So I've read in a few places people mentioning a company here or there for e-tunes but I can't really find out to much information. Just a heads up I'm not a huge car guy, and I just recently starting to take the time to start learning the engine, mods, accessport ect.

I have a 2014 Ralliart still completely stock... First question, is a initial tune worth the price for a stock car? From what I've been told it can increase hp between 30-40 depending on a few environment factors.

Second, I was looking at Kaizen Tuning to do all my tunes but haven't found many reviews for them. Who are you using? Experiences? Recommendations?

I appreciate any input

 

A custom tune is not worth it bone stock, if you wanted to keep your car stock, their are free basemaps you'll be more than satisfied with.

Kaizen I'd a really great shop, I have two buddies with 580whp+ on their evo x that they swear up and down by them. I will be going there for a tune for my evo x turbo swap, as they have one too.

 

Don't custom tune a stock RA. It's like using a RPG to kill a fly. Just buy a tactrix cable and flash the GST basemap.

My current E-Tuner is golden@goldenevo.com. Check my signature for my mods and tune, I want to "fine tune" the GST basemap for my car. I'll write up a nice little review of the whole E-tuning process after its done.

 

I don't plan on keeping the car stock for very long so a re-tune would be somewhere in the next few months. I'm looking to get around 350-400 hp out of the ralliart. The only reason I considered a stock tune was some people mentioned it was worth the extra 30-40 hp and fine tuning of some timing.

I'm not sure what GST is, like I said I'm new to all of this. I know Cobb is having a 10% off only today for accessports which is what I was looking at to do my etunes, I've never heard of the cable you mentioned. On the Cobb Site they have a 2014 RA section, with a few maps listed for free. I live in OK and finding 93 octane is few and far between so I was planning on using their 91 octane stock map unless you think there's a better / different way to go?

In the near future I plan on swapping the fmic, uicp, licp, bov, boost pill and intake... So perhaps I should just do s tune once I have all those installed? Get a little more bang for my buck.

I appreciate the input

 

to get 350-400 youll def have to do a turbo swap, im tuned by Hollywood. id suggest collecting all your parts first, installing them and then doing your tune. for the time being a gst basemap would be good

 

Im expecting to do a turbo swap at a later time. With the mods I listed in the above post - I plan to do them all at the same time and then get my first tune afterwords. I was just trying to inquire if a initial stock tune would be worth the price.

I'm still confused by what you mean by a GST tune. If you go to the Cobb site (http://www.cobbtuning.com/Mitsubishi...t-Stock-Intake) they list a 91 Octane map for a completely stock car. I planned on using that to flash my car since Oklahoma doesnt have many options for 93 octane. My question was would you suggest a different map then the one Cobb supplies until I install my first wave of mods and get my official tune...

Edit: After a little more googling and finding the GST maps in the engine section, are those only for those who use Technix cables? If im going with an accessport I can't use those ROM's correct?

 

Correct, you can't use GST maps with accessport. Tactrix cable connects to your OBD2 port and then to a laptop. You download the free software ECUflash and the free GST basemap 91 octane with a total purchase price of about $150. Cobb will be twice that.

 

Yeah Cobb is running a 10% discount today only with the new AccessPort v3 running at $450. I think I'm going to stick with using AP as a lot of the e-tuners I'm finding are claiming they send rom's which you upload via AP... Not to mention the new version comes with a few bells and whistles. Like i said earlier, I was just trying to inquire if a stock tune was worth the $300 Kaizen was asking for... But seeing as the boost pill REQUIRES a tune, i may as well wait until I buy one.

I'll keep a look out for your review danike about goldenevo..

Sorry about the abundance of questions, just trying to claify . Complete rookie here trying to learn everything about the car.

 

I'm new to this whole tuning as well but I would recommend the ap. You can run stage 1 completely stock and get a decent increase in performance then just follow what cobb recommends for mods on stage 2 and 3 and you should be fine. Then when you want to go bigger (turbo upgrade and whatnot) have a custom map made for your ap. I would also suggest searching the classifieds for a used unmarried ap as I just picked one up from a kid on here for about half the price brand new. Like I said I'm new to this too but that's just my two cents. Everyone says the gst is cheaper but after a tactrix cable, boost pill, laptop, and gauges your up to the price if not more than the ap and the ap does all that.

 

What version of the AP you picked up? I'm not sure how long ago v3 came out but its suppose to be significantly better then v2. I'm not sure if you saw the link I posted a few posts above, are those the stage maps you're refering to? If so I was looking at the Stage 1 91 Octane map. Figured I'd use that one the AP came in... My question though is once I start swapping out FMIC, boost pill and other parts, Cobb doesn't offer a stage map for that - so it would be off to find a specific ap tune for my car... But Cobb does give a great starting point.

Good idea about searching the classifieds, didn't even cross my mind. I would have to find something today seeing as the 10% off deal Cobb is offering is only for today

 

all you need is a Tacktrix cable and a good tuner. e-tunes are awesome as long as you let the tuner do the work. my tuner is Jay @ Boosted Tuning (see sig). he's done my last few cars since.. 2010 or so? anyway, they guy knows his stuff and is very good with communication. his prices are more than fair. the best part is: not only does he tune, but he does work too. that helps a TON when you can't figure out why the tune is a bit off (he can help diagonose).
tuning any car helps, but obviously will be more productive any time you add modifications. freeing up you exhaust and tuning would make a heck of a difference. in general, that is. i'm not familiar with RAs.
good luck, brotha!

 

I picked up the v2. Dont hold me to this but I believe the v2 can use the v3 maps and do all the same stuff, I believe the only real difference is the screen size and what not but I'm really not positive. Either way $225 was better than $450. From what I heard you want to do everything cobb says for mods to have no problems. The only exception being the fmic which won't effect anything because you don't need a tune for that so your good there. Stage 1 map you would want to be completely stock but you can have a cbe. For stage 2 you are not gonna want a boost pill, what you will need is the cobb 3port boost solenoid which is about $100. So that's the only mod for stage 2. Stage 3 would be full tbe. So with running cobb you will be able to have the fmic and you will use a 3port instead of a boost pill. In my opinion these few mods are all you really need for our cars until you do a turbo swap or something. Also note cobb has excellent customer service so just shoot them an email with any questions and they should get back to you pretty quickly. Totally up too you and I see you want that deal from cobb but if your not in a rush and money isn't an option I would totally keep checking the classifieds for one cause they pop up all the time, there may even be a few for sale at the moment.

 

Well i ended up getting the cobb v3 AP and am currently running the stage 1 91 octane map and everything seems okay so far. I replaced my fuel pump relay as suggested by them.. Still plan on installing the boost pill and the other mods in my signature below... Then I'll go to Kaizen tuning, unless someone has had a better experience with another company and tuner, and get my custom e tune done there..

 

If getting etuned by kaizen then don't buy a boost pill. Ask Kaizen what they recomend, most likley they will recommend the grimmspeed 3 port boost controller instead of the pill.

 

Out of curiosity, why do people buy an AP instead of using EcuFlash?