DJKOR's Aurion - Rev. 2

[SecaBoy]

you must buy now... :D

if you dont, we will collectively laugh and tease you until you either buy it or buy it... :P

just hope the ecu doesnt think you're doing anything funny and kick you in the nuts though...

[dwee.]

Regarding the traction control, just curious, is there a stock TC button for the Aurions or did you want something more permanent? (TC gets annoying sometimes) I remember a thread about one of the Aurion guys thinking about making a switch but I didn't read into detail.

There is no switch available for it either stock or aftermarket. I built up a circuit that turns it off though. That said, I never really find the need to do so. It was more for proof of concept.

Ahh I see. Thanks for the clarification! Makes sense now, I heard someone (not from TOCAU) thought he was smart and pulled out the TC fuse, which consequently put that car into limp mode..

[Marky Mark]

Done any engine mods to the TRD?

My sister has one, I love driving it. Never dragged it against my TRD Hilux.

Might have to soon.

[DJKOR]

Done any engine mods to the TRD?

No engine mods (internals or electronics) whatsoever. This car is meant to last me some time, so I don't really plan on doing anything apart from the already tried and tested.

Unless a large sum of money falls into my hands.

[Defyant]

Done any engine mods to the TRD?

No engine mods (internals or electronics) whatsoever. This car is meant to last me some time, so I don't really plan on doing anything apart from the already tried and tested.

Unless a large sum of money falls into my hands.

Whats there to do! thy'r perfect already imo :D if i could pretty much do what i wanted to my Sportivo it would just end up like DJKOR's Cept white :D

[DJKOR]

So last night I headed out to the drags again since it was going to be a cool and quiet night there. As with every other time, once I set a benchmark for myself, it always seems to be impossible for me to go beyond it. Tonight was no exception. With my previous time of 13.372s @ 104.46mph in mind, I set out to beat it.

Unfortunately I couldn't. First thing I noticed when I went for my first run was that the track didn't seem to be as sticky as usual. Usually I could stall it up to 1,500RPM with absolutely no issues, but this time around it was breaking traction with any form of stalling it up. Could also have been my tires, so there was something else as a variable. In addition to that, my head wasn't 100% in the game so I didn't properly adjust my launch to compensate for the external factors. For all my good runs in the TRD in the past, I have been able to get 2.0xx - 2.1xx for my 60 foot times. Tonight I wasn't getting any lower than 2.2xx which was negatively affecting my 1/4 mile time. I also got quite a bit more wheel spin than usual (which is typically none).

On a side note, when going over all my time slips from previous runs, it appears my DIY intake has not negatively affected my performance but at the same time has given me the extra supercharger whine that I wanted. Trap speed through the night was pretty consistent and in most cases, higher than previous runs in similar weather conditions. At least one thing went right I guess.

Anyways, here are the slips for my two best runs of that evening. In the second timeslip, that was up against Andrew357 who was driving a stock auto HSV E-Series 1 Senator:

And just for fun, here is the in-car video of that last run. You can see how I had quite a bit of wheel spin which wouldn't have done any good to my ET, and you can also see how my head wasn't completely in it judging from how I wasn't able to keep the car pointed so well. For reference, that speed warning was set at 130km/h:

[Evo7]

Wow DJ, I am impressed, it sounds like you have finally unleashed that supacharga whine out of the TRD

good job man B)

Evo

[SecaBoy]

i'm surprised that the track wasnt up to normal standards man... the had the top fuelers there last weekend, so i would have guessed that they did a lot of prep work to the track for that...

[DJKOR]

So today I had myself a really 'ah ha' moment followed by a facepalm.

Recently I had a local member here 'Steven' help me out greatly and modify the y-pipe on my exhaust to see if it helps on the TRD to free things up. Since I put it on, I swear it has been more than the placebo effect and that there has been an increase in power. This I won't know until I go to the 1/4 mile this coming Wednesday the 6th, followed by a dyno run on the 9th. So that then brings me to the reason of this post.

Back in April 2010, I dyno'ed my TRD and got my stock (well the intake was stock with one part removed) figure of 196.5kW at the wheels. I was happy with this figure at the time and that was that. A couple of months later, I put in a homemade SRI (picture here) with the intention of getting some more induction sound/supercharger whine out of my TRD. Boy did that sure do it's job and to me it didn't feel like I lost power, so that was enough to keep me happy.

Anyways, a couple of months later in August 2010, I had thte opportunity to do another dyno run so I figured it would be good to see if the intake has gained me some power. Unfortunately the best run that day gave me a figure of 194.4kW at the wheels which was quite a disappointment at the time. Since I had all the extra supercharger whine though, I figured I may as well keep it at the expense of losing 2.1kW at the wheels. I was hoping it may have just been the dyno. In that case, I got the dyno graph and slipped it into the glove box and never thought anything more of it... until today.

