Why is it that the Tacoma is the only vehicle the aftermarket programmers don't tune??

Considering that the ECU is literally responsible for keeping me alive, I'd be wary of installing an aftermarket mod on it, much less let someone experiment on it.

 

I can see by that comment, you are truly stupid!

 

Thank you for the perspective. I remember long ago when the chips were a lot easier to work with and such back in the 1980's but times have changed..and I figured part of it was that companies made it harder to work around.

 

Well when you insult me to start with instead of perhaps showing me where I am incorrect..

 

I have to agree with you on this because that is the only thing that bothers me about mine as well. Just can't get it off the blocks throttle wise, seems to stall just a little.

 

I've hacked the CIA many times. It's easy

 

I'm all about hotrods and fast cars, but there is an actual reason that stuff is on there and federally mandated by law to be there. Look at pictures of 1970s Los Angeles or Modern Mexico City, that EPA bull**** has actually made a huge difference in the air quality in those cities. As much as I love an old car, you can easily smell all the wasted unburned hydrocarbons from an old carb'd engine.

 

I support getting rid of those cities too.

 

toyota ECUs are non-flashable.
Meaning you can't put a tuner on it, flash it, then remove the tuner and have it stay like that.

You would need a stand alone system that is always attached.
There are a few that make it, but either way its a N/A engine.
They don't have a lot of difference once you start tuning. A lot of new engines are not built and undertuned anymore like they used to be.
Other than turbo engines where you can tune them and just increase the boost.

Also like others have said, it comes to supply and demand. Sure there are plenty of enthusiast on here but when you consider how many tacomas are out there? City of Toronto has a shit load of them as fleet vehicles and I'm sure plenty of other cities and companies do. They don't care for tuning. Its not like a Subaru WRX that many want to tune. They can do all the research in the world to crack toyota's ECU and do something, but if they aren't going to be able to do it cheap or have a big market to buy it, it will either be extremely expensive for those that want it, or just not exist.

 

who knows how much longer that will last lol.

 

Noticed this too today.
Mines still new (just hit 1000km today) but yesterday drove without ECT to work and home, today drove there with it off, tried it on the way home. Even though I was sitting in more traffic (slowed down to 80km) got better MPG.
I run a scan gauge as well and had it showing for about 5 minutes when I was on a level part of the highway and no traffic going 115km/h getting 10.1L/100km (23MPG)

Really surprised and extremely happy. Found having it with ECT on and just holding that speed I was getting pretty good MPG. Currently dash is saying 12.3L/100 for this tank. Truthfully getting a lot better than I expected it would as its broken in. This is all highway driving though. When I was doing city driving 2-3 weeks ago when it was under 600KM on the odometer I was getting 18L/100+

This truck is absolute shit in traffic (what isn't) but is actually ok on the highway and moving.

And I came from a TDI as well. but mine was the reverse of yours haha, bunch of mods and tuned to get as much power as I could out of it. with all the mods I have on it I can get even more power but the transmission and driveshaft likely can't handle the power

 

Being old, what happened to putting in higher lift duration cams, changing lifters, pistons, carburetors. I know fuel injection, but has all this gone away? Used to put dual exhaust systems on with crossover pipes, mufflers.

 

you can still do it but still the same case, is anyone making these higher lift cams etc?
I'm doubtful they are. at least not for the tacoma...

Plus the ECU would need to know how to use that new part.
Like when I swapped the cams and turbo on my TDI, I need a new MAP sensor that can handle the boost and a tune to control the boost.

 

the tune controls everything but the mechanical bits. not sure how to answer concisely but you could say that modern motors are half hardware and half software now. and that's why you can't just swap hardware and be done.

 

I've had 2 diesels and my Tahoe have all been custom tuned.... all well worth the money in smoothness and throttle response. Not to mention the added get up and go and better mpgs. I would get my 2.7 tuned if possible even my all stock Tahoe after tuned just ran smoother through the gears. Add a little timing and clean up the throttle and change around the way the trans shifts and it's a whole different car!!!

 

I understand now, they took all the fun out of working on an engine. Computers control everything.

 

Companies who manufacture the tools to tune cars go where the money is. Most likely there is no money in the Tacoma because the gain from a tune ROT is about 5-7 percent on a naturally aspirated engine but better drive ability. Send CMDtech your ecu, they will crack it, they are best in the business! However, they only design the tools not the tune.

It is posible that ecu is not flash able like older VW's where the flash chips were replaceable but that was easily done by us. ECU's these days are always flash able for emissions purpose, updates etc. A "custom" tune which really won't be that custome is going to cost 400+. Can possibly cost less with a group of you if available.

The tuning of a cars ecu is not like C, C++ or any embedded system a typical programmer is used to. That is definitely in the back ground and that is what is pointing to the look up tables or maps that the tuner modifies. These are viewd in 2d, 3D or hex tables. It's not really that complicated when you know what you are looking for. There are tons of cracked tools with editors that identify the maps which are tunable. I wouldn't trust most of them only the one I used in the past. VERY expensive!

 

anyone know what brand of ECU they use?
I know a local performance shop that can tune any Bosch ECU. They mostly do Nissan tuning though

 

reminds me of my old 2-stroke bike!!

 

No they're not. Toyota flashes them all the time, they're just harder for aftermarket companies to reflash.

Not true, it's just that if you can't crack the encryption to access the maps/programming, the only other option is some sort of puggyback or replace it with a standalone ECU.

Now that some of the Toyota/Lexus ECU's have been cracked, they're actually getting some okay gains out of them, especially once other parts like headers are installed. OVTuned, TTFS and RR Racing are doing some decent tuning with the 2GR, 2UR, and other non-DI engines like the 2AR.

This is true, that said a lot of the work to access the ECU's is now done. Work now is mostly focusing on identifying the maps and doing the actual retuning. In the Tacoma, the exciting work related to this will be for things like supercharger development, etc.

Jeff