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A'PEXi S-AFC Setup Process
Now you have your pretty blue and silver box installed. You need to configure it so that it knows what it is attached to. Turn your key to the Run position. Do not start the engine! You should see the S-AFC power up and the A'PEXi logo flash across the screen. If you do not see the unit light up, ensure that the key is in the Run position (not the accessory position). If you still have no power to the unit and your battery has been reconnected, check all of your splices. If your unit is fresh out of the box it should come up to the Main Menu as seen below.
Press the down arrow until etc. is highlighted, then press the "Next" key. You will then see the screen below.
Highlight Sensor Type, then "Next"
Highlight Pressure since the Saturn uses a Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) Sensor. Then "Next"
You will need to enter sensor "04" for both in and out. This will allow the S-AFC to know that kind of voltage to expect coming in, and what kind of voltage to send out. The GM MAP sensor that we use produces a 5V signal at 0 vacuum. I did some research to determine that our MAP is closest to that which is found on the Toyota RAV 4. Now press "Back" twice.
Select Car Select, and then "Next"
For ODB II Saturns, set the Cyl to 12. This is due to the weird reference signal associated with our ignition system. If you have an OBD I Saturn, set it to 4. The Thr arrow should point up and to the right. This tells the S-AFC that the voltage is highest at WOT. Now press "Back" once.
Select Grph Scale, and press "Next"
Now we will setup the Graph scale for the display. Pr should be set at 1.0Kg/cm2. This will give you the best range for the 1 bar MAP that the Saturn is equipped with. Ne is the maximum RPM that the graph will read. Feel free to dial it up past 7000 rpm if you rev that high. Cr is the correction ratio. You can set it as high as you like, but I would leave it at 30% for now. When you are done, press "Back" once.
The Sensor chk screen will display your voltage from your sensors. If you completed the "Blue Wire Mod" on the install page, then this screen will allow you to view the voltage of the O2 sensor as "Sensor 2". If you did not attach the Blue wire, then this screen will only show the voltage for the TPS and the MAP. It is easy to tell if you have the TPS hooked up correctly. If you punch the accelerator in you will see the voltage go up. If you are on the Sensor chk screen press "Back" otherwise, select the VFD Bright, then "Next"
Now we will set the VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) Brightness. I prefer the settings you see above. They allow me to see the S-AFC without being distracting. If you want to see exactly how distracting it can be, wait until dark then turn the Nig setting up to 99. It will be bright enough to detract from safe driving if it is anywhere near your line of sight. The S-AFC uses a neat little photo cell to detect the lighting conditions in the cockpit. This eliminate the need to wire anything in to your vehicles lights. It is a system that works extremely well. When you are done playing with it, press "Back" The last settings on the etc. menu is Initialize. This will return the S-AFC back to factory fresh. I would suggest leaving this one alone unless you really goof something up. Press "Back" until you are back at the main menu.
Now we will get to what you bought this thing for. Select Setting, then press "Next"
Select Ne-Point, then press "Next"
Set the Ne Points as you see above. These are the RPM points that you will use to adjust the air/fuel correction. You may choose any that you wish, but I find that these are adequate to cover most adjustments.If you find that you have a problem area, you may make the gaps smaller in that RPM range. Just remember that you are limited to 8 points. When you are finished, select "Back"
Select TH-Point, then press "Next"
This is where you select the split between the two correction profiles that we will setup. You can set this at whatever you wish. Basically how it works, is when the throttle is below 20% the Lo-Thrtl correction table is used. When the throttle is above 50% the Hi-Thrtl table is used. When you are finished, press "Back" twice.
Select Monitor, then press "Next" I am not going to go step by step through this area. It is not Saturn specific, and is covered well enough in the S-AFC literature. Play with it a bit. You can't hurt your motor with the Monitor menus. I prefer the digital display for 4 parameters. This gives me the maximum amount of information without cluttering the screen. There are several settings that allow you to display information in Analog gauge format, digital, and line graph format. You have now completed enough of the configuration that you can safely start and drive your Saturn with the same level of performance that you previously had. Please note, this next step should only be performed on a Chassis Dyno with a wide band O2 sensor, or with equipment to determine what the true A/F ratio is while monitoring for detonation. Failure to do so may result in a blown motor. If you do not have access to either of the afore mentioned facilities, you can leave the Hi-Thrtl and Lo-Thrtl curves at 0%. This will simply have no effect on your current Air/Fuel settings.
Select Lo-Thrtl, then press "Next"
You will see a screen that looks like this, except all values will be zero. The goal is to set the correction % as lean as you can without setting any codes or causing detonation. To set the Lo-Thrtl curve we went back to the TH-Point setting, and set Lo at 100%. This ensured that the S-AFC was always using the Lo-Thrtl cuve while we are setting it. Hold the RPM at the level that you intend to tune. Start on the rich side of the line. Slowly adjust the correction leaner, watching your A/F ratio bounce back and forth as the PCM is correcting. Keep leaning until you notice that the A/F ratio does not bounce back. You have now reached the end of the PCM's adjustment range. Adjust back a couple of percent rich. You may encounter a SES light during this process. The PCM will set a code if it does not detect a correct number of high/low counts from the O2 sensor. Continue this for the rest of your RPM ranges. I like to set the Hi-Thrtl settings a little richer due to the fact that that curve will be used only under load. Keep in mind that this is not an exact science. We are still playing with the S-AFC to see if we can get the most out of it. Please do not e-mail us asking for our settings. Every motor is different. What works for us, could blow your motor. In that same light, do not attempt to use settings published for any other make of car. What works for an Integra will probably screw you engine up good. If your buddy is running an S-AFC with the EXACT same modifications, you can use his profile. If he has roughly the same modifications, then I would say, use his profile, but dial it in richer until you can get on a dyno. If you have any technical questions on the S-AFC we will try to answer them. We may be retailing A'PEXi products later this year, so keep watching the main page. Road Race Engineering also has some good information on the S-AFC. Click the link below.
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