2011 TSX

So on Wednesday I'm taking my 2011 TSX 6Speed Tech to the dyno (Church Automotive) for a flash pro tune. I'm shooting for 300WHP, just kidding I'm hoping to get somewhere close to the 35hp gain the 2012+ Civic SI made according to Hondata's website.

I'm running a full RV6 "test" pipe along with the airbox resonator removed, I've only put about 6,900 miles on the car so the motor should be fairly fresh

Let me know if you want me to ask any questions or you have specific requests for pics or video.

VitViper I'll be contatacting you a week or two later for a followup tune.

-Thanks

Username 0

All I ask is for you to share your tune with the community.
It would also be nice to have some completely stock tunes for those with no mods and want to get a more efficient ride and to get rid of rev hang. Seeing that you have a modified exhaust system, that's not going to happen here.

Are you manual or auto?

xtcnrice

Judging by the thread title, I think he's 6MT

Doesn't Hondata offer stock tunes from the FlashPro repo? By stock I mean, not a bone stock ECU, but optimizations that are catered to a vehicle with stock parts.

ssjoeboe9

Yes, but they are not in the repo. They are in the main menu selection. The repo is only calibrations uploaded by users.

2011 TSX

No problem will do, not sure how to do that at this time. But I'll figure it out by Thursday after I read up on exporting the settings/file/xml/whatever format it is.

Yes my car is a manual, is there really any other option when deciding on a car

Username 0

I so did not see that in the title lol.

anx1300c

iTrader: (2)

You're setting yourself up for a huge disappointment if you believe an N/A car can gain anywhere close to 35 whp from a tune.

Cu2Suspect

Good luck bro , make some videos and post results

thisaznboi88

iTrader: (7)

hope you have 50* VTC cam gears if you want 35whp.

thunderbt3

2nd gen TSX have the 50* cam gear:

K20A.org .:. The K Series Source . Honda / Acura K20a k24a Engine Forum - View Single Post - TSX 09+ camshafts into K24A2 head possible !

optimusaccord

I love those comments, and the comments that I got when I swapped the 14 bolt ring gear to the 10 bolt ring gear... saying the Si final drive would really "wake my car up"...

It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

ssjoeboe9

well... where are the Dyno results?

Nexx

im gonna guess 9whp gained fail

2011 TSX

So we ran into a bit of a snag. But all was not lost and I got to meet some cool people and see some really cool things.

Anyway I arrived at Church Automotive and we hooked up my TSX to the Dynapack so we could get a good baseline. My baseline was 196 HP. Don't really remember the TQ but I have a print out I can scan in or we can just wait as you 'll see why below.

I was fortunate enough to actually have Shawn Church work on the tune for my car and was great to meet and talk with a person who is a legend as far as I'm concerned in the Honda Engine Tuning circles.

Unfortunately we couldn't get the flashpro to lock to my ECU. My ECU came back as unrecognized. Shawn contacted Hondata and spoke with them and they asked me to bring my car over so they can see what maybe causing this. Cool thing was they are about 8 miles from Church. I thought, well cool I get to go see the Hondata Facility. I drove over to Hondata and met with one of the Software guys and they figured out that on my 2011 I had an early ECU that was not part of the latest 2011+ release (now added to their DB). In addition my ECU needed to be flashed with an updated Acura image. They took care of all that and were super accommodating. The icing on the cake was one of the owners of Hondata gave me an impromptu tour of their facility and some of the project cars they use for land speed records. Basically, I felt like I went on a grown up field trip. I got to meet some really intelligent people and talk about Hondas from a technical point of view.

So anyway here's the next step. I now have an updated ECU, I have a Flash Pro, I just have to go back to Shawn Church and have him tune the car. I'll probably do another baseline and see if the updated software changes the 196hp, though humidity/temp/planets aligned could also change that number the next time I'm on the dyno. When will that be, probably sometime in November

So things actually turned out really cool and hopefully my little adventure will help out other 2011+ owners getting their tune.

Nexx eatAd

xtcnrice

196 WHP with just a test pipe, and without FlashPro? That sounds pretty sweet to me! Unless by "full RV6 test pipe", you meant zero cats along the entire exhaust. Eh, still pretty good for basic bolt ons and zero tune.

Your story is pretty awesome. It's like you went for an awesome interview that included a tour of the place. Must've been quite the experience. Hmm.. instead of working for Honda, I should work for Hondata...

Good luck with the tune, and good job helping us discover the bastard-child 2011 ECU . You should break 200 easily.

ssjoeboe9

Hey cool deal man, that's awesome that you unintentionally are helping the community with your adventure. I bet it was neat to see the Hondata facility and all.

Hope the next tune goes well for you!

iCrap

Yeah but dynos are all slightly different and some read high, so i doubt it really is 196whp. The important number is what is gained from the baseline dyno.

ssjoeboe9

wow bro.. way to be a debbie downer!

iCrap

lol but it's true ^^

Username 0

I'm curious about that updated Acura image. What's that about? Does Acura update our Ecus from time to time?
What changes does Acura make?

2011 TSX

Yea no cats, both were replaced by the RV6 system.

For anyone curious here's my setup

Just hit 7 thousand miles on the engine on the way back from LA
Mobil1 0-W20
Removed resonator, drop in K&N, and a home depot 4" elbow band clamped to the bottom inlet of the air box with the other end down in the wheel well.
Recently replaced the tranny fluid with factory Honda fill.

I guess that's it.

So keep in mind it's a hub dyno so they take off your driveline wheels and bolt the dyno to it. In speaking with Shawn he indicated it's really tough to say x% driveline loss . He said for my car it will probably be about 15hp loss +5%. So The engine may be putting out around 220hp if I did that math right.

