[sperry]

Originally Posted by ZER026D

There is a way to make your ECU adjust your timing in 5 seconds. All you have to do is get going on a some where that there is no cars. First get going about 30-35 in 3rd gear. Hear is the tricky part you need to do a little left foot braking. Your going to try to keep your speed at 30-35 while building 6-8 psi of boost for 5-8 seconds. Your timing will advance up to 12 degrees. We tested this on my car with VAGCOM on pump gas in the middle of summer in Arizona we saw mine advance 6 degrees. The WRX is one of the first cheap car's with a octain senser you just have to adjust it. That is why the dealer says you car will get fast in time and why people say there car is slower after reseting the ECU.

There's more to that trick... Shiv uses it to get max the IAM before tuning, because tuning w/ a low IAM could mean the car will blow up later if the IAM advances:

Originally Posted by Shiv at Vishnu

Just a little trick that has been shown to accelerate the factory ECU's ignition timing learning process.

Background: There is something called "Ignition Advance Multiplier". It represents, by some complicated algorithm, the average learned positive knock correction applied to the ignition maps. It's represented in 1/8th degrees increments. 1 being the lowest and 16 being the highest (1/8 to 2 degrees in absolute terms).

The "happier" (knock free) the car is, the higher the number will be. Conversely, the lower it is, the more knock prone it is. This number, after ECU reset ore ECU swap defaults to 8 and usually creeps up to 16 (if well mapped) through normal driving. Depending on driving characteristics, this can happen within a few hours or a few weeks. Well, here's a way to make it happen in about 5 seconds ....

First: With the car fully warmed up, reset the ECU. This can be done by killing power the ECU or by simply pulling off the neg. battery terminal and pressing the brake pedal for a couple of seconds.

Second: Drive to a nice open road without traffic. Don't go on boost until you get there. Put the car into gear (3rd gear works the best) bring the revs up to 2600rpm. Push the go pedal down slightly so boost stays right around 2-4psi. You will need to MAINTAIN 2500rpm and 2-5psi for approx 5 seconds. You can do this by left-foot braking gently as to prevent acceleration. During these few seconds, the advance multiplier (which you can't see so you'll have to trust me) will go from 8, to 12 and then to 16. Works like a charm. And on our reflashed ECU, is worth an immediate 10-20 horsepower

In an attempt to save a lot of dyno time between reflashes (when the advance multiplier resets itself), I do this little trick after every reflash. In a typical dyno session, it's not unusual to reflash the same car up to 5 times. On the dyno, all I need to do is tell the dyno to hold revs to 2600rpm. Then I just lay on the throttle until I see a few psi of boost... Bingo!

Warning: This little trick artificially speeds up the learning process. This is only a good thing if the re-mapped ECU is mapped properly. If there are trouble-spots where knock is present, this trick will make it even more present. So be careful!

Cheers,
shiv
www.vishnutuning.com

However, I bet all of us up here at altitude are already driving around with a maxed IAM, since the lack of oxygen means it's hard to knock, and the multiplier would already advance just from daily driving. That's why 100 octane would have a very limited effect unless you can tune the car for less fuel, more boost, or more advance outside of the factory IAM advance.