Now that all the power mods have been added, it was time to get a tune. I was initially trying to find a place that would dyno tune the car rather than eTune but it didn't seems like shops were interested unless I also had a bunch of other stuff done there (just an assumption since I got no responses back). Since I have pretty basic bolt-ons on the car I figured going with a reputable eTuner would be sufficient and so after much back and forth I ended up going with FVD Motorsports in Germany.
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| FVD Tune Loading - 1-6-2019 |
I had dealt with them before and both their Sales person in the US and their engineering folks were exceptionally responsive. The last thing I want to deal with are vendors that can't even be bothered to give you updates and the FVD folks were far from it. They were always upfront and answered all my questions and concerns promptly and to my satisfaction. The FVD experience was superb and I never felt worried. They even offered a full 30-day money back if I didn't like their tune. The process was pretty painless. I paid for the tune and they shipped me the MyGenius device. This comes with a USB cable to connect to your computer and an ODB2 cable to connect to your computer.
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| MyGenius tuning device received - 12-27-2018 |
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| Unpackaged - 12-27-2018 |
The first step was to just install the MyGenius Client software and update it over the Internet. Then you connect the MyGenius device to the PC to update it to the latest revision.
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| Updating the MyGenius device from the computer - 12-27-2018 |
Then you hook the MyGenius device to the ODB2 port of the car and have it read the ECU. For the 987.1, it doesn't support downloading the tune from the ECU so all that it grabs are the identifiers needed to marry the tune to the device. I then download the file from the device back to my computer and emailed it to FVD along with the list of modifications, intended purpose and anything else I wanted them to do. Since it was the holidays I didn't hear back from them until after the new year but as soon as they got into work again, I was promptly emailed my tune. The tune also included a stock tune in case I ever wanted to go back to stock. I copied the file over to the device and then uploading the tune to the car. They noted that during this process, the car should be connected to a 15A battery tender. This is the first time I've ever had to do that for a tune but it made sense once I was doing it as the fans kicked off while the tune was uploading and it took about 10 minutes to complete. You probably don't want a dip in voltage while you're flashing your ECU. The last thing you want is a bricked ECU.
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| Selecting the tune to upload - 1-6-2019 |
Overall it was pretty simple to do minus the half a dozen times you had to turn the key on and off for the programming to complete. During this time all kinds of errors pop up on the dash and at the end it asks if you want to reset all the errors and so I did.
Engine startup was smooth and power delivery excellent. I asked that they sharpen up the throttle, and perform the usual 300rpm increase in rev limit (from 7200 to 7500) which puts the top of my 2nd gear at around 73mph on 265 tires. The throttle is a lot more responsive now even out of Sport mode. Unlike the stock Sport mode which is often makes the throttle a bit too sensitive for normal stop and go traffic, they adjusted it perfectly where I get the response without loosing low speed drivability. I also asked to maximize my mid-range power. I can definitely feel a marked increase in how hard she pulls from 3000rpm and up. The power is linear and super smooth all the way to redline. It's really woken up the car and as a bonus, with the engine running leaner than factory, it should also yield better fuel economy. Since I drive the car once a week at most, I guess I don't really care about fuel economy too much but it's always nice to have.
So far I'm really impressed. Car feels great, I got no errors driving around and the engine performance, I think, is as good as it'll get in STU trim. Maybe later this year I'll pop it on a dyno to grab some graphs but the numbers aren't too important to me right now. I'm definitely glad I went the FVD route and would recommend them to anyone else looking to do something similar.
