IS20 87octane JB4 or APR?

[hockeynut258]

Going IS20 but don’t want to spend an extra $300-400/year for running 91/93. The car is mainly my wife’s DD / road trip car and I don’t really want to constantly have to tune the car and data log. The car has 36k miles with half of its warranty left so that makes the JB4 appealing.

Is it realistic to safely run a JB4 on 87 and get numbers anywhere in the ballpark of APR’s 87 tune? Or should I just stick with the APR tune and enjoy?

PS: WTB IS20

 

[MeltedSolid]

The JB4 would give you the option to tune for 91/93 if you ever feel like it, but leave it on 87 most of the time. APR on 87 would be a simpler and quicker process, but you would have to reflash the car if you ever feel like getting more power out of it.

 

[heiney9]

I don't get why you're willing to go IS20- JB4, but then cheap out on gas? Boggles the mind. You shouldn't be modding anything if your going to run the cheapest, lowest octane available. Silliness really. Spend a few more $$$ for the higher octane to go along with your mods.

 

[MeltedSolid]

Is20's are cheap... Though I don't know how many miles per year you do, but you would need to do about 50k miles for the difference in price between 91 and 87 to be $300 around where I live. For me that's about $900-$1200 over the life of the car, well worth it.

 

[joofcorn]

If warranty really matters, apr does have the APR plus option which will match the manufacturers warranty, but I'm not sure if it applies to an IS20. Also, if its a DD for your wife, and she wants to save money, and keep the warranty, getting an IS20 doesn't seem like the best choice anyway. What exactly is the goal of this upgrade? Just for fun when you have it, does your wife want the power? It may affect what you buy.

 

[heiney9]

Once you install the IS20, your warranty is pretty much void as will be the case when you use APR, unless you pay up for the Plus program, but I think your car is too old for the Plus program unless they've modified the terms.

So, yes, I guess the question is why and what's your goal? It seems counter intuitive to get a larger turbo, a tune and then use the lowest octane fuel available, unless there's a piece of the puzzle you're not telling us.

 

[hockeynut258]

Thanks for the quick reply’s guys!

The car is driven 30k miles per year and around here it’s $0.50/gallon more for 91/93 and I have a STI as my track/weekend toy. Plus some remote places don’t always have 91/93 and I don’t want to worry about that when road tripping. Yes, call me cheap

The goal is to have 100hp/tq increase for less than a grand but keep it a easy DD car. From what I’ve read it sounds very reasonable on this car.

Basically it boils down to can I tune it on a JB4 and 87 with similar results to APR’s 87 tune claims? It would be nice to have the option to tune for both as MeltedSolid pointed out. I haven’t found many people discussing this.

 

[joofcorn]

I don't see it on APR's page, but if they have program switching, thats a good way to go, I had that on my mk6 GTI. Otherwise if you're looking for the option to run more boost with better gas, jb4 is probably the only option then.

 

[heiney9]

There is no program switching for MK7 cars with APR.

 

[Faceman]

There is no program switching for MK7 cars with APR.

Some Audis such as the S6, S7 and RS7 support switching. There isn't enough spare memory in our PCM.

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[MeltedSolid]

the way switching octane with the JB4 would work (or at least how I do it), is you make a tune for the lower octane, then you take a screenshot of those settings and store it on your computer somewhere. Once you've done that, you can put the higher octane in (in my case 3.5 gallons of e85), tune for that, and again take a screenshot of the settings for future reference.

 

[crxgator]

This is dumb. Don’t buy an is20 or mod your car if you want to use 87 octane.


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[Ironshade]

Apr all day. Stock timing curve with 87 will blow shit up bro on the jb4

 

[hockeynut258]

Apr all day. Stock timing curve with 87 will blow shit up bro on the jb4

Thanks, the kind of input I’m looking for.

 

[hockeynut258]

the way switching octane with the JB4 would work (or at least how I do it), is you make a tune for the lower octane, then you take a screenshot of those settings and store it on your computer somewhere. Once you've done that, you can put the higher octane in (in my case 3.5 gallons of e85), tune for that, and again take a screenshot of the settings for future reference.

I’ll pm about your set up, thanks!