[jajk]

Hi All,
I have figured out how to tune the 4G69 Mivec Australian delivered Outlanders using just a Tactrix OP2.0 and Ecuflash.
The Australian models have only 1 cat and no rear o2 sensor unlike most overseas models with 3 cats and loads of O2 sensors
The engines are relatively simple to tune since there is no VVT to mess with. The "mivec" is a simple cam lobe switching arrangement much like Honda's VTec but it just switches the intake cam lobes to a lumpier set at 3500rpm.
Tuning results are a useful improvement over stock. If interested in such things, talk about it here. I am happy to help providing you don't dribble on about turbo conversions or transplanting a 4G63T etc. Just people who want to get the best they can out of their relatively stock 4G69 or 4G64 engines please.

So far I have reconditioned the head and taken the opportunity to shave 23 thou off (the maximum before starting to gnaw away at the valve seats) to raise the compression ratio to around 9.9:1 instead of the stock 9.5:1.
Apart from that, I have flash tuned it to improve overall performance.
These cars will never be rockets - they are heavy compared to the later models and the old-school 4AT tranny saps a lot more power than the later CVTs (but they can handle towing much better than the CVT). Economy is not great on these either, being a permanent 50/50 torque split AWD with a relatively low compression engine but again, the cost difference between one of these and a later Outlander AWD is huge so that's a lot of $$$ to go into filling the tank more often.

I bought this vehicle as a tow car for my boat and the first thing I noticed (apart from the lack of power) was the lack of braking power!!! This turned out to be an easy fix - the front calipers can be replaced with calipers off the later Outlander models (ZG toZJ) and most ASX of the same vintage or CJ Lancers with the bigger brakes (2.4l models). Then the larger 294mm front rotors can be used to replace the puny 274mm stock ones. Brake pads are the same! This is a simple bolt in on replacement and adds more braking power than the 20mm extra diameter would suggest. Do not use the thinner 26mm rotors found on overseas Outlanders, use the 28mm rotors - these do not suffer the same warping problems (which is why Mitsi changed to them). So if you have the tiny front rotors, find a pair of calipers at the wreckers off the mentioned model cars (mine cost only $33 each) and get a pair of new 294mm*28mm rotors to suit ZG~ZJ Outlander (around $150 pair) and never wonder if you are going to stop in time again

If you own one of these and want to tune it, make yourself known here.

 

[brettus australia]

Excellent info, have you detailed any of your mods anywhere ( youtube or other?), I get a consistant 10.5L/100km, mainly short trips to shops about 5km away, occasional longer trips, but I'm very easy on the gas pedal and keep it maintained well.
Would be nice if there was some simple method to access all the computers/codes and pids but my interest is only for repair purposes.

 

[jajk]

Hi Brettus, the Outy is certainly a bit heavy on fuel but they are heavy and the permanent AWD and slushbox (auto) have extra parasitic losses. I was hoping to improve the economy on mine along with the power but the economy stubbornly remains poor.
What I put this down to is the combination of a relatively low compression ratio and a very poor choice of cam profiles.
For those that do not know, these engines have a single cam with a single set of lobes for the exhaust side. The intake side has 2 individual lobes for each intake valve (shown as Intake Lo and Intake Hi) that are ground differently plus a 3rd set of lobes for hi rpm. The lobes are switched over at 3500rpm. These engines are part of the "Cyclone" family that tried to introduce a swirling motion in the airflow as it fills the cylinder - a throwback to 2 valve head days. By having different intake openings, the theory was that this would introduce swirl. A 4 valve head is usually designed to tumble the air into the cylinder which is the universally adopted norm for modern engines so the "Cyclone" theory was a bit of misadventure... probably dreamed up by the marketing dept.
So if you look at the low rpm cam timings, the intake lobes are modest but the cam advance is significant (same as an Evo X). The exhaust lobes are equivalent to a stage 1 aftermarket cam and you can see there is a combined overlap of 28~30 degrees with the intake side.
At high rpm (above 3500rpm) Both intake valves run on the Intake Hi lobes which are virtually a stage 2 cam!!!
So what we get is lackluster performance at low rpm and gas guzzling performance at hi rpm. The overly large intake cam durations at hi rpm crash the dynamic compression ratio so engine efficiency also crashes so we do not get the benefit of the stage 2 cam - that would need a CR above 10.5:1 to be half decent.
Cam specs:
Opens Closes Duration Center
Intake Lo 10 BTDC 42 ABDC 232 106
Intake Mid 12 BTDC 44 ABDC 236 106
Intake Hi 24 BTDC 68 ABDC 272 112
Exhaust 58 BBDC 18 ATDC 256 110

