new item for tuning BullyDog

A General Discussion forum for Altima owners, and a great place to introduce yourself if you are new to the NICOclub Altima Forums!
User avatar
ESP
Posts: 1508
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:23 pm
Car: 2008 SexyBlack A/C
Contact:

Post

chow wrote:Hey,

I tried reading through the thread but thers wayyyy too much! I just need to know a few things ina condensed, unbiased manner. (3.5SE 6MT Altima coupe 2008)

1) Does it increase the redline?
2) Does it remove the max speed?
3) Does it remove the throttle control at high speeds? (100% throttle even past 120mph or whatever the speed)


I'm asking other 6MT V6 Altima couper's!
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) No idea. Is this even a BD function?


GreatDane92
Posts: 167
Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2010 5:41 am
Car: 09 Altima Coupe - 2.5 6Spd CVT - Super Black

Post

Ok so I'm fairly new and im looking for a few good mods to do to my car which ATM only have a nismo exhaust on it.. So what im wondering is which is the best programmer for our car, the Triple Dog GT? Is it safe to use, and can the files be completely removed with no trace if desired? and lastly, is it worth it? what gains do you really get out of it? I had been looking into this before and thought that their claims may have been overexaggerated, so what do the people who have/have had it think? Thanks for any responses!

User avatar
Ranga14
Posts: 1864
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Car: Boosted 08 Altima Coupe 3.5
Contact:

Post

I can't say much for the 2.5 but from what I've heard it does a great job for it as well. For my car, it was the first performance mod I purchased and I instantly felt and even heard a difference. The exhuast note changed and sounded a bit meaner, even for a stock exhaust. The difference in the low end was noticeable but not huge, however the difference in the mid-high range was more significant. It really felt like it possibly unleashed a hidden 20whp the car had bottled up.

As for the install, it's pretty simple, it will flash your ECU and the uninstall is pretty quick as well, takes maybe 5-10 minutes and it returns it to stock settings however I'm told that some tuners like this install a "generic stock rom" onto your car's ECU. UpRev mentioned this to me but I have no idea if it's true or not.

I'm eventually going to get an UpRev tune since I want to squeeze as much HP out of my car as possible with bolt on's before throwing any kind of boost at it while keeping the BD tuner for monitoring purposes.

But my advice is that the tuner is well worth the price. I mean, a lot of people here have paid close to the same price for an Intake and that for a fact only gives you marginal gains while I think the BD does a lot more for only a slight amount more cash.

GreatDane92
Posts: 167
Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2010 5:41 am
Car: 09 Altima Coupe - 2.5 6Spd CVT - Super Black

Post

Aiyt that sounds cool to me, hopefully u check back my other thread and can help me with my few other questions Ranga.. Also, to anyone who's outthere, is anyone sellin their BD GT around NJ? If you're still sellin your's Italian im willin to buy if it's the GT..

Zerep
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:32 pm
Car: A/C 2.5R

Post

well i havnt been around for awhile busy as hell with school but tonight im going to do some before and afters with my dynolicious as in no tune then premium tune with the average mods on this forum intake and exhaust

Zerep
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:32 pm
Car: A/C 2.5R

Post

so i did the runs and over 6 runs i noticed something that when doing the runs with the tune my mods are nismo exhaust and fujita intake well here are the numbers
131-127whp with out the tune with a 7.8-7.5 0-60
137-139whp with the tune with 7.4-7.2 0-60 pretty consistent
but those 2 runs with the tune i didnt press the my foot all the way down on the accelerator past the kickdown(the little click) cause when i did i would get much less power 124-128whp and my 0-60 would hit 8 seconds
so at the track it might not be a good idea to smash the pedal by ill get back to guys when i find a better mount im hoping that the results where not affected my the vibration in my cup holder mount

devilmagic
Posts: 541
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 10:24 am
Car: 2009 Nissan Altima Coupe 2.5

Post

Zerep wrote:so i did the runs and over 6 runs i noticed something that when doing the runs with the tune my mods are nismo exhaust and fujita intake well here are the numbers
131-127whp with out the tune with a 7.8-7.5 0-60
137-139whp with the tune with 7.4-7.2 0-60 pretty consistent
but those 2 runs with the tune i didnt press the my foot all the way down on the accelerator past the kickdown(the little click) cause when i did i would get much less power 124-128whp and my 0-60 would hit 8 seconds
so at the track it might not be a good idea to smash the pedal by ill get back to guys when i find a better mount im hoping that the results where not affected my the vibration in my cup holder mount
Nice, Almost half of a second off on 0-60 time! i just ordered the GT Tuner. I was wondering if you get gas mileage.

