Archive for the ‘Tuning’ Category
Monday, August 17th, 2009
I am quite excited that this is our result for a 350Z equipped with Tomei Poncam 256 degree, 10.22mm lift, Skunk 2 spacer plenum and Edo ported intake manifold.
On 91 pump gas, this is what we got:
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Monday, July 27th, 2009
It has been a while since we posted in this blog. What has been brewing here!
Well, we recently were commissioned to build a Mitsubishi Evolution X GSR track car for our customer. We’re very excited to take on this project.
Here is the list of the built:
Installing the ACT clutch
A glimpse of our tuner, Edwin, tuning the Evo X GSR.
Let’s hear the car on the Dyno:
Evolution X GSR Dyno Round Video Clip
Evolution X GSR Test Drive Video Clip
100-Octane Dyno graph
This Evo X upgrades is similar to Edo Performance Evo X Power Package
Posted in Tuning | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
EDO Performance’s Cusco Roll Cage Guide
With so many options and variations of Cusco Roll Cages I put together this guide to help answer technical questions regarding the cages and find out which is the correct roll cage for you.
Pillar Diagram
General Information
Cusco Roll Cages comes in many shape sand sizes but the standard construction among all the roll cages are a 40mm diameter tubular frame with either bolt or weld together joints. Each leg of the roll cage has a base plate that can be either welded into the vehicle or bolted into the chassis. The Cusco Roll Cages are made to order and each one is custom made to fit the driver preference.
 
Cusco Roll Cage Joint Cusco Roll Cage Base Plate
Roll Cage Selection
This part of the guide will walk you thru the basic process of roll cage selection. Please note since the Cusco makes roll cages for over 300 vehicle applications not all vehicle will have full selection of roll cage options. If you have any questions feel free to contact your nearest Cusco distributor for more information.
1. Cusco Roll Cage Material Selection
Cusco Roll Cages comes in two different types of material D1 Chromoly and Safety 21 Steel.
The Cusco D1 Roll Cage was designed for the D1GP Drifter Series in Japan. The chromoly material used roughly 33% lighter then your conventional Safety 21 Steel. This material is made to absorb light to medium impact with out jeopardizing the structural integrity of the cage and comes in a shiny Cusco metallic blue finish. The D1 chromoly are great choice weather if it’s for a high end show/track car or a daily driver.
Cusco D1 6 Point Cage
With a long line of racing heritage Cusco’s Safety 21 roll cage has been test and implemented into multiple style of racing such as Cusco’s GT300 and Cusco’s Rally Team. The Safety 21 roll cages are constructed of carbon steel and can withstand heavy impact. These roll cages are recommend for heavy track use or if you’re simply on a tight budget.
Cusco 7 Point Safety 21 Cage
2. Manufacture and Chassis Code
The next step is selecting your vehicle manufacture and chassis code. Since Cusco is manufacture and developed in Japan and not all the cars in Japan have the same production time and name as its US counterpart, we must go by the chassis code in order to insure the correct fitment for your roll cage. If you have any question as to what your cars chassis code is please consult http://www.wikipedia.org/.
3. Sunroof
The sunroof in your vehicle plays a key factor into the roll cage fitment. Cusco only makes a handful of cages that are sunroof compliant. If you have a sunroof in your vehicle and there is no sunroof compliant roll cage you have to make a basic modification to the roll cage in order for it to fit the vehicle. The modification process consists of shortening each leg of the roll cage to compensate for the sunroof thickness when compared to the same car with out a sunroof.
4. C Pillar Bar Style
The C Pillar variation gives you extra the customization when it comes to deciding what type of roll cage is right for you. Currently there are 3 types of C Pillar Bars, Window Style, Roof Style, and Race Style.
The term window style means the C Pillar Bar is bent out and it runs along the edge of the rear window going around the rear seats. This style of bar is primarily used on a 2 door vehicle wanting to retain it’s rear seats to carry additional passenger or simply keep the car interior closest to stock as possible.
Cusco 6 Point Cage Window Style for Honda EK9
 
Cusco 4 Point Window Style in a Nissan S14 Cusco 6 Point Window Style
The term roof style means the C Pillar Bar runs along the edge of the roof and down the C Pillar over the rear seats to the C Pillar mounting position. This style of bar is primarily used on a 4 door vehicle where the C Pillar bar won’t block the entering and exiting of the rear passengers and leaves the rear seats intact.
