I am confused about ECU tuning. Uprev seems popular here. So, this is a thing you buy, and they send you, and you do yourself? But then there's a version that pro tuners have that they will also charge you even more for? Huh? If I go the DIY route, is it only a one time deal? What if I do engine mods down the line? Do I have to pay another $500 dollars to remap the ECU for the new components?

Also Ecutek... is this pro tune only? Is this better than Uprev? Why?

I get that every car is different, and that an individual tuner who knows their **** will get better results than someone who is sending ROMs via email, but I also want to be as efficient as possible with my money. When I start dropping $$$$ to mod my car, I don't want to be paying $500 or more to retune my car every time I add another bolt on... Am I misunderstanding how this works?

 

UpRev has several options:
- Take it to a protuner and have them tune your car. You will buy the license from them and it will live on your ECU. If you buy the UpRev standard cable and get the rom file from your tuner you would be able to flash back to stock and reload the tune if needed (i.e. want to take car in for service)
- You can buy the license and e-tunes from UpRev directly. You provide a list of mods and they build you a rom file for you to upload. Each time you mod you will need them to adjust and reflash. Not sure how many e-tunes come with the cable but you can buy more.
- You can buy the tuner cable and it will come with a unmodded rom file you can tune yourself.

As for cost. It's all about $700ish. The protuner might be slightly higher if you go with the purchasing the cable option slightly less if you just want them to tune and not have the cable.

As for future mods and tuning cost. I highly recommend finishing your mods and then going in for the tune. If you want to tune each time you add a mod it should not cost another complete tune cost for your tuner to dial in your tune for the new mods. You'll likely just be paying an hr in dyno time ($100-150 each time). **** my tune will often brush the tune up on the house cuz it doesn't take that long on a NA motor.

 

Looks like you get 3 e-tunes if you buy the cable and license directly from UpRev. They expire one year after purchase. This is the option I've been looking at.

 

- I lean toward this option, with the admission that I know NOTHING about tuning my car. There is an uprev tuner in my area, PTuning in Manassas VA, but they are about an hour from my house.

I'm also slightly confused about how the etune works. Do you actually send them any diagnostic data to help uprev customize the tune, or are you just telling them what mods you have? They do a poor job explaining the difference between standard and tuner on their website.

 

Can someone help me find or direct me to a place where I can buy a ECU and a BCM. I am having trouble finding these for my G37 coupe

 

I'm in the same boat. What I will do when ready is go through the form process for my car and then send back the logs for them to do the e-tune. Looks like they will look at it and adjust for what they get in the logs. I would also be asking the guys here what would be best for the tuned map as the valet, economy, towing, etc are fairly self-explanatory. Even then I think that's what the e-tunes are for is to help customize the tuned map (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Since I have the xS, they won't be able to dyno my car, so I think flashing myself would be fine. I'm not trying to eek out every bit of power, but I would like to get better performance from what I have and have the options of the other maps as well. I'll be delving further into this once I'm ready.

 

My philosophy on this car as well. The G37 is a very popular and common car where I live, in the DC area. I want to get some extra power out of it to make it unique so I don't feel like I'm driving the same car that all the soccer moms are driving. I'm not complaining about the stock power though. The car gets up and goes when you ask it to.

Intake will probably go in soon, though I haven't decided on which. Probably short ram, as I don't want to deal with the hassle of cold air install / removing the filters for cleaning. Headers, cat-back, and tune are on my wish list. Id love to know what the actual gains are for each bolt on, including a retune.

 

Cold airs are not that much work :/ Takedas anyway, and save your $$$ and pass on the headrers. No with the $$$ or headache of the install. Tune will get you about 15-20 but do all your mods first then get tuned.

 

How about maintenance? Do takedas require removing the bumper or grill to clean the filter? Also, It worries me a bit that the filter is exposed behind the grill.

 

Just the front grill has to come off, should take you about 10 mins to remove it and 10 mins to put it back when you done cleaning the filter. You don't have to remove the bumper to install the takedas either at least I didn't and yes I have the splash shield also.

 

Dunno about the Takedas, but the K&N cones on my Stillen Gen 3 won't need cleaning for another 50k or so.