New Trifecta tune

[aslap]

I just put the new Trifecta tune on my 15 LT 6M turbo. Some time ago I sort of complained that when folks did this sort of thing all you got was a bunch of "wow" and no numbers to back it up. I'm now going to do that exact thing I ragged about.

Wow!

I can run consistent 7.8 second 0-60's in my car when stock. I won't be able to hit my private test track (an industrial park early Sunday mornings) this week because of the snow coming in but the difference in the car has left me speechless and I'm sure I'm going to do much better than that with the tune. Even though it makes sense that today's engines can be boosted by nothing more than some ECM wizardry, I was skeptical that the tune would do any more than give the car a bit more punch and I was OK with that. It's a lot more than just a bit of punch. 2nd and third now pull hard right to the redline and I'm seeing boost pressures North of 18 psig. I never saw more than 12 with the stock tune. I floored it in second at about 25 mph and right at the 2K rev line and it broke the tires loose when the power hit. Amazing!

Anyway, I'll be sure to add the 60 times when I get a chance but I am one happy bukaroo!

Tony

 

[Stew]

Lol, yep, the difference from stock to tuned really is like we've all been sayin! Once you've driven a tuned Sonic you can never go back to stock.

 

[mitdr774]

Lol, yep, the difference from stock to tuned really is like we've all been sayin! Once you've driven a tuned Sonic you can never go back to stock.

I had to for a while since the tune was doing more harm than good. Once a safe option became available I switched back. In my second Sonic I would have taken a stock tune over what was in it and doing harm to it. It also now has a different and much safer option, although the harm had already been done.

 

[aslap]

What sort of harm?

Mit,

What sort of harm did the tune do?

Tony

 

[$ub$onic]

It destroyed the engine.
It blew more black smoke then a diesel and had excessive cylinder wash leading to more gas in the oil then oil.

It's back on a stock tune but hurting badly.


Let me know if you ever wanted to discuss sonics over lunch! I'm just a little north of you.

 

[aslap]

We're practically neighbors!

Sub,

I'm North of the city right of Rt. 28. We'll have to meet sometime.

Tony

 

[$ub$onic]

Sub,



I'm North of the city right of Rt. 28. We'll have to meet sometime.



Tony

I work in saxonburg, we will have to meet at the mills some weekend.

Always love meeting fellow sonic owners

 

[aslap]

Stew,

What has your mechanical experience been with the Sonic all amped up? How many miles on it with the mods?

Tony

 

[Stew]

I waited until my B2B warranty was almost done before tuning, I think I tuned around 32k miles. I'm now a little over 68k miles and haven't had any big problems. There's a couple minor things I keep putting off looking at but they're not tune specific. For example my ECT no longer holds steady at 198*, it fluctuates above and below, the electronically controlled thermostat prob just needs to be replaced. And my LTFT are creeping up at high engine load, I think my PCV valve is on it's way out like many others here.

So yeah, other than those couple of things it's actually been holding up fine mechanically, and I drive it pretty hard, it sees nearly 23 psi regularly.

 

[aslap]

Some numbers stock v. tune

The weather has been crummy and a dry road was hard to find. I found a reasonable place to try a 0-60 run tonite. Traction control stuff turned off via the console switch. All stock but for the Trifecta tune.

I use an Ultragauge to time things. My best ever run stock was a 7.72 with a 0 to 30 time of 2.4 seconds. So, it took 5.3 seconds to get to 60 after reaching the 30 mph mark.

Tonite I ran a 7.95. Front tires spun most of the way through first. 0-30 was 3.5 seconds. So, with the tune, it took 4.45 seconds to hit 60 after crossing the 30 mph threshold.

I think that's fairly amazing to lose almost a whole second from 30-60! I obviously have a lot of work to do to get the car launched.

Which brings up another point that somebody has to have figured out. The manual cars have a hill hold feature that locks the brakes for 2 seconds when a certain incline is detected. If this signal from the inclinometer could be intercepted, one would have a built in line-lock device that could be used to hold the car still while the throttle is worked to get things right for the launch. Has anybody done this? If so, how?

Tony

 

[Stew]

I remember hearing that being mentioned before but I don't remember who... Jerry with BNR possibly? I don't think anything ever became of it.

