New to Tuning

[Maverick986]

Planning on getting a ECUTek tune in the next month or so, after I get a header. I'm planning on contacting a local shop that does ECUTek tuning with a dyno, however, I don't have experience doing this yet, and want to make sure I'm asking the right questions and requesting the right services without making "100" calls or trips to the shop.

I know as much to wait to get my header before scheduling anything, and then install header when I have a date with the shop. My initial contact I plan on asking about costs and time involved with tuning my car. What other things should I be asking/telling/talking to them about? Should I be telling them I'm interested in ECUTek's Racerom before even a base tune, or get a base tune and expand from there?


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[swarb]

There are a lot of variables. Off the top of my head-
Cost per hour or cost per session. Per hour can range from 150-200+ or Session 300-400 or more(depending on setup, yours is basic).
It should take no more than two hours depending on how good the guy is, the better he is, the more he charges per hour, but he would take less time, and probably make more power.
Hub dyno needs some setup time, depends if they are charging you for those 15-20 minutes.
Ask about partial throttle tuning and not just full throttle tuning.(more time involved, but better mpg and everyday driving)
Consider an E85 tune with or without a flex fuel kit.
Consider if you are going to get other mods and if you want to tune it once and done, or do it again later($$$).
Ask if he has experience with this car/engine. If yes, ask to look at before/after of another customer's dyno plots.
Ask if he has experience with direct injection.
Tune in 4th gear for auto, 5th gear for manual. (1:1 gear ratio)
Turn off traction control by holding trac button for 3 seconds.
Consider open flash tuner and its positives and negatives vs ecutek.

[Maverick986]

I have looked at OFT, and like it. However, I'm not sure if it would work with my planned setup (Nameless 3" header & downpipe + Perrin 2.5" catback) without getting a specialized tune. I've done some looking around and haven't seen anything on a tune for that, of course I may not be looking in the right places.

I like the idea of the ECUTek tune, and lean that way after seeing reviews of people that say they went with it from the beginning (after using OFT). I also was planning on talking with the ship about 2-3 tunes: 1) DD for fuel economy, 2) max power, 3) something in between for some spirited driving.

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[kch]

Originally Posted by Maverick986

I have looked at OFT, and like it. However, I'm not sure if it would work with my planned setup (Nameless 3" header & downpipe + Perrin 2.5" catback) without getting a specialized tune. I've done some looking around and haven't seen anything on a tune for that, of course I may not be looking in the right places.

I like the idea of the ECUTek tune, and lean that way after seeing reviews of people that say they went with it from the beginning (after using OFT). I also was planning on talking with the ship about 2-3 tunes: 1) DD for fuel economy, 2) max power, 3) something in between for some spirited driving.

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A collection of random thoughts:

1) OFT tunes are designed to be effective with a wide range of parts. In your case, you would use the "Stage 2 EL" tune for whichever fuel you plan to use. It's an easy and inexpensive solution, but will not give you every last ounce of power as it's not specific for your car.

2) Plenty of shops can tune you remotely on ECUtek. Chances are your local tuning shops won't have even 1/10th of the experience that a shop like Moto-East or Delicious Tuning has with 86s. When remote tuning, they send you a base tune calibrated generally for your specific mods. You then drive around in various situations while datalogging, and send those logs back to the tuner. You will then receive a revised tune. You can go through a couple different revisions to get it fully dialed-in. I'm tuned remotely by Moto-East and it's been great.

3) With an NA tune, there's not really a point for three separate maps (DD, sport, race, like you suggested). The variation won't really make it worthwhile. A good tune will perform well in all situations. If you decide to go FI down the line, then that sort of setup might make a bit more sense.

[steve99]

Originally Posted by Maverick986

Planning on getting a ECUTek tune in the next month or so, after I get a header. I'm planning on contacting a local shop that does ECUTek tuning with a dyno, however, I don't have experience doing this yet, and want to make sure I'm asking the right questions and requesting the right services without making "100" calls or trips to the shop.

