[rangakishen]

Originally Posted by keyur

Hey Ranga! I am contemplating on the RaceChip now!
The RD box is great, but it does not change the boost pressure, and only increases rail pressure. So basically : more fuel + less air = black smoke.

Nothing decided yet - in case the RaceChip is also not gonna be useful, RD box it will be!

Can we not increase the boost pressure manually?? Will it void the warranty?? And more importantly, is there any air-filter which specializes in increasing the air flow (or do all airfilters do this??)??

[keyur]

Originally Posted by rangakishen

Can we not increase the boost pressure manually?? Will it void the warranty?? And more importantly, is there any air-filter which specializes in increasing the air flow (or do all airfilters do this??)??

The boost pressure is not to be increased permanently - it needs to be increased depending on the current settings of the other maps, only when the rail pressure is increased beyond the certain limit. This will take the inputs from the Mass Air Flow sensor if I am not wrong and slightly modify the pressures. Making any physical changes to boost the pressure will definitely void the warranty and may damage the turbo as well. The intention is to increase the pressure slightly, capping the increase at 1-1.5 bar.

[F150]

Originally Posted by keyur

Thanks for the concern.
IMHO, Michelins and Yokos are even softer and tread wear and damage to the sidewalls may increase. I am actually thinking of good old Madras Rubber Factory (MRF) tyres!

MRFs are not known for their grip. You should look at bridgestones. Turanza ER 60 for best of both worlds or Potenza GIII, these are real hard tyres,but ride comfort will be harsh.

Originally Posted by keyur

190@4000 rpm - 5th Gear
Attachment 605920

This one shows the RPM and speeds. You can see that even at 200 kph, the car does not redline (its around 4100 rpm)
200@4100 rpm - 5th Gear
Attachment 605921

You should really start looking at tyres with better speed ratings than H, as you are planning to go for a race chip or piggbox.

[keyur]

Originally Posted by F150

You should look at bridgestones. Turanza ER 60 for best of both worlds or Potenza GIII, these are real hard tyres,but ride comfort will be harsh. You should really start looking at tyres with better speed ratings than H, as you are planning to go for a race chip or piggbox.

I am planning on the Potenza. Also, the race chip for me is not as much about power and speed as it is about the ease of driving in higher gears on lower RPMs (lesser downshifting). The 190-210 speeds are not regular - just when I want to know how much I can push the car.

[keyur]

It's been quite some time since I uploaded pics of my Torqy (a.k.a Torqedo a.k.a. Torqueen). So decided to take out some time and post a couple.

View by the Wheel

The Halo

[optimist]

Originally Posted by keyur

21st Sept., around 9:30 pm, I was on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. I was driving around 80 kmph (avoid driving fast at night) and was in the Center lane. The road was plain and smooth - no ditches, no undulations no obstacles!. All of a sudden, there was a thud and the vehicle became sluggish. I realized that this was a tyre issue and so had to take the vehicle into the service lane. There was a lot of truck traffic, so had to drive some distance before I could stop.

Sorry to read about this again. What are the tire pressures you maintain?

[keyur]

Originally Posted by optimist

Sorry to read about this again. What are the tire pressures you maintain?

Recommended : 28-29 cold

[Torquedo]

Fellow Optra Owners -

I saw an ad yesterday, which states that the Optra D starts @ 7.88 (Ex Show), request you all to confirm at your end.

This would be of BIG help to me as I am on the verge of booking one.

Thanks

Happy Motoring !!

[keyur]

Originally Posted by Torquedo

I saw an ad yesterday, which states that the Optra D starts @ 7.88 (Ex Show), request you all to confirm at your end.

It's the similar discount amount as last time. Earlier they were giving the 30 odd thousand off as free insurance - now they have discontinued that discount and are posing it as discounted price!

[keyur]

Completed 10000 exhilarating kilometres (well most of them anyways) in my Torqueen just during Diwali! Not even 6 months since the purchase and 10000 kms done - and still, I love the feel when the turbo kicks in, and yes, I still get that silly grin on my face every time!

Since first servicing :

1. One more tyre burst out of the blue on a flat open highway. Have started maintaining cold pressure of 30 in all tyres since then. Road noise can go for a toss - I prefer intact tyres!

2. Have given the car for servicing a few times for getting rid of an irritating creaking sound (the re-torqing did not solve it permanently). The sound still persists and alternates between the left and right sides after every attempted repair.

