Tony

Well.........
I figure Id start a thread here in a similar context as the "TwinScrew Thread".
The intent is to deal with all aspects of the Sharktuner(ST)
.....questions, experiences, tips, constructive criticisms (typos in the manual ) and obviously answers to questions one may have when using it and tuning their car.

We all know John Speake was the developer of it (and his friend Nick I believe) and im sure if you have question they can also be directed to him personally. I know from Dariens experiences so far that John will always try to provide an answer and give you some input.

I guess the most simple rule will be to try and keep it ON TOPIC with aspects related to the ST. Software...hardware...running it...tuning with it...general experiences...results and questions in general. Obviously questions along the lines of tuning an engine are more than welcome....best AFR...timing ajustments etc etc .
I'd like to keep comparisons to MOTEC...SMT...AEM...and the likes out of the thread unless it relates directly to a question or idea. I dont want to see a TwinScrew vs TURBO vs Vortech type debate raise its ugly head.

I dont, and i would assume you all wouldnt, expect John Speake to chime in on every single post/question as he has a life and is a busy man. Ive started this thread on my own and i hope he doesnt mind. There is a tremendous amount of knowledge on this board and many out there already have used the ST on their cars and can probably provide answers that we all may need.
I hope we can all share this info for the better to both improve the performance on our cars and help further develop a device that has been IMHO the biggest break though in 928 tuning since the car was developed.

for starters....
His webiste is here...http://www.jdsporsche.com/sharktuner.html
and it has a FAQ section also.

Ill probably have some screen shots up soon.

good idea?

BC

First Question - is anybody renting these units out? There was mention early on, but no more.

Kevin in Atlanta

Renting sounds risky. However, I am seriously thinking about buy one and offering a service based on it.

So, my question is: What would some be willing to pay to tune their car and have custom chips made?

hacker-pschorr

At various dyno days people pay anywhere $200 - $500 per tune + they dyno fees.

BC

We all know, that with the cost of the "Alternatives" it is wel worth that price. Unless you are planning "other things"

Tony

The dynos obviously work for tuning and place you in a pretty safe enviroment. The issue that can crop up is that the cursor that passes over the various fuel map cells doesnt spend much time on it. In other words the rpms can build too quickly on a dyno...unless you get it loaded. How much it has to be loaded im not sure?
From the ST manual, John states to do the runs/tuning in the highest gear possible. This allows the rpms to build a bit slower and the cursor to stay on a cell that much longer and thus for it to be compleltey tuned. Darien and i found a long stretch of road with a good incline to it....the incline obviously slows the car down and slows the rate of rpm increase. Seemed to work quite well!

As far as rental, im sure its a good idea...but obviously it may open a can of worms if things get damaged?

hacker-pschorr

This is why SuperFlow Dyno's (brake dyno) are much better for tuning than DynoJet (inertia) dyon's. The SuperFlow we have up here can be preloaded to simulate anything.

It was interesting watching Tim, Z, and the dyno operator take his car up in RPM increments and various loads, turning on the fly. This is impossible on an inertia dyno.

BrianG

I've had a ST for about a year. I have experienced some challenges with the install of one of Andy's Autorotor kits, but just fired it up for the first time recently. Initial fire-up was accomplished with the ST in command, and it was fun to watch all of the LH information and responses on the computer.

I was just about to get going on the whole tuning process when I inadvertently opened my mouth and bought a new house.......... so now I'm moving over the next couple of months and won't have much access to my tools and stuff.

I opened my mouth again, and acquired a sweet '89 GT...... but that part is OK. As a point of interest, the car is in extra-ordinary condition, just as Todd (low-miler) said it was.

So now I have the opportunity to try to tune both a N/A car and a boosted car.

As I contemplated the possibilities of custom-tuning I began to wonder what the "target A/F ratios would be for the various load conditions experienced by the engine and would like to initiate a discussion about the ideal A/F map for both normally aspirated and boosted engines.

Let us start with the normally aspirated engine:
-at WOT/lower RPM/lower vacuum (high load) one might look for "best power" of about 12.6
-at 40% throttle/3000RPM/mid- vacuum (hi-way cruise) one might look for stoich (14.7), for good milage.
-at 10% throttle/decending RPM/very high vacuum (light throttle coast down) one might target best range (16) to save even more fuel.

There have been some comments about stoich at high load as "the danger zone".

How would we ideally construct the AF map for a Normally Aspirated engine??

Bill Ball

At this point, I will just add my support to Tony for starting this thread. There is interest among a group of locals in buying an ST. It's out of my individual price range now that I am "retired" early with kids in college, but I hope we will soon be able to do a "grouped" buy after we work out the logistics.

BC

Buying it, on an individual basis, while it may be good for some, is an interesting proposition at its current price. People have to make money, profits, and be paid obviously. But for 3k with everything, we are in professionally installed EFI territory.

Darien

If anyone is in need of the "breakout box" that's required for using the ST on 85-86 Sharks, let me know

As I mentioned in my ST thread, it's the best thing I've done for my Shark since installing the SC and 30lb injectors

Shane

I've been kicking this idea around in my head about the purchase of one of these for my own personal uses. I don't live too far from Louie Ott, but he doesn't need me dropping in on him everytime I change some aspect on my 928s and need to retune it for optimum HP or fuel efficiency. Having one of my own seems to me like having a set of shop manuals. It is a must have...

This list has proven that to me if nothing else. Just when I think the advances in new wonder goodies has reached its' peak, someone somewhere takes it a step further, and being a complete sharkaholic, well that just means I have to take mine down some of those roads too.

Plus sharks being sharks, we all know that at times upgrades can come in stages, like the current offerings from Tim Murphy, get a stage I kit first, sharktune it, then a year or so later when you can afford more, break out your sharktuner and retune for your stage II, and so on.

It is an awesome tool and I plan to add one to my sharks toolbox!!

Chazz

Tony, I watched your demo of the tuner at Sharktoberfest and was impressed with its ease of use, but I also noticed that Porsche’s original program didn’t really leave a lot of performance “money on the table”. Has anyone used this to develop a map that has produced significantly greater power and/or greater demonstrated fuel efficiency on an un-boosted properly tuned car?

Tony

and how long would that take to do. With the ST you have a vehichle that never sees ANY down time and needs no extra permanent wiring to make it happen. You know down time.... dont ya Brendan??


Hi Chazz...that was Bill here in Vegas.

Tony

It would make for an intersting "base line" to see if you can pull a few ponies out with some bigger injectors and/or higher fuel pressures on a NA car. My guess is if you were to add, an Xpipe, and RMB and perhaps a high flowing airfilter than stock you perhaps could?