I know as much to wait to get my header before scheduling anything, and then install header when I have a date with the shop. My initial contact I plan on asking about costs and time involved with tuning my car. What other things should I be asking/telling/talking to them about? Should I be telling them I'm interested in ECUTek's Racerom before even a base tune, or get a base tune and expand from there?


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As above good advice from the other guys.

With ecutek race rom features should be included with every tune from a tuner.

On an NA car using known components like namless header tuner like moto east or deliceous will have off the shelf tunes to suit most cars using normal NA mods.

You can use the 4 map modes to switch in or out features like launch,flat foot shift and auto blip, or have say map 1 as a low power valet map. But its kind of a waste.

If you have E85 available your probably better using the 4 modes for something like this

91/93 petrol map and 2 , map3 E40 map for half petrol half E85 , then map 4 for full tanks of E85.

have all the features on on all maps if their set up correctly they are not intrusive, the only one you may want to think about leaving off is maybe auto blip on downshift if you like doing it yourself.

The only issue is you will need someone to flash the tune if you dont have ecutek cable ($350).
But a 4 map tune from moto east is $150 if you buy their ecutek licience for $350. Its possible to rent cables as well . Full dyno tuning on na cars yeilds little over a good off the shelf tune, and moto east or deliceous will review your logs and make adjustments if necessary

[Maverick986]

I was not aware I could get ECUTek tunes dialed in remotely. I knew I can buy generic base tunes, and could purchase different parts of the software. Being able to go with a shop(s) that are known to have reputable knowledge of tuning our cars, and the software comes with things I'm interested in already, helps put my mind at ease about choosing software to use. I will now need to decide what shop to choose.

Unfortunately E85 is near impossible to find in my area, so I can't benefit from it or tunes for it.

Now knowing a bit better how the tunes work from here, that different "maps" can add or delete features like auto blip. If I do go that route, with multiple maps, I will likely just change out features between a couple.

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[steve99]

Originally Posted by Maverick986

I was not aware I could get ECUTek tunes dialed in remotely. I knew I can buy generic base tunes, and could purchase different parts of the software. Being able to go with a shop(s) that are known to have reputable knowledge of tuning our cars, and the software comes with things I'm interested in already, helps put my mind at ease about choosing software to use. I will now need to decide what shop to choose.

Unfortunately E85 is near impossible to find in my area, so I can't benefit from it or tunes for it.

Now knowing a bit better how the tunes work from here, that different "maps" can add or delete features like auto blip. If I do go that route, with multiple maps, I will likely just change out features between a couple.

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the terminology like base map, off the shelf tune is used pretty loosly and often not the same.

turbo/SC kits sometimes come with a "base" map which is a very conservative map just to get you started or running so you can drive it to tuner.

This is different to Off The Shelf or 'Canned" tunes. These tunes are usually developed on a dyno by tuners for a car say 86/brz with a specific set of mods and a particular fuel say 91,93,E85 etc.

If you get one of these maps and your mods are same as what tune was developed on and same fuels then these are quite close to optimum and one the tuner has had a look at the logs and maybe made a couple of minor tweaks then your rearly not going to do much better.

You rearly only need the full dyno treatment if you have non standard mods or FI kits or different fuels or your wanting to extract every last hp out of it and push it to the limit.

On most NA cars its just a waste if you can get a good off the shelf tune that matches your mods.

3" exhaust dont rearly have any benifit on NA cars rearly only for FI, they also tend to be louder and more raspy than 2.5". If your not going high HP FI then your probably better with 2.5" and less clearance/noise issues.

Nameless were the gun header a couple of years back but now its probably the ACE header.

Nameless dont smooth out the torque dip very well and a few people got problems with raspy resonance depending on exhaust setup

however if you have good 93/94 fuel available then the normal JDL openflash , Tomei , Gruppe-S etc EL or UEL depending on your sound preference good brand headers are almost as good for much less money.

ACE work rearly well on 91 fuels compared to other headers but if you have good 93 or E85 the benefits are diminished against a good brand normal header

[steve99]

maybe have a read here http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81493