KDMax-Pro Tuning--NOW YotaWerx Tuning

No regrets I promise pinky

 

I may see what happens with 89.

 

I'm running 92 octane

 

Tuned by the man himself today with the Pro Max + XT , put about two hours of driving on the truck on 93 oct and night and day difference between stock and now. Actually a joy to drive and look at instead of just being a joy to look at. Thanks for the tune PapaRee was nice meeting you today

 

Thanks Mike!
It was night to meet you and talk about the oil business from my younger days (we both worked in oil refineries).
Glad you are enjoying the KDMax tune!

 

Yessir, small world.....now time to go find some tacos to drag race lol

 

AWWWW YEAH!!
Let's Geaux!

 

Got my truck tuned by Scott in Jacksonville the other day. Great experience and the truck drives so much better! I went with the normal throttle Pro Max + XT. With the 285/75/16 and all the added weight, the truck finally gets out of its own way. I have the MT so I can’t speak to the shifting changes but the throttle response and torque is amazing.

 

Thread TL;DR

2017 Tacoma in the Durango, CO area.

I've tuned cars before.

What equipment do I need to do this tune myself?

Is there someone in the Durango area who can just do it for me?

 

Thanks @RSNE for stopping by yesterday for a tune and showing me around your Alu-Cab! Awesome 21 AT, XT tune on normal throttle setting in preparation for a 12 hour trip south. Great meeting you and looking forward to hearing how the trip went.

 

@roostertail what that wheels. Love the look.

 

Adam @MGMSangTaco is in Denver, but travels.
Chris @wahoobie has some remote kits available, if you want to DIY.

First post of the Thread has the most info about the tune.
Most up to date tune is the KDMax-Pro+XT.
PM me if you have any specific questions or if you need help.

 

That is a nice setup, I bet that Alu-Cab and gear adds a lot of weight! Let us know how your truck does with the tune.
Give us an update after the trip.

 

We also just got back from a trip to Virginia. Installed a new bumper and winch combo right before we left, another 200lbs. Averaged a little over 17mpg! Last trip we did, we averaged 10… 6th gear pulled with no effort. Thanks again @PapaRee and @TWTaco for incredible work on these tunes!

 

Brief, short-term initial review:

I was originally on OVTune 2.0 from a few years ago. Two things that always annoyed me about the driveability: dead spot in the beginning of the pedal throw and the VTEC Yo! violently kicking in at 3300 RPM.

Decided I'd rather DIY instead of being beholden to others' schedules, so I purchased the kit from VFTuner and installed it and Techstream on my laptop following the guidance on this forum as well as the VFTuner instructions themselves. Fair warning: that installation process is not straight forward if you're not used to digging into security and firewall settings on Windows. Luckily, there's plenty of information on Tacoma World, primarily consolidated by @tonered, so that is very helpful.

My truck: 2020 TRDOR Automatic DCSB; 2-ish inch lift from Dobinsons; 265/70R17 SL-rated Falken Wildpeak AT3Ws on 17x9 Raceline 950B Gauge -12 offset wheels.

Flashed the truck to the most up-to-date ECU TSB using Techstream and then flashed KDMAX Pro+XT with normal throttle. Really liked the instantaneous throttle response when I first drove it. After a few more miles with some stop and go, I realized it was way too touchy. Since this is our only vehicle, I let the wife drive it as well to get her feedback and she agreed that it was way too responsive for city driving/stop lights/stop and go.

Re-flashed Saturday to the light throttle and it's perfect now. Throttle response is predictable and easy to modulate.

Did a few runs up and down the nearby freeway on ramp to see how the power curve changed. The 3300 RPM instant afterburner violent acceleration is waaaay smoothed out. It is much more linear and although you can still tell the power dip is at that spot, it's not annoying at all anymore.

Those two items alone are worth the investment into the tune. As people describe, it drives much more "normal" than the weird logic that Toyota originally had.


I'm not sure how I feel about the amount of time the tune holds 5th gear on the freeway. It seems to hang onto it an unnecessarily long time, similar to what ECT does on the OEM or OVTune 2.0 tune. I'm going to drive it a few more weeks which will allow me to include a trailer towing trip in my butt-data and see if my opinion changes.

Worst case, I'll re-flash the truck to the "non +" version of the tune to bring that gear change back down to where I expect it to be.

Things like the normal throttle setting and long-holding of 5th gear I can see being important to someone running E-rated tires and/or 285 and up tires, but with my weight and tires, I think it's a bit overkill. Luckily there's options to massage it to my needs included in the tune packs, so not a huge deal.

I can't imagine what the "sport" throttle setting would be like. That's got to be a nightmare to drive if you're not running a shitload of weight and tire size.


I fully intend to do a longer term review in the future after I get some travel trailer towing time to compare to what I'm used to, but the tune is definitely a huge leap over OVTune 2.0 and I feel like initial impressions are still important, even if not as important as long-term reviews.

Also, @PapaRee was top notch in his customer service of simply responding to PMs with the information I needed, when I needed it, getting VFTuner and everything else set up. And as we all know, that kind of service is worth a lot! So thank you for that!

 

Great review! Thanks brother.
I agree that ProXT version may be better for you. It gets to 6th sooner on the highway.
I personally run the Pro+XT and like 5th up to around 70mph. My gas mileage is good and the power in 5th at 2000-2300 rpm is great.
Everyone has their preferences and that is why we have the choices for the files.
Glad you are happy, keep us updated!

 

Realistically, it's too early for me to tell if it's just because I'm so used to it going into 6th at a different point, or if the hold really is unnecessary for my situation. This is one of the primary reasons I wanted to go the DIY route, so I could swap between the options within ten minutes of deciding and do a quick comparison. For all I know, once I get some more time behind the wheel, it won't become as noticeable to me since my brain just has the expectation of when it's going to shift based on the past two years.

Definitely don't want to swap immediately since I want to see if I acclimate to it. And with the gas pedal behaving so predictably now, it's not nearly as wonky feeling as ECT engaged with the OVTune (nothing, nothing, nothing BIG POWER ALL OF THE SUDDEN!)

 

*Santa Clarita, CA Saturday July 9th*

*If your looking to be tuned with KDMAX-PRO+XT. I will be in Santa Clarita the Morning of July 9th*

PM @TWTaco for an appointment and details

Happy 4th of JULY

 

Jesse how do you like the Skycamp mini?

 

I've ran ovtune 1.3 then 2.0. Stock size tires and 285/75/16 E. OVTune did make a nice difference over stock tune but it never felt "great". I just learned to live with it running with ECT button on 24/7 and was skeptical after already dropping $700 on OVTune. Finally said screw it and paid the VFTuner upgrade fee and bought KDMax. Only have maybe 50 miles on pro+xt sport throttle....but damn it feels A LOT better than OVTune so far. The shifting feels butter smooth and I love the sport throttle on 285 E makes the truck go with a light foot on the pedal. Really how Toyota should have made it out the factory.