User avatar
dmbp
Posts: 47
Joined: Sat Dec 19, 2009 8:18 pm
Car: 2010 3.5SR 6sp sblack/red leather
Location: Rockland NY!!!

Post

Selling my GT tuner. Just got it 2 weeks ago too :(

What happened was my car was unlocked in my driveway and they stole my escort passport and all my change... So I'm selling this to buy a new one.

Email me at [email protected] if you're interested so I can get back to you asap.

And yes I have seen an increase in my mpg.

Zerep
Posts: 348
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 3:32 pm
Car: A/C 2.5R

Post

i drive alot in the city and i average 23.5 mpg a do a bit of spirited drving and on the highway i dont drive at the 65 miles hr hypermiller speed so if you get good mileage now you probly will get even better also bully dog really helps the mid rang thats why but top end there is defintly a difference. if you have a cvt slap it in manual and run it through some gears letting shift its self then tune it and repeat the "shifts" hit harder my guess is because of the increase in torque

GreatDane92
Posts: 167
Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2010 5:41 am
Car: 09 Altima Coupe - 2.5 6Spd CVT - Super Black

Post

if anyone has a BD for sale shoot me a pm plz with where your located and what you'd want for it.
Thanks, Dane.

Tshulthise
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:39 pm
Car: 2007 Altima SE auto

Post

So, what happened to everyone who said they were going to dyno their cars?

After reading 29 pages this sums is all up (as much as I can remember anyway)...

-2.5's seem to have some problems with uploads due to unrecognized ECU codes. Can take 1 to 2 weeks for BD to send fix.
-3.5's seem to go pretty smoothly. No reports of 3.5's having any upload issues
-Rev limit function doesn't help on the CVT since the CVT has its own ECU that forces a shift before engine ECU fuel cut limit
-No one has dyno'd this mod. I find this very frustrating since butt dyno's are very sensitive to placebo effect.
-About 10 different butt dyno's range from "feels better" to "great mid and upper range improvement" and "about the same as adding a y-pipe"
-The BD includes a bunch of nice monitoring features
-It allows timing advance/retard (forget how much +/- but at least 4 each way). I saw in another thread (not sure where) that there wasn't much difference in 0-60 times using +0, +1 and +2 degrees that +1 was marginally better than the others. There were a couple reports of the car not reaching the rev limit at +2 and higher timing advances. Could be knock sensor kicking in.
-Not sure if code reset function works or not. One person says "not yet".
-There's a switch on the OBDII connector that allows you to power the unit through the port without external power if you want
-A few 0-60 times were posted for stock and premium tunes. Premium tune improved 0-60 from 0.1 to 0.5 seconds.
-lots of hype, drama, and nay-saying which was all totally painful and exhausting to read

User avatar
Ranga14
Posts: 1864
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Car: Boosted 08 Altima Coupe 3.5
Contact:

Post

Tshulthise wrote:So, what happened to everyone who said they were going to dyno their cars?

After reading 29 pages this sums is all up (as much as I can remember anyway)...

-2.5's seem to have some problems with uploads due to unrecognized ECU codes. Can take 1 to 2 weeks for BD to send fix.
-3.5's seem to go pretty smoothly. No reports of 3.5's having any upload issues
-Rev limit function doesn't help on the CVT since the CVT has its own ECU that forces a shift before engine ECU fuel cut limit
-No one has dyno'd this mod. I find this very frustrating since butt dyno's are very sensitive to placebo effect.
-About 10 different butt dyno's range from "feels better" to "great mid and upper range improvement" and "about the same as adding a y-pipe"
-The BD includes a bunch of nice monitoring features
-It allows timing advance/retard (forget how much +/- but at least 4 each way). I saw in another thread (not sure where) that there wasn't much difference in 0-60 times using +0, +1 and +2 degrees that +1 was marginally better than the others. There were a couple reports of the car not reaching the rev limit at +2 and higher timing advances. Could be knock sensor kicking in.
-Not sure if code reset function works or not. One person says "not yet".
-There's a switch on the OBDII connector that allows you to power the unit through the port without external power if you want
-A few 0-60 times were posted for stock and premium tunes. Premium tune improved 0-60 from 0.1 to 0.5 seconds.
-lots of hype, drama, and nay-saying which was all totally painful and exhausting to read
There's been 1 or 2 guys that have done dynos with the BD tuner. But that's along with several other mods and they can't really compare it stock to modded. And those guys have MT cars. CVT can't be dynoed.

Tshulthise
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:39 pm
Car: 2007 Altima SE auto

Post

Installed my BD last night on my 2007 Altima 3.5SE CVT. No issues.

