school me on Open Flash Tablet
 

I am looking to get the latest firmware for my car, and I was thinking about the open flash tablet to simply get the latest flash to fix the old seal problem and such....

my engine is 100% stock, exhaust and all.

do you think that makes sense ?

the idea is to use it later once I change stuff on my car ...

Or should I just buy the ecutek one ?

PS: total newbie in term of edu flashing here ;)
phil.

Do it once, and do it right. Get ECUTek.

what are the advantages of ECUTek vs OFT for track on lightly modified car?


I understand that for FI applications ECUTek would be preferred but for just intake/exhaust/headers I think it shouldn't be a big difference between them unless I'm missing something.

Who's gonna tune it for you? I don't know very many tuners that will touch an OFT.

The OTS maps that come with OFT leave a lot to be desired in my experience.

Sub'd. FT86club's go to race/track guy CSG Mike vs one of FT86club's favorite tuners Shiv....

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...96/322/c6f.gif

I see your point about finding tuners but I have always had bad experience with custom tunes for my STI and S2000. Even with highly reputable tuners most times I felt like the tune was rushed and I had to make some adjustments to make it drivable and safe same as with OTS tunes....


If you have a real good tuner that will spend time to make sure the tune is perfect then pick whichever method he works with and recommends.

If it's for the latest firmware and light tuning, OFT is pretty painless. It doesn't leave fingerprints on the ecu, can be unmarried and used on a different car (it can thus be resold) and still gets decent results out of the box.

If you're already working with a tuner, go with what they will tune, of course. For maximum results, you'll want to work with a tuner...

I have OFT. Here's one of my logs from my last track day.
http://datazap.me/u/darksunrise/data...4?log=0&data=1

Running ~97 octane fuel and OTS OFT stage 2 UEL 93 octane tune (v2.066). Ambient temps were 85F. Relevant mods were as follows:

- JDL UEL header + OP
- Berk catted FP
- Perrin CBE
- Perrin oil cooler
- K&N drop-in

Overall, the tune felt good and, as a reference, I was able to pull slightly on S2000's on the straights. As a negative, I was seeing a fair amount of FLKC (fine learning knock control) during my warmer sessions even on 97 octane fuel. Thanks to tuning suggestions from folks on this board, I should be able to make changes to my tune directly using OFT and romraider (namely editing fields in the IAT/timing compensation table). Another good thing about OFT is it can serve as an engine logging device, which is great at the track so you can keep track of how your engine is running.

There is merit in what CSG Mike is saying about most tuners supporting ECUTek (either exclusively or primarily). If you think you'll need a lot more than what an OTS tune can provide (e.g., FI tuning) then you're probably better off using ECUTek from the start.

As a "newbie" my suggestion, as an OFT user, is to go OFT and run an OTS tune. Are Shiv's tunes conservative? Yes. Can you get more power with a custom tune? Of course. But as a newbie, there is nothing better than knowing your tune is a safe tune.

If you decide to educate yourself on the matter to become less of a newbie, Steve99 has some of the best information on this site concerning the OFT and you can edit your tune yourself to your liking.

Just a bit more food for thought, you can load the OFT OTS maps using EcuTek as well...

Most tuners are just that... tuners. Find a tuner who actually races himself, and you'll find that the tunes behave completely differently from shops that only do street cars and cars that their customers casually track.

@Element Tuning is a great example of a tuner who actually races, and that race experience is reflected in the cars they tune.

While you have had great results tweaking your own tune, what you're doing is far beyond what most members here will do with their car.

Even then, I think we can agree that while your tweaks show results, there is still quite a bit being left on the table that you will never be able to realize just casually tweaking the calibration based on logs and street pulls.

I've spent hundreds of hours tweaking my own tunes, and still defer to CSG's tuner when actual results are needed. Every time, he is able to get more power, with lower EGTs, lower in-cylinder pressures, and better fuel consumption, in a few hours on the dyno, than I was able to accomplish in 20 hours on my own.

Now, CAN an OFT tune be just as good as an Ecutek tune? Absolutely. However, finding someone to create an OFT tune of that grade will not be easy, if at all even possible.

86CUP is a great example. How many people run OFT? Zero. Many had OFT, and swapped to EcuTek.

Well yeah, OFT is an affordable tuning solution that's great on the fly. It's not a dedicated system like EcuTek nor has the long amounts of research tossed into it.

Given a few years it could be better, but right now it's a good and affordable solution for the casual user wanting to get the most out of their bolt ons. No harm there.