New Altitude - Do I Retune?

[Low_Kal]

Hello again everyone.

Hopefully an easy question here, I just bought a 2003 Cobra.

Basic bolt on's:
Kooks Long Tubes
X-pipe
Bassani Catback (No cats)
BBK cold air intake
B&M short shifter
3.00" upper pulley
EGR delete

The car was at 5500ft elevation. It is now sitting at around 1100ft elevation. Do I NEED to get it retuned? Will it hurt anything to run as is?

Obviously I know it will run "better" with a retune but will it HURT to run without a retune for a while?

 

[SonicDTR]

You dont have too, but anytime I buy a car with a tune from the previous owner I get it on the dyno and have it verified. Pay for a dyno session with AFR and see how it looks.

 

[Low_Kal]

I live in Oklahoma and the closest reliable tuners I know of are in Dallas. Gearheads performance. Anyone know of a good tuner in Oklahoma?

 

[bigmoose]

At a minimum I would check a/f. If you went to a higher elevation I would say you were good. But by going to more dense air you are venturing into the unknown area if the MAF table, so depending on the current tune it could go lean.

 

[Low_Kal]

I do not have an A/F meter. Any recommendations?

 

[03cobra#694]

Yeah, buy one or strap in on the rollers.

 

[bigmoose]

I use an aem UEGO setup. It does require a bung be installed in your mid pipe if done properly.

 

[MG0h3]

You should see more boost down there.

I bought my car in Socal at @ sealevel. Was making 15psi on a 3.75 pulley. Drove it home to El Paso at about 4500'. I was only making 12psi and had to drop to a 3.5 pulley to make 15 again.

I would check the boost and get it to what you were tuned for.

 

[SonicDTR]

OP, any shop with dyno should be able to help you. Doesnt matter if its an "import" shop or anything, as long as they know how to operate a dyno. Around KC we have at least a half dozen shops with dynos, and I think 3 or so mobile dynos that travel all around.

Dyno just measures the car and AFR, dont need a tuner at the same time, but you *could* get setup with a remote tuning company and work with them to datalog and send your dyno results live for what is essentially a remote live tuning session.

 

[Low_Kal]

That helps out a lot. The car came with a SCT Xcal4. Hoping to be able to work with the tuners and get it right. I just spent my life savings on this car and dont want to risk blowing it up just yet.

 

[MG0h3]

Does your boost gauge only go to 10psi still (factory)?

I would caution you about going WOT. Just don't. You will be making more boost.

 

[Low_Kal]

Yeah, the boost only goes to 10psi. I am going to hold off full throttle passes until I can work with SCT for a tune or just go to a dyno. Obviously a dyno is preferred but at least sct can get me buy til I get the scratch to go.

 

[SonicDTR]

You will need a wideband o2 sensor either way. Its good to have one on a boosted car, so buying one now wouldnt be a bad idea. Then you can self-verify how it looks, and keep an eye on it in the future.

 

[Low_Kal]

Just as a side note, I am new to the world of Forced Induction. I have been working and rocking my 1968 Camaro until I sold it for this. Carberation has always been my world and it easy to tune. This shit is confusing. So, to be clear, I should be able to load a tune to my SCT Xcal4 and flash it my my car to get me by, correct?

 

[SonicDTR]

Well welcome to the light! Just read read read! All of your questions have been answered here and other places, so lots of information available.

Not exactly that easy. Thats all there is to actually loading the tune to your car, but a tuner will need datalogs, either from you on the street, or while on a dyno, in order to build the tune to your car. Then you can load it up.

In order to datalog and provide anything useful to the tuner, you will need a wideband o2 sensor, either your own, or hooked up by the dyno operator.