i'm not arguing one is better than the other. i know that AP, opensource, ecutek, etc. are all just tools to retune an ECU. while you may not have been around back then, i've played the "tuner car" game on several different cars and the results have always been the same. i have dealt with good people on my cars and never went after peak power, but always after a higher, more flexible powerband than stock. in all cases my cars made more power under specific circumstances, but outside of those parameters i could always find something off.

in regards to stock cars being tuned poorly, please point out some examples. companies don't just put crap out there for the fun of it and then warranty it.

 

I'm not mad at all
No worries there...


Silas didn't just get an opensource tune though: he got a compression/leakdown as well as a boost leak test from what I gather. Once a shop has to start diagnosing problems the price starts to grow. For the tune alone he paid 450 from my understanding. That's definitely not what a used AP+tune goes for these days.
I've had my fair share of wrenching time over the years and know what you mean man: you pay for crap, you get crappy results. Most often if you cheap out on something that's very important you end up paying for it later. No argument there. With this situation though, its not exactly the same. You get 2 programs that do basically the same thing. People bash one cause its cheaper and they don't know anything about it. Period.

As for "dangerous" that's up to the owner and the tuner. When altering a car's ecu to increase efficiency of a setup a tuner should have goal #1 as safety. I don't care if I LOSE power, I'm still focused on safety. I won't even go 2* away from MBT let alone any sort of knock...#2 is catering to the drivers style of driving, or what the car will be doing 80% of its life time. And only a far #3 is "power". You don't even feel "PEAK POWER" on the street as much as you do "curve". Peak power is very un-important unless you're trying to show off. That's the logic that makes sense to me. As for the Platform, opensource has made enough progress already to safely say "it is essentially COBB without the little pod".


As for dangerous stock tunes, look around at 07 sti's and even more so evo9's. Every bone stock evo I've logged so far has had at least 5 counts of knock in the midrange on a stock map. Reading on EvoM confirmed that I'm not the only one noticing this: it is common knowledge. They come from the factory tuned for 93oct and run crappy on our 91 from what I've heard.

07 sti's with their slightly more advanced ecu from the earlier years have proven to be running less than ideally from the factory. Lots have popped cyl#4 ringlands even bone stock.

Look at a stock wrx's (more so with the older 2 liters) closed loop/open loop delay and transition. Look at how the boost is all over the place spiking then tapering then trying to spike again only to taper up top. Same with the air/fuel targets. Its like a rollercoaster ride.
A simple "stage1" as most call it, tune fixes SO MANY issues making the car so much more enjoyable to drive its insane. Its like a totally different car without sacrificing even a tiny bit of reliability or making anything more dangerous.


I have a few dyno screenshots of my STOCK 06 wrx on a bone stock map vs my tweaked map. I'll post up when I find them if anyone wants to see. One looks like a jigsaw compared to the other being smooth as butter and made a good 26whp and similar torque more, same setup, same temperature, and same smoothing. Nothing was altered mechanically.

 

Just to be 100% clear here guys: I'M NOT MAD
My posts are just lengthy cause I'm passionate about the topic. Please don't take anything I say as disrespect. I'm merely trying to have a conversation.

 

get a V1 for ease of swapping maps(like 100)and have ED work his magic.

 

Erectile Dysfunction?

 

iswydt

 

I prefer tuning with COBB for the real time tuning feature. The ability to change a single cell while the car is running (as long as it's in a real time map). Great for tuning injectors or when using a dyno in a steady state.

And if I was setup for E85 it would be a snap to switch between E10 and E85 via a quick map switch.

 

Agreed: that is a handy feature of the Cobb ap.
What size injectors are you running?

 

just as far as Mr_Silas go's, i was charged 175 for a quick tune. the rest of the bill was compression, boost leak and labor. and the only reason i went open source is cause my AP was stolen and just doing open is cheaper. but i agree with vladi that there is no difference between cobb tuning and open source because when you get down to it, you are doing the same thing and it really depends on your tuner if your car is tuned "safe" and "properly"