VW AG EA888 Evo4 Engine Tuning

ProECU software has been introduced to allow reprogramming of the factory ECU in order to tune the necessary components of the calibration, allowing for modifications and increases in power.  Pro ECU software filters several thousand OE calibration maps into a comprehensive set of maps, selected to all allow the tuner to tune the engine with similar ease, found on a standalone replacement ECUs.

The software allows easy control over most factory parameters including:

• Boost targets and wastegate control

• Target AFR

• Ignition timing and knock control

• Valve timing and lift control

• Fuel delivery including fuel pump calibration (using the same style pump as OEM)

• Airflow Measurement and fuel compensation

Tuning should be carried out by suitably trained individuals.

Use this document is a guide. Changes to any calibration is at your own risk.

Changes involving the evaluation of full engine load, should be carried out in the safety of a chassis dynamometer by trained personal.

The base engine should be deemed in a serviceable state of health as well as the dress kit bolted to it before attempting to tune it etc.

For the best results, ensure the engine is run on the best commonly available fuel (in the EU, RON 98 or greater)

This document is also work in progress.

For information on how to program as well as flash recovery, check out.

• ECU Programming Overview

• How to Recover an ECU
  
  

For more software guides check out:

• Software Help and How-To

Tuning of the ea888 evo4 SIMOS 19 is very close to the previous models and some of the OEM strategies are close to identical, below are some notes on the tuning aspects of OEM function on the ea888 evo4.

The tuning process using the RaceROM feature file to supplement the OEM strategies should make tuning lightly modified cars relatively simple and quick. Tune for manual and auto cars may need a different setup though to skirt around the TCM limits. For a basic cars use the RaceROM maps to

• Enable the RaceROM base limit overrides checkbox

• Enable and Set the RaceROM torque target high enough to achieve your desired boost

• Enable and set the RaceROM Boost target limit to cap the boost target at exactly the boost value you desire

• Enable and set the RaceROM Lambda setpoint map to target your desired Lambda for power

• Enable and set the RaceROM ignition timing values to keep knock safe with the set fuel quality and load

• Enable and set the RaceROM Rev limit

• Enable Rolling AntiLag in the modes you require

• Tune the OEM

  • VTC setpoint

  • Valve lift setpoint point extended

  • Burbles duration and ignition retard

  • Head temperature setpoint

  • Adjust the Reference air charge and Reference Ind. torque maps

    • If the TCM has been tuned Extend the headroom of the maps, extending it out smoothly with accurate torque and airflow values

    • If the TCM is not tuned you may have to underreport the Reference ind. torque maps to skirt under the transmission limits

For flex fuel cars

• The Flex fuel sensor and CAN sender must be wired in and configured in RaceROM CAN inputs

• Enable the flex fuel system

• Flex fuel boost target limit, Lambda setpoint and ignition timing targets set for the increase that flex fuel allows

For exhaust and intake

• Adjust the OEM maps for intercooler and catalyst pressure ratios

• Adjust the compressor surge maps if they are limiting pressure targets

The Evo4 engine no longer appears to have the Full Load enrichment table, it appears to pick the lowest of any lambda target map until a higher priority map (say overheat protection) is required by current operating conditions. There are also modes for function like cat warm up, Cat purge that and GPF regen that will take preference depending on the what the ECU is detecting. The ECU is calibrated by the OEM to target a lambda value of 1 the majority of the time, to tune the lambda target simply use the MS mode Lambda Setpoint maps, if the EGT’s or other temperatures are high enough it will move into component protection lambda setpoints (as per the SIMOS18) and integrate the lambda setpoint up and down to try control the exhaust gas temperature.

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Boost control in the evo4 engines (more details to follow)

With the Airflow and boost settings elevated for more performance, optimization of ignition setpoint will become necessary to ensure the engine can be operated safely between broadline det (BLD) and maximum brake torque timing (MBT).

The evo4 ignition timing functions are very similar to the EA888 Simos 18 ECU and has two important sets of ignition tables.  The basic ignition angle or Ignition Angle and the MBT ignition angle or Ignition Ref Angle.

The Ignition Ref Angle is set during OE development and represents the theoretical maximum ignition setting on a reference high octane fuel, with a lambda efficiency of 1. It shouldn't require much if any alteration on calibrations involving standard hardware. It also takes part in ignition efficiency calculations.  The final ignition setpoint will be determined by experimentation in the ignition Angle tables.

There are several Ignition setpoint tables for both Ignition Ref Angle and Ignition Angle, which are indexed by active port flaps, valve lift, intake/exhaust cam position.