Cusco 6 Point Cage Roof Style for Mitsubishi CT9A
 
Cusco 6 Point Roof Style in Subaru GDB-F Cusco 6 Point Roof Style
The Cusco race style roll cage is the most popular application out of the group. The race style term means the C Pillar Bar runs directly thru the rear seats the shortest distance between the B Pillar Bar to the C Pillar Mounting position. This style of bar configuration is the sturdiest out of all the C Pillar Bar however this requires the removal of rear seats and interior pieces. This style of bar is recommended for track use or 2 seater vehicle.
Cusco 6 Point Race Style for Mitsubishi CT9A
Cusco 6 Point Race Style
5. How Many Points?
The number of points in a roll cage determines the size and number of bars on the roll cage. The general rule of thumb is anything below 5 point will only have B Pillar Bars and the C Pillar Bars, anything above 6 point will have A, B, and C Pillar Bars which extends from front of the dash to rear suspension tower or trunk or the vehicle. Since there is no universal pattern among roll cage manufacture point system please refer to the chart below to find out exactly how many points you need.
Cusco D1 Style Roll Cage Comes in 4 to 8 Point
Cusco Safety 21 Style Roll Cage Comes in 4 to 15 Point
6. To Dash Escape or Not?
Any Cusco roll cage 6 point or more has the option of Dash Escape on the A Pillar Bar. This means you have the option of choosing weather if the A Pillar Bar goes thru the dashboard or bend around the curvature of the dashboard. This option eases the install of the roll cage but at the same time it loses structural rigidity. Dash Escape should primarily be used on street driven or show cars; track cars should avoid this option and get the standard thru the dash mount.
Cusco 8 Point Safety 21 Roll Cage w/ Dash Escape on Mitsubishi CT9A
Cusco 6 Point Safety 21 Roll Cage w/o Dash Escape on Toyota AE86
7. C Pillar Bar Mount Position
The C Pillar Mount Position refers to the general area where the C Pillar Bar will be mounted. This mount position is not optional; Cusco has already chosen pre-designated area on each specific vehicle to insure maximum safety.
Various C Pillar Bar Mounting Position
Roll Cage Accessory
In addition to its roll cage customization Cusco also offers a full line of roll cage accessory such as, color padding for the bars, removable driver side pillar, and roll cage reinforcement plate.
Colored Bar Padding
Reinforcement Plate
Removable Side Mount Pillar
Conclusion
Cusco Roll Cages are one of the very few manufactures that caters so many options to insure the best driving experience possible! I hope this guide will help you decide on your Cusco roll cage. If you have any questions regarding the roll cage please feel free to contact us or your nearest Cusco distributor.
Tags: Cusco D1 Chromoly, Cusco Japan roll cage, Cusco Roll Cage Base Plate, Cusco Safety 21 Steel, EDO Cusco Pillar Bar, EDO Cusco roll cage, EDO Cusco Roll Cage Joint
Posted in New Arrivals, Tuning | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
Birth of EDO400 project
EDO 400 was conceived the moment Edo performance purchased the newly released 2008 Subaru STi on January 2008. The team from Edo Performance quickly brainstormed the parts required in improving the power and torque of the new GRB chassis on a 91 octane gasoline. EDO400 project took off when Edo performance secured parts from Blitz® and Tomei® Japan, we never look back since then.
Developments
In building a well balanced competitive car which majority of Subaru owners and enthusiasts alike can appreciate, Edo Performance’s EFI certified tuner, Mr. Edwin Tang, drew an upgrade blueprint together with the in-house ASETM certified technician, Robert Krencik, to unleash the inner power underneath the Subaru GRB chassis engine. Drivability, power, response and safety are among top factors in drawing the upgrade blueprints, additional factors such as affordability and longevity of the engine also played important themes in shaping EDO400 development. The tuner and chief technician implemented the upgrades in phases.
