One of the jobs I have done was swap a 280 euro engine into a Diesel wagon. This gave the car the shorter final drive. Dang that was a nice car. I was impressed how fast it was and that car had some of the best balanced brakes I have driven short of a race prepared setup.

Yessir it did. And I had the euro lights, too. I also busted the diff loose from the frame at about 90 when a cv joint locked up. Very nice car. Like to own another one. Mine had the high compression euro M110, so while it was not as quick as a euro spec m110 pushing a diesel rear end, it was quite quick. Wife outran a tornado in it once. Fast enough, she said. Love an I6...

New harmonic balancer swapped in - the old one had definitely spun 5*. It still feels down on power compared to the stock 3.0L internals. I may need to advance the cams to pick up some more compression, but I guess I'll drive it some for tuning first.

Charlie, based on my tables, if it continues to feel sluggish, would you visit the dyno first..... or roll the cams forward before wasting money on the dyno?

Brendan and I noticed last weekend that it wants to run at 75-80mph on the highway.

Frank

I would work on the ignition timing first. Your off throttle was way conservative and I would consider moving the on power bins up 2* at a time and start finding the limit. Any idea if the detonation sensor is working? Time to find out.

I've not yet activated the detonation sensor circuit because I didn't want it to interfere with the initial tune. I certainly will activate it and set the threshold before I start increasing spark lead. I think I may have been backwards on the ignition timing result relative to the balancer mark, but I've spent too much time thinking about it and need to do some tuning to see what the engine wants.

I'm real leery of ignition timing increases while driving, since it's so hard to hear knock from inside the truck, but I suppose the sensor circuit will take care of it if it's working properly. I'd prefer to do the ignition changes on a steady state dyno, with another set of ears beside the engine bay.

Frank

Oh when my 3.8 was knocking, I sure could hear it.
Yah a light knock is hard to hear. I have not checked but will the MS light up a warning when detecting knock? I expect it would.

I don't know yet. I'm using the KnockSense box from Boris and have his instructions for adjusting the translator sensitivity, so I guess I'll go ahead and bring it on-line. The KnockSense unit definitely lights up, but I can't see the LED indicator where I have it mounted. The MS software may have a screen indicator, but I'm not sure yet.

I intentionally set the initial spark table at very conservative values.

I'm a little concerned about working ignition timing first, then later playing with AFR, but I guess it's a chicken and egg scenario..... need to do some of both as the tune progresses. Without question, ignition is the more conservative of the two..... until I get to the on-power boost values..... then I may be a little lean up top.... but I didn't want to jam the injectors.

Frank

Both fuel and timing need to be crept up on and each affects the other.

Correct - thus my concern. I'll spend tomorrow driving/tuning and email the last .msq file to you for your interpretation.... if you don't mind.

Frank

Hey, wait a minute - I forgot that I installed the KnockSense LED indicator as a remote reader on the gauge pod between the boost gauge and the old (now unused) AFR gauge:



No problem seeing the indicator. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Frank