2016 OVTune Tacoma 3.5L Manual Transmission / Engine ECU Reflash

Nope NW ON. Pretty much on the MB and ON border.

 

You start the poll with different options on what important to OV Tune buyers and I'll be the first to vote.

 

I'd definitely vote. Sounds like a good way to get the things we want done. You could always start the poll yourself and maybe Mat @OVTune will see it.

 

Me!!
Non of us can do it.
It has to be Mat! Only he knows what’s possible or not.

 

Naw, just start a new thread and in the poll "what's important to you". 1) Throttle response 2) eliminate Atkinson cycle 3) horsepower 3) low end torque.

Just naming a few of the top of my head.

 

3) all of the above

 

There are 4 options lol. But for me it'd be, in this order
Low End Torque
Throttle Response
Horsepower
(honestly have no clue what the Atkinson cycle does)

 

Atkinson is the name of the guy who designed the Atkinson combustion engine,Otto is the the name of the guy who designed the Otto combustion engine.
We have never herd these names because the Otto was picked over the Atkinson over a century ago.
It is the standard 4 stroke engine world wide.
The Tacoma technically is not an Atkinson stroke engine,Toyota just uses the VVT to mimic the stroke.
You Tube it,they have some good vids on it.

 

Atkinson effectively reduces the displacement of the engine when the full displacement is not needed (i.e. low output, low load, however you want to put it). You don't need a 3.5L engine to cruise on flat ground.

I recall Matt saying that he actually expanded the range that Atkinson is utilized (to be more like the LC500, IIRC).

So, the tune actually has more Atkinson AND more power.

(The VVT is continuously variable at any rpm; not like the old on/off VTEC above a certain rpm.)

 

That’s correct. No more pre orders due to bitchy people that can’t read.

 

Maybe you are the biggest complaining fanboy? Lol

Agreed. I only ran the stock tune for 6 months, it was much better than the auto but still had room for improvement. It’s impossible to notice things until you’ve spent some time with a vehicle. When I bought my auto I drove it for about 45 minutes and it was still much different over time than my initial impression.

I’m back from my trip now (expo west) and have been gonna write up some stuff now that I have a boatload of miles on 1.04a. Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.

 

I think you've nailed it. And the "biggest complaining fanboy" is the guy you tend to listen to, no?

 

I know what you mean about it taking time to discover the quirks. However it's less about needing time to discover them and more about them taking time to actually manifest.

The ultimate cause is the ECU learning. I have the stock tune and have been experimenting for quite a while. If you disconnect the battery and force an ECU reset, the truck drives pretty damn well for about 500 miles. The improvement after the reset is very noticeable.

The auto tranny guys can't keep resetting the ECU without losing the transmission learning but us manual guys have no negative side effects.

 

Deceleration Fuel Cut Off.
Shuts the engine down when ever your slowing down or your off the pedal until it reaches idle.
It is one of the features used by auto manufacturers to add to fuel savings and to make driving a manual in stop and go traffic a nitemare.

 

yessir ,,Digby here

 

You're asking for him to just make power.. the Lowry gains from 91 are from the bumps in timing allowed by the octane.

That's like expecting a buzz of water compare to monster energy...

 

I don't think 85 is recommended by Toyota:

 

85 is commonly run at higher elevations. I’ve run it multiple times with no issues. There was a big discussion on it like 30 pages back.

 

I currently have just under 6,000 miles on the 1.04A 87 tune. I ran the 91 tune for a while and loaded the 87 tune as soon as it came out, about a day before I left. There's a lot of extra stuff here so people have an idea of where I've been and some of the things I've done with my truck. Hopefully someone finds this useful information.

Mid may I headed down to Phoenix to pick up a trailer (turtleback epedition) which made the rest of the journey with me to expo west and then back across the country with a few detours along the way up through northern Arizona, Utah and Colorado.

Here's the setup - 2018 Turtleback Expedition. Dry weight is around 1850-2000 lbs. Fully loaded we are in the 2250-3000 range (10 gallons of fuel, 42 gallons of water, gear, food, etc). I'll probably weigh it some day fully loaded just because I'm curious.


Fuel economy has pretty consistently averaged 20-22 mpg for me while not towing and driving 65-70 ish. At 75 mph across New Mexico and Arizona I still averaged around 18-20 which is a pretty good improvement from the last time I ran 75 for an extended period of time. When I did it across South Dakota I averaged about 16 mpg. Every mile my truck has traveled is tracked in fuelly (link in signature)

Here's my route - pretty much interstate driving until Phoenix, then some forest roads near Sedona, Expo West. After Expo it was a little of everything.


I picked up my turtleback a couple days before expo and I'm not gonna lie, I didn't know what to expect while towing. I've driven from Phoenix to Flagstaff before but never towed that route so I knew there were some sections that were probably going to suck with the added weight of a trailer.

For those of you that haven't driven from Phoenix to Flagstaff before, here's what you can expect (elevation in feet on the vertical / distance in miles on the horizontal). I went from Phoenix to Cottonwood to Sedona and finally to up Flagstaff.


Overall I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I don't recall a time where I didn't feel like the truck didn't have enough power. There were a couple times where I ended up in 2nd or 3rd gear to maintain speed but it chugged right along. If you shift early before the truck starts to slow, you'll have no issues. Couple times I shifted late and ended up having to go another gear to get back up to speed as I waited too long and dropped the RPMs too far. Overall I averaged 15 MPG up to Flagstaff which I was shocked by. I was expecting more in the 10-12 range with the climb that was involved pretty much the entire trip.

At expo west I did take my truck on the Land Rover Overland driving skills course. Figured since I was there I might as well put the truck through some testing beyond what I've seen in the while thus far and see how it goes. On the course there are spots where you are at up to 30* angles in any direction, riding on 2 or 3 wheels, low traction, etc. The truck performed VERY well. Throttle was consistent and predictable. Power delivery down low was great. Crawled in 4LO w/ atrac and away it went. The capabilities of this truck even in stock form are quite impressive and well beyond what most people will ever actually exceed. This just further reinforced my plan to keep the truck close to a stock configuration. I'm very much enjoying my current fuel economy and range.

After expo was over I headed north up towards the Grand Canyon. Spent a night on the north rim (highly recommended) and then made my way north up into Utah. Ended up heading towards Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef and then making my way towards Colorado. Lots of ups and downs and truck continued to do well. On descents up to about 6% I was able to hold speed even with the trailer. Once you got beyond that towards 8-10% grades it was much more difficult to hold speed on a descent. Honestly on grades that steep I think its difficult for anything. I can say though that it didn't feel any worse having the weight of the trailer behind me than doing it with just the truck. You'd eventually have to brake to bleed off some speed but it didn't feel out of control or like you had to ride the brakes the entire time.

I made my way across Colorado on I70 which has some awesome views and some nasty hills. I didn't have any issues maintaining the speeds I wanted to and on multiple occasions did better climbing the hills than people just in a vehicle trying to climb. Sometimes you needed to run 3500+ RPMs to make power but thats to be expected on steep mountain passes.

Overall while towing I averaged in the 13.5-17 MPG range. Typically 15-17 once I was out of the mountains.

I didn't really know what to expect on this trip especially with the extra weight I'd be dragging but I've gotta say I was impressed. At this point I wouldn't hesitate to go anywhere with this setup.

Bonus picture of the turtleback if you are curious. I'm loving this setup - it'll go anywhere my truck will and has everything you need.

 

Im not really understanding this. I'm comparing the same motor in a Camry to the Tacoma. I small increase in torque and HP on 87 compared to no power increase on the Tacoma. Plus a much better throttle response.