  The first phase of the upgrade is replacing the stock exhaust system, air intake and radiator with Blitz® Quad Tip Nur Spec DT exhaust system, Air Intake and Radiator. The car was tuned using open source tuning software along with the upgrade. With reduction in back pressure in the exhaust system and colder air in to the engine, the power of the car immediately jumped to 293whp with 322 foot-pounds of torque. This upgrade was just barely starting.
The second phase of the upgrade was upgrading the stock turbo and exhaust manifold with Tomei® ARMS M7760 turbo charger and Equal length exhaust manifold. Installations of the turbo and header on the GRB chassis were a breeze, almost identical to the GDB predecessor. With this major upgrade, our tuner decided to rely on the professionally developed Cobb® Accessport tuning software in tuning the ECU. With cold air going through larger compressor wheel of the turbo and exhaust gas flowing in larger pipe merge-section (60mm) of the exhaust header that is designed for faster exit, the car registered 322.2 whp of power with 344 foot-pounds of torque.
The last phase of the development, not final in anyway, was aimed more as a foundation for future larger upgrades. The next upgrade was aimed for larger fuel delivery into the engine. The stock injectors were replaced with Denso® co-produced Power Enterprise® High Impedance 800cc injector. To reduce further restriction on the exhaust gas flow, stock down pipe was replaced with Cobb® downpipe. Final tune was completed using Cobb® accessport. The results on the last leg of the EDO400 development was concluded with a surprising 372.9 foot-pounds of torque and power pushing towards 343 whp, all the while running on 91 octane gasoline.
Future development of EDO400
Bright future awaits EDO400 project. In the pipeline is the methanol-injection system installation. While the car is not meant for any time-attack event, EDO400 can be a daily drive car which is the central theme of EDO400. It is a fun daily driving car with some kicks and lots of boost if necessary for Subaru owners and enthusiasts. What’s exciting is that every aspect of the EDO400 can be applied to other GR-chassis Subaru STi.
Feel free to contact us for the power graphs in each stage of the development.
Tags: 2008 Subaru, EDO Performance, Tuning
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Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
The off season was a busy one…after finishing 2nd Place in the 2008 Redline Time Attack AWD Street Class Championship, finishing in the Top 5 at Subiefest, and 8th place in the Super Lap Battle Finals, we decided that we needed to up the ante for the 2009 season. With the goal of more power for 2009, Cosworth generously committed to the cause with a new set of Pistons as the heart of our motor build. Without the quality and strength of the Cosworth Pistons, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish our goal of 450whp. Forced Performance also committed to 2009 sponsorship and rebuilt our FP Green turbo into the new FP HTA Green Turbo. With this build, we also decided to change to an external wastegate (Tial 38mm) to help control the boost. AEM came on board and took care of us with new gauges and a stand alone ECU to help control everything. With the new found power, we needed to think about cooling before it became a problem. Mishimoto came on board for 2009 with a new radiator and oil cooler kit. The Chassis and suspension will be improved this year with the addition of AST Suspension…we are expecting the coilovers to come in anyday now and be ready to perform before the next event. Kaminari also came on board with their Race Subframe Brace — this this is sturdy and really tightened up the front end!!! With the demands of high horsepower and long sessions on the track, its important to have the right fluids, and Motul came on board as our official fluids sponsor!!! EDO Performance has signed on again as my major sponsor this year and provides me with my own Pit Crew at the track. I can’t tell you how important this is to be competitive. Robert Krencik (Service Manager at EDO Performance) was named the Crew Chief of the team and I look to him as the final say on what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and overall, oversee the project. I can’t stress enough how grateful I am to him and Logan (Service tech at EDO) for their sleepless nights leading up to this first event.
Now back to the event:
 EDO Performance finished the motor build last week, successfully breaking in the motor, installing the new guages, radiator, oil cooler kit, subframe brace, new fluids, and taking one last long look over the entire car before it was ready for the dyno. Unfortunately, Edwin from EDO was unable to tune the car because he had previous commitments for a trip to England on business. Last minute scrambling and using my valuable contacts in the industry led me to Yimisport Tuning in Santa Clarita, CA. Paul Leung (tuner) is extremely knowledgable when it comes to tuning Subarus and he was personally recommended to me by many well respected people in the industry. Paul was kind enough to schedule me in at the last minute and worked hard until the weee hours of the night to make sure I had a strong and safe tune to race on that weekend. With 100 octane and water/meth injection provided by Snow Performance, he was able to squeeze out 440whp and 450tq!!! This resulted in a 70whp and 60tq gain over the previous build.
