To tune, or not to tune? That is the question. Manual transmission.

While the PI / DI split can be adjusted, PI should not be eliminated in any tune. Each has their reasons to be used in a good tune, and it only takes a very small amount of PI to keep the intake side clean and happy.


On the earlier 3rd Gens, it could be safely said that a conservative tune would only extend the longevity due to the horrid drivability of the crappy stock tune.

 

This was a long winded answer to a question about the tune. It might answer some questions some of you may have.


At first I was not considering a tune. I wanted a pedal commander. But wanted to pay half price for a used one. I normally buy a lot of my aftermarket parts used and as a rule of thumb wait to find something half price. So there’s a lot of pedal commanders on socials for sale about $50 bucks more than I wanted to spend. In the meantime I was learning more about the tunes and the 3.5 in the truck wondering why it’s so crappy compared to the Camry xse v6 and the Lexus 3.5. I know people with both and those cars boogie so I was trying to find out why. After learning about thedifferences with these engines i realized these truck ls do have a lot of potential. They are over so over engineered in reliability. Toyota is not focusing at giving you the most power from the engine. They are trying to maximize fuel economy and save money. They’ve sold a bazilliontacomas. It ain’t broke so why fix it mentality.
I do have a pre certified pro and am still under warranty, I just bought the truck so last thing I want to do is void the warranty. I was a bit worried until I dove further into how the tune works. I even priced it out seeing if I could save money by buying all the equipment to do it myself. You really can’t save any money. The tune itself, for your specific vehicle is an unlock file that cost $300. So if the tuner is charging $450 he’s making $150 max. It’s not like you buy the software and then load as many trucks as you want.
On top of that, the tune is built inside of the factory tune software and even then they match to factory # so it’s practically undetectable. The dealer would never go into your ecu and look for issues, they would just reset the tune. Like restating your computer. But! Kdmax has your back because they made the tune unchangeable too.
By now I sound like I work for kdmax. Iwould highly recommend it. I might not have been able to live with how sluggishthe truck was before. But I can live with it after the tune. It’s slow but now it’s like a normal a normal truck slow. Lol

 

More like 15 minutes.
read my previous post. I researched doing it and it’s cost $per tune. It’s like a token. Tuners can buy tokens in lump sums and save money. It’s totally worth the $450 I spent. Maybe see if he can come right to you at home or work. Save you some time to sweeten the pot or offer to drive right to him and ask for a discount for going to him.

 

I have the Coyoza Tune specific for manuals from @chanvchau and its greatly increased the driving on the manual platform.

 

I keep hearing that Toyota is "trying to maximize FE" Yet this V6 powered truck returns the WORST MPG in the industry. So what am I missing?

 

That, and tunes almost always either increase MPGs or at least keep them the same.

 

Exactly! FE or Fleet emissions. This motor is a little tractor and doesn’t have great emissions so the have to maximize it as such that their entire fleet of vehicles average low. We keep talking about mpg but mpg is only a factor of it and really we are discussing the overall emissions of the vehicle. It is a v6 and now the turbo 4 has taken the reigns of having comparable power and much less emissions.

 

How much can we really get out of a naturally aspirated v-6? Even when I had an RSX Type-S (many moons ago) a Hondata flash tune barely bumped power 10-15hp and increased the redline to 9k.....poor valve springs. This isn't saying that a tune won't move the powerband down some....but the possibility of making $500 worth of noticeable power can't be great...just my 3 cents (adjusted for inflation).

 

Apples to oranges. The RSX S was maximized by Honda from the factory and them you can squeeze a bit more out of it with a specific tune.
Adversely, That K20 block ranged from 160hp to over 200+hp and the RXS S was near the top of that. That's what we're talking about here. The tacoma being at the bottom of the chain for 3.5 tuning.

 

Has any one single person had a catastrophic failure directly related to a tune? As far as I know, I haven't heard anything but positive feedback. Yet people still try to justify the fact that it may do damage. What kind of damage could it cause? It's not raising the limiter. That would be a bad idea seeing that some of the valve train parts in this motor aren't even bolted down and could pop out by over-revving. All of the engine's safety sensors and equipment are still in tact and function no differently.

