Questions for the crew. I was at the shop today where I have my Jag worked on. My usual mechanic is an ASE master tech and has recently moved his shop. He now shares it with a fellow that is apparently some sort of car guru. He was worked on F1 cars, worked for McClaren builds his own transmission gears for old non-synchronized tranmissions and a bunch of other amazing things. While I was waiting for my car he told me that he has the ability to tap into the ECU and completely change the car. He said he could easily extract 100hp and more. He said the program comes directly from Jaguar, but he still has the option to change it around as he sees fit depending on how the car responds. He said it would take a few hours and would be $300-$700 depending on how cheap he can get the software. He said he as done over 30 Jags so far.

So what do you guys think? Is this a legitimate claim? I am a little skeptical, but it sure would be sweet to bump up the hp with so little hassle and not a lot of money.

 

Even if it would be about 30 bhp, it would probably already worth the money, but 100 seems a bit to far fetched imho. You could ask for some dyno results, as when he has done 30, there certainly should be some?

 

Pusjing_tin, see if you can further cultivate an ECU tune. Perhaps we all can benefit from your chance meeting with this guru. Hey Avos! What up mun?

 

Agreed. This isn`t a turbo motor where you can dial up more boost. Any HP advantages would come from timing and fuel delivery. Maybe some extra speed by changing shift points.....

 

TCM dictates shifting from my understanding

 

Got a name for the software? Ask to see it running

 

Not all cars work in the same way. Jags have a TCM but others do not.

If can tune the ECU, he should be able to get into the TCM as well. Be nice to change the shift points, the timing and the fuel curve to get the best possible scenario.....might be good for 1/2 second...

 

Pushing_Tin, not to be a pessimist but everything you wrote raises the BS flag to me. How can this master technician who's supposedly worked with leading edge manufacturers like McClaren (and now inexplicably is working at a shop) make an outlandish claim like 100HP off of a tune? And over 30+ jags?? Outside of the already small XJR crowd I've never known Jag owners to be that overly interested in increasing their performance. We're a tiny community.

He could be the goods but just a bit of a salesman. Tread carefully.

I know, offer him $30 per horsepower off his tune with a pre and post dyno and see what he says.

 

Agreed.

 

I don't think your a pessimist at all, I'm in the same camp as you here, but I really lack the experience and knowledge of this car unlike a lot of you, and that's why I asked for some thoughts. While the claims sound outlandish he didn't strike me as a salesman or anybody that really was blowing smoke and my normal mechanic speaks very highly of him.

The shop right next door is having a dyno installed and he's going to get back to me with a price to hack the ECU. If it's reasonable and he can guarantee me some gains I will take it in and run it before and after and see what happens. It might be a few weeks before all of this happens though.

Just an FYI, when they moved their shop this was the e-mail that I got.

 

Even for what may be a slim chance it's worth waiting a few weeks!

 

on my personal progress I was able to load the base image into openECU, make changes to the maps, but here is where Im stuck. I have no way of actually flashing the ROM's There isnt anything that I have found so far that is capable of breaking the lock short of the WDS/IDS. My local Jaguar Dealer is going to very doubtly allow me to upload my own IMG to a PCM.

And for those interested in knowing what I have done, is I've raised the target AFR to 11.5 from 10.5

 

He was telling me that he is one of a few people that has the ability to completely wipe the factory programming and install something completely different. He told me that he first saves the factory program in case there are any issues and we need to revert back to it.

 

I didn't know openECU would work!

I'd think anyone with IDS would be able to reflash the PCM. Quite possibly WDS, too.

 

Feel this guy out further pushing_tin. Ask him some tech questions we can feed you; such as A/F ratio's...here's a critical value that can make or BREAk an engine...too lean then ya burn pistons and valves. A safe ratio is 11.5:1 to 10.5:1

 

That's a really good idea. How about we/I compile a list of 5-10 questions that I can e-mail him or stop by and talk to him about...

Fire away!

 

It took some tweaking, several packs of cigeretes, a few holes in the wall.
But since the we use the same CPU's as the Mitsu EVO ECU's. I was able to get it work.

 

Step-by-step details please

 

Mafioso, could ya "push" pushin_tin a few ECU tech questions he could ask this suppossed tuner he bumped into?

 

I have been following this post with great interest! But as for air fuel ratio's I must disagree, as for normal running 14.7 is perfect under boost I prefer around 12.1 This what I try to achieve when tuning and it is extremely hard depending where your foot is, wot is easy but its the points in between ,where you try to create a happy medium of timing and fuel curves to compensate. This does sound quite possible, just wish I was in Oregon if it all works out. Waiting patiently in snow bound CNY. Paul