penguinking

not to sound like a smartass, but wouldn't you want to find the cause of the engine failure, or were there other circumstances that were preventing you guys from diving deeper into the situation?

Adam@Autometrics

The only engines we lost were at the very beginning of a weekend. We made some dramatic increases in HP between races, and both cars lost engines within 2 laps - way too consistent to be coincidental. It was likely something we did caused the failures. Obviously our only option was to put in new engines, de-tune them a bit, and see what happens. They ran fine the rest of the weekend.
The cars were re-tuned, and ultimately made a few HP less. Those engines lasted the rest of the season.
It is pretty clear that the cause was being too aggressive with the engine map. We are not permitted to do anything with the engine, so you work with what you can, ECU tuning.
To answer your question, circumstance prevented looking into the issue immediately. The engines lasting the rest of the weekend confirmed our suspicion that it was a software problem rather than a mechanical problem. If we had another failure, we would have looked into the issue deeper and thought about preventative measures. As it was, there seemed to be no problem, and it is likely that going into the engine would have been labor-intensive and inconclusive.

mooty

adam, you got PM.

penguinking

gotcha, thanks. good to see the motors lasting for so long on a more conservative tune. even still, i'm guessing that the race tune being run is alot more aggressive than the stock map. awesome!

karlooz

more aggressive tune and probably a higher redline. without any engine mods, i would think a higher redline would put a rod through the case.

Adam@Autometrics

Redline for GAC is 7200 rpm.
The maps are fine-tuned for each car, and are getting everything you can out of the 98 octane fuel without sacrificing fuel mileage.