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APR or Boost Dynamics Tune?

tigeo

Autocross Champion

TwinDad

Autocross Newbie
Location
Fort Lee, NJ
Of you want a set it and forget it that is safe for a daily driver, skip APR or just he unknown guy and go Unitronic. APR is boost heavy and isn't exactly safe longterm for a turbo. Uni is more conservative on the boost and favors timing control for the power. That's the route you should go
 

OBP

Go Kart Newbie
Location
ChiRaq
For the APR tune, just how high will it boost? Since the majority of tunes follows the stock logic of torque targets, how high does the APR stage 1 tune boost to in hot weather?
I was watching the ShopDAP youtube of their Uni IS38 dyno session.. and they were mentioning about timing pull.
Boost heavy isn’t good for a turbo, but timing heavy to the point of detonation isn’t good for the engine. Pick your poison.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
For the APR tune, just how high will it boost? Since the majority of tunes follows the stock logic of torque targets, how high does the APR stage 1 tune boost to in hot weather?
I was watching the ShopDAP youtube of their Uni IS38 dyno session.. and they were mentioning about timing pull.
Boost heavy isn’t good for a turbo, but timing heavy to the point of detonation isn’t good for the engine. Pick your poison.
If people watched timing correction all the time on stock non-tuned engines there wouldn't be as much convo about it - having timing correction (a few degrees) isn't a big deal or every car on the road would have blown up already.
 

ZuMBLe

Autocross Champion
Location
NY
Car(s)
Alltrack 6MT
If you're not tracking the car all the time I don't see a problem with being boost heavy. I see lots of people with problems with Unitronic tunes. Very few problems with APR tunes.

As person that used a JB4 to monitor a APR tune on almost every drive I can say the ECU is very happy with the tune under almost all circumstances.

Just warm up your oil before going WOT and the turbo should be fine for thousands of miles. It was for me.
 

Dog Dad Wagon

Autocross Champion
Location
Go Birds
Car(s)
16 Touareg TDI
Of you want a set it and forget it that is safe for a daily driver, skip APR or just he unknown guy and go Unitronic. APR is boost heavy and isn't exactly safe longterm for a turbo. Uni is more conservative on the boost and favors timing control for the power. That's the route you should go

Yeah, but it sucks lol.

Uni’s tunes are a waste of money. Don’t spend your hard earned money on Unitronic. Just not enough of a net difference to justify the cost, compared to other tunes that simply *do more*
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
Yeah, but it sucks lol.

Uni’s tunes are a waste of money. Don’t spend your hard earned money on Unitronic. Just not enough of a net difference to justify the cost, compared to other tunes that simply *do more*
Hahah. Walk me through that baseless comment...my 1.8 IS38 says otherwise...great tunes for this platform. What other OTS tunes on the 1.8 do any more?
Screenshot_20201129-061826_dragy.jpg
 
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tigeo

Autocross Champion
If you're not tracking the car all the time I don't see a problem with being boost heavy. I see lots of people with problems with Unitronic tunes. Very few problems with APR tunes.

As person that used a JB4 to monitor a APR tune on almost every drive I can say the ECU is very happy with the tune under almost all circumstances.

Just warm up your oil before going WOT and the turbo should be fine for thousands of miles. It was for me.
I disagree. Sure some folks have had issues with Uni (I needed a revised tune on my IS20 file) but you can't deny that APR has had their share of blown turbos if you just use what you read online as a loose indicator which is how the data analysis/comments are going in this thread. Plenty of limp mode issues with the APR crew as well. I don't disagree that going higher on boost with less aggressive timing removes fuel quality drama as a source of misfires/limp mode like you see/have seen sometimes with Unitronic. The revised IS20 tune I had was bulletproof. Also nice thing with an aggressive timing map is that you can run some ethanol and gain some extra advance/power as a bonus! Having some timing correction doesn't equate to unreliable or problematic if it's not egregious.

Question - why do you say boost-heavy isn't as good on the track?
 
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ZuMBLe

Autocross Champion
Location
NY
Car(s)
Alltrack 6MT
I disagree. Sure some folks have had issues with Uni (I needed a revised tune on my IS20 file) but you can't deny that APR has had their share of blown turbos if you just use what you read online as a loose indicator which is how the data analysis/comments are going in this thread. Plenty of limp mode issues with the APR crew as well. I don't disagree that going higher on boost with less aggressive timing removes fuel quality drama as a source of misfires/limp mode like you see/have seen sometimes with Unitronic. The revised IS20 tune I had was bulletproof. Also nice thing with an aggressive timing map is that you can run some ethanol and gain some extra advance/power as a bonus! Having some timing correction doesn't equate to unreliable or problematic if it's not egregious.

Question - why do you say boost-heavy isn't as good on the track?

More heat and more wear when using a lot of boost in a track situation.

I'm speaking exclusively about the 1.8 APR tunes. Those seem to be pretty reliable.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
More heat and more wear when using a lot of boost in a track situation.

I'm speaking exclusively about the 1.8 APR tunes. Those seem to be pretty reliable.
Ok got it on the track question. I was just reading about IS20 APR limp mode issues over on the GSW/AT FB page - "pretty reliable" is about what I would call any of the tunes at this point....but they all have instances of issues was my point.
 

Dog Dad Wagon

Autocross Champion
Location
Go Birds
Car(s)
16 Touareg TDI
Ok got it on the track question. I was just reading about IS20 APR limp mode issues over on the GSW/AT FB page - "pretty reliable" is about what I would call any of the tunes at this point....but they all have instances of issues was my point.

I was speaking from my experience with Uni’s Stage 1 tune that I had on my GTI. I hated it, felt like a waste of my money. Won’t buy anything else from them, and won’t suggest them either. My APR Stage 1 87 IS12 tune is better than the Uni S1 91 IS20 tune I had, no complaints. Though it uses more fuel.
 

ZuMBLe

Autocross Champion
Location
NY
Car(s)
Alltrack 6MT
Ok got it on the track question. I was just reading about IS20 APR limp mode issues over on the GSW/AT FB page - "pretty reliable" is about what I would call any of the tunes at this point....but they all have instances of issues was my point.

I'm all for running the 87 octane apr tune if someone is looking for serious set it and forget it.
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
I'm all for running the 87 octane apr tune if someone is looking for serious set it and forget it.
Because of the more conservative timing and boost map then running 91/93 with it?
 

tigeo

Autocross Champion
I was speaking from my experience with Uni’s Stage 1 tune that I had on my GTI. I hated it, felt like a waste of my money. Won’t buy anything else from them, and won’t suggest them either. My APR Stage 1 87 IS12 tune is better than the Uni S1 91 IS20 tune I had, no complaints. Though it uses more fuel.
On your current car, the Uni tunes are very good and most certainly not a waste of money. Stage 1+ on the IS12 was great and the Stage 2/2+ IS20/IS38 tunes have also been good.
 
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