JWT tuned Ecu a good mod at this point?

[nissanrcer240]

I have a stock sr20 swap, stock boost, only mod is intake and 3 inch piping from turbo elbow back. The guys at a local shop around here are telling me I need to send my ECU off to Jim wolf to get it tuned. This is what the guy told me:

" You take your sr20 with a fmic, 3" piping, intake, bov in your s13, and Ill use a stock sr20 in my s13, completely stock, with just a tuned ECU form Jim wolf and Ill spank you all day long"

This is quoted(so no flaming please). Now will a JWT Ecu really make that big of a difference? I asked him did he really think it would be worth it to spend $600 to get my ECU tuned with just the basic bolt-on mods I have, and he was like " HeII yeah dude, Im tellin you, you wont believe the difference it'll make."

Does it really help that much with just intake and exhaust? I mean I do plan on 300-400whp but thats later on down the road and the guys at the shop are tellin me I should do it now. I know I can send it off whenever I upgrade something to be tuned for like $100 dollars but if it doesnt make that big of a difference then I want to wait on it. But if it does what they say, I have a spare ECU that I can send off now. Anybody know for sure?

I tried searching, but I couldnt really find anything on exact power gains it gives you, especialy with hardly no mods

[MadSideways]

If you mod your ecu yourself, and take it to secret services, not only will it be cheaper, but you'll have a better tune.

[Onizuka]

It will make a significant difference, but its really not worth the money if your planing to significantly upgrade in the future.

[Nathan]

If you plan on changing injectors or MAF later, then dont have it tuned now. It wont make a big enough difference to warrant the hassle of getting it tuned, the car being down, and then having to pay 100 or 150 bucks later to have it RE-tuned to your new setup as well as more downtime for that.

[unfrgivn]

I think the JWT ECU is a crock! Why would you pay all that money to send your ECU and have it tuned not for your specific car. Every car is different so while it will be better tuned, it won't be the best. I'd rather pay to have my car tuned on a Dyno or learn to tune it yourself. Much better investment than having someone blindly ROM tune your ECU.

[Gladius]

Ummm no.. they tune their programs on cars with similar mods on a dyno.

I hope you have the patience to learn how to "tune" an ecu.

[unfrgivn]

I know how Jim Wolf works. You could have the same mods brand and everything as me, your car is still not the same. They also tune the cars to run slightly rich to be on the safe side. The point is it's not a ROM tune for your car. It's like if you used someone else's S-AFC or PowerFC values from a similar car, it's just not right for your car. If I'm paying $600 I want my ECU tuned to match my car perfectly, not good enough.

And yes I do have the patience to tune my car myself. That's like saying I hope you have the patience to put an SR in or to work on your car period.

[msaskin]

Amen brad, you've seen the light

Jim Wolf most certainly doesn't take a car, put on the exact mods that you have, and then send you the program. They have a list of maps that are for cars similar to yours that they use. This is a problem for the many reasons Brad (unfrgivn) listed above.

That said, people should learn to tune cars, it's not really that hard at all. Hell, two years ago I knew close to 0 about tuning cars, now I'm able to jump blind into a standalone ECU install and get a car running within a few days, and running well after a few more days street tuning, or a few hours on the dyno.

~matt

[Ender_Zero]

wait on the tuning. later down the line, when you make 400ish HP, get yourself a nice apexi power FC. then have it tuned. IN THE CAR. for now, if you want to do some minor tinkering with the ecu, get an SAFC-II or something.

[lotusdrift]

Has there been any dyno testing of JWT ecus?

Coming from the subaru world, cobb tuning offers a very similar product, and their reflash offer a number of benefits over the piggy back tuning methods that are out. Basing my expereince on that, a reflash has many benefits over other ecu tuning methdods1. Piggy backs have to fight with the ecu for tuning and A/F control, where as a reflash just changes the originating signal.2. Because its a learning ecu, they change the range of values into will fit your mods and the ecu will learn your car almost as well as if you got it dyno tuned from these starting values. This will be be safer because you still have all the stock safety features like not control and pulling timing and there will be no piggy back to fight with.

..And theres really nothing bad about running slightly rich, most cars from the factory run extremely rich...

So to me it sounds like a great product, but I have no idea what kind of power gains JWT is getting, or if they are a good company. Also I don't know about the other ecu tuning products on the market.