Originally Posted by YoGeorge
I'm an old hot-rodder (ran a couple Chrysler Hemi cars in the 70's, actually), and my son's buddy has a Subaru WRX which, with one of the little tuner boxes, has run 13.2 second quarters (amazing--faster than an STI) although one of the things he's manipulating is turbo boost (I don't think the brand new Subie his daddy bought him will make it past 20k miles).
Anyway, I will research this more later (working on honey do Saturday things right now), but I just did a quick lookup on livewire tuners and it looks like they have a couple models (like $379 and $569). Is there any way that you can tweak a 4.6 so it will continue to run on regular but give some more low-end and midrange grunt without a loss in gas mileage? I'm not gonna be running my E150 at the strip, but I miss the grunt of the old Chevy 350 in my '96 Savana (although that was the Van from Hell for other reasons).
These little thingies just plug into the OBD2 port, right? Do they reprogram the PCM flash, or do they just override it while they're plugged in?
My 60k Premium Care warranty is up in 800 miles, so this might be the right time to play with the van just a little--it's an '02 with the PI heads, same as the current 4.6 (and the dealer replaced the heads for me at 42k based on a TSB regarding a bad run of early Romeo PI heads).
Talk to me, bud...
Thanks in advance for any info,
George
It's a plug and play. You tell who you order it from (I got mine from 5 star tuning for $535 because I'm a member here) and give them the info (online) for your vehicle. I got an email saying I had to fill in a code but the rest I found out from the VIN sticker with all the codes. You get 3 levels of tunes preloaded for 3 grades of fuel. You also get 3 levels of tune in the custom tune(that's why they want those codes). Try both the tunes and see which is the best. You get to manipulate spark for all rpm's and w.o.t. fuel. Now when you are done uploading a tune you can disconnect the tuner or mount it on the windshield and use it to monitor vehicle operating parameters you select. Nice tuner and toy too. You can reprogram your trans for firmer shifts and if you change tire size and/or rear gears you can recalibrate to the new values. That saves $127 I think.
I'm an old school hot rodder too. Worked in the automotive industry most all my life. Learned carbs from working 15 yrs at Holley carb and learning how to transpose to FI. It is nice to sit in a clean dry cab and reflash the ECU. I did a little mapping when I was working. It took so many tests and data logging a single person couldn't do it all to develope mapping. To change mapping it isn't that awful with the choices you have to work with. You wouldn't believe how much one of those Cyclones would put out unbridled.