VR Memcal for VN

[greenfoam]

Hey, I've finished getting the VR memcal running well on the VN (runs fine on unleaded). I haven't tested how quick it is yet (but I'd bet it's a fair bit better than the stock VN one allready) or tuned it as good as it can go but it's running smooth as and should save a fair bit of juice thanks to the lean burn mode. So if any of you guys out there that are into your chipping want the binary just let me know and I'll email it. The only thing is that I'm running the TCC locked until over 100km/h this increases your highway cruising revs to about 2000 rpm and you don't get a good quick kickdown when you hammer the throttle like the HSV chips or one with a looser TCC vs throttle map, but I manually shift back down anyway and you go quicker with the converter solid so that's how I have it. And you don't get any output from the computer with the VR chip in a VN computer

 

[Toa]

Doesn't the lean burn mode only kick in once you've been cruising at highway speeds for a couple of minutes? or is this something you can customize also?

I'm also interested to see how much quicker this has made your car.

 

[greenfoam]

Toa, the lean burn mode comes on after X seconds of cruising after idle. You can change how many seconds, I only drive on the highway so it's great for me, I put like 7.5 litres of fuel in my car today (after it was resting on the empty stopper ) drove 50ks and hardy moved the needle down yet so it's going pretty good so far I would have got over 100ks from that 7.5 litres. Anyway as for performance I'm testing it tomorrow, my old chip was good for about .2 seconds at best (maybe more like .15), no more than that but my car is all stock and 265,000ks original everything so it's hard to tell how much more power it would make with a better exhaust because I feel it struggling to breath at high revs, it ran 7.8 0-100 with my final VN chip but last week I did some smoothing on the throttle body and adpater bend so it's going to be a little hard to compare unless I run the old chip again tomorrow aswell

 

[greenfoam]

Ok

Toa, I ran like 20 0-100's burned 10 liters of juice and finally finished tuning the chip, ran 7.96 without manually shifting (just 0-100 in drive), now that might sound dodgy but today the air was crap, really low pressure so my old chip that used to go 8.11 on a high pressure day was going 8.27 today and that chip wasn't alot different to the best HSV one. So this one is 7.97 vs 8.27 (mix and match plus some extras on the HSV chips, stock chips are at least .15 slower than the HSV ones). On a better day without all the extra luggage I had in my car (didn't take it out because I thought the more weight the more consistant times I'd get) so yeah on a better day etc that chip should be nearer to 7.8 and with a manual shift could easily be less than 7.7 and remember my car is a Berlina so it's a bit of a tank. Basically anything stock and in average 250,000k condition and less expensive than a Calais will run under 8 seconds with this one so that's pretty good and use less fuel than stock. I have the binary here with me on a disk now and I'll email to anyone that wants it for their VN. Dr Bob will have it too to see if it's any good : )

 

[Toa]

Good stuff

Nice results there, but not all cars are created equal, you might get some which run as fast as yours stock but you will find that most are a bit off that sort of pace, yours seems to be one of the quick ones.

I think it was wheels magazine back in 88 or 89 that pulled 7.89 out of their test car, VN V6 auto, but this time was quite hard to replicate in any others. Like when my mums VN had 40,000 kays on it I tested it and it recorded a fairly quick 8.7 but it was quite a bit off the mags test results. My mum still has this car today and it has 310,000 kays on the clock and still pulls the same 8.7, I have replaced the loom and DFI module (replaced it with the later 3 coil pack) in the meantime though.

But if your chip and program wipes almost half a second off those standard times that's a pretty cost effective mod, especially when it saves fuel

Also, you have to be careful where you do your smoothing in your intake, not too close to your intake runners as this has a negative effect on power.

Cheers
Toa

 

[greenfoam]

Toa, I havn't been inside the manifold yet, still thinking about what's the best option to attack that with, the engine really wants much longer runners to get the torque tuning right (there's massive more torque to be had on these VN engines with a manifold with long runners) so I'm thinking what to do about that. Next time a high pressure system is here and it's cold I'll try a manual shift, I'm hunting a 7.6.something : ) previous record with a manual shift was 7.84 (the chip that ran 8.27 today) but I smoothed the throttle body/adapter bend) since then (I don't think there was any power to be had in that mod though). I can make a shocking bad chip mistake and end up with the torque converter unlocked the whole run and my car feels like a super slug and still run 8.5!: ) so it must have been made in the middle of the week : ) if that's more like a normal time. Stock as you like mine was good for an 8.3 0-100 with the stock chip on a really good atmospheric day

 

[Toa]

Your times seem a bit more hunted out than mine, mine were tests on any day in almost any conditions so that plays a factor also, and only 1 or maybe 2 runs with the auto in D, no huge effort, just enough to get a general idea of what the car can do.

But it does sound like your car would break into the 15 sec quarter bracket.

BTW, are you using a G-Tech or something to get your times?

 

[greenfoam]

Toa, nope just a stop watch, so there's room for around + or - .1 second in human hand error that's why I have to do a couple of runs with each calibration, but both runs are allways within .06 of a second so my hand/eye/ foot stop watch skills are pretty good : ), today I changed the lean burn mode to switch in faster and quicker and at much lower temps because when I go to work it's freezing cold and it takes half my highway run for the car to be warm enough to run a proper fuel map so I changed that. I might also change the tcc on temp because that take ages to get up to temp and makes my car a slug untill it warms up and starts working. yeah in theory it should somewhere in the high 15's would be interesting to test that our one day. I think I'll take it to the local 1/8 th mile races later this year, it's bracket racing and I can run practially the same time every run so it would be pretty fun to see if how a stock VN goes against a flat 10 LJ , he would be giving me more than 3 seconds head start over the 200 meters. I would be happy to run around 10 seconds

 

[greenfoam]

Blah I tried out a couple more chips just before manually shifting but I was a bit unco and got 8.05 or so each time, first time I waited too long and hit the rev limiter second time was better but probably shifted too early, I have a different brand of fuel today (caltex) I had a mix of shell and bp yesterday, not sure how much difference they make but it seemed to be running stronger yesterday. It's a real pain having one foot on the brake giving it some revs to load it up, dumping the brake/flooring/starting the watch, throwing the watch on the seat, trying to hit 2nd gear at the right time, picking up the watch and then trying to look at the road and the speedo needle all at the same time!: 0 I think I'd be better buying one of those cheapo g-tech's on ebay wouldn't I : ) Imagine trying to get all that organised in a faster 5 second car : )

 

[Toa]

Yes G-tech sounds like it would make it a lot easier, how much are the cheapo's nowadays?

Plus I reckon they would be quite a bit more accurate than a speedo needle and a stopwatch.