3-28-23 DON'T UPDATE YOUR ECUTEK PRO ECU SOFTWARE!!
 

https://www.reddit.com/r/ft86/commen...april_26_2023/

Everyone needs to read this ASAP!

not a big deal, it seems to affect only USDM roms
it is possible to bypass at any time the compatibility check and flash an equivalent ( and more stable since US tune has a bunch of bugs when racerom is applied) European rom,
like openflash does with their v4 OFT tunes

This may not affect everyone worldwide, but it affects me personally as well as many others here in North America.

I predict that in upcoming revisions of the Pro ECU software, (if they haven't already) ECUTEK will remove many important features preventing a large portion of it's customers from properly tuning or even obtaining calibrations for their existing tunes.

It's best to hold off from updating until we hear otherwise.

It won't be a big deal, the Cobb software is fine after they disabled the emissions stuff. Just gotta deal with playing within the boundaries. Can't disable cold start and such anymore which is the biggest loss, I think.

Stupid diesel coal rolling turds ruining it for everyone else.

Kind of shocked this didnt happen sooner honestly. I will say there might be hope because "emission compliant" diesel tunes are getting pretty good now. Still fucking stupid considering that a handfull of cargoship make more pollution that all the modified cars combined.

Exactly, which means in the current configuration of the programming, flex-fuel is no longer going to be an option as you must hijack either one of 3 OEM sensor inputs (CPC, MAF, or rear O2) to connect your ethanol content sensor to, in essence, removing that original OEM sensor from use, which, going forward will most likely not be possible.

A few years ago, when I was just beginning to learn about ECUTek and studying wiring diagrams and the available ECU inputs, I made a statement that was pretty much disregarded by most here concerning the addition of a new sensor input, instead of the hijacking of an existing one to connect the ethanol content sensor output to. This would have avoided this whole issue had it come to fruition. One other person here was interested at the time but I don't believe it went anywhere past just being an idea. We may now have to rethink this as an alternate input possibility.

it is quite easy to switch your North america tune to an Euro tune, car will drive even better and virtually no bugs ever
You can also reswitch easily back to USDM tune then, if you need to have your car controlled
So not a big deal

How would that work if you were boosted?

How does that effect flex-fuel tunes? They still make great power with all the factory exhaust emission devices.

It's not the calibration files that are being threatened, it's the Pro ECU tuning suite itself that is at stake. Several of the important RaceRom features will be nonexistent. If we don't have those features in the software, they can't be integrated into the tune. Being able to choose which sensor to hijack is a feature of RaceRom.

The entire Pro ECU software suite will become almost worthless to all of the North American customers who have invested in it and I'm pretty certain that this will affect not only the home tuner here, but also every professional tuner using ECUTEK to build their tunes. My tuner resides in the US and uses Pro ECU to build his tunes and I don't want to lose his services due this issue. This is not going to be good for anyone here in NA.

I think it will be more dangerous to ECUTEK master tuners who likely are forced to update to keep their licensure in check. Home brew tuners using the individual licensing like me can just not update and will be fine (though excluded from future updates with the application by choosing to do so)

I'll answer your question with another question:

How is your flex fuel ethanol content sensor connected to your ECU?

Ugh.. Something told me to buy it soon than later. The EPA scare last year was the whole reason I pulled the trigger on FI.

Yes, and that's why I say don't update your Pro ECU software when prompted.

I have the Pro ECU suite myself and do my own flashing of purchased tunes and calibrations, but if my tuner can't write the tunes with the features that are required to operate the engine in the configuration that I need, I'm screwed. And he'll be screwed too because he lost a customer.

With FF you need to hijack a table so you can scale the sensor input, otherwise the ECU doesn't have a way to correlate the information. This is usually done on the rear 02 sensor compensation table or the evap on our cars. So you are defeating a factory emission device.

How do you know they will force all those features and tables out even for Euro calibration? they are talking about USDM tunes

So.. upgrade to euro tune as I did to many guys in here, problem solved

what you mean exactly? when i tune american guys, i SPECIALLY upgrade them to euro tunes when they are boosted, since Racerom in euro tunes is more stable.