At wide open pedal (WOP) with the intake flaps lowered (open), valve lift and the camshafts at their end stops. The indexing will be - Open flap - No Lift - In1 - EX1, whereas at light loads, for example at 2500 rpm, the intake flaps will be raised (closed), the exhaust only AVS will be in lift and the camshafts can be in overlap, this will result in a Reference Air Charge table with the index - Closed flap - Lift - In3 or In2 or Ex3 or Ex2 being utilized

Now with RaceROM version 3 you can tune 4 map switch mode variant's that replace the 9 High and Low lift flap open maps.

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Logging items

• Ignition Angle Base

• Ignition timing cylinder 1 to 4

The knock control system in the MK8 golf is similar to the mk7 in many respects, it uses knock windows and rated octane estmations to give a short term and long term correction to the final ignition timing and allows each individual cylinder to be independently controlled to maximize the amount of ignition while maintaining safe operating conditions below the knock threshold of the current fuel type.

Depending on engine modifications and loads, detection integrals can be optimised as well the step changes to correct for a knock event when running boost levels beyond the factory set point of 2200 mbar.

Tables that will commonly be revised are:

• Knock Detection - integral correctional increase.

• Delay Before Dynamic Knock Speed. Transient knock sensitivity

• Delay Before Timing Increase in Fast Mode

• Knock Retard Increment

• Knock Retard Decrement

Logging Items - Knock Retard 1 to 4

Maps are available to alter the detection window,

the knock response when an event is detected

and the speed at which it recovers and add timing back in after the knock event has stopped

RaceROM limit disable takes most of the torque limitations that will hold the tune back and increases them to 1000Nm, if the torque limit is set higher than this then by the factory then it will be at the higher value. There are some limits that are still in play and will need to be tuned, these are,

Torque Limit (at clutch) Drive Mode # Power class # maps per gear that may need to be adjusted to suit the torque limits per gear you desire.

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The Variable intake and exhaust cam timing target maps are available for calibration (as per the SIMOS 18) as well as valve lift setpoints. there are intake and exhaust cam setpoints for

Lift, No Lift and Scavenging, idle target maps are also available but hidden for now

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Valve lift (hi and Low) is available on the evo4 engines, much the same as the SIMOS18, there are lift setpoints and also engine speed gradients limit for activation

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The intake port flap opening threshold can be adjusted if necessary

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Burble tuning in the evo4 platform is very similar to the SIMOS18 setup,

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You can extend the duration of the burble in normal and sports modes and also the amount of ignition retard applied during overrun to change the sounds and duration of the burble.

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The Max Indicated torque SP. Diff to allow Burble and the burble Max engine torque limit for backfire threshold that needs to be exceeded before a burble event will commence.

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There are many temperature limits and threshold which can be adjusted if burble is desired in different ranges to OEM. These include,

• Maximum and Minimum temperatures for Catalyst temperature, Muffler temperature, Engine coolant temperature, engine speed and vehicle speed

• Calibration switches to enable burbles during gear shift , coasting, cruise control, in different drive modes, with different exhaust flap positions

Gear Shift Burble

The Gear Shift Enable Modes bits can be used to change the way the burble function works during a gear shift, the bits of this 1d value are compared to different variables (as per the SIMOS 18 software) and if the flags are set the burble function can be active, the variable each bit is compared to appear to be

• bit 0 - decimal 1, for gear shift intervention from TCM

• Bit 1 - decimal 2, Torque increase during gear shift

• Bit 2 - Decimal 4, Torque Intervention during shift

• Bit 3 - Decimal 8, Engine Speed control active

• Bit 4 - Decimal 16, Cylinder cut active during gear shift

The OEM map = 2 so an ignition retard from burble is applied when the torque is increasing during the shift potential making a DSG fart.

The evo4 SIMOS19 software introduces some SENT sensor scaling these appear to be scaled exactly the same way as analogue sensors but with different configuration methods (due to the different read method).

