Tuning Ecu

[jozsefsz]

Myself as well as quite a few others that I can think of do so all the time

I'm not sure if you'd find it much better if I said "most reputable tuners wouldn't tune for a turbo sight-unseen?" I'd think you'd be off your rocker to do so without some significant data-logs before, during, & after. Not saying you don't do it well, just that if someone wants to go with a Bama or similar, they won't.

There's a difference between "mail order" and "remote tuning." I have no idea which you do or don't do, but mail-order is creating a tune, writing to a chip, and mailing it. "Remote tuning" is something entirely different.

From a Bama rep on another board: "Unfortunately, we won't tune for a heavily modified Mustang like yours, even as sick as it is! When you have extreme mods like this, you definitely want to go with a dyno tune. That is the only way to truly have a safe tune since there's so many different variables that can come into play. The tune could really go in a few directions, especially for drive-ability. It's much easier with the Stang right in front of your to fix these issues."

That's their philosophy, and I happen to agree with it.

 

[vristang]

To say decipha is not reputable is silly

 

[madspeed]

got my mail order tune for myturbo fox from Willie Lynch at Dirty Dirty Racing, and Bob Kurgan also does mail order tunes, so....

 

[madspeed]

a few datalogs and an updated binary file is all it takes these days

 

[jozsefsz]

To say decipha is not reputable is silly

Not said or implied, if it came across that way, my apology. "Not saying you don't do it well, just that if someone wants to go with a Bama or similar, they won't."

a few datalogs and an updated binary file is all it takes these days

Right you are, the datalogs being the key. If you mail-order a non-datalogging chip with a pre-burned tune and you don't happen to have a wideband that's not going to happen. I'm sure it's absolutely possible to tune things remotely if done well (though I personally wouldn't want to do it knowing how oddly things sometimes unexpectedly behave while tuning, even the pros at the dyno sometimes struggle to dial in some combinations). It's extremely easy to grenade a turbo engine if you've pegged the MAF or your injectors -- on N/A it's an annoying ping.

But I will say that just using datalogs (after-the-fact information) and not actively watching values might just help a tuner understand what caused that pile of metal shards to form under the hood. Until they create a chip that can be remotely monitored real-time while you drive around I think it's an oversimplification to say that remote tuning is just as effective as in-the-seat DIY or dyno tuning (if nothing else you have to be more conservative without real-time access). I'm suspicious of anyone that says otherwise (which is why I like the fact that Bama is honest about their limitations).

But I'm not stubborn enough to say good remote tuners don't exist, and feedback seems to indicate people can be happy with the outcome. So if you are going to go mail-order that's why I was suggesting carefully investigating feedback & reputation. I'd be careful of fly-by-night mail-order-tuners which I'm sure are out there.