So ive emailed ecutek

Chris Todd (EcuTek)
29 Mar 2023, 09:35 BST
Hi Tommaso,

Euro ROM's will not be affected by these changes.
Chris Todd
EcuTek Technologies Ltd.
8 Union Buildings
Wallingford Road
Uxbridge, UB8 2FR
England
(+44) 1895 811200



so problem is just with USDM tunes, who are already problematic by themselves..
Upgrade to Euro tune and you bypass this

@tomm.brz

You seem to be focusing your attention only on the calibration files themselves. We can all flash any calibration that we want whether it be an EU, JDM, USDM, AUS, etc. It's the software suite that will be changing and preventing us from making the necessary changes to those calibration files. The Pro ECU software suite is a tool with several different features used to adjust and flash these files.

The way I understand it, in order for ECUTEK to move forward, they will be requiring US Master Tuners, and home tuners to update their Pro ECU software to the newest versions that remove the necessary features used to adjust those calibration files. See here:

Attachment 219618

Attachment 219619

Attachment 219620

Attachment 219621

Think of it this way using this fictional story:

You purchase a wire stripping tool originally designed to not only cut wire, but to strip 22 gauge wire up to 6 gauge wire, and it's the greatest stripping tool that you've ever purchased. It's well made, it's heavy duty, it never gets dull and strips every wire every time perfectly. You love it, cherish it, never allow it to get wet or to rust. You love it so much that you never allow anyone else to borrow or even touch it.

Now the company that originally sold this wire stripping tool to you was involved in a lawsuit because the tool they manufactured was used by some fool who decided to use it to strip all of the ends of the fingers off from his left hand, and some equally foolish jury decided that it was the manufacturers fault and they were forced to pay the man, who injured himself using their tool, 50 million dollars in damages.

So the tool manufacturer now decides to recall your favorite wire stripping tool due to "design flaws that allow it to be misused for it's intended purposes" and makes a design change that eliminates the cutting feature and the 16 gauge through 6 gauge stripping features, while making the 22 gauge through 14 gauge stripping features less sharp, essentially neutering the tool down to a cheap useless piece of junk that you could purchase out of any Tractor Supply [insert any Italian equivalent hardware store here] bargain bin.

Now let's make a few substitutions in this fictional story:

Original Stripping Tool = Pro ECU software suite

22 to 6 Gauge Wires = Calibration files

Tool Manufacturer = ECUTEK

Fool = Fart Cannon Popcorn Tuners

Foolish Jury = EPA, CARB

Redesigned Stripping Tool = Newest Version of Pro ECU software suite

I'll allow you to fill in the rest and hope that you see my point here.

it is written in BOLD that ONLY USDM TUNES ARE AFFECTED

so,... uograde to EURo tune, it s as easy as write 4 specific letters vefore the name of the file

where is the problem?? i see none!
they won y restric any table if you open a euro tune, only id you open a usdm tune. it s crearly bold written

if you need inspection done, if you are na you bring it to simil stock and flash a stock usdm tune. Emission passed
If you re FI, are you thinking you can pass emission? only way is to put car to stock or in eligible States, if you put a carb tune.. here can be a problem but i guess only in california? either way seems possible anyway to do carb tunes by their writing so still not a huge deal...

Many tuners outside this forum don t even know that you d only need 4 tunes to tune all gt86 in the world
A02G is compatible with all prerestyling Manual
K00G with all restyling Manual
A02I with all Prerestyling Auto
K01I with all restyling Auto

(we must thank Steve99 for all this knowledgment, whom the admins thanked by banning him forever :) )
if they then would ask for support to ecutek, they would discover that renaming the tune file in a certain way, you can force flash ANYTHING to the ecu (literally anything, so can be dangerous if misused) so you can upgrade any existing car to Euro tune

after their update talked about in this thread, you will always be able to open every table in euro tunes exactly like now, therefore it is totally bypassable easily and this whole thread is an exageration to me

Cobb has FF working without hijacking a sensor input/table



We'll be fine. Please stop with the doom & gloom.

Oh nice how do they do it? Are there extra unused inputs or something? Or somehow multiplex it?

They announced it last week, I didn't look into it tbh.

but as mentioned a bunch here already, this only affects USDM calibrations which is *super* easy to bypass. It never once says US based tuners will be affected by this...

