Reputable Dyno Tuners

[Gertie]

Thanks billyj,
I have been reading some threads regarding fitting aftermarket ecu's to improve horsepower and fuel economy, not looking for huge gains, but was hoping that a good dyno tuner would point me in the right direction as to what to buy before I took it to them.
I have been checking my fuel economy on petrol only for about 3 months now and currently get about 20l per 100km unloaded and as poor as 26l-30l per 100km loaded up towing my camper (which is pretty bloody heavy) depending on wind and hills etc.
But at the moment it is tuned for LPG mainly and petrol as the sub. I fitted a snorkel myself, had pacemaker extractors, high flow cat, and 2.5" exhaust professionally fitted before Christmas and haven't had it tuned since.
I was hoping that fitting an ecu or piggyback along with a dyno for dedicated petrol might get me down to maybe 18l per 100k unloaded and I'd be happy with that, I'd also be interested in the dyno numbers and improvements for my own curiosity, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.
I'll post up the numbers, changes, and costings, when all said and done just in case anyone else is interested.

[billyj]

id start by making sure evrything is in good nick, airfilter, oil/oil filter, spark plugs, set the tappets(.35mm hot for tb45 if i remember right) have the injectors cleaned, clean the maf,replace the oxygen sensor and set the base timing as per factory spec. by doing the above i got my tb42e down as low as 13l per 100km on the fwy.(this is long before i fitted the turbo) dont expect much better than mid 20's while towing remember there a big vehicle and most campers arent light, i get about 22-25L per 100km towing my 2t tandem tradies trailer at the moment with about a 50/50 mix for town/fwy. it was doing closer to 30l per 100km towing the same trailer pre turbo.

the couple of tb45's ive played have needed the injectors cleaned badly, lets face it most people just run gas all the time as its cheaper and patrols like a drink. letting the fuel in the rail go stale and gum up the injectors

by all means chat to a tuner but if your chasing economy its gonna take a long time to recover the approx 2k+ its gonna cost to either fit a piggyback and tune or fit a full aftermarket ecu and tune when your only gonna save maybe $3 per 100km travelled.

being tuned for lpg it will probly just have the base timing advanced at the distributer, theres nothing else you can really adjust on them the gas mixtures are controled by a screw ont he mixer and the fuel injectors are just turned off when running gas, do you run premium unleaded or does it ping under load at all?

[jff45]

sorry to give the bad news but short of fitting a fulll aftermarket ecu you cant tune the tb45. nistune doesnt work with it. all you can do is set the base timing at the dissy. and give it a full service

I was about to reply the same thing before I saw your post.
Absolutely right, there's nothing the best dyno tuner in the country can do to tune a TB45E
Get some fresh plugs, get the tappets done, change plug leads if unknown history, set timing to 7 degrees BTDC, new air filter, blah blah all the usual standard things.
Fill it with 98 octane..
All that is probably cheaper than what the dyno "tune" would cost..

[jff45]

sorry to give the bad news but short of fitting a fulll aftermarket ecu you cant tune the tb45. nistune doesnt work with it. all you can do is set the base timing at the dissy. and give it a full service

You don't really need a full ECU replacement. I run an Xede piggyback with my Pacemakers and 2.5" Redback system and I can modify fuel and timing as much as necessary.

The problem with these modifications is that you get caught in the "law of diminishing returns". The biggest initial gain is with extractors & exhaust. That gives you maybe 10% increase for say $1000. Then you have to spend another $1000 for a piggyback but you can only get a further 5% with that. And so on..
The only way to go with these petrol engines is forced induction but they are going to suck fuel.

[mudnut]

I was about to reply the same thing before I saw your post.
Absolutely right, there's nothing the best dyno tuner in the country can do to tune a TB45E
Get some fresh plugs, get the tappets done, change plug leads if unknown history, set timing to 7 degrees BTDC, new air filter, blah blah all the usual standard things.
Fill it with 98 octane..
All that is probably cheaper than what the dyno "tune" would cost..

That is fine for a stock standard engine.
If it has had a head gasket replacement
which means the head has been planed,
it is difficult to get the timing and mixture
right as the compression ratio changes
ever so slightly. If you haven't had the
vehicle since new, and don't know
what work has been done to it
then a dyno is the
way to go, IMHO.

[Gertie]

Thanks for all the useful info guys, looks like I will give her a good overhaul first. If I can get anywhere near your numbers billyj I'd be happy.
My Dad had the patrol since 35,000k's then I bought it at about 130,000k's so no head issues, but have run her mainly on gas, but always have given a drink every tank or 2 though just for precaution, guess I'm old fashioned! I've only ever used standard unleaded but after reading a few threads here I'll change to the higher octane from now on. She's never missed a service and always been serviced by a mechanic and had the tappets checked/adjusted every second service, but probably due for a good overhaul now she's done 280,000k's.
I appreciate all of the info fellas, thanks for your help

[threedogs]

Does it blow a little blue smoke on start up or take off that you have noticed

[jff45]

That is fine for a stock standard engine.
If it has had a head gasket replacement
which means the head has been planed,
it is difficult to get the timing and mixture
right as the compression ratio changes
ever so slightly. If you haven't had the
vehicle since new, and don't know
what work has been done to it
then a dyno is the
way to go, IMHO.

What Billyj and I are saying is that it doesn't matter what was done to it. If it has the standard ECU, you can't adjust anything so no point wasting your money on a supposed dyno tune.
If you're running 98 octane the head shave won't matter.

[billyj]

and if the head and been skimmed for a gasket replacement they will take stuff all off anyway, not enough to make an appreciable change to the compression ratio or fuel/spark requirements. if the head is so bad that it needs a significant amount taken off most places will replace it. the tb45 just doesnt have the market for anyone to devlop tuning software etc

[Gertie]

Does it blow a little blue smoke on start up or take off that you have noticed

Not that I'm aware of threedogs, never had any problems whatsoever.