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The normal sensor scaling maps are available for temperature sensors and the boost and MAP sensors have the following range

• Boost Sensor (PUT sensor) pre throttle TMAP sensor

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• MAP sensor (Manifold sensor)

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• HPFP sensor (High pressure fuel rail), this is a SENT type sensor standard with a slope multiplier and offset value for scaling

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• LPFP sensor (Low side fuel pressure sensor), LPFP Pressure sensor scaling is not installed by default hence no scaling values, the choice of SENT or analogue sensor can be made

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• Turbo Speed Sensors can be adjusted using the frequency signal input to speed scaling map

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Global fuel mass corrections can be made like t

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The Operating point (set by the coolant temp operating point) at normal operating temperature is 5, you should be able to tune this map to correct fuel delivery issues

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Direct injectors scaling is most likely not required with the availability of Port injection in these ECU’s. If you wish to scale the injector or adjust parameters these are avialble in the injection tree

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The use of Multi Port Injection on VW has been available for many generations of cars, the evo4 engines do not natively have port injectors however with RaceROM port injection can be re-enabled and configured to inject in your desired combustion modes similar to the the mk7.5 cars. there are 3 aspects to enabling port injection on the evo4 platforms

• Hardware installed

• Configure the port injector characteristics, for example, size scaling, dead times and pressure corrections, including low side fuel pressure measurement

• Configure the combustion modes to request port injection in the desired operating windows, including the lifting on mode inhibitions etc

• Use RaceROM to finalise the injection output and set the split ratio’s between DI and MPI

these aspects are covered in the https://ecutek.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/SUPPORT/pages/edit-v2/2792914956?draftShareId=6d132e8b-fb01-4660-a65c-77db842d0da1 article, please read this article for the details on configuring the port injection systems.

Map list specific for injector scaling

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Injector Size, this is the flow rate of the injectors and is a conversion of the Injection time to fuel flow scaling value used in the OEM calculations into a more convenient cc/min value.

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The evo4 engine now uses the 35Mpa type injection system, if higher flow rate pumps are available we have not seen them yet and with the availability of MPI upgraded pumps are not always required. there are maps available for calibration in the Fuel System map tree,

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to adjust the fuel pressure target you will need to know the combustion mode it is running in (most OPP5 at normal operating temperature), the combustion mode is mapped to a Fuel Pressure target map choice

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for example, in combustion mode 5 the primary map choice is 4 when below 19deg Celsius and 2 when above 20deg, but in other modes it will choose a different map which may have different profiles

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The fuel pump calibration values for pump with increased fuel flow rate would be, the Maximum Fuel Flow from One Pump Stroke and Maximum Fuel Flow Request from One Pump Stroke map

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which are multiplied by the HPFP Fuel Volume request to pump output and offset by HPFP Fuel Volume request to pump output correction maps

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the evo4 engine low side fuel pump control seems to be largely the same as the evo3, for information on how to make adjustments for the low pressure fuel pump please see the mk7 article

https://ecutek.atlassian.net/wiki/x/AYA0J

Idle targets can be set in the evo4 calibration

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The main map for idle target is the the idle speed for Hot mode, the values to set hot mode are calibrated in the OEM at -40deg C, unless the idle mode is changed it should use this map.

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After start, after start from stop start functions and Cat Heating idle targets are also available.

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CAT heating idle targets are trigged using the airflow required through the catalyst and cat heading combustion modes

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there are also torque reserve values that can be calibrated for different start modes.

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Radiator fan control for the evo4 platform is again very similar to the previous version of SIMOS ECU, simply set the PWM duty for the map that is used in the mode that you need to, it will pick the highest PWM setpoint for each of the maps/modes.

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Engine coolant fan Demand PWM

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Fan PWM demand at idle Sports mode

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It is possible to adjust the head temperature of the ea888 evo4 (as per the previous generations) this can be used to give some headroom in marginal cooling systems on bigger power cars or for cars that see extended track use.

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To adjust the set head temperature you will need to modify the head temperature setpoints for drive mode

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and the Head Control temperature Setpoint IAT and VSP

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Exhaust flap control in the Evo4 calibration is similar to the previous generation evo3 cars, the flap choice and opening uses the following inputs. these inputs choose which map is being referenced at which time

the numbers at the end of the name (exhaust flap control enable [#A][#B][#C]) are the display of which mode choice that map is relevant for, these numbers equal,

#A

1 : first flap

2 : Second Flap

#B is the noise mode of the vehicle

0 :NOISE_EF_SILENT = Active in Drive mode for eco
1 : NOISE_EF_DYN = Active in Sports Drive mode
2 : NOISE_EF_NORMAL = Active in Normal Drive mode

#C is the exhaust flap power class of the vehicle, which is a fixed value set by the region and vehicle type

0 : POW_EF_0
1 : POW_EF_1
2 : POW_EF_2

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The Exhaust Flap Control Enable [flap #][ noise mode][power class] maps choose and enable value for the flap with the given settings

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The Exhaust flap Table selection [noise mode, power class] map set the choice between the normal and the aux setpoint maps

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The Aux/Normal/Sports mode Exhaust flap Setpoint [flap #][noise mode][power class] maps can then be used to set flap targets at rpm and airflow targets you desire

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-split maps for injector split