Thought I would share this so as to add my experience, and to aid others in their decision making with tunes.
So those of you that know my car, it was previously a stock IS20 FBO, Unitronic stage 2 car. Made really good power and slightly more than what Uni advertises. Ok fine I had extra mods that no doubt were helping boost that number, plus I run Lucas Oil octane booster. At that level, my GTI was no joke for a stock turbo car. I had numerous runs with friends and strangers alike, running competitors tunes and near identical mods. I always won, every time, and by a curiously large margin. The only variant is as far as I know, they were running Southbend clutches, and mine is an ACT. The only exception to that was one car I ran had a SPEC clutch, and was the only car capable of sitting on my rear bumper and hanging with me. This knowledge had me confident in Unitronic tunes, having ran there Stage 2 for 70k miles and the tune seeming to "adjust" as I added IC and charge pipes, turbo elbow, and a couple other things. Before my IS38 upgrade, the last thing I added was a turbosmart BOV and ruthenium spark plugs, and I ran since that install for the previous 8k miles or so with consistent performance that left me feeling that at that level, my car was as dialed in as it could be, with those mods that were on the car. Also had me confident that Unitronic was a solid and reliable choice for a tuning solution in the flash and forget segment.
Fast forward to a month ago and being bored with that power level. An IS38 was installed and Unitronic's best tune flashed. My car runs rich now at low rpm now and smells of fuel until I let her rip. Tach gets to around 4k and all is good, she really moves. The problem with that is I cant use that around town where the most common speed limit is 35mph. This has me loping around in 3rd gear, wondering wtf did I do to my car. Unitronic tells me the tune may still be trying to adapt, but I call BS on that, its been a month and the tune has seen low and high speeds, and around a half dozen pulls. My car isnt right and doesnt feel like it used to. It is dead flat feeling unless I am WOT or near WOT, and the previous tune was way more fun. I also noticed my BOV stays venting on 2-3 upshifts, once in 3rd the bov vents for a second or two, before it decides to let the car party. That is really annoying and didnt do that before. Other thoughts, 3rd gear roll ons from about 3k feel better than old tune if it hooks, if she spins the car goes nowhere and I get to look at the traction light. Second gear hits blow the tires off instantly and goes nowhere and I get to stare at the blinking traction light here too, until I feather the throttle some. Fourth gear roll ins are where any magic seems to be, and they feel like a jet airliner taking off and just keeps building a sense of acceleration all the way to 6700-6800. Shifting into 5th and she falls back on her face. As I said before, just normal driving the car feels flat and otherwise like any other ordinary car. Half throttle inputs and you can kinda tell something is there, but its like the car is trying to figure out what to do? Only WOT or near WOT throttle inputs seem to tell the car to do anything, and in second and 3rd, its too much all at once. The other gears need to feel like 4th do, and I I dont know why they feel so different?
I am already convinced I need another tuning platform, I am about decided on Eurodyne, because I like the idea of owning a software license, and I know enough about engines and calibrations to make subtle changes here and there where needed. Not having to send a log in is attractive to me. I did consider open source, and I might do that later, just not now. I don't have the time currently.
So those of you that know my car, it was previously a stock IS20 FBO, Unitronic stage 2 car. Made really good power and slightly more than what Uni advertises. Ok fine I had extra mods that no doubt were helping boost that number, plus I run Lucas Oil octane booster. At that level, my GTI was no joke for a stock turbo car. I had numerous runs with friends and strangers alike, running competitors tunes and near identical mods. I always won, every time, and by a curiously large margin. The only variant is as far as I know, they were running Southbend clutches, and mine is an ACT. The only exception to that was one car I ran had a SPEC clutch, and was the only car capable of sitting on my rear bumper and hanging with me. This knowledge had me confident in Unitronic tunes, having ran there Stage 2 for 70k miles and the tune seeming to "adjust" as I added IC and charge pipes, turbo elbow, and a couple other things. Before my IS38 upgrade, the last thing I added was a turbosmart BOV and ruthenium spark plugs, and I ran since that install for the previous 8k miles or so with consistent performance that left me feeling that at that level, my car was as dialed in as it could be, with those mods that were on the car. Also had me confident that Unitronic was a solid and reliable choice for a tuning solution in the flash and forget segment.
Fast forward to a month ago and being bored with that power level. An IS38 was installed and Unitronic's best tune flashed. My car runs rich now at low rpm now and smells of fuel until I let her rip. Tach gets to around 4k and all is good, she really moves. The problem with that is I cant use that around town where the most common speed limit is 35mph. This has me loping around in 3rd gear, wondering wtf did I do to my car. Unitronic tells me the tune may still be trying to adapt, but I call BS on that, its been a month and the tune has seen low and high speeds, and around a half dozen pulls. My car isnt right and doesnt feel like it used to. It is dead flat feeling unless I am WOT or near WOT, and the previous tune was way more fun. I also noticed my BOV stays venting on 2-3 upshifts, once in 3rd the bov vents for a second or two, before it decides to let the car party. That is really annoying and didnt do that before. Other thoughts, 3rd gear roll ons from about 3k feel better than old tune if it hooks, if she spins the car goes nowhere and I get to look at the traction light. Second gear hits blow the tires off instantly and goes nowhere and I get to stare at the blinking traction light here too, until I feather the throttle some. Fourth gear roll ins are where any magic seems to be, and they feel like a jet airliner taking off and just keeps building a sense of acceleration all the way to 6700-6800. Shifting into 5th and she falls back on her face. As I said before, just normal driving the car feels flat and otherwise like any other ordinary car. Half throttle inputs and you can kinda tell something is there, but its like the car is trying to figure out what to do? Only WOT or near WOT throttle inputs seem to tell the car to do anything, and in second and 3rd, its too much all at once. The other gears need to feel like 4th do, and I I dont know why they feel so different?
I am already convinced I need another tuning platform, I am about decided on Eurodyne, because I like the idea of owning a software license, and I know enough about engines and calibrations to make subtle changes here and there where needed. Not having to send a log in is attractive to me. I did consider open source, and I might do that later, just not now. I don't have the time currently.