3. The steering pump was making a slight sound at startup. Thanks to my hypersensitive ears, I picked it up over the engine's roar and pointed it out. The tech guys couldn't hear it, but I persisted till they heard it and acknowledged it. Nothing serious, but replacement due soon.

4. Strange scratching and screeching sound kept coming occasionally from the disc brakes. Was very concerned. Finally realized that small pieces of stone and gravel get caught between the back-side of the disc and the protection / covering plate. Have removed the irritant a few times, but it falls of by itself usually - till then it is very irritating.

5. Have obtained the RaceChip. Already opened it and done some RnD. (more coming up in a separate post). Will be trying this out on a friend's Optra as mine is still under warranty!

6. To be able to get some readings for comparison of parameters, have written up a program to log details of rpm, rail pressure, air pressure etc. A set of readings can be found in the attachments. If someone finds anything interesting or helpful in the readings, do let me know.


Now, the 10000 km second service :

Agenda :

This was the second (or technically 3rd) free service for my TorQueen. Pashankar Auto finally started their new service station at Nigdi, Pune (quite close to home), so I decided to give that a try. Unfortunately, I was short of time and had quite a lot of TODOs on my plate, so could not spend time at the service station.

So the activities were enumerated as :

1. Second servicing 10000 km
2. Air filter replacement
3. Engine oil change (not part of the schedule)
4. Wheel alignment (cancelled as I had just got it done after my second tyre burst)
5. Resolution of creaking noise on left and right sides of car (after the first servicing, it resurfaced multiple times)
6. Checkup of the steering pump (for the noise mentioned above)

Reached the workshop around 10:15 am. Had a brief chat with the executive there (Mr. Ganesh and Mr. Milind) and also with the Works Manager, Mr. Hemant Patil. Showed them how to reproduce the creaking noise. Mr. Patil said that some parts needed lubrication (duh) to which I did not agree - the creaking noise was definitely not a lubrication issue. But this was his first go at the issue, so gave him the benefit of doubt (although I told him that it would not resolve the issue). Also explained the steering pump noise.

We had a quick drive to check any other issues. The car was in perfect condition (except for the niggles). The air filter was checked and found to be in good condition too, so the service adviser cancelled the air filter change. The oil change too was deemed unnecessary. So all that remained was the general servicing. The estimate give was ZERO.

Got a call in the afternoon around 2 pm saying that the car was ready. Went in for the pick up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the car had been cleaned up like never before - even the crevices in the alloy wheels were sparkling!
I was not facing any problems with the car, so there was no marked change (even the creaking noise remained, or had maybe grown a bit - but that was expected ). The engine growl seemed more throaty - probably due to the air filter cleaning. The steering pump replacement was yet to come in, so the issue was deferred to a later time.
There wasn't much to expect at this time and nothing to complain either. The servicing was satisfactory and the cost was zero.


Summary :

Date of Purchase : May 2011
Date of first servicing : Aug 2011 (4997 km)
Date of second servicing : Oct 2011 (10367 km)
Total Running : 10367 km

Service Station : Pashankar Auto Wheels, Nigdi, Pune
Appointment Time : 10:15 am
Service Advisor : Milind
Works Manager : Hemant Patil

Action Items :

• 10000 km servicing
• Air Filter cleaning
• Resolution of creaking noise - left and right sides
• Steering pump checkup

Estimated expense : Rs. 0
Actual expense : Rs. 0


Parts Required :
NIL

Total cost of parts : NIL
VAT: NIL
Labour : NIL
Total : Rs.0

Total time taken 4 hours (10.45 AM to 2:30 PM)

After Sales and Service Experience : 7/10

Things I liked :

• No hole in pocket
• Excellent cleaning (probably the new staff is still diligent)

Things that could have been better :

• Diagnosis and resolution of the creaking issue
• My service record has not been updated from their Baner workshop - that would have been useful

P.S. : At the time of writing this, I am at 11000 kms.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by keyur

The RD box is great, but it does not change the boost pressure, and only increases rail pressure. So basically : more fuel + less air = black smoke.

Nothing decided yet - in case the RaceChip is also not gonna be useful, RD box it will be!

I read you got hold of RaceChip. Could you tell me what's the major difference between the two in terms of operations? Is RaceChip going to be better for the engine on a long term?

Originally Posted by keyur

It's been quite some time since I uploaded pics of my Torqy (a.k.a Torqedo a.k.a. Torqueen). So decided to take out some time and post a couple.

Proper DROOOOOL MAAAAAAAAAAL!!! Looks like some animation pics done in 3D or so !

