O for sequential fuel injection, additional coil drivers, and many other generic and dedicated hardware PWM I/O. Again see the link for additional details.

After some bench testing with the new board (and one code bug spotted) I attempted to put MS3 on the car this past weekend.

Amazing the car started with just a few cranks and a bit of pedal Other then blowing a bunch of smoke (oil) out of the exhaust it ran. Success!! Well, sort of, it wouldn’t hold an idle worth a poo and seemed to be misfiring. Time to see what’s up…

Just having put the car back together after multiple changes, it was time to check the stupids, and sure enough cyl 5 injector wasn’t plugged in. Doh. Slapped it all back together to try again.

This time, the car started right up, more smoke, but after some a/f tweaks and upping of the idle valve duty, it held an idle. I don’t think I got MS1 working that quick. :P

I’m still having some sort of trouble with the wideband so I haven’t done much tuning but I did rip it up and down the street and it runs pretty well. Especially considering it’s experimental code with a brand new daughter board, with a lot of default settings!

There are a few features that are built into the latest versions of the Tunerstudio software that make this possible. The VE and Spark import features can actually rescale the 12×12 tables to MfS3′s 16×16 without any further input:

MS1 VE1

MS3 VE1

MS1 Ignition1

MS3 Ignition1

There’s also a new feature called “difference reports” that catch the differences between the on board msq and any new msq that you try and load on top of it. If you make offline changes and go to connect, it will prompt you to verify each one and you can even select from something entirely different if the need arises.

Setting up the ignition has never been easier, it’s all been changed to a single, more simple setup screen:

Timing was spot on with the 78deg trigger with no additional adjustments needed.

I need to fix my oiling issues, but I will be putting some additional mileage on the setup and continuing my testing over the next few weeks. I hope to get USB and the SD car logging working once the car is running a little better.

Stay KPTuned for updates!!


Dyno Results – KPTuned 1995 GTI VR6 – GIAC vs Megasquirt

March 31, 2009

As most of you know I recently got my personal car running on an MS1 V3 and I’m able to switch between the stock ECU and the MS ecu rather easily. Below are the results:

As you can see the gains are about 3-4whp through the entire curve, more down low where the stock ecu runs pretty lean and a bigger gain up top. Also the ability to rev about 500rpms higher is nice, I’ll be able to wind my shifts out a little more for better before/after shift power matching.

The results were replicated within ~1whp with three back to back pulls on MS. I didn’t have enough time on the dyno to let the car cool down to the levels at the beginning of tuning, but the results might have been just a touch higher.

You can have better then a chip tune, even a ‘really good’ one.

Stay KPTuned for track results shortly!


1995 GTI VR6 on Megasquirt!

February 24, 2009

Exactly, another definitive how-to with actual information! I spent a few hours this week finally putting a MS setup on my personal 1995 GTI VR6, and here is how it turned out!

First off here is the information thread for distro cars, LINK just in case someone is looking for that information.

The car in question is a 1995 GTI VR6 running all factory sensors with the only exception being an Innovate LC1 wideband and a 1.8T open element temp sensor. It has been running a stock GIAC chipped ECU for a long time. The only addition to the engine bay is a single vacuum line for the map signal. The car is using a stock VR6 coilpack with integrated ignitor.

The board was built and setup tuned here at KPTuned

MS1 V3.57

MSnS-E HR10G

Board mods/hardware:

VRIN – TSEL (JP1 1/2)

TSEL – VROUT (J1 4/5)

Bottom VR pot fully CCW, top pot a few turns CW from fully CCW

Glen’s Garage Error* Daughter board for all the ‘extra’ circuits

I used the daughter board to make adding the extra circuits a little easier with the 3.57SMT board that doesn’t have a proto area. I will post the circuits I used to help those that want to use a V3 board instead.

Ignition triggers are from the LED’s but the 3.57 has internal 1k pullups, the triggers com from PAD1, PAD2, and PAD3 for D14-16 respectively.

Similar to this circuit, but for each LED using a 1k pullup:

Tach output circuit, use a 4.7k resistor where 1-10k is listed:

FIDLE output for stock 2 wire idle valve:

TIP120 for PWM idle valve with 1N4001 flyback diode between output and 12v Remove Q4, Q20 and R39. replace R39 with a wired link or solder the (E) emittor to the right side of position R39 rather than at the Q4 position.

MAF wiring below, it uses a 12v power and ground, a signal ground and outputs 0-5v based on airflow. The Ford one is the same:

Outputs for Smog pump relay and CEL light are below. I’m going to be using the smog pump wiring and relay for a small fan in the future and use the CEL for a shift light:

Launch control and table switch circuit, table switch is on JS9, Launch JS11:

Software

I have posted decent msq’s for both 029y4 and Hi-Res HR10g, both can be interchanged on a settings level, VE tables are different. Caution the 029y4 file has a ‘wrong’ req_fuel and if you plan on using it set it correctly and scale the VE table by .72. http://www.msruns.com/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=22776 You will have to login to download the msq.

This is the first install that I’ve tuned with the new EFI Analytics Tuner Studio package, but I suggest to all to check it out HERE.
It is

All VE analysis was done with EFI Analytics MegaLogViewer package, it made tuning the car a single person operation. Details HERE

Wiring

Wiring is straight forward from a cut up Motronic ECU connector to the MS DB37 connector. This is so I can switch betwen the MS and stock ECU setup for back to back testing. The pinout is posted below, be aware that some of the pins for ‘extras’ will need to match the location in hardware modifications:

Wiring Schedule:

Motronic T68 Pin # —- MS Pin # — Function

1,7,33,42,55,56 —- 8-19 — Ground

36 ———————20——– IAT+
14———————-21——–CLT+
41———————-26——–TPS+
40———————-22——–TPS
20———————-23——–O2
67———————-24——–VR+
68———————-7———-VR-/VR Shield
22———————-29——–Tach
23———————-27——–PWM 12v
23———————-28——–12v supply
53———————-36——–PWM Idle (Fidle)
3,24,26————-32/33——-INJA
2,4,25————–34/35——–INJB
8————————3———Spark A Cyl 1/6
52———————-4———-Spark B Cyl 2/5
60———————–5———Spark C Cyl 3/4
6———————–37———-Fuel Pump (Relay)
28———————37———-Heated O2 (Relay)
17———————25———-MAF
5———————–27———-CEL
49———————31———-Fan/Smog Relay

Non VW wiring
DB25———–Function
3—————-Launch
4—————-Table Switch
5—————-Spare Gen Output
6—————-Future Cam Sensor
7—————-Spare Gen Output

Gen Output Additional relay:

T68/9 needs to be pulled to ground to turn the ECM relay on. There’s a 12v ignition hot supply on T68/38 that does this for the stock ECU. Relay wiring below:

Relay Pin——-Motronic Pin

30—————T68/7

87—————T68/9

85—————T68/38

86 ————–T68/7

The above circuit should only be needed for OBD1 installations, OBD2 will switch on the ECU with ignition hot and doesn’t use that relay.

Impressions

I only got a chance to tune the car for a few hours but a few things are definitely different from Motronic. I always had a little miss/stumble/roughness around 2k with this car. Both with the stock head, 262 cams and the 268s. The MS totally cleared this area up.

The car seems much happier with the raised rev limiter but that did lead to the demise of my clutch. High rpms seem to back my pressure plate bolts out so I won’t be able to get dyno results until it’s all fixed. Even with the limited tuning it does run well without any real issues.

Snippet of the datalog where the clutch decided to stop working correctly. Yes, that is 8000rpms.

Unfortunately that is all for now, but stay KPTuned for dyno results!!


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