Soon to be ucutek tuned, what should my tuner know?
 

Reading here about AMI resetting, Direct injection fix, trims settings, tip-in knocking, evap emissions/ECBM/tank pressures, and other stuff I've read about that I can't remember.

In a week or so I'm installing a Full Blown turbo kit with Ecutek tune. This will be with bigger fuel pump and injectors and GTX28.

I'm trying to get a list of anything and everything my tuner will need to know about this car and Ecutek so this install goes smoothly.

My tuner is new to Ecutek, but very competent in tuning Subarus.

What about remote tuning? That, or having someone from FB working with my tuner while tuning?

Aside from the things I've listed, what else should i ask the tuner to be aware of when tuning with Ecutek?

I've read about people getting tunes and going for thousands of miles trouble-free, and others fighting their tunes the instant they drove out of the tuner's shop.

I'd like mine to go smoothly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you want it to go smoothly, don't be the guy's first turbo 86. Do what you have to do to get someone who is familiar with the platform to do the work. I know this is good advice because I didn't take it lol.

He needs to know that you've been reading some very informative threads on ft86club and decided you no longer want to pay a small fortune for a tune that you won't really own.

I'm sure they are more than capable of doing the actual install of the kit and supporting parts, but as you've mentioned, I am worried about my car being their first 86 to tune.

What do you mean about the tune that I won't really own? Are there alternatives?

why not let LJ do the tuning??

That's what I'm inquiring about. I'm in Norcal, so he'd have to remotely tune the car, but I'm fine with that.

I'm trying to determine if I should let my tuner tune the car or whether I should get it remotely tuned by LJ or have the two work together.

My tuner is going to get acquainted with Ecutek by tuning my stock car, and again after installing just the exhaust, both to learn Ecutek and to get baseline numbers. Then they are going to install the turbo kit and tune that.

They seem confident that they'll not have any issues, but after reading here about the issues that others have had, I want to take the correct route to getting my car tuned right the first time.

At least, I want to list the issues so they can go over them while tuning.

looks like your taking a big leap of faith

i suggest getting the base tune from LJ first then let your tuner tweak it

also take note that even if he has experience with subarus, this car is totally different because of the direct injection

I wouldn't risk having someone that doesn't know ecutek touch my car to tune a brand new turbo. Just let FBM remote tune it. Their turbo their tune, it will probably be better than what your tuner can do at the moment.

Ding ding ding

Look for threads with activity by shiv@vishnu . By all accounts he is a decent human being and one hell of a tuner. You'll also learn about a great alternative to ecutec.

the advice boils down to

1: don't use ecutek unless you have to (they lock the roms so you can't modify them later and cost a fortune), use openflash instead. very soon ecuflash will be another even cheaper/better/more open option ($160 cable is all you'll need). you'll probably need it tuned before then, so you should probably go with openflash.

2: don't assume that because a tuner can tune subarus he knows what he's doing. my tuner knew subarus, and my car has been in and out of the shop (never right) for months now. these cars aren't WRXs. pay for experience.

I had a Vishnu Procede tune on my BMW 135i and was very happy with that, so I'm not a stranger to Vishnu.

Will his alternative be able to tune as well as Ecutek?

It seems Ecutek is just an OK solution until something better comes along. I don't like what I read about it.

I'm leery about my tuner tuning my car without having done Ecutec or another 86.

Can LJ or another remote tuner use another brand tune other than ecutek?

I'll look into other alternatives as suggested.

There is nothing magical or different about tuning using EcuTek, brzEdit, or Open Flash. They all are tools used to modify the same tables/maps and provide a method of flashing a ROM to the ECU. The key is in the tuner knowing which maps to modify and just because a tuner has done Subaru's does not mean he will know how to optimize the cam timing for this motor or know how to work with the direct injection and high compression this engine has that the EJ motors don't have. Open Flash currently DOES NOT have datalogging capabilities so your only remote tuning options are EcuTek and brzEdit. EcuTek still provides some ROM options that the others do not. brzEdit will be your cheapest option.