When attempting to maximize power for the dollar, the question arises as to where to put ones focus, hardware (exhaust, intake, etc.) or software/expertice (tune). Recently, I had the opportunity to do both and was able to address the gains of each although they are confounded. That said, it cost ~$1K to purchase and install AMS intake and cat back exhaust. Yesterday I went to Sean@Iveytune and had car (GSR with both factory flashes) baselined with these mod's and then after the tune (ECUTech) which cost $750.
Results: Baseline= 280 whp, 292 torque;
+ Tune = 322 whp, 320 torque

Others in OEM form with only factory flash updates are achieving ~240 whp. Therefore, intake and exhaust hardware yeilded ~40 whp and tune ~42 whp; in short about the same. The costs, however, were in favor of the tune being the best "bang for buck". Now before everyone goes nuts, the 42 whp was in addition to the hardware so it is unclear what the gains would have been if Sean had tuned the car w/o these specific mod's.
The car definitely has more guts above 5000 rpm so I can definitely feel the +40 whp.
My thanks to Sean( and the tech who took the time to put a cover over the fender before working in the engine bay; this little extra effort is sometimes ignored in other shops I have visited! ) for doing such a good job but I have one suggestion for those of you considering visiting his shop: use a GPS system! It is quite a task to find him.

 

While a reflash is a good bang for the buck, I will be waiting for the free flashware since I want to tune it myself. The other advantage of the bolt on parts is great efficiency and fuel mileage since it reduces pumping losses. Most of the reflashes really only focus on WOT which is great and all but I want power and response even at part throttle. I'll be going the bolt on parts route first and wait for the free software people to catch up.

 

Based on the X's we have tuned, I would say that on a stock car Sean would have been able to extract more than 42whp. Reason being that the intakes tend to lean the mixture a fair amount and as a result bump the timing (due to the ecu seeing a lower load value).

 

Will not having both reflashes from the dealer affect my tune with Ivey? I had gotten the one for the crazy idling, the dealer was acting like that was the only one they had...

 

Nope, EcuTek has both of the factory reflashes. Just ask Sean to base his tune on the second factory reflash and you should be fine.

 

Yall have me confused with the factory flashes... Should I be going to my dealer and asking them to give my car a flash or should I just wait til I go for a tune; cause I still mite not be able to get the tune for a few months yet?

 

Another thing to bear in mind is that the hardware is permanent, but the flash you will have to do again if you add more mods down the road. Some tuners do discounts on re-flashes though

 

I will be doing some testing tomorrow (should just be cracking 500 miles on my personal x) with the original flash, the first reflash, and second reflash to see if there are any differences in power in an otherwise stock vehicle.

If you are having any issues then by all means go to the dealer and ask for the second factory reflash. If they don't know what you are talking about call MMNA to let them know the dealer is not keeping up with tsb's then go find another dealer that is.

 

Once Ecuflash comes out for the X your question will be easily answered.

 

Whatever you say, but I'm fairly sure it has already been answered.

 

I did a works filter, MBC, and exhaust pre-tune. The tune made substantially more and stopped the car from running like crap. Tuning for the total win.

 

Since you are tuner, it would be interesting to see what whp gains you can obtain with no new hardware i.e., just OEM flashes 1&2. Know this is really an R&D question since most would tune OEM ECU AFTER adding hardware. Let us know, however, if you do decide to do same.
That said, in this forum it appears using ECUTech an Italian tuner achieved a 55 whp increase from a OEM X (--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"good news for the european owners of evo X

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/5...auto017cm8.jpg

here's the dyno before and after 4 hours of working by a local tuner (the best here) on one of the very first Evo X GSR in Italy (stock car)

http://www.tremautoracing.it/news/pdf/ORI_VS_MAPPA4.PDF

about 55 cv and 84 nm more ") assuming I am reading this thread correctly although it is unclear if the vehicle had any of the factory reflashes/updates. In short, the tune alone on a bone stock X appears to achieve 55 whp. Since this is significantly greater than ~40 whp from hardware (Cat back+intake) then simply applying an ECUTech tune is definitely a better investment than adding this hardware. For those of you concerned over keeping the car looking OEM when returning to dealer then this is the way to go since in earlier forums it has been stated that the dealer is highly unlikely to detect the addition of a tune. In fact, based upon other posts, some aren't even aware factory updates/flashes exist!100% stock and Ecutek tuning at Dyno4mance

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And this from is300: "Well I got give props to those who deserve it. The guys at Dyno4mance for the Ecutek reflash tuning and making the mine Evo wake-up. Baseline was at 219whp and with the ecutek flash it peaked at 274.6whp(55whp extra" confirms conclusions above as well.

Later, Ken

 

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...45#post5910545

 

Thanks Bruce for the more complete documentation of the previous posts!