Today while looking up ways to feed my SRI with some cooler air, since I don't really want to go down the path of a CAI just yet, I thought I may as well look at that dyno graph again.

10 months later... I finally realised that maybe I shouldn't have been completely disappointed with the figure.

Base dyno run with everything stock except for a restictive snorkel to the airbox removed:

Dyno run after putting in my homemade SRI:

I'm hoping when I dyno it again next Saturday that I get a better figure.

[Andrew357]

a big difference definitely

[httttt]

Ok. My guess is that you managed to get slightly less power but with a lot less air flow?

[Guest]

look at the difference in power curves

[Andrew357]

look at the difference in power curves

Even though there is a slight difference between the 2 x-axis', there have been big gains in the low and mids.

[Steven]

That power graph for the original dyno seems a little fishy to me, certainly the power output of the original TRD should be more consistent and smooth than that.

[DJKOR]

That power graph for the original dyno seems a little fishy to me, certainly the power output of the original TRD should be more consistent and smooth than that.

This is correct. However the resulting dyno graph is what you get when you try an dyno a car with an automatic gearbox that does not hold itself to one gear. You need to ramp up the accelerator until you can put your foot down all the way without it dropping down a gear.

From the looks of things, the load characteristics appear to be different meaning that it can apply it's power down lower instead of compensating by needing to drop down a gear. That is taking into account that the dyno operator is somewhat consistent in their work.

Either way, it's not to be treated as an actual improvement. Just something to get me thinking that maybe the intake is not pointless.

One way or another, my fastest 1/4 mile pass has been with it plus on top of that when compared to the stock intake, each pass of equivalent time has had a consistently higher trap speed of at least 2mph. So I firmly believe that the intake is not worse than stock.

[SecaBoy]

just a guess here that because of the auto box in these, the 'ramp up' shown on the dyno will never be the same because if you ramp it up too quickly it'll kick down a gear...

could be talking outta my a$$ though..

edit: you beat me to it!!!

either way man, ignore dyno's... go by 1/4mile time... :)

[DJKOR]

Thanks to JustDave of Boostcruising/Dragphotos.com.au, I received a couple of photos in the mail today. Unfortunately they don't scan so well for obvious reasons but regadless, I feel like adding them here.

[ben yip]

time of your drag?

I have also compared your two dyno, I am afriad to say that you are losing power

When I compare dyno, I don't compare the peak figures, I compare the mid range..

Just let you know, I am also learning how to read dyno. I am not an expert

in your dyno, I have take 145km/h for example, because of your automatic transmission, I cannot compare low rev

First one: 163.2kw

Second one: 157kw

You lose 6.2kw

in 160km/h

First one: 175.2

Second one: 170kw

You lose 5.2kw

in 178km/h

First one: 187.2kw

Second one: 184.4kw

You lose 3kw

Also, pay attention to the AFR ratio, that is very important

In the second dyno, I am wondering whether the spike of the power curve is caused by the AFR ratio changes, my dyno graph in my signature below shows the same thing

Also, Your first dyno has lower AFR ratio at the end, which probably helpes to boost the peak power a little bit. For your car, I do not know what is the optimum AFR ratio since you have a supercharger

Edited July 11, 2011 by ben yip

[DJKOR]

time of your drag?

That run was a 13.533s pass. I wasn't getting traction that evening due to a cold track and tires that were less than decent.

I have also compared your two dyno, I am afriad to say that you are losing power

I see where you are coming from with your measurement, however I always treat dyno readings with the knowledge that it doesn't truly give a representation of power. They can vary on their own with the same car and same conditions.

What was not included which may have given a better indication is the torque curve. Sure enough I may have lost some power, but you need to realise that the power of the car doesn't all come down to the kW. Unfortunately I never got that graph printed post-intake, but I will be getting another dyno later on and I'll see if I can get the previous graph printed as well.

At the end of the day if I did in fact loose 6.2kW at one point on the graph (without gaining torque for example), despite going backwards, I am not really complaining. We aren't talking about a car here that puts down 80kW at the wheels and every difference in kW counts; in this case, variations like that are barely noticeable.

