[JMcLellan]

I was curious if others on here change their tune/setting during the winter months (only applicable to those living in cold weather and snowy areas).

When it's warm here in MN (May through October) I am running MHD stage 2+ 93/95 octane maps, along with XHP stage 3. I recently changed to the MHD stage 2 91 octane map to reduce some power, but with the XHP allowing more torque I find myself still spinning a bit in the 1st 4 gears (car is auto and RWD) on clean pavement. When it's snowing everything is spinning.......

Do others detune all the way down (stage 1 or even stock) to get better traction, or do you just use less throttle?

[marcthedark]

Why don't you use XHP to limit torque by gear?

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by JMcLellan

Do others...or do you just use less throttle?

This reminded of the watchword when I first got into motor vehicles (bikes, specifically): "When in doubt, give it more gas!"

[JMcLellan]

Originally Posted by marcthedark

Why don't you use XHP to limit torque by gear?

I suppose that would be an easy solution for better traction and would jump on that if I still had the stock open diff. With the new LSD the car still moved forward pretty well even when tires are spinning. Was more curious with what others do in the winter months, if anything.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by JMcLellan

Was more curious with what others do in the winter months, if anything.

Not sure how useful the following will be; it describes an early winter experience of mine from a few years ago.

tldr; when grip is not ideal, gentle throttle inputs seem to work well

My car is RWD, MT, and with only a Dinan V2 piggyback for added power. With that setup, I've learned to be judicious with the throttle, especially at slower speeds with the wheel turned more than slightly while on surfaces that aren't perfectly clean.

DSC has kicked-in very noticeably on me a couple of times. The first time was while merging onto an interstate beltway. It was ~48°, the surface was very damp from a night of mist after weeks with no rain, I had 225 snow tires on the car, and the highway was cambered/tilted due to being on a curve. The speed limit there is 65, and the traffic volume was 'moderate rush-hour', with drivers leaving decent space between cars.

I was accelerating from ~50 to ~60 in 4th while changing lanes when, without DSC, the car would have come right around, and I would have backed into the guardrail in the median at a fairly decent speed. According to Dinan, the car was producing nearly 400 lb-ft of torque during that maneuver.

My vision caught what the car was doing, and I had just begun to correct when it became clear that DSC had already fixed the issue for me. Fortunately, my wiggling around briefly between the two lanes was accommodated by the cars behind me having plenty of room in which to briefly check-up.

I learned a few lessons from that incident: pay much closer attention to surface conditions (I like to think I always do; however, it was 8 AM, a time when I'm generally still waking up, and I did not clock the combination of road slickness and camber and the skinny winter tires), review the car's power curve to internalize what it's producing at lower RPMs (maximum torque), and just generally be as smooth as possible with throttle inputs unless traveling in a straight line.

[JMcLellan]

Originally Posted by dradernh

Not sure how useful the following will be; it describes an early winter experience of mine from a few years ago.

tldr; when grip is not ideal, gentle throttle inputs seem to work well

My car is RWD, MT, and with only a Dinan V2 piggyback for added power. With that setup, I've learned to be judicious with the throttle, especially at slower speeds with the wheel turned more than slightly while on surfaces that aren't perfectly clean.

DSC has kicked-in very noticeably on me a couple of times. The first time was while merging onto an interstate beltway. It was ~48°, the surface was very damp from a night of mist after weeks with no rain, I had 225 snow tires on the car, and the highway was cambered/tilted due to being on a curve. The speed limit there is 65, and the traffic volume was 'moderate rush-hour', with drivers leaving decent space between cars.

I was accelerating from ~50 to ~60 in 4th while changing lanes when, without DSC, the car would have come right around, and I would have backed into the guardrail in the median at a fairly decent speed. According to Dinan, the car was producing nearly 400 lb-ft of torque during that maneuver.

My vision caught what the car was doing, and I had just begun to correct when it became clear that DSC had already fixed the issue for me. Fortunately, my wiggling around briefly between the two lanes was accommodated by the cars behind me having plenty of room in which to briefly check-up.

I learned a few lessons from that incident: pay much closer attention to surface conditions (I like to think I always do; however, it was 8 AM, a time when I'm generally still waking up, and I did not clock the combination of road slickness and camber and the skinny winter tires), review the car's power curve to internalize what it's producing at lower RPMs (maximum torque), and just generally be as smooth as possible with throttle inputs unless traveling in a straight line.

I have read some of your other posts where you have mentioned the DSC keeping you on the road and preventing an accident. Is this the specific one or are there others?? I always leave my DSC on because to your point you might not sometimes know that it is slippery or dangerous. Now with my LSD I have had some slight drifting where I have steered and throttled out of it without the DSC kicking in which makes me think I can do more maneuvers like that.

MHD shows a torque read out in newton meters when you data log. A quick google helps to convert to ft lbs. I've seen in the 460 to 470 ft lbs in stage 2 plus on some runs. Thankfully the XHP tune allows for custom torque limits by gear or else I wouldn't have 1st through 3rd gear even during hot summer months with the sticky tires.

Stay safe out there!!

[freakystyly]

Just personal opinion, but I'd switch to the 91 stage2 tune to ride out the winter months. Mostly only from a financial standpoint and the number of times you'll be able to enjoy the power is reduced. There likely isnt any appreciable difference between 91-93/95 tunes when the traffic around you is doing 30. It doesn't take 400 torques to spin a car.
There's also the winter / summer fuel thing, I'm not sure if the change in mixtures would have any effect on the tune.

[dradernh]

Originally Posted by JMcLellan

I have read some of your other posts where you have mentioned the DSC keeping you on the road and preventing an accident. Is this the specific one or are there others??

Same event – no reprise necessary to get the message!

[AsianBill]

I'll just switch back to stage 2+ 93 instead of my e40 map, and keep on traction control. Don't really drive often enough to feel the need to switch back to a stage 1 map or even stock. Just gonna use less throttle.

[JMcLellan]

Originally Posted by AsianBill

I'll just switch back to stage 2+ 93 instead of my e40 map, and keep on traction control. Don't really drive often enough to feel the need to switch back to a stage 1 map or even stock. Just gonna use less throttle.

Nice. With the stage 2+ 93 do you just fill up with 93 octane and call it a day, or do you still augment with some ethanol?

[AsianBill]

It depends on the gas station. If it's top tier then I just do straight 93. I live by Costco so that's where I'll be filling up. If it's at another gas station where the 93 is subpar (Sheetz for me) then I'll add about 2 gallons of E. I'm on a flexfuel tune as well so the car just adjusts as needed. I'm only running e40 now for the last meets before winter is upon is us. The car will be sitting a good bit in winter so I don't want any E sitting in the tank