#project86 makes more power!
We’ve been running around on the previous 132kW 220Nm E85 tune from PVS for over 6 months and 10+ track days without any issue however after some intake changes I booked the car in for a check up with Tyler ahead of the 2022 season.
What’s wrong with the current tune?
Well to be frank, absolutely nothing! The car has been super reliable but driving and instructing in a couple of quicker PVS tuned cars had me wanting a little more, specifically in the top end to make the most of the OEM Cusco 4.56 final drive. Given the modest power output I started researching power mods without adding forced induction.
The obvious route for more beans is to change the front pipe and catback to let the little FA20 breathe a little better but I wanted to try something different because I can’t stand loud cars.
As Well as changing the spark plugs to brand new OEM units I also ordered a Revolution 70MM throttle body to match the Revolution carbon intake I bought second hand a couple of months ago.
Without a lot of real proof or testing we were flying by the seat of our pants and it’s not exactly a cheap endeavour…
Giddy up. It’s tuning time!
Early dyno runs showed that the throttle body was indeed doing something. Without touching the old tune we were starting to see the AFR’s running a little lean beyond 4800rpm so Tyler pulled out of the run.
Not only does the car leaning out indicate that there’s more air getting into the cylinder but we were also seeing some more meat under the power curve already and the trajectory of the line looked promising.
Some adjustments to the fuel map and Tyler was happy to run it up to 7000RPM which saw #project86 spin up 147kW… far more than I expected at the peak but there was also more power under the curve across the whole rev range including the torque dip - better yet, there’s still more to go!
A couple more adjustments, tweaks and changes saw us hit 150.8 kW and 224.3Nm which is a HUGE improvement over the 132kW tune i’ve been running around on. Better yet the car is happy to pull all the way out to 7500RPM and beyond without any huge fall off in power and torque - not something I was used to as the old tune fell off after 6500RPM and didn’t like revving much past 7000RPM.
A quick note on this - we’ve bumped the limiter to 7800RPM just to give it some extra legs at SMSP. This is completely safe (as long as the valves don’t fall off) as on the dyno Tyler can test and tweak the fuel numbers. Dyno tunes are king.
What’s the practical difference?
This weekend Tyler and I have entered round 1 of the NSW Supersprints as a 2 car team if you will so i’ll have some comparison data coming away from that showing just how big a difference almost 20kW makes but first impressions of the added power are just - wow!
The small jump in torque in the mid range feels awesome and really makes the car more responsive. The way it pulls and holds power upto 7500 is a sensation im still getting used to!
I can’t thank Tyler enough for his time, effort and guidance aswell as the rest of the PVS tuning team.
What's next?
I’m torn. My brain tells me to just enjoy the power and have some fun in my quiet car. My heart is curious. The stock front pipe is known to rob a bit of power so if we’ve made 150kW with a standard front pipe and catback how much could we see with a full exhaust? Maybe we’ll find out one day.
But who won the giveaway?
It was incredibly close in the end. We had a number of guessed within a couple of kW (150.8kW and 224.3Nm) with Aidan Chee and Bob Vo being closest. Technically Bob was closest with a guess of 149kW and 223Nm so Bob wins the merch pack but we’ll also send a tee out to Aidan too!