 

[Swordsmith]

The hill hold does not hold the car still under pressure, it's just barely enough to hold it still against the force of gravity. Your engine will easily overcome it, which is after all the point of the thing.

 

[aslap]

It does hold it

Sword,

The brakes are definitely held on for 2 seconds. You can feel the lock in the brake pedal pressure. If you take your foot off the brake the car sits there for 2 seconds and the brake releases. The 2 seconds is enough time for those who are challenged with a stick on a hill to get from the brake to the gas pedal while releasing the clutch.

It may be that the system locks up by using the ABS and not a solenoid in the brake line like a classic line lock. Either way, getting access to that function and being able to switch it on with the push of a button and switch it off when the button is released would be a great way to get the car moving. All that tire slipping and wheel hop has me concerned that something like a motor mount may break. Is there anything that helps the wheel hop?

Thanks

Tony

 

[AshesToArmor]

Is there anything that helps the wheel hop?

TTR lower trans mount. I highly recommend it.

 

[aslap]

Looks like a good piece

AtA,

Looks like a worthwhile addition in any event. It also looks like a thing you can do by yourself with a jack and some common tools, huh?

How would you rate it in terms of the wheel hop thing? I'm also on the stock Hankook tires which I know from experience (I traded a 2006 Aveo for the Sonic and I had Hankooks on there, too) stink.

Tony

 

[Trevinator]

after I swapped out the stock garbage transmission mount - no more wheel hop and shifting was MUCH improved. it eliminates that awful bouncing forward and backwards after shifting! it will smoothly spin the tires up with the ttr mount. I cant ever see a reason to put the stock one back on.

btw, it only took about 10-15 minutes to install it, including finding the tools.

 

[AshesToArmor]

AtA,

Looks like a worthwhile addition in any event. It also looks like a thing you can do by yourself with a jack and some common tools, huh?

How would you rate it in terms of the wheel hop thing? I'm also on the stock Hankook tires which I know from experience (I traded a 2006 Aveo for the Sonic and I had Hankooks on there, too) stink.

Tony

It's night and day. It took me about 25 minutes from the time I started jacking up the car to the time the wheels touched back down and I was taking my jolly good ol' time.

Wheel hop isn't gone but it's MUCH better.

 

[Swordsmith]

Sword,

The brakes are definitely held on for 2 seconds. You can feel the lock in the brake pedal pressure. If you take your foot off the brake the car sits there for 2 seconds and the brake releases. The 2 seconds is enough time for those who are challenged with a stick on a hill to get from the brake to the gas pedal while releasing the clutch.

Sure, that's what hill hold does and it works fine for that. But I thought you were suggesting co-opting it to hold the car in place while you build RPMs for a racing launch. It deliberately doesn't hold the car back from moving with the engine trying to push.

Maybe though what you are saying is that the slight braking would still help with the other problems you are experiencing at launch, and I just misunderstood?

 

[aslap]

I got you now

Sword,

I misunderstood. But if the hill hold is locking the brakes somehow, I'd think that it would hold it OK for a manual vehicle on level ground. Not an automatic where you'd be pushing the engine against the brakes but just using it to hold everything in place while the revs come up to launch. I just don't want to have to juggle one foot on both the brakes and go pedal to get the thing moving.

I'm just having a dick of a time trying to get the car off cleanly. To little on the rev side and it bogs; to high and you get the spin and hop. I've had drag cars in the past and the line lock was big help in getting things right before the clutch comes out. And if the launch doesn't get right, then I'll never be able to take advantage of the gains I see through second gear.

Tony

 

[aslap]

This was very interesting

I was yakking with a friend at work about the trials of trying to launch the car and he brought up a good suggestion that may very well turn out to be brilliant.

Since the Trifecta tune has the cruise control hot/normal mode control, he suggested starting off in normal tune and them hitting the hot tune at the appropriate time.

I took a quick spin at lunch and darn if it doesn't seem like that may work! I didn't have a chance to do a hard run but I could certainly launch with the cruise on to get the car out smoothly and then cut the cruise and the hot tune came right on and started pulling! Some dry road time will be a while coming but this may be the answer!

Tony