2016 OVTune Tacoma 3.5L Manual Transmission / Engine ECU Reflash

You're gonna love it brother!

Patience, grasshoppa

 

Patience??? What’s that?

 

Dunno, I don't has it.

 

Ok, back from my drive out to do some off road 4lo testing. I knew there would be snow, so I could not get a real off road 4lo test, but wanted to go have a little fun anyway. Ya'll have to wait till end of March for a real off road 4lo report when I got to Moab and do Lock heart Basin and Elephant Hill.

First off, before I left work, I let her idle for 15 minutes, turned off the ignition, then started her back up and left.
The spot was 45 minutes away on mostly highway style roads (with a little city driving to get about), truck has still been awesome. I still can not get over how amazing 2nd and 3rd gears are.

Got out to the area and it has at least 4-6 inches of snow. Others had been playing in the area as well and the snow was thoroughly tracked out.

I used 4H first and found that with the snow, it was difficult to maintain rpm's so I quickly stopped and put it in 4lo. I tore through first gear and second pretty fast and ended up playing in 3rd the most. The throttle response was great and the power was just there. Couple that with my suspension set up, and it was a blast. I only ended up out there for about 20 minutes, but it was worth the 2 hour round trip.

And for a little viewing pleasure:

 

Tune loaded about to take a test drive!

 

And.....

 

First let me say thanks to Matt. Had an issue with downloading and he fixed the issue promptly. Great customer service ang a product well worth the coin!!!

Ok now to my initial thoughts.....

Matt needs to do the factory calibration files for all Toyota trucks! I did have a little stumbling like others have experienced but I am going to let the truck warm up from cold in the morning that seems to be the fix for that. I will say this my heavy ass truck has never laid rubber across a 4 lane intersection before....but it will now! Auto LSD is great now. I couldn’t resist a little hooning on it just a bit. I put 20 miles in the 87 tune then swapped to the 91. The throttle response is perfect Matt don’t touch it. It is just a touch less responsive than my tuned Cummins. I am pleased with my purchase... What’s next Matt?

 

Will give this a try when I get home.

 

For starters another shout-out to Matt for a quick response and help today, on a Saturday especially, getting me set up with the 1.03B files since the ones I downloaded through flash manager didn't jive with something on my computer for some reason.

As for the tune, I don't want to get too carried away yet since I only loaded it a few hours ago, but my initial impressions on it are very good. I loaded the 87 octane for now and so far this is the first revision of the tune that truly feels to me like the truck should have behaved from the factory. The previous ones were definitely improvements over the horrid stock tune but to me the truck still always felt very sluggish and the throttle felt mushy and disconnected.

With 1.03B I finally feel like my right foot is actually connected to something and it's very refreshing. So far I haven't noticed any jerkiness/hesitation in the mid range rpm's that some others have reported but I also haven't driven it on a cold engine yet either so time will tell. I let it idle for a while after loading the tune as Matt suggested to let it learn idle so by the time I actually started driving it was up to operating temp and I didn't stop anywhere long enough for it to cool down. I also had my foot to the floor pretty much the whole time so we'll see what happens tomorrow when I try some moderate throttle. Low end on my butt dyno seemed improved over the previous versions, I don't know if it equates to any actual gains on a real dyno but it felt peppy to me.

I do see what some of the others are talking about regarding the slightly sharp transition between on throttle and off throttle/decel but personally I love that and wouldn't change it a bit. My preference is for it to feel as close as possible to having an actual throttle cable, as little electronic interference/delay as possible. If anything I am still open to quicker/sharper throttle response and quicker free revving to help with rev matching gears if that's at all possible (maybe with full time Otto cycle), but if not I think I can actually be satisfied with it as it is now whereas on the previous versions it just didn't quite do it for me and I was considering getting a pedal commander anyway.

Rev hang seemed to be less noticeable also I think, definitely some still there and I would gladly see it go away completely if possible but it feels like we're moving in the right direction.

Excited to see what happens if/when a manual truck goes on the dyno again

 

Wahahahhaha,,, some days are better than others

 

How many hours to go again?

Man, 1.03B 91 is fucking awesome

 

One thing I seem to feel or notice is that engine breaking seems to be way less then before. Could be that the engine is just so much more responsive and that the engine is able to just wind up easier that is tricking my brain, but it's something I wanted to mention

 

This

 

It's great all around but I really love what 1.03B does for the truck on the highway. Just effortless in 6th.

 

Yep. 6th pulls way better. Not crazy hard, but better then before.

I'm still in aww over 2nd and 3rd, even 4th really. It's just a night and day difference in how well the truck drives, feels, and pulls in those gears.

This tune was worth every damn cent, and to think it's only going to get better.

 

I have to do some towing tomorrow so I’ll see how 1.03b does under a load tomorrow.

 

It is definitely as close to perfect as we have seen to date. I wish there was a way to allow consistent blip response while driving. Mat has said there are different maps for each gear, so that may be playing a part for sure. I'm wondering if the top clutch switch (activates when the clutch is first depressed) plays a part in the code for throttle response. If the truck blipped as fast as it does when stopped/clutch in all the time - perfect tune IMO.

 

Yeah please let us know

 

Very much look forward to this.

 

Towing is the main reason I picked up the tune. I would be willing to send Matt some logs while towing if it will help him.