A Stratified Journey
 

So I have been reading a lot on this forum for about 6 months or so now and have found myself at a point where I would like to have a more dialed tune than the Cobb OTS. I don't much care for the Cobb light switch boost control and have had a little bit of boost spiking on their map as well. I spent some time trying to decide wether to go with one of the two highly regarded tuners on this site, Freektune or Stratified. I decided to go with Stratified because their other products have engineered fail safes incorporated which is the mindset I prefer when tuning my daily driver. So from there I decided to try out Stratified's tune and modification advisor.

I filled out Stratified's form for tuning and modification advisement and within a couple of days they had answered my plethora of questions along with additional suggestions for my goals. They confirmed my knowledge on several things and educated me on some others I was unsure of. This is a pretty awesome free service that I would recommend for anyone. Their helpfulness made me want to continue the process so I decided to purchase one of their flash tunes.

I purchased their flash tune in the morning. They sent me a form to fill out specific for me and my car and I sent it back before lunch time. The same day they sent me the flash tune I requested specific for my car. This floored me that all this was done for $50 in one day. I have flashed the new map but haven't gotten a chance to take it out for a ride yet.

I have attached my Cobb OTS log before the Stratified Flash Tune for anyone that is curious and my mods are in my signature. I will post up my logs from the Stratfied Flash Tune once I get a chance to get out and do some logs on the new tune.

Cobb OTS Datalog
 

Forgot to attach the datalog.

So after a couple of days and trips to work and back I can say that the Stratified flash tune is way better than the the Cobb OTS. The overall driveability is so much better, the light switch effect is gone and the car feels like it has more power when it is not under boost. I noticed my fuel trims are more even, with the Stratified flash tune I am staying +/- 4% LTFT whereas my Cobb OTS was constantly in the negatives which indicates to me that this is definitely a more dialed tune specific to my car. I am really enjoying the smooth and hard power delivery with this flash tune as well. I have attached a data log I was able to do one evening, it looks ok to me but @Lex; could verify if he feels like it. The ambient temperature was about 33 degrees F. Thanks Stratified, now I can't wait to buy more car parts, my wife will love you for it, ha! Now the question of downpipe or intercooler next?

Everything is well within spec! Car is running well and I am glad you are enjoying the tune.
The next step I would take is an intercooler. After this, I recommend a race pipe to eliminate the second catalytic converter. A full custom tune would refine the Flash tune further once all the bolt ons are installed.

After this, if available, an E85 tune would bump power even further on the OEM turbo.

If you have any specific questions please feel free to drop me a line. On the topic of modifications, there is a short article I put together:

Blog : The modification path in a MazdaSpeed/MPS vehicle : Stratified Automotive Controls

Thanks @Lex; the car feels great. I have a set of 1 step colder plugs (Denso ITV 22) on order to go along with my upcoming oil change (Rotella T6 5W-40) and tire rotation. I will be hitting you up for a flash tune upgrade when I get the intercooler in the spring as I intend to do an full EGR delete and OCC at the same time.

Looking forward to it!

A little update with about 1000 miles since stage 2 flash tune:

So I have been running the Stratified stage 2 flash tune for about 1000 miles now and I can say that I am definitely sticking with Stratified as my mod process continues. The car continues to run great even with negative degree temps and fuel trims have not exceeded +/- 3.91 LTFT. I cannot believe the amount of torque the car has, truly the muscle car of the hot hatch world. As a daily driven machine the car makes power everywhere in the rpm band which makes it nice just running back and forth to work. However when I flat foot it, it shreds tire through third gear effortlessly (traction off obviously). I am loving the flash tune and will continue revisions as I go and go custom once I am satisfied with the appropriate bolt ons. Thanks to Stratified to make affordable tuning solutions that blow Cobb OTS doors off.

I must comment on this as my Stratified tune has been wonderful so far. I haven't had a chance to take proper logs with the recurring snow and unseanably cold temps, but the limited logs I took look great!

I will be sticking with Lex from here on out with anything Mazdaspeed related!

This is the direction I want to take and now I think you have sold me.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

I am currently stage 2 custom tuned ( from another e-tuner) and I am swapping out CS SRI/TIP for JBR 3". ALso adding EGR delete/coolant bypass and TB TIG, Do I need a new custom tune? Or will just a maf cal for the larger Intake be all I need?

You will definitely need a Maf cal as the JBR 3" is bigger intake, but to realize the full potential of that intake you will need a full tune, especially if you are on a bigger turbo. Also the EGR delete will bring in a check engine light (maybe TB TIG too, not sure) so unless you have ATR you will need the tuner to untick that code for you. Hope this helps. Stratified's Tuning Adviser may be able to get you more information if you need it as well.

The intake does affect basically all the calculations in the ECU. So you will definitely want to not just update the MAF cal but also re-optimize the tune to take advantage of the bigger intake.

Sir pm sent, and thanks for the reply....

Well the time has come and per Lex's suggestion I have decided to upgrade my intercooler. I long have struggled with the decision between top mount and front mount. After a long back and forth between the two I decided to go with the Corksport TMIC due to the ability to use the stock shroud, price, insta-spool, making good use of that hood scoop, clean engine bay look, only mild turbo upgrade in the future (BNR/Corksport), simplicity and my car is a daily driven machine. I will probably eventually break down and do meth injection anyway, but it will be awhile before that.