I see that according to your build thread that you aren't running ethanol, nor FI, so I can understand how this really wouldn't concern you at the moment, but I'm running both, and my tune is 100% MAF based, so I am perfectly within my right to bring this up as a concern.

Cobb isn't using ECUTEK, they use their own proprietary software, Accessport, a completely different tool with slightly different features to do the job. And they don't specialize in this platform because they wanted to focus only on FI Subarus from factory and basically let all of the other existing tuning platforms run this roost. I don't plan on switching over to Cobb Accessport at this point especially now that they are being targeted as well by the EPA and holding off on support for flex fuel tuning, according to complaints I've read.

Here's what I've read on this particular subject:
https://www.cobbtuning.com/green-speed-updates-faqs/

Now if ECUTEK could integrate a feature that would allow us to connect a flex fuel ethanol content sensor to our ECU without hijacking the O2 or CPC sensor, and allow us to tune using the MAF for its original intended purpose, then the problem would not be as bad as it appears it will be.

I'm curious if you know the details in how Cobb interfaces with the ethanol content sensor. Could you please explain here?

My build thread car is *long* gone... Just never got around to making new threads. I've been at this game a LONG time across many platforms, I'm very familiar with what can and can't be done. So don't make assumptions... and don't assume I was saying you're not within your rights to bring this up :)


Cobb is owned by the same parent company as EcuTEK. Cobb has posted many teasers on social media about Flex Fuel coming back...

What does MAF based tuning have to do with anything anyway? MAF scaling won't magically go away, will it?









All of that said, just run a worldwide ROM like everyone is telling you to do. If your tuner won't do that, it's on them. It doesn't matter if you have a USDM car, I had a worldwide ROM on my first gen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8wKxGs9QCE

Around 16:30 in the video for updates from Cobb on the next gen Flex Fuel stuff, IIRC.

Edit: watched again, Cobb will be offering FlexFuel upgrade as a new wiring harness and module. So it's likely just reading CAN... Which RaceRom can already do, since it's reading CAN to read the cruise control stalk.

it won't affect you if you switch to euro tune, as explained, and as confirmed by Ecutek

I don t want to be annoying, but it seems you like to read and misinterpret things and then act like it s an apocalypse..
even in that link you posted, nowhere is written that Cobb will release a "magic" flex fuel kit that will give to the ecu the % of ethanol bypassing the available inputs that the gt86 has.

they wrote that: " Q: CAN I STILL GET A CUSTOM TUNE FROM MY PROTUNER OR HAVE MY CURRENT TUNE ALTERED?
A: Custom tuning is still available. You can also still have an existing custom tune altered. However, if an existing tune included any of the features that we have identified as potentially negatively impacting your vehicle’s emissions system (Ex: Subaru analog Flex Fuel, or GT-R Speed Density tuning), those features will no longer be present or available in the new software. Additionally, if an existing tune adjusted any emissions related DTCs, these adjustments will no longer be available in the new software.

NOTE – Although analog Flex Fuel is not currently supported, your tuner can still create maps that work with varying amounts/concentrations (E-85 or E-60, etc.) of ethanol. Instead of it automatically adjusting to different ethanol concentrations, you would need to switch between different maps based on the blend of your fuel. We plan to release a CARB compliant Flex Fuel system that automatically adjusts to varying ethanol content in the future."



It means, no you can t use flex fuel kits with Cobb anymore and you have to set MANUAL FIXED ethanol percentage and you have to manually mix your own fuel to match the % written in ECU.
It is pretty obvious that if you can't use any on the 3 inputs available to us (maf input, o2 sensor#2 input, CPC input) there is NO WAY you could tell the ecu what %ethanol is in your tank. Unless of some particular device that needs to be inserted all the time to the OBD port and hijack one of those input. No one is going to create a new input out of nowhere anymore


If you truly believe all these updated are going to destroy the tuning with our beloved car... Be pessimistic.

For all the other people in this forum: 99% of users who has the car tuned has either ecutek or OFT. Have no fear and just ask to be upgraded to Euro tune.

