How to tell of my car already has a tune?

[Sportsguy83]

I know a major drawback on Ecutek is the "locked tunes", but you just need to get with the proper tuner. My tuner, HRI Tuning (James Martin, @jamesm banned from the forum) does NOT lock his tunes, he tunes your car and gives you your open tune so you do whatever you want with it.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by steve99

You can get turbo/supercharger kits tuned with oft, but its limited to the specific kits offered by either the OFT guys or the Speed By Design guys (SBD).

Other tuners are reluctant to use opensource as their work can be copyed.

you will find that the oft and sdb kits are limited to about 10psi boost as after that you start to need some of the fancy add on features of ecutek software like boost cut, flex fuel, hybrid speed density ect.

However see here ztan has already implemented overboost cut and speed density patches for opensource. Shiv/OFT is now using the overboost cut patch on their OFT 350 turbo kit.

In the not too distant future opensource flex fuel may be done and the gap between opensource and ecutek will be much less.

although you will still run into the problem of many tuners preferring to use ecutek due locking of tunes and that they dont have to manually patch roms ect, ecutek software does it for them.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94751

I'm all up for open source and have flashed a friend's car with it, but I wonder if it will ever get out of "beta" and be more stremalined like it is for other Subarus.

[EAGLE5]

Originally Posted by Sportsguy83

Everything you said above is pretty good info except in red.

OFT is not a proper way of tuning if going FI and/or E85. Custom Ecutek maps are required to properly tune an FI 86 and flexfuel for E85.

That's why I said, "pretty much". OFT can totally do FI tuning. It just can't do flex fuel.

EcuTek may be easier for tuning FI. It has all those custom tables and fun stuff. Still, if I were going for a seriously high-HP build, I'd go for a standalone ECU anyway.

Being in the Bay Area, we have Shiv and Works nearby plus many others.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

That's why I said, "pretty much". OFT can totally do FI tuning. It just can't do flex fuel.

EcuTek may be easier for tuning FI. It has all those custom tables and fun stuff. Still, if I were going for a seriously high-HP build, I'd go for a standalone ECU anyway.

Being in the Bay Area, we have Shiv and Works nearby plus many others.

Can't do speed density either, can't get an input from a real wideband, can't do ecu boost control, can't do overboost control on any FI kit and a few other things.

I am at 550 whp 470 wtq and do not need anything that Ecutek can't provide.

[steve99]

Originally Posted by Sportsguy83

I'm all up for open source and have flashed a friend's car with it, but I wonder if it will ever get out of "beta" and be more stremalined like it is for other Subarus.

yep its always going to take a long time and probably never going to be a "polished" as ecutek as guys are working for free or very small "donations".
If I was going serious FI id go ecutek as its simply easier and everything is done for you and if your spending 10k plus on an FI build then another 1k or so for ecutek software is pretty small price for full support and plug and play flex fuel map switching support ect

[EAGLE5]

If you're rocking 550whp, are you also rocking aero and slicks? In that case, isn't the stock ABS ruining you on the track?

For a typical turbo build, OFT is just peachy. For a serious track build, Hydra EMS or AEM are probably the way to go. For everything in between, there's EcuTek.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

If you're rocking 550whp, are you also rocking aero and slicks? In that case, isn't the stock ABS ruining you on the track?

For a typical turbo build, OFT is just peachy. For a serious track build, Hydra EMS or AEM are probably the way to go. For everything in between, there's EcuTek.

That's part of the beauty of Ecutek, 4 different boost maps, don't need to be at 550 whp all the time.