by crazymikie » Fri Apr 21, 2006 4:59 am
Boost is a closed-loop system. You set the boost targets to the values you would like to see the car achieve. These values then serve as a guideline to the ECU to tell it if the car is currently over/under boost. From there, you need to modify the wastegate duty maps to achieve the boost limits you set. If you set the wastegate duty too low, then you will not achieve your targets, whereas if you set it too high, you will get boost osciallations as the car tries to remove duty cycle to get back down to the target.
Then there are other maps that will affect how quickly the car will ramp up the wastegate duty cycle (turbo dynamics - burst or coarse). Based on how far you are from your programmed boost target, this map will control how aggressively the wastegate duty cycle will change.
Once you boost has come up to target (or more precisely you have hit your wastegate duty cycle target), the turbo dyanmics - proportional or fine map comes into play. If you go over or under boost from this point, this map controls how quickly the ECU will react and how much off target boost must get before the ECU will modify the wastegate duty cycle.
If that weren't enough, there are a bunch of compensation maps for boost and wastegate duty cycle that will alter your boost targets, depending on intake temp, barometric pressure, etc. So if you aren't seeing the values you programmed, this could be the cause.
Finally, other changes in the tune can affect boost as well. AVCS can change spool characteristics as well as the VE/compression of the motor, so that will affect boost. Also, different AFRs can affect boost as well. Leaning the car out during the spoolup period will add more heat to the exhaust gas, causing the turbo to spool faster.
Boost is really the hardest part to get right. After you get all of this correct for a WOT pull, then you get to check things like how boost reacts at mashing the throttle at 3000 rpm, 4000 rpm, going 1/2 throttle at 5000 rpm, a run through all of the gears, etc. There are always compromises to be made. My car will spike a few psi if I got WOT in 5th gear, but I never do that, so I prefer the boost response in the lower gears.
Hope that helps.
Mike