Reading CAN is already something RaceRom does, it won't be that hard to add a CAN Flex Fuel sensor and wire it into the CAN bus and have EcuTek read it (obviously this is dependent on them adding the code to RaceRom).

This is *not* a huge deal, for so many reasons. Either just run a Euro tune and literally nothing changes... or wait for EcuTek to add the ability to interface with a CAN FF sensor.

What a lame response. At the point you even thought of typing this you should have backspaced and taken a break from the internet.

As tomm.brz already pointed out, easy work around. The euro roms are less buggy anyway.

I'm FI running a mix of 93/e85 and plan on switching to full E85. Tomm.brz did my tune and switched it to the Euro version if he's not concerned, I won't be.

I don't think it's a lame response and here's why. The only other input that Pro ECU uses that is not emissions-based is the MAF sensor input. I can't use that for my flex fuel sensor input because my tune is 100% MAF based.

And as far as my tune is concerned, I'm pretty sure it's not a euro version. D00C are the last four digits of the CAL ID and according to @tomm.brz in his previous post, this isn't one of those.

And yes, @tomm.brz, thank you very, very much to Steve99 for all of his knowledge that he has blessed us with and has allowed to remain here for us all to learn from. He has helped me out in the past as have you sir, which I am very grateful for. :bow:

With that being said, until ECUTEK comes up with their own solution to the flex fuel sensor issue for USDM tunes, whether it be new code to write and/or CAN input-based, I will continue to watch and wait. I will not be updating my Pro ECU software until I know 100% what the changes are in the new version.

And also @tomm.brz I don't consider myself being pessimistic, just overly cautious. If it comes to the point that I need to switch over to a euro tune, I will confer with my tuner. Thank you for your suggestion, I will definitely consider it once all the cards have been laid out on the table.

@DocWalt thank you for your suggestion as well and the video link. I just hope ECUTEK can adopt the same next generation flex fuel kit and integrate it into their software suite as Cobb is doing.

"with my tuner" so the tune you have it s not made by you, meaning probably you don't have a Racerom self tuner licence

So this update doesn't really affect you neither your current tune, it's not that after the update , the Pro Ecu software will open by itself in secret all the emission-related table and revert them to stock.. Your current tune will stay the same regardless

If you will want to make mods to it, then your master tuner will have his software already updated, and if your personal software is updated is then totally irrelevant

Damn... glad I went open source.

No, actually I am fully licensed with RaceRom. I have it so that I can learn the basics of tuning and what the Pro ECU software can do. But I'm definitely not learning at the risk of damaging my own engine so this current tune has been hired out.

In an effort to learn, and prior to hiring out my FF/FI tune, I experimented for a little while before installing my flex fuel sensor and ethanol content analyzer and while I was still naturally aspirated, on things that would not threaten the reliability of the engine, involving a different MAP sensor and different accelerator trim settings.

The new EPA version will likely stop you editing any old tune functionality like flex that uses evap or rear 02,or any dtc code that's emmissions related

This may or may not be limited to USA ROMs it may be all ROM s I do not know

If you don't update it will ask limit your ability to buy ecutek licences or tunes as they often want the ecutek registration code and check it for the current ecutek version.


They may also stop you flashing older tunes with newer ecutek epa software don't know





All a bit of an unknown

Steve ecutek answered by email Euro tunes won't be affected by this

You seem to be freaking out so much about this. But let me propose you this hypothetical......

Can your tuner open up a stock euro ROM? Can he not transfer over all the fuel map tables and everything else needed including how you're currently set up with your flex fuel from the USDM rom the euro ROM? Then, can you not then flash that same euro ROM into your ECU?



The only thing that will change is the CID and the CVN number. BUT if your in a state that checks for CID and CVN number for emissions, you would be screwed either way regardless of them doing this.





I made FF kits for both gen1 and gen2 cars. The Canbus difference is not a huge deal to implement. Trust me they will find a way. There are other inputs that can be worked in.


This is probably the best compromise that we could have. We are extremely lucky that our ecu can be flashed with any other markets files. Not sure about other platforms they have, but they already support canbus on alot of others.

Could you please tell me how to bypass the ecutek compatibility check? Thanks!

How do I get my hands in a euro rom?