What I have found with the tuning is that you can heavily reduce the idle warmup rpms (to reduce fuel usage).
The ign advance can be significantly increased (in some places) to increase power and economy.
I have also increased the amount of time it spends in decel fuel cut to add economy. Stock rarely enters fuel cut on decel.
Fuel compensation v ECT is also lessened to reduce the over-richening during warmup.
I have EGR completely disabled and fuel compensations and ign timings adjusted to take this into account.

I can post some pics of the map changes if there is any tuning interest left on these dinosaurs. Happy to assist anyone genuinely interested in tuning there Outy.

 

[brettus australia]

thanks for detailed reply, I was not aware of how the cam setup on these cars works and must admit lack of knowledge on that subject. I'm sure your information will be of interest.
My outlander is 2003 model.
My main interest is if ever it will be possible to use mut3 software to connect to the 2003-2006 models and have full access to all cpu's and use that software for diagnosing/solving issues ( anything from reset keys to fault code diagnosis).
Maybe its possible to use tractrix and mut3 software, any thoughts on that?

 

[jajk]

Brettus, I saw afterwards that you had the earlier model with 4G64 engine so the info about the 4G69 cam is irrelevant to you.
These cars are limited to the K-line communication protocol (no CANbus) so that rules out some OBDII adapters. I use a Tactrix OP2.0 to connect to mine and can log any MUTII parameters easily. I opt to log directly to sdcard but can also log to Evoscan software if I want a realtime display. The OP2.0 is overkill unless you already have one (like me), the cheaper Tactrix 1.3 cables are sufficient for connecting via K-line. I can also connect with an elm327 bluetooth obdii adapter to my phone using the Torque Pro app.
The TCU for the auto is part of the ECU. It uses the last 256kB of 768kB memory. While it can be seen, there is no known way to correct the checksums for it so tuning the auto is out of reach I do not know how to connect to the Etacs (haven't investigated this).

Here is a pic of stock 4G69 timings v tuned timings. You will notice the axis on the stock map extend to 260% load (for turbo) and 11000rpm (maybe for a rotary???). The ROM has data for 4G64, 4G69 and 4G63(T) engines so you have to work out what is what... I rationalize the axis values to gain resolution where it is more useful.
You can see that after 4000rpm, there is a sudden jump in ign advance. This is where the big hi speed intake cam lobes crash the compression ratio

and here is what a log looks like.... anything with a known MUTII I.D can be logged (if it exists on your car)

 

[brettus australia]

thanks again for some excellent info, its is rather interesting that the auto gearbox tcu ( or somewhere), has some sort of adaptive memory, when I drive in manual shift mode for some time, going back to auto mode it remembers what rpm I upshifted and the car follows my driving pattern.
But it slowly reverts the upshit pattern back to what it likes (very low rpm upshifts).
Downshifts dont seem to change. Not sure if it helps at all with setting tcu parameters, is a rather interesting feature.

 

[jajk]

It made me cry to see all the TCU maps in the ECU ROM and yet not be able to touch them... Maybe one day I will stumble across the solution to checksum correction for the TCU part of the ROM.
Most of the shift points in auto are reasonable on my Outy except for 3rd gear which has a nasty habit of changing up too soon and then being reluctant to kickdown. A bit of extra torque from ECU tuning helps mask the shortcoming but before this, it could leave you with little to no acceleration when you were relying on it being there. So the underwhelming brakes and this surprise lack of acceleration are 2 safety hazards in my book.
The 1st 100 AT maps defined yet totally unusable