[Official] Valley Tuning Thread

Two new happily tuned trucks in the past couple days. Let me know if anyone needs a VR tune in S NJ or SE PA.

 

Any updates

 

I'm still really happy with my tune. Have put about 11,000 miles on the truck since tunning. The ECU has not returned to factory style functioning (as others have reported on various tunes) and I can set adaptive cruise control in 6th and not have to down shift, even on up hills at 5,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level.

So, I remain very happy with the tune.

Edit: Just to be clear, it does depend on how steap the hill is.

 

I'm not really sure why there aren't many reviews on this tune. For reference: 33's, stock gear, 3" lift.

TLDR: This is the best MPG yielding tune I tried. The others aren't too far off (1-1.5 MPG in my case). The other tunes do feel more powerful down low, but remember: you gotta pay to play. Meaning, more power=more gas=less MPG.

I tried VR back in Jun 21 to Aug 21, only to try a new tune. My very first tank on VR (reset everything), I was able to get 17.4 MPG. Throughout the learning process, MPG's decreased over the next 4 tanks. One tank got me 14.9 MPG. But after that, MPG's starting slowly increasing. My very last tank, before going to the new tune, I got 18.5 MPG.

I tried the other major tunes. They're all really awesome. Some get sold better than others purely on marketing. They are different from each other for sure. But at the end of the day, everyone is trying to achieve the same things: smooth shifting, more power, more fuel efficiency (not more MPGs necessarily), and more smiles per gallon.

VR definitely has more power over stock. Can't speak for OVTune since I never tried it. But the power for VR comes more gradual, less aggressive at the bottom end. The others are also gradual, but (slightly) more aggressive. I'd consider this tune a REALLY cleaned up version of what truck should've been when it came stock. Nothing shocking (and I don't mean that in a negative way).

I really liked the other tunes as well. The tuners were very helpful and friendly with any requests. Power delivery and shifting were great. MPG's were decent, but I never got 300miles out of tank.
This (and the other tunes) being a "generic" tune for the tacos, you can only get so much from it, unless you dyno tune. The tuners did their best to make a tune that would satisfy the masses, not your taco. And they did a great job. But I went back to VR for one reason: best MPG's.

I'm hoping I'm not the only one that doesn't need to squeeze every hp out of the taco at the sacrifice of even worse MPGs. I've come to terms that the taco will never be fast, so might as well save on gas.

 

I back you a 100% on this one . Yeah I've tried so many tunes and vr by far gets you the best mpgs @TermLimits

 

It really is the best tune out there in terms of value, with it's low price, perfomance gains and better mpg. Jeff doesn't make a lot on these, especially for all the time he put in for the various years, tire sizes and gear ratios. Plus, the newest 2.1 version can run either regular or premium gas on the same tune.

 

Is anyone else having trouble with their throttle being extremely touchy off the line? No matter how gingerly I press the gas, it jerks forward. My wife asked me why I was driving the way I was and I was afraid my driveshaft was gonna snap at one point. Went camping with some friends and everyone that was riding in the bed thought I was messing with them.

I went back to the OVtune 2.0 tune and have no issues at all.

 

Not once. Another reason I felt this tune was more calm than the others. Try reflashing it or clearing learned values?

 

it takes a lot of getting used to for sure. It was one thing I noticed right away. Eventually I was able to calm it down it takes a long time. Even the light throttle is pretty jerky but may be exaggerated with lower gearing. I'm on 5.29's

 

Interesting. I have found the throttle to be very well behaved and smooth. At around 5K miles after tuning it would pulse at low RPMs when the engine was cold while under increased load (going up hill). It was clearly the ECU, and not my throttle input. After a week or so this stopped.

This specifically occurred when starting at a stop sign in 2nd gear. If I started in 1st it did not do it, so I also did not see it as much of a problem.

I made a guess that it was something in the learned values and the ECU jumping between the Atkinson cycle and turning it off (pure speculation). I made a point of operating at low RPMs a few times. Of course, there is no way to know if that is why it stopped doing it or not.

I actually would not want the throttle to be lighter and am glad I did not load the light version.

 

What's your tire size?

 

What file are you running? I've had hundreds of users on the same files that you have and none experience the same thing.

Tire size? Gear ratio?

Any strange behavior can typically be remedied with a learning value reset.

Also, make sure that you are using the most up to date version of the tune files. I noticed that your purchase was back in May 2021. Since then we have removed the Heavy pedal file, redesigned some maps within the tune, introduced octane learning, and refined shift points as well as other quality of life features.

 

Stock, 265/70R16

 

I'm on stock tires, stock gears.

I will flash a fresh file from the site and reset values and give it a go. The other truck I had tuned had 35's and 4.88s and he has the exact same issue I was having. If I can fix mine he will be happy to flash back as well as the battery charge voltage was pretty important to him.

 

Compared to OVTune, any other tune product will provide a more sensitive pedal. OVTune uses the factory Toyota pedal profile.

As for the other truck you mentioned, our voltages are unaffected by anything in the tune. The only way voltage is adjusted is if they truck has an AGM battery and they have an AGM file installed.

Please ensure that if you are installing tunes for others that you are using the appropriate file for their vehicle. Tire size and gear ratio do matter when it comes to tunes. AGM batteries NEED an AGM file otherwise their charge voltage will not be enough.

 

Yes my friend has the AGM tune, that's what I meant by voltages. But I don't care much about that issue, let's talk about my truck please.

I already had the 2.1 files which are what you have on your site. Are those the newest files?

I am trying to flash but VFtuner flash utility just says timeout when I try to prepare ECU. The vftuner site is such garbage I CANNOT find anything about this other than 4runner stuff. This all worked fine not that long ago and this computer is essentially a flash tool only at this point so nothing has changed.

 

Nevermind found the software I needed

 

Ok sorry for all the posts. I did a flash of the freshest files I could find, which I believe are the same as what I had tried. I also reset the ECU. Should I do any other resets? I did a very short drive around the neighborhood and it does seem to be a lot more sensitive than the ovtune files, but not like it was before. I could not be light enough on the pedal before, but now it seems a bit lighter. I am getting 265/70r17s soon to replace the 265/70r16s so one inch up. Will this change the pedal feel at all?

 

The tires wont change the pedal feel. The VFTuner software has been giving issues intermittently where it will fail to flash or prepare an ecu. Just keep trying and it works.

VR 2.1 is the most up to date version.

If you are comparing Valley Runner to OVTune then the pedal will be much more sensitive. OVTune uses the factory pedal and air-load settings as mentioned above. This is what causes the sensitivity to feel the way it does. If VR was made with these settings, shifting would be all over the place and MPGs would not be near what they are.

In the tune market, VR Light is the lightest and smoothest pedal available. The only lighter option is the original OVTune, however this does not solve all the problems with the truck which is why so many choose other tune options.

It's something that takes a bit of learning but after a day or two you tend to adapt to the pedal. I've only once had a complaint about pedal sensitivity and it was almost two years ago when VR did not exist and I was experimenting with an extra heavy pedal sensitivity.

 

I got my tune back October 2021 by Grossomotto and I love it, at first throttle input was very sensitive but now it very controllable, also I get when engine is cold, going very slow with very slight throttle application I getting a chugging of the engine, once warmed up its gone. Other then that, great tune.