KDMax-Pro Tuning--NOW YotaWerx Tuning

5500 damn son

 

Nothing is gonna change if you are just holding the pedal steady and not let go of the throttle while you press ECT, that's not how it's supposed to work.

Let go of the throttle, enable ECT and the difference will be noticeable.

 

Shout out to @PapaRee! Absolutely great customer service, he answered all my questions and then some... lightning fast, too! Thanks for letting me be a nuisance in your PM's.

As for the tune, I have a 2020 manual transmission. I previously ran the SuperFob 2.0 on premium practically since I got my taco. I was skeptical to say the least to update to KDMAX, because I thought, "how much better can a tune for a stock truck get?" Boy, was I wrong. I was already happy with what OVTunes did (particularly the usability of first gear) previously, but KDMAX blew me away. I drove my buddy's 2020 m/t with the SuperFob 2.0 just to make sure I wasn't "I spent money so therefore I'm on a placebo" high. With the previous tune, there was a slight hesitation (almost stutter) when gassing it in the lower RPMs. With KDMAX, best way I can describe it is smooth from start to finish. We're talking "Steph Curry no-hesitation from beyond the arch" smoooooth! Only reason why I didn't do it sooner was I couldn't find much feedback from m/t owners, and particularly, m/t owners who previously had OVTunes. That said, if you're one of those -- dooooo it!

 

And I thought i was the only one that did that kudos

 

Just did Moab the first week of this month. We just missed Jeep Safari, had the place to ourselves practically...

I'll give that a try. OVTune worked a little different with its ECT modality, so that is all I know. Thanks!

 

I was there april 9th to april 16th and yes your right felt like we were all alone on trails . When we go back we want to do the whole white rim trail wife said two days long

 

I’m trying to get this tune done in Reno, NV. I’ve tried to contact @InternationalHarvester but haven’t heard back. Is there anyone else in the area offering the service?

 

@InternationalHarvester
Is pretty active here. Must be out of town.

 

I started reading and there are too many pages! Sorry for the new guy questions but do I buy ovtune? Is it easy to use? And then just buy the tune from you?

 

Go to www.vftuner.com and buy the $349 software bundle, then you can buy my tune.

And make sure your ECU is up to date.
This thread will help you get up to date.
ECU TSB Update | Tacoma World

 

Or you can find a KDMax tuner in your area to tune your truck for you.

 

Thanks. Hopefully I hear back soon. Trying to get it done before a Vegas trip

 

I did white rim trail in six hours. You don't need two days.

 

Isn't that trail 100 miles I'll have to bust out my map. If so that pisses me off I left a day early cause I thought I didn't have enough time for that trail . Lol don't matter we are going back

 

You can do it in a day. But I’d recommend taking 2 days so you can take some of the offshoots and stop and see all the cool things along the way.

I’ve done it both ways, there is some joy in Baja rallying that shit at 40+ mph in some spots though and pounding it out in a day. You don’t get to savor the views but you get to romp the taco.

 

Yeah my suspension is stock besides leveling kit no baja for me just slow and steady we were over 1,500 miles away from home didn't want to break stuff

 

Just got back from both getting KDMAX SLT from @SubaruTheTacoma and then puttering around to get a feel for daily driving. I did NOT try the Reg/LT files - we want straight to SLT based on what I read here on the twitchiness. I think SLT is relatively perfect. Still feels like a slight jerk on 0-1st, 1st-2nd but honestly, I’m probably just hyper sensitive to it right now and will gradually not notice it over time. In fact, even mentioning it really isn’t fair to the tune.

I think the biggest thing that I’ve noticed (again - first truck, first tacoma and less than 500 miles on it) is that the truck just doesn’t have to work as hard. RPMs stay lower, longer and yet the truck moves when and how I expect it to. Even more impressive to me: Rhys and I took a spin on the highway where there is a slight grade and was cruising at 70 uphill, 2k rpm like a rock, steady as can be. And on the ride home after working with Rhys, 6th gear most of the way

Obviously this is only a handful of miles from someone not corrupted with the longer term issues around Tacos, but that’s the best way to put it for me; the truck works less to accomplish more.. and smoothly.

I’ll probably get VFtuner myself some time later this year or early next - but for now, this should hold me over just fine.

Edit:

I will be watching for this - even if it’s 12 months out....

 

I was just getting ready to trade my 2 year old truck in, tired of the constant 6-5-4 highway dance and lack of get up. People who drove with me always asked “what’s wrong with your truck?”, and I would say “that’s what the toyo service tech says is normal for a tacomo”. Then I found this thread and my quest began...

I wanted to share and document this for anyone who is wanting to make their truck, well drive like a truck. I started out like most doing a whole lot of reading, etc and while I’m sure it’s stated somewhere else I am reposting this here for anyone who wants to do this themselves. In my case, the nearest tuner was too far away to justify the drive (thanks for the mid way offer tho @TacoNesian !), so I decided to buy the vftuner and do it myself. After purchasing the software and receiving the package, I installed it.

Btw, I am doing all this on my Mac using a new boot camp win10 partition.

I plugged it into the truck, turned on the ignition (keep your foot off the brake so the engine doesn’t start), and ran the “prepare ecu” action to see if my ecu was up to date.


Murphy’s law, it wasn’t. I have a 2019 at, so 04B31 needed to be updated to 04B33.
I then proceeded to update the ecu to the current version. Instructions are found here:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/ecu-tsb-update.562550/

this step really made me nervous. I popped open the hood, hooked up a battery charger to keep the voltage constant, turned off every accessory, made sure windows10 power options were all off (read that ecu-tsb update thread). And had the laptop plugged in as well for good measure.

the process goes pretty fast:


Success!


here is where I might have made a mistake. Once the ecu was flashed, I started up vftuner and ran the “prepare ecu” action again, and it popped up a window which I of course selected
“Yes”. And spent 4 credits to register my ecu:



I then selected the “read ecu” option and about 30 min later saved the file to my desktop.

A side note here, the first time I ran the “read ecu” without the update, it threw an error. This did not happen after the update was applied.

I assume this is my “base” stock image. When I loaded the file back into vftuner (file->open), it again popped up a window asking if I wanted to register and spent 4 credits. I’m pretty sure your vftuner is registered to the vin number and not the file? Question for the vftuner folks I guess.

All this while, I have been talking with @TWTaco on the process. I pinged him and bought the 6.0 tune files, and decided to try the LT file first. I clicked on the “select calibration file”, selected the LT tune file, and then hit the “calibrate ecu” button. A short while later it completed, so I turned off the ignition, unhooked the battery charger and started the truck. Started first time, so I let it idle for 10 minutes.

then I took it for a drive... wow... night and day difference. No more highway dancing, no more soggy banana feeling when you hit the gas. This has truly made me want to keep the truck and made it fun to drive! That was all yesterday, today I took it for a 200 mile highway jaunt, and have to say that I am impressed. Cruised with cc at 79 mph, and was so much better. It did drop down to 5th a few times and even 4th on some steeper climbs, but much better. Wonder if the 5 to 4 drop was just the headwind?

many thanks to @TWTaco and @PapaRee for putting this tune together. In all fairness I have not tried the ovtune, so really have no comparison over this one.

 

Gonna be in Dallas with @Phich on May 8th to tune some trucks.
Check out the thread if you are interested.
DFW KDMax Tuning Event | Tacoma World

 

Thanks for the write up. The first time you flash a tune is always the scariest.