Cadillac ATS-V HPTuners Stock Scan & Throttle closing

I am starting to run driving scans on my 2016 ATS-V to get a feel for how the engine operates. The LF4 twin turbo 3.6L engines use a torque management based strategy. The control sorts out what torque is desired, then manages the powertrain to make that torque, independent of throttle input. The throttle input (gas pedal) is treated as a request — so you might have the pedal on the floor, but if the engine is making over 100% of the torque planned at that moment, the actual throttle may close to maintain the torque to the planned levels.

In the image above, the Cadillac is accelerating through 61 mph, at 5313 RPM. The pedal is at 100%. The actual throttle however, is at 67.8%. The ATS-V was making “too much” power at that moment. If you examine the 2nd row in chart vs time, the green line is throttle %, so where we see dips in the green vs yellow line is where the ATS-V is reducing engine power to desired or planned output.

In this case, at this point, the total boost pressure of 31.5 psi (without adjusting for baro) was higher than the Desired Boost pressure of 30.7 psi. So the engine controller is pulling back the throttle because too much power is being made.

I also note that the stock file is running a few points of KR, or knock retard. There is a ramp up of the planned advance in that range. The engine controller goes from a spark advance of 8 degrees up to 10.5 then down to 10 degrees. That appears to be too much since the KR (knock retard) is going to 2-3 degrees there. Although it is possible that a richer air fuel ratio (AFR) would be fine.

The ‘stock’ commanded AFR is 12.8, lamda 0.909 equivalence ratio commanded. This is within the range of what most tuners are doing with the LF4 direct injected V6. This ATS-V may prefer to be slightly richer, but needs more research.

Correction Factor: Ambient air: 72F, Intake air 75F. Baro 29.5223 inHg, 83.13% humidity so SAE J1349 correction of 1.01555. 453.6 hp corrects to 460.7 hp.

Cadillac XLR LH2 V8 Tuning – More Tune 9a

Tonight I had cooler weather so I re-tested Tune 9a for baseline comparison.

XLR Tune 9A2 Comparison Calc HP

The 9A2 runs showed some KR spikes at 4150 rpm and 5000 RPM. This appears to relate to a high IAT advance multiplier at those RPMs, which I will zero out for Tune 9B.

XLR Tune 9a2 to 9a comparison

The Virtual Dyno for 9a2 was equivalent to 9a1, which is good news (same tune, different day).

Tune 9B will also reapply the MAF 2% touch up around 8,000 hz since there are some signs of running lean there.

XLR Tune 9A2-0139 HPTuners

The issue of KR due to multiplied IAT advance at lower temps could be why the XLR has consistently run better at high temps (which is counter-intuitive). In the next tune I will change the multipliers below 6000 RPM/below 104F for IAT advance to 0. The alternative would be to zero out IAT advance adders at cooler temps, but there may be some value in keeping them at higher RPMs.

Because the KR doesn’t go up at higher RPM it may be false knock?

Herman Cain, Kim Kardassian — Taking a Cadillac moment

Two very disparate news items this week, one about Herman Cain as a Presidential candidate dealing with a story from his past, and one about Kim Kardassian and her recently announced premature footnote to her celebutante wedding.  Both these developing stories however strike me as situations which could have benefited (and may still benefit)  from taking a moment to reflect.

That’s what I like about driving a Cadillac, even with the performance V Series model I enjoy as a daily driver.  It gives me some quiet time on the way about my day.  I try not to have the sort of stresses that Mr Cain or Ms Kardassian seek out, but I still find that I need some isolation from the day to day noise and traffic.  Nothing does that better than surrounding yourself with sculpted wood and leather with the surety of precision machinery.

What is a Cadillac moment?  To me a Cadillac moment is that opportunity to listen to cool jazz or the latest pop tune while cruising along to my destination and enjoying the journey.  Taking a Cadillac moment means instead of responding to the latest stress unprepared or off the cuff, taking a moment to reflect on the context and impact of the issue and of your response, and gaining some perspective.

Things that seem an unfair attack on your campaign at first, can get better or worse in terms of perspective depending on your response.  Your response helps to define the issue.

When you meet and date and marry someone, especially if you choose to do so in a very elaborate, public, televised manner, there are probably multiple points which could benefit from a moment of reflection.  Is this someone I want to spend my life with?  Is this someone that I can go through thick and thin with?

Stress is not what happens to you, it is how you respond to what happens to you.   When you do have something(s) come up in your life, take a Cadillac moment and attempt to gain some perspective before you respond.    You will certainly in the long run be glad you did.

Living the Cadillac lifestyle includes keeping a lot of perspective.