Well, I'm going to do it, encouraged by Unhingd's success with his V6-S tune.
I'm going to do the ECU-only tune first, then figure out when to do the pulley also.

I will share results here, but Stuart and I need some help to get the right info to you guys.

Does anyone know a reputable dyno shop in the SF Bay Area where I can run the before/after curves? Preferably someone who can also monitor the engine through the dyno range and ensure that the tune is operating safely?

 

Good luck. I didn't pull the trigger on the tune as I'm running a data logger for JLR to chase down a phantom CEL thats been randomly popping up. I was going to have them to the tweaks so I get the V6S tune

 

Reviving this thread. I did the VAP base tune -- very happy with the results.
I will post a longer review today or maybe tomorrow.

 

Awesome, and great decision!

I had already decided to go w/ VAP on my base, when I stumbled upon a killer deal on a C7 7MT. My yearning to be back in a manual won out.

I continue to be very impressed w/ Velocity.

 

OK this is an overdue report on my Velocity AP (VAP) base ECU tune.

In summary:

• I did the Velocity AP Stage 1 tune. This is an ECU-only tune which is based on the V6-S ECU but optimized further to yield additional gains (see the other thread on the V6-S tune).
  
• The tune effectively takes the V6 Base up to beyond the V6-S power curve, with improvements to torque as well.
  
• I'd echo the experience that others on the forum have had with Stuart and Velocity AP: I found them incredibly responsive, technically solid, and overall a real pleasure to work with.
  
• I'm very happy with the tune results. The car is palpably better to drive, and the numbers pretty much prove it except that we ran into some problems with the dyno (see below).

And now for the more detailed notes, for those doing due diligence on purchasing the tune:

• Overall, the safety of the tune was something I spent a long time thinking and reading about. The key positive factor for me was the fact that there is no engine difference between the V6 and V6-S except the ECU map (and the drive ratio, but that is further down the drivetrain). So most of the VAP tune benefit would be accomplished simply by running the base engine at specs which it is already well designed for with the V6-S.
  
  
• Included in the price of the tune is a programming unit which serves 3 functions: (1) reading the ECU; (2) storing ECU profiles including your stock profile; (3) writing the profiles to the ECU.
  
• Installation is quite straightforward. (1) VAP mails you the programmer (which you get to keep obviously). (2) You use it to read your ECU (via OBD II port) and mail the map to VAP. (3) VAP mails you the tune file, which you load onto the programmer. (4) You connect the programmer back to the port and flash the ECU with the new tune.
  
  
• You will need a Windows-based computer to interact with the programmer (via USB cable). You do NOT need the computer with you in the car when you read/write the ECU, so if you have a desktop that works fine. The installation instructions VAP provides are very clear and easy to follow. Additionally, Stuart the team are very responsive if you run into issues.
  
  
• For my tune, I wanted to do before/after dyno curves, for everyone's benefit (including my own). I tried to locate a dynojet shop in the SF Bay Area but was unable to find one. I ended up running the before/after with a Superflow dyno machine at a local, well reputed shop.
  
  
• Here are the power, torque and AFR curves as measured on the superflow (READ THE NOTES BELOW):
  
  
  
• Unfortunately, the chart is not 100% useful. While it does show clearly that the tune provides significantly more power at the top end, consistent with Unhingd's V6-S tune (he did the upper and lower pulley too, which I did not), we ran into a problem during the post-VAP dyno run. The cats overheated, so the engine's nanny kicked in and started dumping more fuel to help cool them down. You can see this happen in the AFR curve, which shows the post-VAP curve running very rich.
  
  
• This is NOT a problem with the tune....the root cause is that the shop only had 1 large fan aimed at the front air intake of the car. So the cooling airflow under the chassis wasn't properly simulated so the cats ran very hot. I did not realize this, otherwise I would have waited a while for the cats to cool before doing the 2nd dyno run.
  
  
• As a result, there was a noticeable dropoff in torque after the nanny kicked in, which you can see in the chart. Power kept climbing, consistent with what we would expect from a base V6 going to a V6-S++ performance....but with a better dyno and proper air simulation I think we can expect that both the power and torque curves would look a lot better.
  
