ok Guys sorry to have kept you waiting. Seems lately Diesel guys have been getting all the fun .I know a few of you have been anticipating this for a while, but i had to clear it with Gunther and he was on holiday until yesterday.
Background
==========
Basically I have been chasing some sort of engine tuning potential for the car the 2.4 Type-S for well...ever since I got my Accords 6 years ago....you may have read the Hondata thread here...well I chased them..nagged them well basically to deaf ears...you see Hondata is an American company with no interest in the small market share the UK has..they have bigger fish to spend their time on.
Later I found CPL Racing could tune the Accord but that involved a new ECU and a loss of the immobiliser..another no.
Then by accident one day (two months ago) i came across XO POwer Tuning..I honestly do not know how i came across them...emailed them and they said that they can remap the car..and that he'd only got his hands on the tech a few weeks ago. According to my good source (Fahad ) it has been possible to tune car but it's not worth the effort for people to do it. So basically i jumped on the chance (next day lol) to travel to Northumberland to speak to Gunther.
The Work
========
Arrived and really just wanted to speak to the Gunther to pick his brains really to fully make sure he knew what he was doing...basically i wasn't going to just hand over my car to any so called tuner who is just interested in my money. So spoke to him and yep sure enough he specialises just in japanese cars and
yes he knew the link with the Acura TSX...and tbh that was enough for me....you just know when you're speaking to someone who knows what they are talking about. Negotiated a deal there and then, yes for you guys also (jump to post 2 if that's all you're interested in!), and started the work.
I ripped the ECU out (yes i took all my tools ), it's in the lower center console, you need to remove the kick panels on driver and passenger side and then the air tubes to get at the bolts. This is an ECU out job and then requires soldering a serial port on the ECU to read the ECU and then resolder to different point to write to it......it's an intensive job and the whole process of removing, refitting, soldering, reading and writing to the ECU takes about 4Hours. The port is removed after work.
Bit of XO Power Tuning background
==========================
Let's be honest you've probably never heard of them, I am from the North East and yes i never knew they were there lol. They specialise in Japanese cars, been around for over 10 years, have just moved to a brand new premises in Cramlington and just about to install their rolling road, they rarely advertise and
most of the work they do is by word of mouth. Has built a 700Bhp Civic and Gunther is an easy going chap.
So there are still good people around who don't feel the need to shout everything on the internet .
The Remap
=========
I guess this is what you're really interested in. I haven't got the rolling road results yet..will do over the next weeks. So what I say is my personal opinion. Really there is one work FANTASTIC! The 2.4 is a good motor but drive it a while and there are the niggles
1) the laggy DBW expecially when setting off
2) The lack of torque between 4500rpm until 6000rpm when the main corssover kicks in
Let's just say both of these are corrected. There are a few ways of setting the i-Vtec you can have it come on depending on manifold pressure i.e full throttle vtec kicks in (like a mini turbo lol) or have it set to a specific value.
The way i set it was to have the main cross over at 4800rpm (you can shoose what you wish). That way there is torque throughout the rev range and peak power isn't sacrificed.
The DBW always felt that it lagged like you needed to give it juice before raising the clutch..it just felt a but strange, after driving it a while you get used to it but still...The remap corrects this and the pedal is a lot more sensitive....makes setting off at traffic lights a lot smoother.
Overall power delivery is just soo much smoother and stronger, there is no lull in power and pulls all the way to 7500red line....you can actually use 4th to overtake without having to think should i shouldn't i change down...just overall you don't need to work the gears as hard. On the motorway you don't even really need to change from 6th it's that driveable.
If you feel the need to work the gears then yes you'll be in for a big treat. When you first get it done it just feels a different car...you'll have a smile on your face for weeks when you push the pedal(well i did), then after the weeks have passed you just get in the car and can really enjoy the car because it finally drives like how you expected the 2.4 to be in the first place!
Oh and yes the ECU saftey's are still all in place i.e not being able to rev the car over 4500rpm when stationary.
oh and yes it is also available for the 2.0 also..However bear in mind I have no personal experience of this and note also that the 2.0 is quite a lot milder compared to the 2.4. I would suggest you talk to XO before any work.
Fuel Economy
============
If you drive it fast you loose fuel economy simple as lol...drive it sedately it's about the same, you'll probably gain on motorway travel since you don't need to change so often...but really you don't get power for nothing since it's NA (normally aspirated).
well that's it..no more having to chase people for this..it was literally on my door step lol, if you have anymore question you can ask them here or speak to Gunther(see post 2 for contact)
I'll get the rolling road result up when i get them.
