exhaust opinions

[FRS Johnny]

Originally Posted by akahenry

It's pretty easy to switch from regular gasoline to E85 with the OFT. Simply just empty your gas tank or drive until the gas light comes on and fill up with E85. Once filled up, drive for maybe 2-3 miles depending on the amount of 93 octane you still have in your gas tank, then pull over and flash your OFT to the E85 map. Upon completion of the flash, drive your car gingerly for the next, give or take, 10 miles--this is to ensure that the ECU has time to adjust and calibrate the map to the E85 fuel. (I highly recommend driving on the highway or driving at some constant speed throughout the 10 miles, so that the ECU can adjust to the E85 quicker!) Boom, you're done!

Is E85 worth it? Nope unless you're a baller. You won't notice anything dramatic but you'll notice slightly more torque throughout the rev range. You can't make up for displacement with fuel, especially with the FA20.

i dont think you need to be baller to get e85. People spend more on an exhaust than the tune for it. its cheaper at the pump but you use more of it so it basically evens out. and plus you get more power so i dont see any cons. It is dramatic if you spend 500 on e85 tune vs an intake an exhaust.

[akahenry]

Originally Posted by FRS Johnny

i dont think you need to be baller to get e85. People spend more on an exhaust than the tune for it. its cheaper at the pump but you use more of it so it basically evens out. and plus you get more power so i dont see any cons. It is dramatic if you spend 500 on e85 tune vs an intake an exhaust.

You're right, one doesn't have to be loaded to use E85. I guess I just think that for someone like myself, who daily drives the car more than driving aggressively, regular premium gasoline would be more idea--economically speaking. The last time I pumped E85, it went for around $2.15/g and regular premium octane (Costco Premium to be specific) went for around $2.50 so I couldn't justify spending a couple cents less for around ~200 mile range versus the 320 mileage I get from standard premium gasoline. To each their own, I guess.

[RobertPaulson]

Originally Posted by FloridaBRZ

As far as tune, is there really more gains to be had than by running the stage 2 OFT tune from Shiv? As in, could someone do a better job of tuning it and if so, anyone know any shops in South Florida that can work with the OFT to get me more power. I was looking at the speed by design turbo. Its on sale for 3k. They claim 277hp on 93 octane. Only problem is my car has less than 20k miles on it, and if I turbo it, there is NO chance to keep my warranty. Up to this point, if I reflash back to stock with my OFT, I could argue if something did go wrong.

without putting the car on the dyno with the OTS tune, how do you know where you're at compared to other dyno tuned cars.

but from what i've seen, yes a custom for your car/mods tune will out perform and be more reliable/safe than some OTS tune.

also, if you want to play with FI, you need to be ready to pay for a full rebuild of the motor.

[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by RobertPaulson

without putting the car on the dyno with the OTS tune, how do you know where you're at compared to other dyno tuned cars.

You don't, but butt dyno can possibly tell you if there's significant gains or losses, and logging on road tuning can tell you how well the tune is doing on your car.

Then again, if you are used to hot dogging corners, if you notice that driving the same, that you're breaking free way easier without changing how you take these regular corners, then you know your HP increased.

[RobertPaulson]

Originally Posted by SirBrass

You don't, but butt dyno can possibly tell you if there's significant gains or losses, and logging on road tuning can tell you how well the tune is doing on your car.

Then again, if you are used to hot dogging corners, if you notice that driving the same, that you're breaking free way easier without changing how you take these regular corners, then you know your HP increased.

the butt dyno can lie or have false positives thanks to the placebo effect. I much prefer an actual dyno to show me gains. but i'll agree, you can notice some gains with how the car performs in the same parameters as before.

I've also seen data logs from a couple different people who ran the OFT OTS tunes and they're not good or something i'd run on my car. In fact those people quickly ditched OFT for a custom tune using ecutek.

[gramicci101]

Originally Posted by akahenry

I couldn't justify spending a couple cents less for around ~200 mile range versus the 320 mileage I get from standard premium gasoline. To each their own, I guess.

How on earth do you get 320 miles a tank on premium gasoline? I can only get 300 if I'm road-tripping. If I drive around town it's 250-275. Your premium gasoline must be better than my premium gasoline.

[akahenry]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

How on earth do you get 320 miles a tank on premium gasoline? I can only get 300 if I'm road-tripping. If I drive around town it's 250-275. Your premium gasoline must be better than my premium gasoline.

I drive pretty gingerly and conservatively haha. My usual commute is around ~60 miles round trip from work and back, and I do about 80% highway driving, which probably contributes to my slightly higher gas mileage number. In addition, I usually shift at around 3K to 3.5K and never go over 70 miles per hour. Surprisingly, getting 300 to 310 miles out of a full tank of gasoline is pretty standard for me haha.

[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by RobertPaulson

the butt dyno can lie or have false positives thanks to the placebo effect. I much prefer an actual dyno to show me gains. but i'll agree, you can notice some gains with how the car performs in the same parameters as before.

I've also seen data logs from a couple different people who ran the OFT OTS tunes and they're not good or something i'd run on my car. In fact those people quickly ditched OFT for a custom tune using ecutek.

Yes, b/c OTS tunes suck. Think of them as "limp mode" to get you to your tuner and around town for a time. They're safe but not ideal by a long chalk. They're a base line for the tuner to go off of and tune to your car.

[RobertPaulson]

Originally Posted by gramicci101

How on earth do you get 320 miles a tank on premium gasoline? I can only get 300 if I'm road-tripping. If I drive around town it's 250-275. Your premium gasoline must be better than my premium gasoline.

i just hit 350 on my last tank and used a little over 11 gallons. the most miles was 385.80 miles and 12.775 gallons used, and my most efficient tank was 374.6 miles and 11.352 gallons used.

all statistics pulled from fuelly.com which is what i use to track my mileage.

[FRS Johnny]

OFT is a tune for everybody to use. its supposed to be conservative to take into consideration for all different types of mods, climates, altitude, and etc. It wont be able to squeeze every ounce of power out of your mods. Its a good tune for what it is.

I never looked into getting ecutek, how much is it total to get a custom tune?