My new suspension from AST Suspension was due to arrive on Thursday where we would do the install and align at our shop in Hesperia, CA (Robispec) As Murphy’s Law always seems to find me, the order was incomplete and I would be without suspension for the event. Instead, I would plan to compete on stock suspension from a salvaged car that we just used for dyno purposes until the new stuff came in.
Saturday morning came around, and the crew from EDO Performance was there bright and early ready to succeed. I had a pit in my stomach when I had to tell them the bad news about the suspension. After discussing options about what to do, we had decided to just run with the stock suspension for the weekend and concentrate on making sure the new motor build would hold and run healthy. With the new found power, we found that the old silicone couplers were insufficient at holding up to the boost! The entire day was spent trying to secure the hoses from popping off and trying to keep the car in control with no suspension. I will admit, I was pretty discouraged and ready to call it a weekend. How was I to compete with no boost and no suspension??? Ok, I wasn’t discouraged…I was agitated!!! Robert and Logan had never given up, and they wouldn’t let me either. I really don’t know what I’d do without these guys!!!
 Sunday morning comes along, and I run into the guys from GST Motorsports. They were kind enough to loan me a silicone coupler from their personal car. Just in time for the second practice session, we had it secured and ready to go. I had to make it work because if we couldn’t establish a time in the practice, we would not be able to compete in the Time Attack. So after discussing with Robert, we decided to do (2) warmup laps without boost in order to establish a lap time in case the hose popped off again. This time it held the entire time…so after the second lap, I gave it the power. The car was moving….and fast! Unfortunately, harnessing this power was a handful. The stock suspension left the car all over the place with massive amounts of understeer. We were able to qualify for the first time attack session in 20th place. Exactly an hour and ten minutes before the first timed session, Mike from Kognition Design in San Diego dropped by to deliver a set of coilovers for us to rebuild. Wouldn’t you know it…the KW Clubsports off my car that I sold a few weeks prior were suddenly dropped in my lap!!! I thought about it for a second…maybe quicker…looked at my Pit Crew Chief Robert and said, “Lets do a full suspension swap!!!” I figured, why not? We have to rebuild them anyway! With the entire EDO crew jumping on the car at the same time, within 45 minutes, we had the entire suspension swapped and aligned (by Robispec) and ready to go out for the first Time Attack Session!!!!
 While lined up at grid waiting to be released, I was trying to figure out a way to make up some time in the session. I knew with my old coilovers, I was going to be much faster than my previous session. Once again, luck falls on my side…Mike Bonnani from Double Down Motorsports was grid right in front of me. During a quick discussion, he told me that if I was on his tail by the last turn of the warmup lap, he would let me by on the front straight so I could have a clean fast Time Attack session. Just as we discussed, when we came around the last turn of the warmup lap, I blew by him like he was sitting on a bench waiting for the next bus to show up. From what I hear, the crowd roared in excitement as I passed him in front of the stands. (good thing they weren’t aware that it was pre-staged!!!) As my first time out with my old suspension and new found power, I was able to pull a time good enough to move me from 20th to 4th Place moving me into the fast group for the second timed session. With that, we had one more practice session before the final Time Attack session. With a few more adjustments and a fresh set of tires (Toyo R1R’s), I knew everything was going to be good. With a fresh set of tires, I was ready to compete in the second Time Attack session. I couldn’t believe how sticky these were compared to the tires I ran earlier in the day…and they were good enough to get me a final timed run of 1:59.1 beating my previous best by 2.5 seconds and a podium finish of 3rd place in the AWD Street Class. Only a half second separated 1st-3rd!!!! With a little more time on this setup, I definately could have gone faster…but that’s ok, we’ll just save a little for later 
Overall, with a 3rd Place finish to start of the season…I see good things in our future…VERY good things! Now that the car is back in the shop, we still have our hands full in the next step of the build…removing weight. As my boss and good friend Robert Fuller of Robispec says, “power is fast in a straight line…lightweight is fast EVERYWHERE!!!”
