So I am pleased to say that I have had a fully ECU written tune on the ISF. Sonny Duran from Autowerks in Beverly Hills completed all this work, for those who have been around tuning cars for a while will recognise him as a big hitter in the Aus / Sydney tuning world. He does a lot of work with AMG and other Euro cars, and everything else obviously as well. Search for his channel "Sonny Duran" on YouTube, its pretty epic. He recently got the Lexus tuning software, and so I booked him in.
Here is some background on the car when taken to Sonny:
2009 ISF, Non LSD
HPS intake tube
Secondary cats had already been deleted, and resonator already deleted
Stock manifolds and exhaust otherwise.
In this guise the car made 232kw at the wheels, which from my tuning experience is probably about right for a 311kw engine given drivetrain loss, maybe a little under what it should be. I'm not particularly worried about the actual kw that is being achieved, more about gains from mods. As long as there is a definitive gain from mods, the actual number doesn’t particularly matter at the end of the day. Even better would be to measure ¼ mile times, but alas, I can't do that! I know some dynos read higher than others, particularly the stuff coming from America seems to be a bit higher than Aus. But, only the gain really matters, particularly 1/4 mile etc, not the end kw figure.
So, after the baseline tune, Sonny told me that the stock manifolds cut down to 2 inches on the exit from the cats, and have a significant restriction at that point. So he cut the factory flange off, widened to 3 inches, and re-joined to factory mid section. See pictures below. As you can see, this made a huge difference in what can flow through that section of the exhaust.
At this stage, he also slotted in a K&N panel filter into the standard air box. With these two things done, he re-dyno'd the car, and saw 245kw at the wheels, prior to tuning. This is pretty significant, a 13kw increase in power, which is somewhat comparable to an install of headers, for a tenth of the cost. The car sounds "cleaner" and "crisper" now that it did prior, and basically it sounds more aggressive, better. The sound would not be as good as headers, and not as much power as headers, but significant none the less.
At this stage the car was tuned, including removal of torque management, and adjusting of all throttle positions, like half throttle etc etc. It resulted in 255kw at the wheels. Now please, PLEASE, don’t get carried away with dyno numbers, because to me having driven the car, it's just not what it's about with this car. Because, wow. It is truly a changed car.. I was honestly thinking of getting out of the car, and getting into something else with more lazy torque, more effortless power. I felt there was always a huge hole in the bottom end power curve with the ISF, and my dream has always been to fill that gap rather than chase top end 7,000rpm power numbers. Problem solved.
In "Normal" mode it cruises around quietly and sedately, a corporate sled with manners. The difference is all the doughy'ness of the throttle is gone, half throttle actually means half throttle, and it behaves like it always should have. No hesitation, no having to floor it and waiting and waiting for it to wake up to overtake, its progressive now. And then you start getting into it, and its just next level. Sport mode with full manual is a joy to behold. The torque is filled up at the bottom, and it just wants to rev now. It's bloody great basically!
Keep in mind, this is with basically a standard cat back factory exhaust, with a full custom exhaust im sure you would be in the 270kw at the wheels mark, probably more. I know the exhaust is holding the top end power back, but for the cost of the exhaust, im just not fussed. Sonny built a full custom exhaust for another customer, custom mufflers etc, and made as much power as I did without the tune. So a tune on top of that will obviously make more power than what i have. Again, not fussed. For much less than the cost of either headers or a Joe Z exhaust, not even installed, i have transformed the car and achieved this. I bought the car for $45k with 65,000kms, and cant justify spending big dollars on the mods.
But what I have is a car which in my opinion sounds VERY nice, as good as any Borla or Xforce exhaust, but without ANY DRONE. NONE!! I am very sensitive to drone, and hate it, passionately. I feel this exhaust is now absolutely perfect for me, quiet for 90% of the time, but wakes up when it needs to. I am a happy camper. Here's a vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTZHSesggqw
All to do from here, is install the USRS and Oil/Air separator from RR Racing, and enjoy. Just need the other members to jump on-board and get the bloody group buy going haha! They are both must haves from research i have done.
Let me know any questions, I'll do my best to answer. I can't give costing's for this work, as Sonny was using my car to develop the tune, and looked after me, but you should give him a call.
1. plankton000 2. Willstroo (and Air / Oil separator) 3. 4. 5.