[keyur]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

I read you got hold of RaceChip. Could you tell me what's the major difference between the two in terms of operations? Is RaceChip going to be better for the engine on a long term?

RaceChip and RDBox both act as a proxy between the ECU and the CommonRail, and modify the signals based on certain logic and settings, resulting in increased rail pressure. As far as the concept goes, both seem to be the same.

The RaceChip has 2 dials for settings, giving about 15 x 15 combinations, although only about 16-18 settings would be useful (actually only 4-5 that you would play with). To change these settings, you have to open the hood and fiddle with the dials manually. Cost including shipping - Rs.12000

The RDBox has a remote with 4 presets for Eco, Stock, P1 and P2 so you get these changes on the fly. Cost - Rs. 20000

I like to fiddle around, so 12000 was a lesser amount to fiddle with! (I plan to setup a oscilloscope to see the difference between the stock and the mod)

Proper DROOOOOL MAAAAAAAAAAL!!! Looks like some animation pics done in 3D or so !

These are HDR images - no animations, just editing! Check this as well.

[optimist]

Originally Posted by keyur

5. Have obtained the RaceChip. Already opened it and done some RnD. (more coming up in a separate post). Will be trying this out on a friend's Optra as mine is still under warranty!

6. To be able to get some readings for comparison of parameters, have written up a program to log details of rpm, rail pressure, air pressure etc. A set of readings can be found in the attachments. If someone finds anything interesting or helpful in the readings, do let me know.

Great to hear. I did have a look at the spreadsheet. The variations must be because of acceleration/gear change/deceleration. Any indications of speed available along with this? Is any raw data available? How and from where have you captured it?

Only thing apparent when the data is sorted is that the RPM increases proportionally with BAR. The rail pressure is not consistent with the RPM or BAR. A lot of other conditions will be at play here like accelerator position, acceleration/gear change/deceleration, speed, gradients etc

Originally Posted by keyur

Estimated expense : Rs. 0
Actual expense : Rs. 0
Parts Required : NIL
Total cost of parts : NIL
VAT: NIL
Labour : NIL
Total : Rs.0


Things I liked :

• No hole in pocket
• Excellent cleaning (probably the new staff is still diligent)

Excellent value for NO money!

[keyur]

Originally Posted by optimist

Great to hear. I did have a look at the spreadsheet. The variations must be because of acceleration/gear change/deceleration. Any indications of speed available along with this? Is any raw data available? How and from where have you captured it?

Only thing apparent when the data is sorted is that the RPM increases proportionally with BAR. The rail pressure is not consistent with the RPM or BAR. A lot of other conditions will be at play here like accelerator position, acceleration/gear change/deceleration, speed, gradients etc

Thanks for spending the time R !

There are no readings taken currently for speed and acc position, although I will reconfigure my program and get more readings soon!

I have written a program to read these values from the OBD port and log them onto my laptop. Raw data is available, but that will not make sense.

The whole point of converting to excel was to be able to sort it and make some deductions from the same! I too noted the BAR correlation, but what I need more is the correlation with the rail pressure and the boost.

Rather, I need to have a set of readings that I can replicate based on certain conditions, so that I can have a comparo when I fit in the race chip!

I will try and capture the accelerator position and vehicle speed readings on a road with no gradient and try and see what I can achieve. Wish there was someone like you riding shotgun with me so that we could have applied the logic right there and reached on some conclusion!

[optimist]

Originally Posted by keyur

Thanks for spending the time R !

There are no readings taken currently for speed and acc position, although I will reconfigure my program and get more readings soon!

I have written a program to read these values from the OBD port and log them onto my laptop. Raw data is available, but that will not make sense.

The whole point of converting to excel was to be able to sort it and make some deductions from the same! I too noted the BAR correlation, but what I need more is the correlation with the rail pressure and the boost.

Rather, I need to have a set of readings that I can replicate based on certain conditions, so that I can have a comparo when I fit in the race chip!

I will try and capture the accelerator position and vehicle speed readings on a road with no gradient and try and see what I can achieve. Wish there was someone like you riding shotgun with me so that we could have applied the logic right there and reached on some conclusion!

Hmm. Let me also get one. This looks interesting. Only that it will be one more time consumer to the many distractions I have already got the biggest being TBHP.

I will have a look at the scan tools the ASC uses and then decide. The reason I asked for raw data is to search for things that were missing from the spreadsheet. Time to read up on CRDI diesel engines

Pune is a few hours away from Bangalore in the Magnum, and data collection ride will be nice.