Rolling road tune or AFR and tinker!?

[AliK]

With the new engine going in soonish, I was tempted to take her for a rolling road tune.

But given that It'l cost the best part of £300 at my local place, I was tempted to get an AFR for around £150-£200 so that I can play with it myself in the future and get real world driving setup.

I don't plan to have it on view permanently in the car as I want the car to look as close to stock as practical.

What are your thoughts? Has anyone done the RR tuning and what was your experience?

Shall I leave it to the pros and cough up or tinker and have something I get to keep for the next time?

Ali

 

[DonMuscles]

You have a brand-new build engine. The last thing you want is knock, Or to run lean or rich.

Rolling road tune all the way.

 

[jonbills]

You’ve got triple webers haven’t you Ali? I think it depends how much you like to tinker.
If you do it yourself, you’ll definitely end up spending a lot more than £300 on jet’s n stuff. But you’ll know a lot about the carbs by the end.
As comparison, a good price for a set of 6 emulsion tubes, main jets and air correctors for my Dellortos is £80. You guess what might work, you buy it and then find it’s not quite right and you buy more.
On a well stocked (with Weber bits) RR those try and try again cycles only cost you 30 mins of their time. Rather cheaper, but not as much fun. If you like that kind of thing [emoji3]

 

[AliK]

Thanks guys.

Don, you make good sense. [emoji106]

Jon - I'm on Z therapy SUs with SM needles and not quite rich enough yet to have triples ATB LSD will come before I get that far. But also your advice on triples is good; friends with them have had no end of complications and cost setting up on their own, only to cough up a few hundred to someone who knows them well![emoji849]

 

[jonbills]

Oh yeah, SUs. Less things play with, but same principles apply.

Didn’t you get the Quaife already?

 

[Alphabettispaghetti]

Rolling road all the way. Even then, you'll still need to have a play I reckon, however you're saving days and days of your time also.

 

[AliK]

.

Didn’t you get the Quaife already?

Sadly not! Had some parental health scares and with hospitaling and doctoring every week I didn't find the time in the end.

Need to focus on engine first and try to get the car back on the road for the summer, then maybe next autumn will get round to the back end.

 

[DonMuscles]

Sadly not! Had some parental health scares and with hospitaling and doctoring every week I didn't find the time in the end.

Need to focus on engine first and try to get the car back on the road for the summer, then maybe next autumn will get round to the back end.

Will not ask who’s back end you are referring to......

Lmfao!!!

 

[Rob Gaskin]

Ali, I'd spend money on getting the car running right before even considering an LSD. Rolling Road is the way to go but you have to have confidence in who you are using. Have you had recommendations? They need to be familiar with SU carbs and carry jets/needles/piston springs. Are there 'classic' restoration companies near you, if so who do they use?

You need to make it clear that you are using the rolling road for tuning and not just a power run and that the car can't be tuned with a laptop. You can do basic stuff yourself first e.g. valve clearances (after a few miles of running), basic ignition timing, basic mixture settings.

 

[AliK]

Ali, I'd spend money on getting the car running right before even considering an LSD. Rolling Road is the way to go but you have to have confidence in who you are using. Have you had recommendations? They need to be familiar with SU carbs and carry jets/needles/piston springs. Are there 'classic' restoration companies near you, if so who do they use?

You need to make it clear that you are using the rolling road for tuning and not just a power run and that the car can't be tuned with a laptop. You can do basic stuff yourself first e.g. valve clearances (after a few miles of running), basic ignition timing, basic mixture settings.

Thanks Rob, brilliant advice as ever.

The company is CCK Historic - they only do classics restoration / classic race cars

http://www.cckhistoric.com/rolling-road/

They prep / repair many of the cars your see racing at the Goodwood revival / pre-1966 events.

In fact they were the ones who mentioned it when I went there for my power run of the old engine - and as you say, their view was you can only properly set up the mix/carbs / timing etc properly on a rolling road with load at different RPMs, after which (included in the price) they will do a power run.

I agree - need to get the engine sorted before spending more money on stuff I don't need to play with quite yet.

 

[Rob Gaskin]

Thanks Rob, brilliant advice as ever.

The company is CCK Historic - they only do classics restoration / classic race cars

http://www.cckhistoric.com/rolling-road/

They prep / repair many of the cars your see racing at the Goodwood revival / pre-1966 events.

In fact they were the ones who mentioned it when I went there for my power run of the old engine - and as you say, their view was you can only properly set up the mix/carbs / timing etc properly on a rolling road with load at different RPMs, after which (included in the price) they will do a power run.

I agree - need to get the engine sorted before spending more money on stuff I don't need to play with quite yet.

They look like the guys to use - why didn't you say that before ;-)

If you have a good experience you could recommend them to us.

 

[AliK]

Will do Rob. They seemed to know what they were up to. I think they have restored a Z or two in the past so will defo do a write up once I use them again.

 

[toopy]

Ive never really considered an AFR meter/gauge before, but I guess on carbs that tend to go out of tune gradually over time without you realising, it makes sense.

Where abouts in the exhaust does the Lambda sensor go? Im assuming as near as possible to the section immediately after the manifold/header

 

[AliK]

Good question Mr T ... have a read of this ...

http://blog.innovatemotorsports.com/important-tips-to-get-the-maximum-life-out-of-your-o2-sensor

 

[jonbills]

On a Sean exhaust, it’s on the collector, right next to the speedo drive cable on the gbox.

 

[datsfun]

Talking of Lambda sensors, how much of an additional benefit is it to have it located nearer the carbs ?

Reason I ask is that I am planning to get my L16 with Twin DCOE tuned and the tuner suggested that to do the job properly, we need to take the zorst off, holesaw it and install a sensor and then re-install. He said that it's much more beneficial that installing the long probe at the silencer end.

The risks of things going wrong with suggested approach and the additional costs have got me in a wee bit of a dilemma.

 

[jonbills]

I’m not sure what difference it would make.
Perhaps nearer the carbs you get faster measurement.

I know many sensor manufacturers want to have the sensor a good way from the head to keep the temps down, but I know some are fine being close.

Ideal would be a sensor per cylinder.

 

[Alphabettispaghetti]

on every decent exhaust i've ever had, its been straight after the merge collector, on the IL6's the m3's have two, one for the first 3 cylinders, then the following 3.