-It took around 40 minutes for the unit to save my base ECU configuration.
-Switching parameters and selecting tune was very easy and intuitive and only took a few minutes.
-It appears that the diagnostic code reset portion doesn't work (the BD reported some kind of internal error when I looked at that screen although I have no codes to read)
-I had to guess whether my car was a pre 2007.5 or post 2007.5. BD tech support told me to try one and it would not upload if I picked the wrong one. I guessed post 2007.5 and it worked
-I'm running the low octane tune (bought the BD to save gas money, not for more power)
-Roads were wet and I was getting wheel spin even at 65 mph when I floored it so I couldn't tell anything there
-Gunned it a couple times this morning on the way to work (dry road) but couldn't tell if it was faster or not. Spent most of the drive time trying to stay within the driving coach parameters to see if fuel economy was better. It appears to be the same mpg or slightly less than before the upload. I need to run the exact same route at the same conditions several times on each tune to know for sure though.
-The driving coach is fun. Its incredible how slowly you have to accelerate to keep that thing happy. It gives you a driving score. Last night when I took the car out I got a "F" score because I was accelerating quickly. On my drive to work mostly on cruise control, I got an A+. Gunning it just one time took me down from a B to a C for 5 minutes or so. I'm sure that the driving coach feature would improve gas mileage a lot for city driving but you might go crazy trying to accelerate and decelerate so slowly.

I'll post more later if I do any testing that seems worthy of sharing

I have a Racingline Y-pipe on the way then the engine mods will be finished. I'm probably an old fart for this forum (45 years old) but I used to race a WRX and really loved to get into all the performance mods for that car so its carrying over some here. I'm also an engineer so I love to analyze things and figure out what works and what doesn't. I hope to eventually do a few 0-60 runs on each of the three tunes to see if I can see any differences.

Saving fuel was the reason I bought the BD because I thought it could pay for itself. I'm disappointed that the claims to better gas mileage seem to be untrue. I'll have to do a lot more testing before I can be 100% sure but a 35 mile drive on the same route I take every day should be a pretty good baseline test.

One thing I did notice is that the CVT oil temp doesn't cool down when you are parked and idling. I thought there was a heat exchanger for it in front of the radiator. I thought that would cool it even without the vehicle moving. I guess not.

User avatar
Ranga14
Posts: 1864
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Car: Boosted 08 Altima Coupe 3.5
Contact:

Post

Well, you've stated that you made the purchase for MPG, not power so I'm unsure why you care if there was a noticeable power increase or not? From gunning it, you really aren't going to feel much of a difference, it's the mid-high range that you do. I'm one of the rare ones that had this mod before anything else. So going from bone stock to having the BD tuner, I noticed some things more easily, the first you'll notice is the exhaust note and it sounding a little more aggressive.

Also, try taking a rather long trip with the driving coach/mpg meter going, it will be more accurate that way. I've had several 500 mile trips and I got as high as 32mpg which was a definite improvement but when doing short trips it fluctuates more wildly.

Tshulthise
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:39 pm
Car: 2007 Altima SE auto

Post

I noticed that I got 32 mpg coming home from work today but only 29 on the way there. May have been the warmer temps on the way home. You are right, it takes some longer term drives to be sure about the mpg difference.

I would go as far as to say identical trips using the driving coach and identical temperatures also before I'd know with any confidence. That driving coach is a good way to objectively determine that you've driven the car the same each trip. I like it but I have a feeling I'll be willing to sacrifice a couple mpg to not have to accelerate at a snails pace to get an A+ driving score :-) The idea of making it a game to get a good driving score is a good one though.

My car is still stock with the BD as the only mod. Its so hard to really tell a power difference by feel. Even before the BD I felt like the car seemed much more responsive on some days that on others. I think weather, wind, road grade, starting speed, etc... all affect how it "feels". A guy in another thread said he was sure his y-pipe was making a lot more power until he ran it against a bone stock Altima and they were about dead even. I've never put any stock butt dynos. I don't think many people can "feel" a 5% difference in power. I do put "some" stock in repeated tests from 0-60 if they are done by an experienced driver using a reliable and repeatable test method. Its odd that the BD comes with a 0-60 test program but very few have posted results from it. Folks tend to post when the data supports their hopes and not post when the results are disappointing. I don't know if that's what has happened here but it strikes me as odd.

I can't tell any difference in sound but I'm not very observant about those things so it could sound different and I just didn't notice it.

Maybe we can get some folks to run a few 0-60 tests on each tune on the same day, same test start location, etc... and see how it turns out. How long does it take to change from one tune to another? I haven't done it yet.

User avatar
Ranga14
Posts: 1864
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Car: Boosted 08 Altima Coupe 3.5
Contact:

Post

Once you get used to uninstalling and reinstalling it's super easy. Takes me around 10 minutes or so to do it.

