2013 Taurus - Learning to tune, need some guidance before I give up

[AdmiralSparklez]

Hi y'all,

Weird car. 3.5 NA, not an ecoboost. Not a lot of parameters to log and maybe that's the big issue here. Can't even log inferred MAP or mapped points.

Here's my situation: completely stock car (ONLY a ported upper and lower intake manifold), completely stock tune from factory and getting random KR spikes upwards of 5 degrees. I figured as my trial to learn, this wouldn't be super complicated to figure out. After altering various things such as fuel transient gain, removing 6 degrees of timing globally, getting the MAF curve better, turning off torque ratios and tip in modifiers, etc. Car still spikes at total random without rhyme or reason. I'm just stumped and coming to the conclusion that there's either missing options or it's false knock and I gotta check around the car.

The ONLY pattern I can find is it seems to happen right at 1100-1200 RPM when accelerating from a stop if it's going to do it at all, or around the 1900 RPM neighborhood when in 5th/6th gear maintaining speed. This seems to happen more on an upward incline like on a freeway maintaining speed. I assumed it was something such as burst knock since I notice it almost always happens when accelerating from a stop. Harder acceleration doesn't seem to cause any issues. It's strictly low load, lower RPM situations.

I can't feel or hear anything odd, car has driven the same the entire 6 years I've owned it. I have no idea if Ford uses burst knock strategies, I have no idea if these cars are maybe a bit lean from the factory.

I'm still very new and learning but I would very much appreciate some guidance. What should I be looking for in these logs? What am I missing? What jumps out?

Thanks!


Taurus log 3 11-27.hpl
My Stock Taurus.hpt
Taurus TEST TEST.hpt

[AdmiralSparklez]

Update, pretty sure I figured it out. MAF could've been a little better even being a factory tune, but my idle air volume was a tad low. The car would "lug" just slightly when accelerating from a stop (not enough to make you think there's a problem), and a smoothed 6-8% increase in idle airflow removed all KR and the car is much peppier. It has more urge to inch forward under it's own power when you let off the brake.

Any other suggestions would be great in terms of improvements. Currently I'm not understanding how this is a flex fuel vehicle with zero parameters anywhere allowing it to dynamically alter stoich unless I'm missing something or thinking about it wrong. My 2015 Mustang GT has flex fuel options which is odd because to my understanding that is not a flex fuel car from the factory.

[AdmiralSparklez]

Disregard, knock issues still present. Only happening at low load, low RPM. Essentially right when the knock sensors turn on (35% load in the above log), it slams to max KR and immediately decays.

Anyone? Anything? Really needing some help here. Would be nice to get some input.

[AdmiralSparklez]

Bump

[mejohn50]

I would double check everything physically in the engine bay. I would be looking for a bad engine mount or something. If you pulled 6 degrees and it is still knocking I would look for something causing false knock. Another easy test is add some octane booster. If it goes away or gets better then it is knocking, if not then it is most likely false knock. I am not sure there is any reason for there to be true knock in the 0.35-0.4 load range unless the tune is really messed up. And if it is doing it on the stock tune, hard to believe it is that messed up.

[AdmiralSparklez]

I would double check everything physically in the engine bay. I would be looking for a bad engine mount or something. If you pulled 6 degrees and it is still knocking I would look for something causing false knock. Another easy test is add some octane booster. If it goes away or gets better then it is knocking, if not then it is most likely false knock. I am not sure there is any reason for there to be true knock in the 0.35-0.4 load range unless the tune is really messed up. And if it is doing it on the stock tune, hard to believe it is that messed up.

Appreciate your response. That's about where I'm at, concluding it's false knock. Stock car and stock tune, anything I do does not change the situation. I've even cut all spark by 30% across every table just because why not and it still slams to max KR in the same area. I figured with 6-7 degrees of KR I'd definitely hear that at low load especially.