  
• Despite the hiccup in the dyno run, I feel pretty satisfied with the empirical performance of the tune. Now let's talk about the seat-of-the-pants performance....
  
  
• It's much better. Some of the frustrations I've had with the base V6 are: (a) its torque performance in the 4000rpm range but I simply don't drive in that range on most days so the (a) and (b) issues are what irked me. The VAP tune makes a clear, palpable difference in both of these ranges....it has really changed the car for me. Basically I paid for a V6 and now have better than V6-S performance.
  
  
• There has been a slight drop in fuel economy -- I would guess about 10% -- but I'm also driving the car with more spirit so I'm not sure what the exact tradeoff is....it's safe to say that this isn't an ECU tune that will tank your fuel economy. Fortunately for us V6 base owners, the V6-S provides an excellent template map for VAP to work with.
  

I'd recommend this tune without hesitation. VAP is also working on a pulley upgrade which should provide some really nice additional performance particularly in low-end torque....so I'm definitely going to install that when it becomes available.

 

Check out your fuel economy using the cruise control. I have determined that the fuel economy loss is more foot than tune related. During my trip over the past 2 weeks, I discovered a significant fuel economy increase over the OEM tune (26.7 mpg @ 82mph, 28.7 mpg @ 72 mph). Before tuning, the best fuel economy I was seeing was 25.6 at any speed. (only got 11 mpg on the Tail of the Dragon)

 

Great review man thanks! I think I'm going to go the VAP route in the next few months. Have you experience any increase in exhaust note due to the tune? No check engine lights or anything came up correct ?

 

No check engine lights (also verified with OBD II reader).

The exhaust tone hasn't changed but it's obviously a bit louder than the stock engine at any given RPM because the extra output has to go somewhere (the extra boost pressure creates more air flow through the exhaust).

 

Seems that your tune has been well worth the cost and effort.. I like that you started with the tune only and pulley later so you could gain a sense of the performance vrs. each step.
I'm likely going to go the same route.
Lawrence.

 

I'd also guess, the reported fuel economy decline is the result of trying out your newfound power. If anything, driven exactly the same, I'd expect a slight fuel economy increase.

 

Installing the 11.8% lower pulley will throw a code over 6000 rpm because the OEM programming did not anticipate needing mapping that would handle boost in excess of 15 or 16 psi. VAP, however, will fill out that portion of the map to handle boost into the 20 psi range. No more codes now and the engine will now pass the (MD) state OBDII emissions test.

 

Thank you very much for creating detailed report.

 

Hey, Im curious and wanted to know how the reliability and ownership of the VAP tune/pulley upgrade is?
I’m curious as I am thinking about doing it to my f type v6s ‘15.

 

You can search this and other forums. I have done many google searches looking for VAP related engine failures and could not find any. People claim to have tens of thousands of miles and no issues yet. There are many problems posted on this forum so I don't think under reporting is an issue. I bought a VAP tune and pulley to be installed this spring once I am able you use the car more regularly. Good luck.

 

I also have a 15 V6S and I fitted the VAP pulley and tune just on three years ago now (about 20k miles in that time) and it has performed flawlessly the whole time.
By far the best bang for your buck performance mod you can get for V6 F-Type.

 

Where would the v6 be in the 1/mile and 0-60

 

See post #4 in below thread for my results on Dragy:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...e-v6-s-240752/

 

The chart in this post doesn’t really seem to be a “real world” improvement? Between 3000-5500 the hp and torque are less or nearly the same and the real gains are mostly top end. If you spend most of the time poking along in the lower rpm ranges won’t it be slower or am I reading it wrong? Or was this due to the nanny AFR?

 

Just installed the VAP tune on my MY2018 base yesterday and it couldn't have gone smoother. The instructions were straight-forward and easy to follow for downloading from the ECU, sending the program to VAP for editing, then downloading the modified program from VAP and reinstalling. And the best part was the difference in performance which is pretty incredible.

If your on the fence about this tune, here's another happy VAP customer. It's about as nice an experience as you can hope for and seems like an incredible value going 335hp to 416hp for under a grand. I am also in CA so I'll just cross my fingers vis a vis smogging [which doesn't come up for me for several more years]. Even if I was forced to go back to the stock settings, I feel as if the upgrade will have been well worth it. It now seems as fast as it looks!