Disappointed in new Tacoma - OVTune help

Have you had any of the MT guys that have been tuned for a while with previous OV versions test / compare / give feedback? Everything I’ve seen MT related sounds like people going from stock to tuned so its hard to gauge the difference in drivability between ov 2.0 & kdmax for the MT specifically.

Maybe there is a comparison out there somewhere but i havent found it.

 

I just don’t understand what you people are doing that makes this truck so “undriveable “

 

I dont think any of the MT's i have done recently had ov tunes to compare it with. I will check with some others to see if they have any that can give feedback on both.

 

I purchased in October 2020 as well, and this is why I just traded my 21 Tacoma in for a 21 Ram 1500. The Hemi and 8 speed are a perfect combo. The 1-2-3-2-3-4-3-4 shifting around town is the worst. Then I live near 80mph toll roads and the Tacoma constantly struggled to maintain speed. If there was a head wind it never saw 5th gear. The last straw for me was a 7hr road trip at ~75mph and I hardly got into OD gears, and got an amazing 15.2 mpg's round trip. Maybe the tune helps, but the Tundra and/or other options(Ram, etc.) out there do not need a tune from stock to drive "normal". Tacoma has a high resale so it was easy to cut ties. So much happier in a vehicle that drives as expected.

 

V8 power!

 

I've owned plenty of 4 cylinder vehicles that drive just fine. The 3.5 Tacoma not so much. If I drove the tacoma like a mad man, like on the test drive it does fine. The second you daily drive it, is the second you realize it drives like $h!t.

 

The tune will fix that! It really makes the truck fun to drive!

 

Understood! My point is I've never had a daily commuter tuned so it drives normal. Only vehicles I've had tuned are 01 Mustang Cobra, 06 GTO, and 08 Corvette. IMO seems silly tuning a brand new mid size truck so it drives like any other normal vehicle. This isn't a tune to compensate for power add-ons, its a tune to make a new vehicle drive normal.

 

I’ve often thought how one guy (Mat from OVTune), while a professional tuner, made the Tacoma drive better and get better fuel economy than all the Tacoma engineers at the multi billion dollar machine that is Toyota.

 

Because they detune them to make an mpg number and emission standards set by the government

 

any options for folks in Canada?

 

We have someone in Ontario.

 

That’s a long way from Alberta.

 

Thats the only guy i know in Canada.

 

Absolutely correct, but the vast majority of people got better fuel economy with the OVTune. Can’t speak as to whether or not emissions were affected by the tune. I don’t imagine much if at all but I’m no engineer.
Who really knows what fruity little games these corporations play with government standards?

 

They all due it from my experience, some of this is to help engine life as well I am sure.

the dyno plots I have seen are very interesting. My experience is in tuning mostly Honda engines and a some Harley. If I saw a Honda engine with the curves previously shared my thoughts would be as follows.

stock curve:
Above 5300 rpm fuel and timing are being pulled and there may be some intake restrictions. Although others have proven the stock box breaths very well. Based on the fact that the other tune showed 30+hp gain that leads me to believe this is the case.

I am not familiar with the tuning platform used but in if timing, fuel and VVT can be adjusted you should easily be able to lift all parts of the curve. We see this on the Honda K series motors. Do a pull at different cam timings and see where the motor likes what. What you find is a motor wants different timings as the rpms change. What has been cracked through OV may not allow this level of tuning.

that said even if you can just do timing and fuel you should be able to keep low end torque and lift up top if you can customize by rpm. If all you can do is apply an overall value that impacts the rpm range completely, which this is kind of how it looks, than I would expect to see loss in one area but gains in another like what I have seen here.

sorry for the rambling just mind dumping, find discussions like this fun. Please do not take anything I am saying as a shot at the OV tuning. Just sharing and as I admitted I am not familiar with the platform or it’s tuning parameters. Just sharing some thoughts.

 

I wish we had something along the lines of the Cobb Accessport which I used for my gen 1 speed 3. I never did any tuning but gobs of data logging for my tuner. You could even plug the data from pulls into a virtual dyno which was pretty cool.

 

That would be great. I am just very confused by what I saw.

there is another thread for OVTune 1.05 and the charts in there show what I would expect to see or want in a tune which is a lift across the entire curve.

I’m just trying to get my mind around this are all of these tunes, OVTune 1.05, KDMAX, and others I have seen all just tunes made by individuals using VF Tuner?

if that’s the case as a consumer i would want to see before and after dyno curves so I could pic which one delivers the impact I was looking for.

 

Just stick with premade vF Tunes and edit in what you like.

Or, wait for actual dyno shops to release tunes created by their pros.


The big deal here is that there isn't much fat left in the peak power department. @OVTune noted there is maybe another 10hp to be found on N/A side which starts to eat at longevity.

 

I find the truck is fine after the newest TSB0092.I’ve owned Tacoma’s since 2000 and they were never fast. It’s not a performance vehicle . Never has been. I do know everyone of my trucks went north of 250 k miles and when I did sell them I always got a ridiculous amount of money for them. People talk about other brands like they have no issues not true .We will see what happens with some of the Dodge Hemi’s when they need a top engine rebuild. Or when the Ford F-150 blow spark plugs out of the heads or how about the Chevy Sliverado 8 speed ( junk transmissions ) that blow up all the time.
For me .... I’ll stick with my slow ( not really) simple old school Tacoma .