In many of the Stillin CBE threads I've seen the word "tune" tossed around. What does it mean to "tune" your exhaust. From what I could make of the conversatoin I guess the argument that if you just bolt your exhuats on it won't have the same power as it would if you were to tune it. Something along those lines and clearly idk WTF they're talking about. Does anybody?

 

I wouldn't waste the money to have the car tuned to pick up any hp difference you might gain or lose from changing the exhaust.
Unless you add a turbo or supercharger you not going to get any measurable performance gain from adding an intake or an exhaust. It is quite possible you will lose performance.

 

tuning in a sense just means to fine fix your car's air to fuel ratio. the ecu (brain of the car - that controls such items as afr) has parameters that typically can adjust the fuel ratio to the given amount of oxygen (density) entering the system. when you add breather mods ie intakes, exhaust, test pipes, headers, a tune essentially resets the parameters that the ecu can adjust to the higher volume oxygen coming into your system. unfortunately, you have to realize that the reason for this is because all cars have the same "tune" - ONE map that essentially has to be able to compensate for all potential climates throughout the globe (super hot climates and super cold climates). therefore, your car's ecu map isn't "custom" for your particular car. tune = piggyback = runs off your ecu. does that make sense?

in addition, the tune also allows *uprev* to essentially change other parameters as well - you just happen to gain whp by doing so. with our 37's, we also get 100% throttle response as well in addition to a few other small bits and pieces (raising rev limiter)

 

Yup and enough to convince me that I do not want to even mess with that. Thanks!

 

also - tunes are for major air mods (not just exhaust)

 

And its not something you would want to attempt on your own unless you REALLY know what you are doing.

 

although i agree with this statement, they sell "flashing" tuners that are pretty much plug and play. you're not really custom tuning you're just changing the setting of the ecu to a set variables.

but you are correct, if you don't know what you're doing, best not mess with it.

 

i gained around 50 hp over stock with my bolts ons...not much to gain my a,s,s anytime you change air going in or air going out of your car you need your tune adjusted. everything is in the tune. if a car is tuned for 91 octane it does no good to put in 93, i have even seen cars lose power. thats the advantage of an uprev tune. i run 94 octane all the time. the guys that say dont waste your money on a tune are the ones that lower their car and put rims on it and then think their s,h,i,t doesnt stink. $500 gets you an uprev license and cable and it only takes 3 etunes to get it set and those are free when you buy it

 

I would love an additional 50hp.

 

Thank you for the great explanation.

 

What you're saying seems to make a lot of sense. Can you elaborate on this:

"$500 gets you an uprev license and cable and it only takes 3 etunes to get it set and those are free when you buy it"

 

That's impressive. What bolt ons do you have and any dynos?

 

Wow. You'd sure make a believer out of me if you would post the before and after Dyno sheets. Otherwise I'd have to call it BS

 

You're very welcome G-Man

 

I'm not entirely sure how the etunes work, but I'll give it a shot. The reason why tunes are so expensive, is because of the UpRev license. It's embedded into the ECU of your car - it's not a piece of paper (what I initially thought lol). Despite, once you have the license, you can download your ecu onto your computer via the cable purchased via Cipher. Here's where I'm unsure - after you download the map, you send it to UpRev for them to crack and then fine tune. 3x allows...3 adjustments? Sounds right...hah' but despite, you upload the map into your car, and you're set.

I'd recommend getting a custom tune though. I'm not entirely sure if etuning gives you the different maps (Stock, Security, ECO, Valet and Power) and without an actual afr readings of your actual car with your given mods (not just general readings from other cars with similar mods)...i'm not entirely sure how they custom tune. plus, don't they have to adjust to all the detonation as well?