Hi there
So this morning I made the trip to EFI Parts for my custom mapping session on the dyno at a cost of £179. Car setup and ready to get some baseline figures:
Chris was very professional, really knows his stuff and told me Cup 172's typically when stock will make 166-171BHP if they are healthy and as I have the 182 manifold and PMS exhaust system fitted it should be worth 5-6HP additional if the cars factory ECU has not leaned or gone too rich due to manifold change.
The first run car made 175HP, then 176HP and a final run at 177HP. This pretty much means if the car was stock, still 172 manifold and exhaust setup it would have probably made around 169-171HP, but the moment I fitted the 182 manifold and PMS exhaust system, the 5-7k rpm pull felt stronger, so when Chris said to expect 5-6HP from a 182 manifold / cat setup he was pretty much bang on.
Chris said, very healthy car indeed and once mapped to not expect much at the top-end as the fuelling is pretty good as it is, so expect maybe 180HP.
So Chris spent close to an hour fine tuning the car, getting the fuelling where he wanted and improving the drive ability of the car and reducing the cat warming setup so it no longer drives poorly when cold, something Renault do on purpose to fast warm the cat up, the downside is it makes the car feel very flat for first 30-60s of driving around 2000rpm.
Fine tuning complete and the car made 180HP and 161lb/ft, a result I am very happy with as the cars only modifications are 182 manifold and full PMS sport cat exhaust system. Chris said a panel filter put it in the 182HP region or a full CAI maybe 185HP but then the issues of heat soak and less power in real world hence the favourite option generally been PH1 air box or V6 air box, or the ITG Maxogen setup.
Dyno graph:
You can see he has achieved more power and torque everywhere, now on the graph your maybe thinking that don't look like much and your never gonna feel 3-5HP gain, but do remember this is a 1000kg car.
I handed over the monies and drove home and within the first two minutes of driving the improvements can be felt, the car is smoother, it pulls away more cleanly, the 2000-4500rpm range feels transformed, it feels like its gained a solid 20-30HP here, of course it has not but the fact it feels like it has really shows you the improvement in drive ability. Coming out of corners now if your under 5000rpm are no longer an issue, before the car could feel flat due to how the stock map really leans out to give that kick. Whereas now the car feels much stronger, the kick is still present and the pull to 5000-7500rpm is just very clean.
A vast improvement, well worth the money and very happy. Might be taking a venture to Blyton Park in it end of this month as a few mates are going and they said in the Clio it will be great fun as its a track that suits smaller and lighter cars.
What is next, really nothing, that is really now as far as this car goes, anything further would detract too much from the car Renault designed, its an incredible and fun road car, pretty handy on a circuit too and very easy to drive. Now just to enjoy.
