Ok guys, here you go...
Optimum Spark tables. Absolutely the most misunderstood and neglected tables in the E69. I'm here to say these tables (along with many other obviously) are VERY POWERFUL when you figure out what they do and how they work.
I waited over a year for somebody else to figure these tables out, but to this date I've never seen ANYONE else using these tables for tuning. I actually don't quite understand it, we all begged and pleaded to Chris and Bill to give us more for the LNF E69, then when they do, tables like these are left gathering dust.
Here's basically what these tables can do-
Ign timing control at idle, where so many guys have had issues that they couldn't fix.
Ign timing control on cold starts, again this will fix all "Cat Warmup Delete" surging idle issues if you figure out how to use them. I'll post up a log of a perfect cold start and idle that my car has had for over a year on the stock and EFR turbos, straight gas and E47.
Ign timing control to eliminate the timing drop(s) that occur right before 3k and 4k rpms. Tune these tables right and the ign timing drop of 10 or 15 degrees will be GONE. No more dips in those dyno charts that pretty much every LNF dyno that starts the pull at 2k or so has. ( When I was trying to decide which vendor to go with on my EFR build, one of the vendors I didn't go with really wanted me to fix this for them. Unfortunately, I never did tell them how to do it.)
Ign timing control on decel.
Throttle control at all rpm's and loads. (Really.)
Boost control at all rpm's and loads. (Yep.)
What else am I forgetting? Not sure.
Here's a very short version of how these tables work. They're lookup/compare tables. That means they don't directly control anything, they're tables the ECM looks at and compares what it's seeing elsewhere to the numbers in these cells. For instance, if you have 20 degrees of ign timing in a certain cell, but the stock number was 2 degrees, the ECM will do this- (ECM talking here- lol) Ok, the main ign timing cell I'm in right now is requesting 20 degrees, but my Optimum Spark cell is saying something like 5 degrees in that same cell. So if my airflow says I'm making plenty of power (again, more lookup tables involved), and my Optimum Spark cell says I'll be making optimum power at 2 degrees, why do I need to go all the way to 20 degrees? I don't, I'm gonna run this cell at say, 5 degrees.
Here's what happens in another similar situation- That particular main timing table cell was at 20 degrees stock, but you've set it to 2 degrees in your tune. That particular cell in the Optimum Spark table is at 30 degrees. Again, here's the ECM talking...
Ok, I'm not making the power (or airflow) that's being requested of me, so I'm gonna look at my tables to see what I can change. Optimum Spark cell says I'd be making optimum power at 30 degrees in this situation. My main ign table is requesting 2 degrees, there's no way I can make the power that's being requested at that amount of timing, so I'm gonna bump that up to say, 12 degrees. (Again, lot's more tables we can't see that control the amount of range any table can have. There IS a limit to how much timing the Optimum Spark tables can control. When they get over that limit, they use throttle and boost to control airflow/power.) Back to the ECM talking- Ok, so if I'm still not making enough power at 12 degrees ign timing, I'm gonna have to open the throttle more or give it more boost.
End result- you're NOT getting the requested 20 degrees that you put in your ign timing tables, and you're also NOT getting the requested airflow that you asked for in your DAL's, MALT or other airflow tables. Starting to see how powerful these tables are? Notice how these tables are in the "Torque Management" area instead of the "Spark" area? That's because they control torque more than they control spark directly. Lookup tables in any ECM are EXTREMELY powerful.
Here's a very simple analogy... The sky is blue. You're in charge of keeping the sky blue. Your "lookup table" says it's supposed to be blue. Somebody else made the sky blue, not you, that's another "table". You walk outside everyday and the sky is blue, everything's cool. You walk outside one day and the sky is green. You look at your "lookup table", it says it's supposed to be blue. Somebody changed that other guy's "table" to make the sky green. Your table says it's supposed to be blue or bad things are gonna happen, so you tell the other guy "Hey, I need that sky to be blue or we're gonna be in trouble!" He says "Ok, but this guy told me to make it green, so how about a compromise, we'll make it kinda blueish/green, Ok?" lol. Make sense? The problem is nobody got what they wanted. The sky is not green like the table was changed to, and it's not blue like the other guy thinks it should be. So now they fight over what color it's gonna be and nobody's ever happy.
