Exhaust leak, or something else?

[McDowell Performance Tunin]

I went stage 2 about a month ago (sti up and gutted first cat on stock dp) and have been trying to dial the car in ever since. I used Bad Noodle's MAF tool as well as Airboy's spreadsheet for my MAF info due to negative Columns in my LV. I sometimes get a bit of knock showing on data logs during WOT, but they never show up in LV. However, my A catagory is very low, as seen in the LV. I tried to find any signs of leaking in the UP pipe area's above and below the car. I did not really smell exhaust and I even took the plastic cover and heat sheilds off so I could look under the car while it was running, but everything seemed fine (no smell, or smoke and all bolts were still tight). My other thoughts are possibly getting a new air filter, but it's not too old and I'm hitting my MAFg's. Vacumn lines all seemed fine as well as the intercooler connections. The weather has been up and down here (15 degrees to about 40), but I'm hoping someone can help with some new ideas. I'm using a map I found on Romaiders site for high altitudes. (I'm about 4,200ft) It has pretty conservative boost amount 17psi max, but high WGDC. Anyway, I'm starting to ramble. I keep making chages to my map (different WGDC numbers, boost, timing) but I can't quite get to where I want to be. I know there are etuners I could have make me a map, but I've enjoyed the tunning process and want to learn more. Any feedback is always appreciated.

[SubyShop.com]

What loads were you hitting when you were getting the knock?

-Franz

[McDowell Performance Tunin]

Fairly high, 2.35 at 2831 RPM through 2.8 at 3600 RPM pulling -2.11 then to -1.05 from 3700 RPM to 4600 with load numbers in the 2.7 range. That's why I thought it was odd LV didn't show any of it

[Spec B]

Remember..the learning view is only going to show learned knock. On WOT runs the ecu usually deals with knock using feedback knock correction (FBKC)..this is a one time correction that is not learned and therefor will not show up on your LV.

 

Generally speaking, if you are getting knock on WOT runs in the high load levels, you should pull timing in that region.

[McDowell Performance Tunin]

Yeah, I figured that was whats happening, so I always log FBKC to be safe...All part of the fun!!!

[McDowell Performance Tunin]

I've made a few chages and am using the moddified version of the STi converted map from this site and my LV looks a bit better. -7% in the A cell and 0 in B,C,D so far. I like the way the map feels and am praying I can hit the numbers I'm after. (just using Airboy's dyno to compare WOT runs)