2011 TSX

So from what I understand Hondata started their database with 2011+ ECU part number with A06 and mine was an A05.

To answer your second question, yes from time to time auto manufactures will release updates to the ECU. I think Acura did that when some of the TSXs were burning a ton of oil in some of the early second gens. And one of the fixes was an updated flash to the ECU.

It probably wouldn't hurt the next time you are at the dealer to ask them to make sure all the software is up to date on your car.

xtcnrice

This is true. The important figure is the difference between the baseline and his current numbers.

Psychologically speaking, I'd feel pretty happy if I was near 200 WHP on paper though with basically just 2 exhaust parts

Username 0

When will you be getting it tuned?

Cu2Suspect

Also gotta remember that auto loses more whp because of the tranny...

I did a pull vs the same set up as me.. He was auto and I am 6spd and I pulled ahead quick...

xtcnrice

Yeah I doubt I will break 200whp with just the pipe and FP on my 5at

iCrap

auto should be like 5% more drivetrain loss. And the 5at has stupidly long gears

Cu2Suspect

Yep that's the downfall right there , 6 speed is short gears that help pull the car ...

xtcnrice

bump - any updates?

2011 TSX

I have an apt with Church on the 21st of this month. I'll get some pics and a video of a couple pulls and scan in the results as well.

About a week ago I had some time and locked the FlashPro to my ecu and did some test runs around the neighborhood with my laptop. Was pretty cool watching the graph, I did not know our cars know what gear we are in, I wonder if it knows by the position of the gear shift or by calculating the most likely gear based on the rpm/speed.

On a side note, I noticed, but could be all in my head, that after the Hondata guys updated my ECU that my engine pulled a bit stronger during the last 500rpms. I'll be real curious to see if there is any difference when I go back up to Church and get a new dyno baseline. Though I know temp/humidity/planet alignment can vary this anyway.

2011 TSX

Just got done, car made 217whp, I'll try and post more after I get home.

iCrap

21HP over your baseline, that's pretty good.
All you have on there is the PCD right?

xtcnrice

Wow that's amazing. Has this number been adjusted? That's pretty hard to believe... 217whp from just the RV6 setup and 6MT.

And how were you doing the FlashPro tuning? I've reported a number of TSX 11+ bugs found in V1.9.6 of FlashPro Manager. These apparently have been fixed in the latest beta... but I haven't verified yet.

edit:
nvm just realized you're on a hub dyno. Still pretty impressive.

iCrap

I doubt its 217whp. But just look at the comparison to his basemap instead... 21whp gain. Not bad.

xtcnrice

True we can just take the delta... but it's probably still on the optimistic side. The 21whp was simply from the tune right? That's awesome.

2011 TSX

I attached the tune and the dyno sheet as well for anyone to use or look at.
My 2011 TSX engine mods are as follows for anyone interested:
Full RV6 setup no cat with a 24" perforated resonator, only way I could get rid of the rasp.
Mobil1 0w-20
Air box resonator removed with a 4 or 5" PVC elbow from the bottom of the air box going into the wheel well to draw in cooler air. Search the forums as I posted pics of that setup.
Drop in K&N
Body and engine has about 7,500 miles on it, might see more power as the engine breaks in more.

I'm really happy with my tune. The car peaked out at 217whp which was quite a jump from the Hondata base map. Let me explain:

When I first went and tried to tune the TSX there was an issue with the ECU part number which you can read in the previous posts. So Church Automotive was only able to do a baseline run. When I wetn the first time the car put down 196WHP. That was with the Honda/Acura factory ECU mapping. I worked with Hondata and they were able to fix the issue with my ECU part number. I was unable to go back to the Dyno until a later time [today] but I did install/lock the flash pro to my car when I got home after the first attempt.

Fast forward to today, I arrived at church automotive and we did a new baseline and the power was down about 15 - 20 HP across the revs and was down around 20tq as well. I believe the first pull netted about 183WHP, I asked Sean[Dyno tuner] how come? He said it looks like the Hondata map needs more fuel. So he made some adjustments and within two runs he was back up to my original dyno pull at around 198WHP. Sean said he added some timing and lots of fuel to get it back up to our original amount. He then proceeded for about two hours and I believe about 25 pulls and said he thinks he has a good compromise with usable smooth power and peak HP, with a solid mid range. All said and done we hit 217.7WHP which is almost 20hp from the first baseline and almost 35hp from the first Hondata pull. Keep in mind this is a hub dyno and they tend to read closer to the crank HP than your more common roller dynos. I asked him what do you think the Engine is outputting...230HP? He said probably closer to 240hp. He said these engines are underrated from the factory.
,
If you don't know who Sean Church is, google his name he is arguably one of if not the best Honda tuners out there. So attached to this reply is his calibration for my car, feel free to try it out but keep in mind the mods I have and I was also running Cali 91 octane.

Here is a pic of the Dyno Chart. The Middle line is my original run about a month ago stock ECU. The bottom line is the Hondata basemap. The top Line is the Sean Church tune.

Username 0

Hp is good and all but I'm more interested in the tq! 196lb of tq??? Dude am I reading that right from your dyno sheet??

2011 TSX

196 is good right?? The mid range feels really solid now, 6 gear at freeway speeds no need to downshift at all unless the cops are after me.

I'm really happy with the top end though, It feels like it could keep on pulling beyond 7200rpm with ease. But being close to 100HP per litre at the crank leaves me pretty content until CT-Engineering gets their CARB approval for their supercharger.

iCrap

196 tq is really, really good.

Username 0

Carb approval? Cali sucks eh?