Call me skeptical but...

This is basically what the most of the tacoma tunes are. They aren't changing fuel air ratios or anything like that. There just adjusting throttle response and the transmission shift points to make it feel more responsive, like and ect button. There are other tunes out there, like the 91 octane tunes, that do mess with fuel to air ratios, but to my knowledge those do require vehicle specific tuning to dial it in.

 

Thanks! One note is that I have not developed my own tunes other than some weakssauce edits that remove torque and speed limiters and adjust shift points through tire size choices. The stuff posted in the Perf and Tuning section are a collaborative effort that yield nice edits. I have only flashed my own version of those edits to a few folks.


You are correct in what you said. But, bricks do not mean disaster. The vF Recovery Tools are top notch and can fix a brick in moments. In the ultra rare case of a non-fixable brick with the vF Recovery tools, the ECU can be corrected (force flashed) either with a custom harness in the Taco or a quick bench flash removal.


You are also correct that folks basically operate on the honor system. I coordinate with other folks here on TW, but it is only me that tunes as a side gig. That said, my process is that I offer future support at no extra charge and have reflashed some folks a few times after they installed new mods. That is a serious question that folks need to hash out with the folks that flash them.


You are also correct that there is always the possibility of a cut and run situation. Or even, my untimely demise. I fully feel that TW folks and folks on the vF Forum would find a way to help people out.

 

That's the placebo effect. Seriously. People are funny. Case in point:
40 people get a bottle of juice that costs $100 for each bottle.
You hear from all 40 people about that amazing taste of the juice, so you go buy a bottle.
The taste is okay, but damn! You just spent $100 on a bottle of juice so you take another taste and it seems to taste better, even though it does not taste any better. Pretty soon, you are singing the praises of the $100 bottle of juice because, A) You spent $100, and B) the taste was okay.
This is the Placebo effect.
Happens all the time with drug trials. A lot of people have been cured with sugar pills.

 

That's not quite true. It really depends on the specific, edited vF Tune and is a question that should be asked prior to getting a tune.

 

Not to mention all the work Mat did with actual CODE changes in some versions of his tunes. Some ppl posting in this thread are making assumptions without background knowledge.

 

But of course you're not going back to saying tuning the 3rd gen is just all snake oil and placebo effect, right?

 

That is 100% correct. It was one hell of a journey, and I can't even imagine what it took to go from machine language to create excellent, greatly improved tunes to an actual, useable interface for gomers like me. Haha!

Of course, the goons along the way get a shout out for doing their best to derail the entire effort.

 

Except... that theory doesn't exactly play out 100% of the time.
I've had situations where my stock truck, with the exact same tune file, same octane fuel, and very similar environmental conditions behaved notably differently from another stock truck.
I know there are other people that can back this up, especially those who tune a lot of trucks.

 

Another truism. There is some very un-Toyota-like inconsistencies between individual Tacos. It continues to surprise me that Toyota HQ hasn't come hunting to root out the issues. Comparatively, my own is a sort of unicorn compared to others. And, there have been some skeptics that have been pleasantly surprised by the changes.

The thing that we do not see is people saying: Fuck it, I'm going back to Stock.

Even with my own experiences with a couple folks that had more challenging Tacos, they didn't want to go back to Stock, even as a test.

 

Well thats because their drivability changed dynamically, and while they (probably) didn't make any true HP gains, the truck "feels" like its more powerful because it actually goes when you give it the go juice, whereas it probably felt delayed or limited, or shifted untimely beforehand. The basic tunes address those little issues, and to an inexperienced person on the matter, their best description is ZOMG HuGe GaInZ!

 

At least a new thread or two every day saying only that.

 

It's really always been about improving driveability and access to low end torque, at least for me.
IIRC, Mat got something like +17HP over stock in the top end on a premium fuel tune (dyno runs).. while a good effort, I could give two shits about 17 horsepower at 6000+ RPM lol

 

No. There is some gains. I do think some posters, em, embellish their gains, much as they embellish certain parts of their body.

 

To be honest, the thought of going back to stock crossed my mind this morning.. Then I remembered I was in 6th gear, and changed my mind.

 

True.

 

Hahaha! The gear that Stock forgot about.

 

Are Mat's dev blogs still up? There was a shit ton of info in there about this whole journey.

 

Yes. None of the @OVTune threads were deleted, just locked.


So, you wanna talk about misfires, or tip in?

 

But forreal though.. To be honest, I went KDMAX to get 5th/6th gear back on the interstate. The throttle response was a surprise to me on the first drive afterwards, and the truck was super fun to drive. I'm still not completely used to it, and it can feel jerky in 1st/2nd gear when creeping in traffic. While not completely perfect for me, I at least know its gonna get up and go when I give it the beans.