I drive Toyotas because they allow me to drive them easy or hard without worry, just keep up on maintenance. I'll be the first one to return and eat my words if the engine grenades but I highly doubt that will ever happen.

 

The tune isn't so much about PEAK power or even about where it is, it's about the delivery of that power. Smoothness, throttle response, etc.

I still have not gotten one so I can't speak to any individual tune, that said I tuned my previous car and it was never about dyno graphs, it was about driveability and frankly the Tacoma is CRAP for how the Toyota engineers tuned it. I cannot believe how terrible they did

 

Tunes absolutely CAN affect reliability, but that's not saying they WILL do so.

Just adjusting the fueling and spark can cause fuel washing, rich or lean conditions, knock, excess heat, etc.

 

I'm not sure they cared or wanted to spend any money on the performance aspect of this truck. I did exactly what Toyota does best, make reliable people movers.

 

Lots of folks seem inclined to tune, but I beg to differ. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but hacking (or should I say accessing without permission?) the truck's software doesn't sit well. The Tacoma has performance limitations and other trucks are available if you need more HP / torque.

When I owned a G2 Honda Ridgeline, lots of people advocated installing a device to eliminate the truck running in its 3 or 4 cylinder mode in order to have all 6 fire all the time. When all 6 fuel injectors and the HP fuel rail failed, I was glad that I didn't have to worry about some after-market add-on that might void my warranty. Just my 2 cents.

 

Actually, you can raise the limiter with vF software, and that's what's used to create and flash every aftermarket tune for the 3rd Gen V6 AFAIK. I'm not about to say which tunes do or don't raise it, because I don't know.
Hitting 70 in 2nd gear is.. "interesting".
Meh, not interested in what this engine can to at 6K+ RPM anyway lol.

 

True, and one would hope that anyone (tune creators) messing with fuelling and ignition timing would have the knowledge/experience to avoid these things.
The nice thing about vF software is you can log all the PIDs required to keep a close eye on what the engine is doing in real time, and record these logs for future ref.

 

No question or debate IMHO: tune

 

Get OBDII monitor app and start building a basic knowledge of the engine parameters. You will learn certain aspects of crappy oem "programming". Also, will help to see and compare performance of tunes if decide to go that route.

 

You used to own a Ridgeline which means you've been wrong before and you just so happen to be wrong here as well (that's a joke but you are still wrong). By your logic you'd never tune a carburetor. A carburetor uses atmospheric pressure so when tuned it will mechanically run absolutely perfect. Mechanically taking as much fuel as it needs. No more, no less. Perfect fueling given the carburetor is physically perfect in design. Electronic fuel mapping just can't do that. It's getting better and some even learn (like the Kdmax tune). There's only so many programed scenarios Toyota can account for. It's interesting to see a grid of the mapping. That's when I realized it's just a big one size fits all scenario. Theoretically, the carburetor is superior to fuel injection and only exists to save money for manufactures. Everything I ever believed about fuel injection was lie!
You're assuming that the factory mapping is optimized for every tacoma that is built. You can learn yourself some info online about how auto manufactures make vehicle maps to work with a giant threshold of differences. Every engine is different, some people may be at sea level in a 60* year round climate, some might be driving around volcanos at 9k feet. Most people have a normal situation and a tune can better suit that situation for most people.
As far as your Ridgeline fuel rail failing it was probably caused by one of the injectors going on and off more frequently than it needed to prematurely failing. Tuning it to run on all 6 probably would have saved the rail. Almost all of the cars that dropped cylinders for gas savings have stopped using that technology because it was more of a gimmick than anything. Manufacturers trying to tell me 3 cylinders can haul the weight of a 6 cylinder as efficiently as 6 cylinders can? Then you need to work on the efficiency of the 6 Cylinder.

They can affect reliability if the person creating the tune pushes parameters outside of a safe zone but even then your emissions control would kick in and protect the engine from excessive knock, catalyst damaging fuel ratios etc. Cars are very smart at protecting themselves. That is, if the person realizes they shouldn't be driving with a flashing engine light.

 

Finally! Someone put it simple and plainly.