UpRev w/Shawn Church (Church Automotive)

[state]

My Z spent a few hours at Shawn's place in Wilmington yesterday, 9/1. It's only my second time there, but I can tell you they know their cars! Shawn has a VQ37VHR (G37) and my base tune really benefited from his extensive tuning experience on his car.

While there, I saw a number of interesting street and track cars. One EVO was tuned for E85. Very interesting! His website lists an impressive array of cars for which they have expertise.

So, we started with his base tune. It turns out we have similar mods, but the Z exhaust is bit less restrictive. It's also unclear what is different with my particular car/ECU (I hear upwards of 10 ECU variants per MY, and you have to figure they are different for a reason!).

Bottom line? My 2013 370Z with Motordyne's ART pipe and tune makes 345/280 to the wheels. I can't say whether this is typical or not, but Shawn believes this is the most he's seen for this state of tune.

Here are a couple graphs to illustrate the before/after (it's worth noting that it's not a true baseline -- I had the ART pipes already installed). Also note the AFR. It seems our cars like it a bit richer than I'd think! It runs a near steady 12.5.

I'm happy with the results and I'm curious about other recent results (especially AFR).

[dastaco]

Something doesn't add up here, your dyno numbers are way higher than anything I've seen with just an exhaust and tune.

[state]

I'm less focused on the peak #s than the area under the curve. I can really feel the change in the torque curve. It's quite a big gain in the mid section.

We all know how dyno #s work, this isn't intended to be a comparison to other dissimilar runs, right?

Anyone else have tuning results from Church Automotive or DynaPack hubs?

[state]

It was only obvious to me after Shawn pointed it out, but maybe you guys may already know this, too.

The 370Z won't use full throttle <2500 RPM regardless of what amount of throttle is programmed! Various graphs illustrate this shift and it means we're leaving low-end power on the table.

It doesn't mean much in racing, I suppose. So much of this kind of tune improves everyday driveability, so why not?

That's small potatoes to actually figuring out how to unlock VVEL! Maybe we could see another 10 or 20 peak WHP?!

[dmhenderson]

There's probably a very good reason you can't unlock the rest of that low-end torque. Engineers tend to "engineer out" things that will say...blow up the motor. Just my two cents.

[NewtoZ's5]

Coming from the Honda/Acura world, Church's dyno is notorious for reading extremely high when compared to other similar dynos.

[Megan370z]

Originally Posted by dastaco

Something doesn't add up here, your dyno numbers are way higher than anything I've seen with just an exhaust and tune.

his tune was done on a dynapack from the sheet he is showing.

one of the test I did last year was to see the difference between gear and a lower gear resulted in higher number

I remember somewhat what were my number at that time
4thgear = 340-345whp
5th gear (1:1) = 324whp

maybe this is why his number is quite high....




on a dynojet , it was actualy the opposite but the variation was way less !

[Joepro]

Originally Posted by NewtoZ's5

Coming from the Honda/Acura world, Church's dyno is notorious for reading extremely high when compared to other similar dynos.

Discussed everywhere and confirmed, this is common knowledge over at my old forum as well.

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+...H6Xi0gGwi4GQDA

[state]

Hey guys, this isn't an HP contest -- I was measuring the impact of my tuning change. That change was still significant, no?

FWIW, I saw plenty of other cars put down much lower #s on the same dyno (yes even another VHR). Let's put the e-peens away and talk about the actual tuning, please.

It seems that Shawn's tuning takes AFR, timing, and throttle into account. I'm very impressed and thought other Z guys might find this interesting too.

[370Z JT]

Cool man. I got the same numbers on his dyno with a lot more bolt ons than you. However mine is AT. On a dyno jet I put down 310.

[Baer383]

How long did it take them to get the ROM from UPREV?

[state]

Originally Posted by 370Z JT

Cool man. I got the same numbers on his dyno with a lot more bolt ons than you. However mine is AT. On a dyno jet I put down 310.

For reference, Shawn's 6MT G37 puts down 338 WHP with the same mods, on the same dyno. Frankly, I thought that sounded high and hoped to have about that much gain. We used the same base maps and tweaked timing here and there. Again, the big deal for me was measuring relative gain under the same conditions, on the same dyno. Incidentally, the ambient temperature never dipped below 90 dg F. I'd guess 75-80% humidity, too.

In the past, I figured 10+% additional driveline loss with an auto. However, I'd like to say that the new 7 speed auto is pretty darned good! Considering it's not a DSG-type, it shifts awfully fast. I toyed with the idea of a base/sport 7AT (even drove two) before settling on my car. So depending on your mods, I'd say that could be the difference. What mods did you have at the time? Consider too, this is a 2013; subtle countermeasure style tweaks (if present) are often under reported by the manufacturer.

That has me thinking about the differences between a 370 Z and a G37. A foot or more additional driveshaft, and conventional materials as opposed to our CF unit. Little losses here and there certainly can add up to a measurable change.

[state]

Originally Posted by Baer383

How long did it take them to get the ROM from UPREV?

Just under a week from the time we dumped my ECU. I hear that they figure about a week for a new ECU variant. I'm impressed, all around. UpRev did their part, and they guys at Church did theirs. Your mileage may vary...

[370Z JT]

Originally Posted by state

For reference, Shawn's 6MT G37 puts down 338 WHP with the same mods, on the same dyno. Frankly, I thought that sounded high and hoped to have about that much gain. We used the same base maps and tweaked timing here and there. Again, the big deal for me was measuring relative gain under the same conditions, on the same dyno. Incidentally, the ambient temperature never dipped below 90 dg F. I'd guess 75-80% humidity, too.

In the past, I figured 10+% additional driveline loss with an auto. However, I'd like to say that the new 7 speed auto is pretty darned good! Considering it's not a DSG-type, it shifts awfully fast. I toyed with the idea of a base/sport 7AT (even drove two) before settling on my car. So depending on your mods, I'd say that could be the difference. What mods did you have at the time? Consider too, this is a 2013; subtle countermeasure style tweaks (if present) are often under reported by the manufacture.

That has me thinking about the differences between a 370 Z and a G37. A foot or more additional driveshaft, and conventional materials as opposed to our CF unit. Little losses here and there certainly can add up to a measurable change.

I had ART pipes, E370 exhaust, Gen 3 intake, pulley set.

[370Z Purist]

I didn't see this mentioned before; Dynapacks measure from the hub. They completely eliminate the weight from the wheels and tires, which sap a lot of horsepower. This is why a lighter, smaller diameter wheel will push better numbers when compared to a heavier, larger diameter wheel when performed on a Dynojet/Mustang dyno, which includes the wheels. If even more of the mass is centered versus being closer to the barrel, you'd "unlock" even more wheel horse/torque.

Does that mean that a dyno with rollers is a more accurate depiction of the car's actual wheel hp/torque numbers? I would suppose so.