Preparing your Mazdaspeed for Tuning

Preparing Your Mazdaspeed For Tuning

CorkSport was just hit with snow again today…boy are we ready for winter to be OVER!

Are you ready? What do you have left to get ready before the weather breaks, and racing starts? 

Winter months exist so us Mazda people can spend all of our hard earned money to make our Mazdaspeed’s faster. It all starts with an AccessPort, and CorkSport Fuel Pump Internals.  Before you know it, your Mazdaspeed is now fully bolted with an upgraded CorkSport Turbo.  

People sometimes seem to forget that quality of your tune is just as important as the quality of your parts.  So how do you get a solid tune on your car?

CorkSport wanted to make sure to lay out exactly how to prepare your Mazdaspeed for tuning services.  This helps streamline getting your Mazdaspeed ready, and it also helps your potential tuner so they don’t have to worry about tuning with a potential mechanical problem.

Cobb AccessPort

The very first step in getting your Mazdaspeed tuned would be to get the Cobb AccessPort tuning device.  This is the gateway to access your ECU and to make adjustments to your tune. You will use your AccessPort to record logs and send those logs to your tuner.  Not only can you make adjustments to your ECU, but you can also read/clear CEL’s ( check engine lights), and you can also monitor up to six different parameters in real time.  

When you do apply for a tune, your tuner will tell you which parameters to monitor so they can have the correct information to get you a reliable tune.

CorkSport Fuel Pump Internals

The stock high-pressure fuel pump internals has proven to randomly lose pressure during a fourth gear wide open throttle pull.  What we have seen is the pump spike pressure up in the 1800’s, and by redline, the fuel pressure has dropped below 1600psi. This creates lean situations which have lead to engines grenading themselves.  Before a tuner will touch your car, you will have to make sure to have these upgraded. These will increase flow and allow your fuel pressure to stay above 1600psi keeping you in the safe zone.

Spark Plugs

Double check what your tuner will want you to use, but in general, people will use one step colder plugs gapped down to a .026.  The trusted spark plug in this platform would be the NGK Iridium IX plugs (part # 6510). The idea behind using a more quality plug with a smaller gap is to keep the spark from blowing out when you increase boost pressure.  If you do have too large of a gap, then you will start to misfire, and you should get a code on your AccessPort for either random misfire, or cylinder specific. Keeping that spark in check will prevent delays in the tuning process.

Compression Test

Making sure to double check the engine health is probably one of the most important things to do before modding and tuning your Mazdaspeed.  Doing a quick compression test to make sure your cylinder rings can still hold pressure will tell you if the engine is healthy or not. Ideally, you want to see all of your cylinders read approximately the same numbers.  

You also do not want to see your compression go below 140 across the board. Mazda says that anything 140 or below is poor compression. If you end up having an unhealthy engine, then the car will not make the desired power, and you could potentially ruin your engine even further.  Make sure to check out our misfire blog where we show you how to properly boost leak test your car!

Boost Leak Test

Every tuner is going to be targeting a certain boost pressure based upon current modifications.  A lot of times the turbo has to work harder because of a few boost leaks that are not closed off before tuning.  This can affect your fuel trims, and it will also affect how much wastegate duty cycle is needed in order to reach desired boost targets.  Having zero boost leaks is important so your tuner does not have to work around those leaks.

Ghost Knock

A big question we always see in the forums, and on Facebook would be people wondering why their AccessPort shows knock values.  The most important thing to remember is part throttle knock is nothing to worry about. My own Mazdaspeed see’s values of 8.0 all the time on part throttle.  The only time to worry about knock values is when you are at wide-open throttle. As long as your knock values stay below 2.0 then that is nothing to worry about.

Doing these few simple things for your tuner will not only save time for both of you, but your tuner will love you because they don’t have to try and diagnose an issue from thousands of miles away.  CorkSport hopes this really helps the community as a whole, and we also hope that people can use this as a tool to get their car dialed in much faster.

Stay happy, and stay fast CorkSport family!

-Luke

 

Why Every Mazdaspeed Owner Needs the Cobb Accessport

CorkSport-Cobb-Accessport-ECU-Tuner-Mazdaspeed

What is an accessport?

The Cobb Tuning Accessport is a device that communicates with your ECU (Engine Control Unit). When you own an accessport you will be able to read error codes, modify engine settings, and take informational logs of data to keep your Mazda running reliably, and to give it more power.

The main reason people purchase the accessport is to install maps on their car.

What is a map?

A map is a preconfigured group of settings or parameters for your car. Want your Mazdaspeed to get better gas mileage? Run the “Economy Mode Map.” Want your Mazdaspeed to run faster? Remove the boost limits in 1st and 2nd gear, then run a “Stage 1 Map.”

Related: Get a Free Map Sensor with the Mazdaspeed 3 Turbo Upgrade

Maps also allow you to tell your ECU specifically what power modifications you have done and how you want them running. If you have a new downpipe that flows better and Max Flow Fuel Pump Internals, then your ECU will need a new map installed that tells it how to control the boost levels by controlling the waste gate, the spark advance, ideal fuel pressure, fuel trims, and many other things.

CorkSport-Cobb-Accessport-Install-Car-AP-Mazdaspeed

So where do I get these maps?

The Cobb Accessport will come pre-installed with a few maps that are known as OTS (Off-The-Shelf) Maps. They are basic maps that should cover a wide variety of parts. Though they are more beneficial than keeping a stock ECU tune, they are nowhere near as beneficial as doing a custom tune. Custom tunes can be done by anyone with Accesstuner Pro who is willing to devote time to learning the ins and outs of engine control management. Most people who don’t want to spend hours tweaking small variables to meet safe and powerful conditions choose to get a tune done by a professional.

For the Mazdaspeed platform there are many tuners to choose from:

How do I use this thing?

The accessport is really rather simple. If you can use a modern smartphone, you can figure out the accessport.

  • Step 1: Find the OBD II port on your Mazdaspeed 3 (located on the left side of the dash above the hood lever, below the traction control switches.) and then plug the accessport cable in.
  • Step 2: Tell it to install. Make sure you follow all directions on the screen and don’t shut your car off halfway through install.

Once installed to your car the accessport will not be able to be installed in any other vehicle unless you uninstall it. This is called by many “marrying “ the accessport. You can only install an “unmarried” accessport to your car. If it’s already “married” it will not work, which is why buying one used can be so sketchy.

Now that it’s installed, you can change maps, do datalogs, and view check engine lights right from inside your car. When it isn’t installed, you can easily connect it to your computer and load the accessport manager to copy new maps to the device, or open datalogs in Excel. You can eve use tools such as Virtual Dyno to monitor performance gains.

CorkSport-Accessport-Manager-ECU-Datalog-MazdaspeedThe Final Step

Once you have installed the accessport and decided on the map to use there is only one thing left to do: Drive. Get out there and enjoy your car with its new power curve, removed boost limits, and better breathing. If you thought your car was fun before, just wait until you get an OTS map installed with your accessport and put the pedal down for the first time!

Once you’ve done that and realize how amazing it is, I dare you to get a custom tune for your specific car, modifications, gas, elevation, and driving habits. You will be BLOWN away.

Overall, the accessport is an amazing device that every Mazdaspeed owner should have for safety, reliability, power, and to learn more about your car. Let us know if you have any questions about them, or purchase one here.

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