As for the 0-60, when I had my tune, I found it to be a bit inaccurate although I could never really get that great of a test result due to not being at a spot to where I felt safe doing said test. Also, I noticed a difference in exhaust smell as well as exhaust note after the install. I however had the premium tune running with 93 grade fuel w/+2 timing. That could be the big difference here. I think even in the manual it states a 10-15 crank hp difference between the two? If you're on the lowest tune I'm guessing you're getting no more than 5-8whp.

As for more comparisons, I wouldn't be of any help since I'm boosted now and simply use the BD to monitor things.

User avatar
dldjros69
Posts: 3170
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:52 pm
Car: 2012 Evo Gsr
A/C 2.5 Turbo 6MT (SOLD)
Location: Quakertown Pa

Post

Woot woot for turbos!

allan1
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:41 pm
Car: 08 Altima 3.5Se 4DR

Post

my transmission temp goes up to 310f or more sometimes when im driving aggressive. is this normal?

User avatar
Ranga14
Posts: 1864
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Car: Boosted 08 Altima Coupe 3.5
Contact:

Post

allan1 wrote:my transmission temp goes up to 310f or more sometimes when im driving aggressive. is this normal?
lol, 310?!?!?!?!? The BD Tuner can't read your tranny temp, well, at least for the CVT as far as I know. And if it was that high, it would explode in a heartbeat.

allan1
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:41 pm
Car: 08 Altima 3.5Se 4DR

Post

so is that my engine temp

User avatar
Ranga14
Posts: 1864
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Car: Boosted 08 Altima Coupe 3.5
Contact:

Post

What does it say by it? Coolant temp?

allan1
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:41 pm
Car: 08 Altima 3.5Se 4DR

Post

trans temp

User avatar
Ranga14
Posts: 1864
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Car: Boosted 08 Altima Coupe 3.5
Contact:

Post

That's weird, it shouldn't be able to read that. Unless you have manual transmission and it might, unsure. Someone else might want to chime in.

allan1
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:41 pm
Car: 08 Altima 3.5Se 4DR

Post

I have 3.5 cvt.

User avatar
dldjros69
Posts: 3170
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 3:52 pm
Car: 2012 Evo Gsr
A/C 2.5 Turbo 6MT (SOLD)
Location: Quakertown Pa

Post

Not sure what u were looking at but here is the parameters the bd tuner monitors. If your tranny was 310 that ish would pop.

Image

allan1
Posts: 31
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:41 pm
Car: 08 Altima 3.5Se 4DR

Post

I checked the coolant and engine temp and their different than the trans temp. Does anyone else have the option to see the trans temp in the gauge setup?

User avatar
Ranga14
Posts: 1864
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Car: Boosted 08 Altima Coupe 3.5
Contact:

Post

Sounds like there might be some kind of error with the BD, I'd call Bullydog and talk to their customer service about it.

rtap
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 6:54 pm
Car: 2005 Altima SE 3.5 V6
Fujita Intake, Borla Exhaust, Tein H-Tech springs, KYB shocks

Post

I have a 2005 altima SE 3.5 V6, and I bought the bully dog triple dog gt from their website about 2 months ago and have been having nothing but problems... It works fine for checking codes, adjusting timing etc. but when I try to install the download to the car it doesn't work... It goes through all the steps like reading engine etc. and lets me select octane level, rev limit and top speed (up to 180mph), builds file and when it starts to download the file to the car it stops at 48% and gives me a CODE 450. It also leaves my car with a ecu ROM (Random Access Memory) code... I talked to bully dog a couple times and they said that their engineer was too busy right then to work on my problem... And that I could return it if I wanted (after i already blew $25.00 on shipping and $100.00 on import duties :(. Anyone know of this problem or a fix???

User avatar
Importroller
Posts: 1135
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2002 10:12 am
Car: G35 and 07 Altima 3.5 6spd
Location: san diego
Contact:

Post

i have a question now. I'm just going to test the GT until Uprev is done with my ECU so i can get a full tune. I got a good deal on a BD and wanted to test it on the Altima prior to me doing the Uprev tune. Once I do the tune, I'm going to see if BD will support my 04 G35 and put it in that. If they can't i'll turn around and sell it. But i wanted to know if it is just one file that is universal for all cars that they support or is it specific files for specific cars. The site doesn't really give any instructions.

User avatar
el_blacky06
Posts: 942
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2009 9:40 pm
Car: 2007 Nissan Altima Sedan 2.5s 6MT
Location: Fontana, CA
Contact:

Post

That's because you'll have to call in person to dump the file onto the tuner and then have them copy it to "crack" the ecu. Some files are already saved on their database but since there's soo many of them, it deffers on your ecu itself. Give em a call and they'll help you out but call early at 8am or else you wait over the phone forever lol


Return to “Altima General Discussions”