Happy Fathers' Day!

Thanks Rasputin. It's been over twenty years since I went to the track,but that's mostly what I remember doing. I had a brandy new 1987 Firebird Formula 350 running 15.3 stock. Put $7,000 into it and ran 14.5. I got so disgusted that I yanked out everything that had to do with tuned port,replaced with a Z28 intake manifold and a 750 Holley double pumper and ran 13.6 for less than a grand more. However I did lose about 10 MPG on the road. LOL! Then I sold it!

You stated that you would not shift our cars. I shift all the time. My trans. does not shift hard. It kind of glides from one gear to the next. It does not slip. It is just very smooth. It's not like having a shift kit where under normal driving it shifts smoothly and under hard acceleration it bangs into gear. I have found that it's more responsive when I shift. I like to downshift into tight curves or if someone wants to challenge me.

Now Mikey.

So if the water wetter does not contain the ingredients to raise the boiling temp. and lower the freezing temp. we would then have to worry about overheating in the summer and frozen lines in the winter? Sounds risky.

Clubairth.

I agree. Port & Polish on anything is done to eliminate restrictions. Hopefully,when ECU Tuning Group completes their STR dyno pre and post ECU tune in a couple of weeks,they'll have some good results. Then the lack of ECU tuning will be a thing of the past. I really hope so.

Avos:

Jags Gill from ECUTG also stated not to remove the flap on the air intake. He also stated as a couple of others have stated that P & P the supercharger is not a good idea. On this forum AVOS,you seem to be one of the most knowledgeable. Jags Gill from ECUTG really does know a lot about our cars. You would be able to have a much more intelligent conversation with him than I could. I don't really know exactly what questions to ask him and I probably would'nt retain what he was trying to convey to me anyway. You or one of the other senior or veteran members would know what to ask and would understand what he was talking about when he gave answers. I know the verdict is still out on his ECU tune,but I really belive the man knows his s--t! His e-mail is info@ecutuninggroup.com. I have his phone number,but do not want to put it out there without asking him first. If you e-mail him,he will probably give it to you. I think it's his personal number. I'll e-mail him or call him and ask.

Have a good Fathers' Day all of you good Daddys.

 

You know... avos has posted about tuning these cars, has built a TS jag with lots more HP, is pretty happy with the stock tune, I think knows how tuning should be done, and also that he lives in Europe (Belgium I think) so I can't see why he'd want to call ETG...

 

Interesting why ETC ecu tuning group don't advertise for the STR. Don't know if anyone of you guys noticed on the XF/XFR forum their advertisement for their models.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...upgrade-64595/

 

ECU Tuning Group doesn't advetise STR tuning cause only a little over 5000 were produced and is now a defunct Jag model.

 

Not convincing reasons. Very few XJRs or XFRs produced, too. And they keep changing electronics which means hitting a number of moving targets. At least the STR isn't being messed with!

 

As far as I know Jags is not developing tunes but buys them abroad and uses generic tools for up/download maps to the car. Remember he doesn't even have a dyno not is able to show dynos of developed tunes. So that doesn't mean the tune isn't good or that Jags doesn't know anything.

The newer cars are easier to crack (at least until today with the Jaguar ECU’s), as they can be fully programmed over the CAN bus, and you have several suppliers that give you the tool to read/write, so all you need to do is alter the maps then. It’s for the 4.0 and older 4.2 ECUs that I haven’t found a tool yet. Now if Jags has a tool that can read/write maps to the older 4.0 and 4.2 cars (like the early STRs), then that would be very interesting and I would like to talk.

But coming to the engine maps, a tune for a stock car doesn’t work for a modified car. So on a stock car you could advance the timing a bit, but on a modified engine (higher boost) it could work against you. So a stock tune could become even a sharp tune when you add boost, which is actually what I have for the moment.

 

You got me puzzled. I have a fairly early STR but even its Denso PCM has CAN and AE does high-speed OBD via the CAN. Were there any STRs which didn't have CAN? Any idea whose PCM they used? (Mine's before the PAG/PanPAG variant.)

What PCM do the 4.0 use? Did the 4.0 XJR not have CAN? (I thought it did.)

I agree he's probably just got one or a few tune files and loads them in (which is something but not much).

 

There are more networks in the car besides the CAN bus. Have a look at Jtis, and you will see the different connections you have with the ECU, the early denso's are programmed via the Data serial connections. How precisely I don’t know yet, that’s what I am trying to figure out.

 

I realise that there were subtle changes to the 4.2 S/C over the years but fundamentally they were pretty much the same right?

That means one generic tune could suit any STR, X350 XJR & Super V8 or XFR 4.2, that's not exactly a small market, considering that most would be in the hands of enthusiasts now.

 

If you just wanted to change ("tune") an unmodified car, yes. Only worth doing if there's something jag set up rather loosely/safely.

But for modified cars, which it looks like all the interested guys have, I think you want a specific tune i.e. put car on dyno and tweak settings, seeing how the dyno results change.

 

avos - I get it: they can talk on CAN but are not reflashed over it (*), whereas the later PCMs are? I suspected that but have no solid evidence (no tool to reflash with!).

I've been studying JTIS for quite some time btw LOL

(*) you've seen that extra (non-bus) wire in DLC; it will be used only during reflashing (lots of microprocessor chips do it similarly)

 

Indeed, the later densos can be programmed fully over the CAN bus, and are also easy to tune. Am now first focusing on the 4.0 ones, but they actually have a private line to the ECU whereas on the early 4.2 engines it is a shared data link, so could be slightly different again.

But as said, don’t focus too much on the ECU tune, just let the current tune work for you ;-)

 

Have you had the lid off each kind of PCM? What are the markings on the big chip(s)? Feel free to PM or post

I know what's in the "ordinary" 2002.5MY-on Denso (*) but not the others.

(*) and the pre-2002.5 but they're not interesting here, they're the old Ford PCM150 ones

 

Have opened only 1, this was from a 16 bit AJ27 4.0 car which has dual D151851-3830 processors. I don’t know which one sits in the early 32bit ones like the STR.

Its also not so important which specific chip sits in there, as you need to monitor all the relevant networks during a IDS reprogramm, that will give the base data to investigate.

 

It probably matters to most who want to do real tuning because they won't have or want IDS! They want a comprehensive map editor and a convenient (preferably fairly cheap) way to reflash, I think. Although a good map editor that can handle the files for these cars would be an excellent start if it left the files in a form IDS was happy to use. Know any?

I think the early STR are twin Renesas SH7055, as are the 2002.5MY non-SC Densos. I don't know the markings on the PanPAG version so can't say but they're likely SH7058 or M32R. If anyone can tell me the markings (or post good pics) I can look them up.

 

What I meant was that one needs to crack it first, which you do with an IDS, once that is done you can think of a generic way of reading/writing maps. This way you don’t need to go even more low level via the chip itself, which will be way more complicated imho. Once it is known how to do it, you can use probably any generic tool to connect to the can& serial data link, to program, at least that is what I am after.

However I have my IDS actually for sale (pm me if interested), this is cheap like many others bytheway, at least cheaper than buying a tune. With that you can reprogram your own ECU, but you need to understand how to work on the MAPs. It is this easy, however there are not many that understand how to edit the maps though, for this you do need some good experience!
I have no editor to recommend, but without experience and understanding of the maps an editor will do no good.