Hey guys

Just to start off, I had my BF XR8 6Spd Manual with Vortech blower (non-intercooled) @ 9psi tuned around mayish last year (cooler months). Its been perfect up until this summer

So basically now that intake temps have risen, once it gets to around that 50-55 Degree mark, i get some light pinging under load but only at low RPM (like off idle/leaving lights/high gear hill climbs with extra light throttle/etc), never under boost/etc.

Do you think pulling timing from the bottom end of the map is the best way to go about fixing this? (And i'd like to quickly point out the car IS going up to the tuners on saturday where they're going to do some timing adjustments in the bottom end of the map) or should i be looking elsewhere first?

Mechanically, everything is fine (no carbon build up/intake clean/etc) so i guess i've really narrowed it down to doing 2 things, 1: Pulling some timing out of the tune (again, on sat the tuners going to do this, hopefully it'll be an "extra" tune in the xcal so i can still go back) or 2: Getting the heat under control (i was looking at a WTA cooler, but by the time i get that all together it'll probably be into the colder months anyhow and it'd probably need some tuning adjustment afterwards).

Am i correct in these being the 2 paths to getting this pinging under control? or could there be other issues (i run NGK BPR6EFS plugs, perhaps they're too hot?)

Thoughts would be appreciated

ps, i'm not really sure if the knock sensors are working either since every scanner i've tried doesn't display any data for knock control, only spark advance reading (which i guess you could see the ECU pull timing in a knock situation but the scanners update rates are usually too slow to see it)

its more then likely higher intake temps.
its probably best to have the tune adjusted, there are adders and multipliers in the tunes that remove a certain amount of timing under higher intake temps, it would seem the car has been tuned under the conditions at the time, the tuner probably has not taken into consideration that the intake temp are going to be 20-30 degree higher in summer, especially with forced induction and even more so if its un intercooled ?..

who tune it?

Ok dropped into the tuner this afternoon as it was pinging quite badly being so hot - rather difficult to drive without pinging, really had to keep high revs and decent throttle even while taking off (which lead to a few unwanted chirp take offs but its better than having it knock its a*** off)

He took it for a drive, hes gonna revise how much timing the car pulls in regards to temperature (funny you mentioned that, i didn't read your post till after i got back), it already pulls timing (which you could always feel for sure, with the reduced power), but obviously not enough in total (when i got there IAT's were closing in on 80 degree's!)

Anyhow, it seems like this is a best solution, that way when its cooler, its still got the power of the original tune, it'll just pull more out in relation to high temps (i thought i'd loose power across a big chunk of the range regardless of outside temp)

I'd rather not name them but they're sydney west based

ps, i'm going to look into intercooling it anyway, even though the knocks gone i just don't like those IAT's at all :O

The signal voltage on the iat would have been under 1 volt at that temp, what was the engine temp, at a guess it would have been over 100 deg, and the engine oil temp 100 deg if it has vct the pcm would have pushed the rpm up a 100 rev's at idle. You want to get your self a scan tool so you can check all the data pids your self and see where you are at. Is that temp while driving or after a hot soak.