good to hear you had a good experience with Matt. your LGT must be more of a beast now! good to know you are prepping for our return bout

 

LOL pm sent.

 

Open Source seems real inviting, as you get to log your own and send to tuners, or try at it yourself with with some help. I think that for those like me without the time to go read up and experiment is difficult, and the ultimate ownside could be a blown motor if done wrong....I also find it easier to just load a map, read and clear codes, with an AP instead of bringing my laptop...

But good to know that the logging tool is free except the cable (unless you have an AP already). It's like I want to...but I think it better off in the hands of one more experienced,..ie Jarrad from PDX, etc etc,...Maybe someday if I get to see this offhand on someone else's car or when I get to read up on it...I think there are YouTube vids on this somewhere too...

 

Actually open source and the accessport software/hardware share similarities.

I think that for the most part people are confusing road tune versus dyno tune and open source versus AP (Cobb software).
Both software share similarities and do the same thing. One is free but requires shutting down the car and flashing and the other you have to purchase hardware but allows live tuning for the protuner, which means changes on the fly. But they're the same, so they're not really that different in what they do, so don't mistake the two. They both play with the stock coding.


The other issue is road versus dyno tuning. It's possible to have a protuner use the AP and both road and dyno tune your car, which I strongly advocate, which a lot of good tuners do. There are MANY tuners that will tune using AP software both on the road and on the dyno. And they should. But this is a separate issue and is not related to the software or hardware. Tuners that play down road tunes are full of **** and the production line style dyno tuning can have great WOT performance but crappy transitional performance. But it's NOT an open source versus Cobb debate. This is a dyno tune versus road tune debate. A tuner can tune open source on the dyno and on the street, which he should. And a tuner can tune Cobb software on the dyno and on the street, which he should.


Open source will save you the cost of the AP, but any sane tuner will prefer the AP software because it's live tuning, so they can make changes on the fly in the car, whereas the open source software requires reflashes.

The open source software is designed to let people tune their own cars.


So don't conflate the two. If you're paying for an open source road tune, you're doing the same thing as if you received an RTM map and sent logs back and forth between a Cobb certified pro tuner. There's no difference. You're still paying and you still know nothing more about your car.Open source and AP are the same in this manner or at least they can be.


I've played with both and the Cobb software is much easier to work with and faster to map the car out (because of the live tuning), so if you think that open source is better for some reason, then you really dont know what the hell you're talking about. But if you're advocating road tuning WITH dyno tuning, then yes, you are making a great argument.

But for those guys that have tuned and are not happy with their car's on road performance, you don't have to convert to open source (especially if you have no intention of learning). You simply should find a protuner that will both get on the road with you and get on the dyno as well, and it'll be the same thing. The Cobb log and open source log will produce similar data, and the tuner will interpret it the same way for each. It's not any different.

road tune+dyno tuning ftmfw

 

Thanks for the clarification, Reid-O.

Well written.