Posted in Racing News, Tuning | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
Over the weekend, I have had a chance to tune our Nissan Skyline R33 GTST which was tuned by friend a few months ago. This stock RB25DET engine has been fitted with Greddy TD06-25G turbo kit.
Using our Dynpack, the car pulled 321WHP and 246 ft-lb at 17.5PSI . After tweaking the parameters on the AEM EMS, I got 341WHP and 260 ft-lb with about 17.5 PSI. Then, I adjust the Greddy wasgate setting and in the end, I managed to get 360WHP and 278 ft-lb.
The car still ran a little rich. I went ahead to advance a little more timing and I finally got 380WHP and 290 ft-lb at 21.5 PSI. I felt so happy and forgot to save my file.
Oh well! Now I am thinking what I can do to bring the car to more horsepower! We might do the alcohol/water injection and HKS T04Z turbo.
Till then! I will posting a little more about tuning a EVO 9 with AEM EMS.
Posted in Tuning | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 12th, 2008
Hey guys and gals!
I do apologize for the lack of Day 2, 3, and 4 recaps, but I figured I’d save up all those updates into one gynormous Weekend Recap update! Yay!
Day 2
We had a car sit on the dyno overnight due to a wheel bearing failure, and transmission/differential fluid changes. So I took care of changing out the fluids, and then we took the car off the dyno so that the wheel bearing could get replaced.
So as that car was getting worked out, we moved a car up a few spots and began tuning the Tomei ARMS M-7760 EJ20 Project Car!
I will cover the full details of this project very soon, along with dyno graphs and comparisons.
Next up on the list is Ryan and his Evo 9 MR! First things first, this car is just sick! Very tastefully done on the exterior, and conservative on the engine mods!
The dyno results: 299.5 AWHP and 265.7 ft/lb of torque!
We then placed Mike’s car back on the dyno for the tune, but it turns out the differentials were shot! No bueno!
Day 3
We started off the day tuning our new 2008 STi!
The car is completely stock, but we decided to tune her up to Stage 1 via TurboXS Utec, and we yielded finished up at 281.1AWHP and 314.5 ft/lb of torque!
Next on the list, Steven’s EVO 8, which had some prior camshaft, valve springs/retainers work done right before the tune!
With everything finalized and dialed in, numbers were: 288.2AWHP and 297 ft/lb of torque!
Next on the list was Michael’s 07 STi!
They didn’t mind smiling for the camera!
His final numbers: 293.9AWHP and 328.5 ft/lb torque!
Day 4
We had a short day seeing as how Miguel had a flight to catch, and apparently the camera batteries were drained as the chargers weren’t brought in (woops?) so I don’t have any pictures. I do however, have the graph!
That concludes our lovely tuning event! I’d like to thank all the folks who showed up to make this event possible! It would have been nothing without you guys and gals!
Miguel is scheduled to return next month! June 19th-22nd! I am currently taking appointments!
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Friday, May 2nd, 2008
Hey Folks!
Miguel has arrived and Day1 of 4 was a complete success!
We started the day off taking care of Joseph’s Gold Wide-Body WRX. We tried to tune her last time, but there was a solenoid issue in the boost controller. So now that we’ve taken care of that problem, it’s back on the dyno for some real numbers! Miguel did not disappoint, as she’s running 19PSi at 335AWHP!
Next came along Ryan’s WRX. Who needs a front bumper these days?
With a fresh set of spark plugs installed while Joseph’s car was on the dyno, Ryan was all set! But wait! Turns out his turbo inlet pipe had a nice sized hole in so it needed a quick fixin’! Luckily, here at EDO Performance, we don’t just work on cars, we stock a ton of parts! Ryan opted for the APS Turbo Inlet Pipe and 3 hours later, his car was back and ready for the dyno! Pushing out 268AWHP, this WRX sounded beastly!
Next in line was Kyle and his 2005 STi! With a 3-inch Turboback, intake, and a fresh set of newly installed 650cc injectors, his STi rocked out 311AWHP!
Don’t mind the Del Taco, we got hungry!
I’ll have video after the entire weekend is finished! Pictures do some justice, but hearing these babies is a whole new story!
I’ll have a recap of Day 2, so stay tuned!
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