Background
==========
Basically I have been chasing some sort of engine tuning potential for the car the 2.4 Type-S for well...ever since I got my Accords 6 years ago....you may have read the Hondata thread here...well I chased them..nagged them well basically to deaf ears...you see Hondata is an American company with no interest in the small market share the UK has..they have bigger fish to spend their time on.
Later I found CPL Racing could tune the Accord but that involved a new ECU and a loss of the immobiliser..another no.
Then by accident one day (two months ago) i came across XO POwer Tuning..I honestly do not know how i came across them...emailed them and they said that they can remap the car..and that he'd only got his hands on the tech a few weeks ago. According to my good source (Fahad ) it has been possible to tune car but it's not worth the effort for people to do it. So basically i jumped on the chance (next day lol) to travel to Northumberland to speak to Gunther.
The Work
========
Arrived and really just wanted to speak to the Gunther to pick his brains really to fully make sure he knew what he was doing...basically i wasn't going to just hand over my car to any so called tuner who is just interested in my money. So spoke to him and yep sure enough he specialises just in japanese cars and
yes he knew the link with the Acura TSX...and tbh that was enough for me....you just know when you're speaking to someone who knows what they are talking about. Negotiated a deal there and then, yes for you guys also (jump to post 2 if that's all you're interested in!), and started the work.
I ripped the ECU out (yes i took all my tools ), it's in the lower center console, you need to remove the kick panels on driver and passenger side and then the air tubes to get at the bolts. This is an ECU out job and then requires soldering a serial port on the ECU to read the ECU and then resolder to different point to write to it......it's an intensive job and the whole process of removing, refitting, soldering, reading and writing to the ECU takes about 4Hours. The port is removed after work.
Bit of XO Power Tuning background
==========================
Let's be honest you've probably never heard of them, I am from the North East and yes i never knew they were there lol. They specialise in Japanese cars, been around for over 10 years, have just moved to a brand new premises in Cramlington and just about to install their rolling road, they rarely advertise and
most of the work they do is by word of mouth. Has built a 700Bhp Civic and Gunther is an easy going chap.
So there are still good people around who don't feel the need to shout everything on the internet .
The Remap
=========
I guess this is what you're really interested in. I haven't got the rolling road results yet..will do over the next weeks. So what I say is my personal opinion. Really there is one work FANTASTIC! The 2.4 is a good motor but drive it a while and there are the niggles
1) the laggy DBW expecially when setting off
2) The lack of torque between 4500rpm until 6000rpm when the main corssover kicks in
Let's just say both of these are corrected. There are a few ways of setting the i-Vtec you can have it come on depending on manifold pressure i.e full throttle vtec kicks in (like a mini turbo lol) or have it set to a specific value.
The way i set it was to have the main cross over at 4800rpm (you can shoose what you wish). That way there is torque throughout the rev range and peak power isn't sacrificed.
The DBW always felt that it lagged like you needed to give it juice before raising the clutch..it just felt a but strange, after driving it a while you get used to it but still...The remap corrects this and the pedal is a lot more sensitive....makes setting off at traffic lights a lot smoother.
Overall power delivery is just soo much smoother and stronger, there is no lull in power and pulls all the way to 7500red line....you can actually use 4th to overtake without having to think should i shouldn't i change down...just overall you don't need to work the gears as hard. On the motorway you don't even really need to change from 6th it's that driveable.
If you feel the need to work the gears then yes you'll be in for a big treat. When you first get it done it just feels a different car...you'll have a smile on your face for weeks when you push the pedal(well i did), then after the weeks have passed you just get in the car and can really enjoy the car because it finally drives like how you expected the 2.4 to be in the first place!
Oh and yes the ECU saftey's are still all in place i.e not being able to rev the car over 4500rpm when stationary.
oh and yes it is also available for the 2.0 also..However bear in mind I have no personal experience of this and note also that the 2.0 is quite a lot milder compared to the 2.4. I would suggest you talk to XO before any work.
Fuel Economy
============
If you drive it fast you loose fuel economy simple as lol...drive it sedately it's about the same, you'll probably gain on motorway travel since you don't need to change so often...but really you don't get power for nothing since it's NA (normally aspirated).
well that's it..no more having to chase people for this..it was literally on my door step lol, if you have anymore question you can ask them here or speak to Gunther(see post 2 for contact)
I'll get the rolling road result up when i get them.