WOW that is an incredible price!!! The pulley alone sells for $100-150.

For those possibly interested I really don't think you can find a better deal from any tune vendor than this!!!

Walt

 

Stupid question but what does pulley swap accomplish?

 

Supercharger spins faster, just like shifting into another gear.

 

This may help

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...1/#post1067681

 

I apologize in advance if this was covered but what is the advantage this will add to a base V6?

 

It probably depends upon the marketing philosophy of a particular tuner. Theoretically, the base car V6 tune could add proportionally much more than what you can safely get out of the S version because they are exactly the same engine down to every nut and bolt. It just comes from the factory with a more aggressive tune.

I've only looked at results here from two different tuners, and one claimed the same results for the V6 and V6S (about 400HP), confirming that the gains for the V6 base can be significantly greater. However, another tuner markets different tunes for the V6 taking it to 380 (OEM S number), and the V6S even higher. When I asked him why via email, he wouldn't answer my question.

 

Hmm. Personally, I don't like voodoo much. The number of companies or individuals with the actual knowledge to *author* the software/data in the cars ECU must be somewhat limited, unless Billy Bob's Tire, Exhaust and Tuning staff went back to school and got a degree in automotive control systems etc (and then came up with tunes for every car from grandma's escort to the latest Lambo?)

How many of these 'tuners' are just reselling binary software packages sourced elsewhere (where?) and whose skills involve little more than attaching a cable to the OBD port and uploading a file - essentially the Best Buy 'Geek Squad' of the automotive world?

 

I'm curious about why you believe it's voodoo when independent owners have both reported the difference in drive feel and also measured through dyno runs the torque and hp gains from ECU tunes over many cars.

It's definitely true that tuners use 3rd party software to edit the ECU maps, but I don't see why that reduces the value of the solution: all software programmers use 3rd party tools and libraries to write or customize code and that doesn't reduce the value of the end product.

I haven't done an ECU tune before so am new to this.

 

Excellent points, which is exactly why I'm not doing it until maybe years down the road, and only if I keep the car longer than the warranty period. Keeping a car longer than 4 years would be a first for me.

 

Oh, I am sure that reported gains are accurate, not disputing it.

I think there have been tunes mentioned where the provider could not or would not produce documentation of the results (such as dyno info) - if you were the developer of the tune, you would have that info would you not?

I think (in this specific case where FOOSH asked a tuner) if a tuner has a tune for the Base that produces X HP and also has a tune for the 'S' that produces Y HP, but can't or won't explain why the results are different given that the two engines are *exactly* the same then something is amiss. Are the tunes actually the same but with exaggerated claims for the 'S'? I don't know, but someone does.

I don't know that its 'definately true' that tuners 'edit' the ECU maps (by which I mean develop the modifications themselves) - I think there are a number of tuners that just purchase an already made tune from a provider and just upload it to the car. Not a problem, but do you know whose tune you are getting, and does the guy uploading it know what it does and has he any experience with it?

Back in the day of the Z32, you could buy a 'Superchips' ECU upgrade (they sold them for all kinds of cars) that merely removed the rev limiter and the top speed limiter (and not much else), or you could get one from Jim Wolf (who worked with the Nissan race teams) and get a smarter ECU upgrade that was customized to the car and obviously showed a lot more knowledge of the car and mods to it (example would not allow you to blow up the engine with NO2).

 

Yes, that's exactly what I was alluding to. I asked several times, and my emails went unanswered.

 

So some basic info for when it comes to tuning a car....

Tuning a car is the same for all cars. It varies a bit for turbocharged vs. supercharged vs. naturally aspirated engines.. but in general, you adjust the same parameters for every engine. So a tuner who can tune one engine can tune them all (within reason). The issue from car to car is actually being able to write information to the PCM, which can be difficult or easy depending on the car. Some require a completely new program to be created, others require nothing more than an OBD cable and a free open source tuning software such as romraider. Once you've unlocked the PCM and can write to it, tuning is easy. So each tune is usually uniquely its own, but the program used to tune the vehicle is usually shared between individual tuners or corporations developing tunes for sale.

 

It doesn't make me all warm and fuzzy inside to hear it is so easy to write anything to the PCM. I don't trust anyone without expert engineering knowledge of my particular engine to start fooling around with important parameters that could mean the life or death of an already high-performance power plant.

 

Yes, its quite easy. I've done it before, and anyone with the right tool and a computer could change values to the point of catastrophic failure. Reputable tuners usually know what they are doing and have formal education on tuning engines specifically, and there are alot of failsafes in place within the engine itself to prevent damage, but it is always a risk. Tunes are usual conservative, but its just like buying any other product.

 

True, today's engines just don't fail very often. However, those most likely to abuse and cause them to fail are also those most likely to "get tuned." If they do fail after a tune, it's a "get out of jail free card" for the manufacturer during the warranty period and rightly so.

The fingerprints of a tune generally can't be erased these days. The tuner then either disappears or denies fault, and good luck explaining to a judge in court why you did something not approved by the manufacturer.

It just doesn't seem worth it to me for the marginal gains of a "conservative tune," and if it's a dramatic bump in power, you're probably living too far on the edge.

 

All this talking and I still can't find a before and after dyno graph. Everything else is naval gazing.

 

There have been a few published here, but I don't recall seeing any since this past July/August. If you hit the named tuner's websites, you'll likely find some. Just do a search of this forum.

I'm not going to name any names here and certainly not the one who wouldn't answer my questions. I'm neither interested in starting a fight, nor in tuning my car.

 

I was in the same boat with wanting a dyno. Nobody had one and lots of talk about performance improvements. Lots of "trust me, you will be happy". So I sat it out and waited. Still not dynos became available. So,,,,, I decided to go ahead and get a Eurocharged tune based on a few that had told me they had them and really liked the results.
I looked at getting a before and after dyno but some on here said you had to use an AWD dyno or the results would be invalid. So I started looking at AWD dynos and their availability around the time I was going to get my tune. Unfortunately there were none I could schedule so I decided to go another route and record acceleration performance, before and after with pretty close to identical conditions. The after tune showed significant improvement to those acceleration numbers and I could definitely tell the car was pulling harder and sooner than before. So much that driveability suffered significantly in the lower gears if I really hammered it. The rears would simply break free and spin while the stability management tried to compensate.
If I could find a sticky surface like when I went to Ennis for quarter mile times I could get better launches however I still had a traction problem.
So now the plan is to upsize the rear to 305s from 295s and go with PSS. I better tire in my opinion.

So you can wait for dynos or you can take a chance and believe those of us that have made the move to a pulley and tune and enjoy the benefits.

No question my car has been transformed and is significantly faster and more powerful than it was before and I have had many very fast cars in the past and currently.

Walt

 

Walt,

I don't think anyone was questioning that more power is easily and cheaply attainable. It was other issues and unanswered questions discussed in this thread that concerned me and others.

 

P.S. On other car forums I've been active on in the past (Audi, BMW, Corvette, Lotus), reputable tuners have been active forum participants, vigorous in backing up their performance claims with data, and defended their methods and reliability. I did tune an Audi with a very good outcome. That is totally missing for the F-Type as far as I can tell, so the "leap of faith" is a bit too much at this point.