That's the way these computers work. You can make changes, but you better make sure what you're doing is making all the other hundred tables happy. Otherwise they're all gonna fight each other and the car is gonna run like cr@p. As you can see, there are HUNDREDS of tables interacting with each other on these E69's. Anyone that says "tuning the LNF is easy" and "there's only a couple tables that everyone uses" is ignorant. Even I don't know all the table interactions on these E69's. Nobody does. Like I said, if your tuner says he's got it all figured out, RUN AWAY FROM HIM. I can guaranty he doesn't understand all there is to know about these four little tables. I've seen dozens of tunes from every vendor and professional tuner, I've NEVER seen a tune with modifications done to these tables.
So it's time for the disclaimer, which is one of the biggest reasons why I've kept quiet about modifying these tables...
CHANGING VALUES IN THE OPTIMUM SPARK TABLES CAN MAKE YOUR CAR UNSTABLE AND VERY, VERY DANGEROUS TO DRIVE.
Seriously. You put the wrong values in and here's what it can do- start and run perfectly at idle, run fine around town, but give it full throttle and IT WILL STAY AT FULL THROTTLE. Remember, the tables say "Optimum Spark", but they have a huge effect on throttle and boost also. BE CAREFUL! I can't stress this enough. These tables are powerful, way more powerful than the DAL table by far. You can make it so the throttle plate goes wide open at 1/8th pedal position if you want. You can make the turbo boost when you let off the throttle. You can make the throttle "latch", like I said above, it will not decel after you go past a certain pedal percentage. Basically, you could die!
Seriously, I'm not kidding about the power of these tables. I've been doing this a very, very long time. I know how to make changes safely, I've been doing it since I modified the carb on my Honda 50 when I was 10 years old. I learned what to do when my go-kart throttle stuck wide open when I was 12. Early on in my testing of these tables, I did actually lose throttle control. It taught me something, so I'm glad I did it, but it was a little scary. One time I started it up and the throttle went wide open without touching the pedal! Again, I half expected it, and I was ready for it and shut the motor off as soon as I started it. It's kinda like being a test pilot, you gotta push the limits to learn things, but sometimes the wings come off in the process! This is serious chit, it's not to be taken lightly. You're gonna be out on the roads with other people, just be very, very careful when you're messing around with this stuff. It's not impossible, I figured it out and I'm sure others can too, just try to be smart about it. There are a lot of guys with an HPTuners cable that are not ready for this stuff, you just have to be OK with that and stay safe. It really takes a rather in depth understanding of engine tuning to mess with tables like this. If the E69 in your LNF is your first attempt at tuning, I would STRONGLY recommend against messing with these tables.
I'm gonna leave an empty post window next to this one for log screen shots. I'm going to post the cold start/idle one I have to show what ign timing and throttle can look like when tuned properly. I'm not sure yet if I'm gonna post screen shots of my Optimum Spark tables. I know what will happen if I do, they'll just get copied and pasted into everyone's tunes and who knows what will happen to those cars. This isn't something that you can just say "Here, put this number in this cell". You really need to get up to speed on ALL of the other table's interactions to know what values to plug into these tables. I will say this, EVERY cell in all 4 of my Optimum Spark tables has been modified from stock since literally a week after they were released to us over a year ago. Every rpm and load cell has the power to control things in your tune. This isn't going to be a situation where I tell you what to do, I just can't. All I'm saying here is these tables are VERY powerful, and so far, have been unused by every tuner I know or tune I have seen. Learn about how tables like this work, even on other ECM's, and you can absolutely solve many, many issues in the LNF E69 ECM. A good place to start is idle ign timing. That should be pretty safe for most guys to experiment with. Let's see those cold start logs with Cat Warmup shut off and a nice, smooth 15-20 degree ign timing and solid throttle plate readings! Sorry it took so long to pass this stuff along, I honestly figured somebody else would have figured it out long ago. Oh well. Now we'll see how many tunes end up with these tables all jacked up!
Thanks for reading all this, I hope I explained it clearly enough. Sorry for the retarded analogy! Have fun and be careful.
John