I like to use real world figures to compare things though, and I do have about 25 quarter mile slips for this TRD to show how it runs, but if you compare all my slips from before I put the intake on to the slips from after I put my intake on, you will see the same relationship... higher MPH per ET. I have chosen two for demonstration of this. Don't pay so much attention to the ET as both of these were not a hard launch (which is essential when trying to squeeze whatever milliseconds off the ET that you can in these cars) but pay attention to the difference in ET. Like I said, this is only comparing two runs (1 year apart in similar conditions), but you can see the same trend in pretty much all my slips:

Purpose of discussion? I'm trying to say that one cannot simply just jump to the conclusion that the intake is doing worse. Sure it is not a professionally made solution, but it doesn't mean it's not doing it's job. One way or another, I'm not fussed if it did step me backwards, but in terms of real world feel and gains, I still like to believe it has made a positive difference.

Also, Your first dyno has lower AFR ratio at the end, which probably helpes to boost the peak power a little bit. For your car, I do not know what is the optimum AFR ratio since you have a supercharger

Actually, the mixture runs real rich towards to end... moreso in the initial dyno graph. If anything, from what I gather, that would be hurting performance.

[ben yip]

Good time..

I totally agree with you on this. Your speed is higher

I have done lots of research on dyno, and resulted in nothing, no definite answers on so many things, such as the torque as you say..

Reality checking is more accurate and realistic..

Recently, I am using similar method to compare the performance..

I take a video using my mobile, do acceleration from second or third gear starting from 2k rpm rolling start (make sure wheel spinning is minimal), then accelerates at 6krpm or even higher. Then use a stop watch to measure the length of the video between the rev

I chop the video into pieces and measure each 1000 rpm and the time taken

Good on you on the AFR ratio, according to my research on here

http://autospeed.com.au/cms/title_Tuning-AirFuel-Ratios/A_1595/article.html

In the engine operating range from peak torque to peak power, a naturally aspirated engine should be slightly leaner at about 13:1, with the forced induction factory engine about 12:1 and an aftermarket supercharged engine staying at about 11:1.

but again, every car is so different

Edited July 12, 2011 by ben yip

[DJKOR]

Good time..

I wish. It takes a bit of effort to get such a time when you consider a stock XR6 turbo for example can rock up and do countless passes with some consistency.

This brings me to my next point though. Where do I draw the line on wanting more? Time to sell and move on? I'm quite content with living with what I have, but part of me just wants more power with simplicity.... combined with great handling, etc.

[Andrew357]

This brings me to my next point though. Where do I draw the line on wanting more? Time to sell and move on? I'm quite content with living with what I have, but part of me just wants more power with simplicity.... combined with great handling, etc.

That's a question only you can answer. Look at me, I've spent over 15k on mine, probably much more than most people would spend on a Camry. As I have said before 'there is still so much that needs to be done' and even then it's still going to be slow.

Am I going to stop and call it a day? Unlikely. For reasons which I cannot explain other than 'cause I want to'. It goes against all logic and fair-reasoning but the heart wants what it wants.

Besides, if I get the Rexus; she'llbe de-registered and beasted up a little.

[SecaBoy]

lol @ xr6t comment.. not really fair to compare cars man...

you should be happy with the times you got...

an xr6t standard is good for high 12s and yet, you can get low 13s with less power!!

seriously man, you're times are great, and if i was able to get them from my old trd, i'd be quite happy... :)

in terms of the hunt for more power... well... its unfortunate, but look at what can be done with a VE SS with a few thousand dollars... or an xr6t for that matter..

its one of the main reasons for me selling my trd... i wanted more power.

[ben yip]

This brings me to my next point though. Where do I draw the line on wanting more? Time to sell and move on? I'm quite content with living with what I have, but part of me just wants more power with simplicity.... combined with great handling, etc.

I agree with you, like me, got a Corolla, with people teasing at me putting in on track.

Well, the same goes for Evo, people driving a Ferrari might look down on the Evo...

If you want fast, just get a motor bike to drag, why carry a load of weight then

Go Kart can be very fast as well, very light weight. I wonder if I can bring one to drag with you and I will be flying (too fast, so the car really start to fly !!)

I don't like XR6, my friend got it and it has many design flaws, eg, when changing the clutch.

One old professional driver (50+ years old) told me

"Remember 30 years ago, most cars are using drum brakes. Today car modifications are chaotic, many people don't know what they are doing. Technique of the driver is always number 1".

I hope you dun fall into the materialistic world, chasing for power, never ending. You must your own reason of buying a Aurion rather than Ford

[Steven]

Also remember your TRD is something special. It's rare, unique, and plenty of power. True there's more powerful cars out there, but you talk about having something else and being able to get power with only a few thousand, but how much have you actually put towards the TRDs power?

With a piggyback ECU and a bit more boost you could dip into the mid 12s quite easily, and that's easily achievable with a few thousand if you wanted to go that way - plus it will also deliver almost the same economy you're getting now (try getting that from a Commodore V8).