The intercooler should be here next week and I will be doing some before and after data logging for anyone interested. I have already received my upgraded flash tune from Stratified that I will update my tune with the intercooler as well. I would like to thank @Lex; and Stratified for their help providing insightful information in my decision making processes and providing great flash tunes for an excellent price.

Stay tuned for datalogs and reviews from the intercooler upgrade

Ok sorry for the delay, life is busy. I have had the CS TMIC and updated Stage 2 Flash tune on for about 300 miles now and the car is running well. The LTFT seem to stick between -2.3 to 0 when cruising around and at about -5.0 at idle. The car does seem to pull harder longer without the restriction of the stock intercooler. I am definitely enjoying the car at this point and cannot believe the difference between the stock car and the point that I am at now.

I have attached several data logs with varying ambient temperatures if anyone is interested. I am seeing a little knock, although still less than 2.0 degrees timing, with 90 degree ambients, but I guess this is to be expected with only 93 octane fuel. I am pondering the use of meth injection for cooling purposes only at this point, but don't really see a need for it yet.

The next step as far as power goes for me will be a CPE catted down pipe and a full etune. It will probably be fall or next spring until that occurs however. I would really like to at that point get on a dyno just too see what the car is making at the wheels, especially to show my Honda buddy my stock turbo speed is making more torque than his big turbo Integra.

I would again like to thank @Lex; and Stratified for a great flash tune and I look forward to continuing my Stratified journey in the future.

Looks great and it looks like the flash tune pretty much maximizes your power potential on your current modifications and fuel. I recommend either WMI or E85 as a next step.

So I have been pondering the whole methanol injection thing for a little while. I really would like to get some more knock protection first and foremost and even more power would be a great bonus. I have dabbled a little in drag racing and will be trying out some AutoX very soon as well and it would be nice to have some more knock protection at the very least. Truly I would much rather just an E85 mix and avoid WMI injection all together, however the closest E85 station is over an hour away. I continually read this forum just about everyday and have stumbled across this thread: http://www.mazdaspeedforum.org/forum/foru...tuning-189906/ about in tank methanol with similar results to E85 mix.

I have two local race tracks (dirt track and a drag strip) that both sell Sunoco methanol (they call it alcohol) for $4.40/gal. Another place nearby that I just found sells 5 gal pails of VP M1 for $35/5 gals. I think this would be a viable solution for what I would like to accomplish, however I definitely need/want @Lex; s input on this.

Would my fuel trims be stable enough after adding a gallon without a tune adjustment to just get some knock protection? Would I be able to run just a gallon mix like the Canadian dude in the aforementioned thread to get E85 like results? Could this be done as a "E85 OTS" or would a custom tune be necessary?

A gallon of methanol won't affect your fuelling enough for there to be a leaning out issue. This as you mentioned will increase your knock resistance but you won't make measurable more power without a tune that pushes power higher because of the higher octane fuel.

I would not hesitate to add a gallon of methanol if this is just for a race day. Keep in mind that methanol is more corrosive than ethanol and poisonous so handle it with care. For a daily I would not run 2+ gallons of methanol in the tank all the time if reliability is a concern - there isn't enough data to indicate if there are any long term fuel system issues.

Thanks @Lex; for your response. I think I will buy the 5 gal pail of VP M1. I'll add a gallon of VP M1 then to a full tank of 93 when I know that I will be racing for the knock protection for now. If the one gallon of methanol seems to be working well then in the future after I get my downpipe and I am ready for a full etune I will have you make me a 93 map and then a 93 map with in tank methanol to reap the full benefits of the methanol.

Some thoughts and impressions of the one gallon of in tank methanol and the robustness of the Stratified flash tune:

I did add one gallon of VP M1 to the tank and filled the rest with Shell 93. So after about 50 miles or so my idle LTFTs went from -4.6 to +3.9. I haven't noticed any other changes to how the car runs. Now, I ran autox with the in tank methanol yesterday and my last run was at 93 degrees F with 170 degree F starting BAT. At the end of the run the highest KR was 0.83, I believe this shows how much the in tank methanol helps especially when flogging the car in second gear for almost a minute.

On the robustness of the Stratified flash tune. I have done some back road running, multiple hard pulls, an evening of drag racing and a day of autox now and have never seen KR above 2. The car pulls strong every time, is smooth to drive and is very enjoyable. @Lex; and his crew put out a tune that is good in any weather and driving situation.

After my experience at autox I'd say that I am hooked on autox and in tank methanol. Since you can't spray WMI for autocross I will definitely continue to use in tank methanol (no E85 available around here) and once I acquire a downpipe get a full tune from Stratified on straight 93 and 93 with in tank methanol.

Looking forward to working with you and you're right autox is an addictive drug :).

Here is a 4th gear data log from this morning I took just to check to make sure all was well with the 1 gallon of in tank VP M1 methanol. Everything looks fine to me.

Definitely no safety concerns. With this fuel mix there looks to be room for more performance.