My KTuner experience - an ongoing journal

[gtman]

After a bunch of experimenting and testing, I've got my "perfect" on the fly setup.

All of my tunes are set to use the Econ button as the "factory" tune. My Tune 1 is my everyday commuter tune set at 17 psi with Improved II quick adjustments. Tune 2 is 19 psi with a bit more aggressive quick adjustments. Tune 3 is 21 psi with everything maxed out.

So basically, I have 4 tunes to choose from.

"Factory slowpoke mode"
"Daily driver mode"
"Aggressive mode"
"Balls to the wall mode"

KTuner rocks.

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[varge]

Well you can do more than 21 to call it "balls" , even on a CVT
Shame we don't have this on the fly on our European ECU's so we can "only" switch between 2 maps

 

[dldaves]

yall make me wanna get the ktuner

 

[dallasjhawk]

yall make me wanna get the ktuner

Do it, best bang for you buck around.

 

[gtman]

Well you can do more than 21 to call it "balls" , even on a CVT
Shame we don't have this on the fly on our European ECU's so we can "only" switch between 2 maps

I'm pretty happy with 0-60 in 5.7 seconds. I've had higher boost. Not worth the risk IMO.

 

[gtman]

Today showed me once again why my Ktuner tuned car puts a smile on my face.

My drive to and from work is filled with aggressive drivers. They cut out in front of you with no warning, tailgate incessantly, slam on their brakes, etc.

My area (Baltimore) has the dubious reputation as having the worst drivers in America. And today, the tailgaiters were out in force. Had a Ford F150 on my a$$ because 70 in a 60 apparently wasn't fast enough for him. Sure I could have changed lanes but I wanted to stay put. I feathered the throttle and took in up to 80. He followed. And then, seeing no traffic up ahead whatsoever, put my foot into it.

He was a tiny speck behind me in no time. I guarantee my car had him thinking "how the hell could a Honda Civic be that fast? Does he have nitrous?" This tune is fun.

You just have to pick and choose your moments to speed because a tune could get you in trouble with the men in blue.

 

[Hondaman_MI]

Today showed me once again why my Ktuner tuned car puts a smile on my face.

My drive to and from work is filled with aggressive drivers. They cut out in front of you with no warning, tailgate incessantly, slam on their brakes, etc.

My area (Baltimore) has the dubious reputation as having the worst drivers in America. And today, the tailgaiters were out in force. Had a Ford F150 on my a$$ because 70 in a 60 apparently wasn't fast enough for him. Sure I could have changed lanes but I wanted to stay put. I feathered the throttle and took in up to 80. He followed. And then, seeing no traffic up ahead whatsoever, put my foot into it.

He was a tiny speck behind me in no time. I guarantee my car had him thinking "how the hell could a Honda Civic be that fast? Does he have nitrous?" This tune is fun.

You just have to pick and choose your moments to speed because a tune could get you in trouble with the men in blue.

Sounds like an awful commute. I've heard DC area has bad drivers. I only commute 10 minutes to work through city streets, with light traffic. Haven't put my tune to the test much. This summer I'm going from MI to SC, looking forward to driving a tuned car.

 

[Hnichill81]

Today, I uploaded a new more aggressive tune and it was a bit much for me (everything set to aggressive and higher boost from 4000-5000rpm). I plan on keeping the car a long time and I decided to go a bit more conservative to be on the safe side. I switched to a new 16psi/18.5psi/21psi tune with the quick adjustments only at Improved II on all the tunes and factory tune with the econ button. I also did IAT ignition corrections as recommended by JR on this new tune. I was noticing earlier today in a lot of heavy stop and go (with that more aggressive tune) that my IAT's were getting high and K. Control was fluctuating a lot. The IAT ignition corrections should help keep K. Control more stable.

I also was loving uploading the tunes hooked up to my new battery tender. No worries about the disaster of the battery conking out in the middle of an ECU update. I highly recommend a battery tender if you upload tunes a lot.

Today showed me once again why my Ktuner tuned car puts a smile on my face.

My drive to and from work is filled with aggressive drivers. They cut out in front of you with no warning, tailgate incessantly, slam on their brakes, etc.

My area (Baltimore) has the dubious reputation as having the worst drivers in America. And today, the tailgaiters were out in force. Had a Ford F150 on my a$$ because 70 in a 60 apparently wasn't fast enough for him. Sure I could have changed lanes but I wanted to stay put. I feathered the throttle and took in up to 80. He followed. And then, seeing no traffic up ahead whatsoever, put my foot into it.

He was a tiny speck behind me in no time. I guarantee my car had him thinking "how the hell could a Honda Civic be that fast? Does he have nitrous?" This tune is fun.

You just have to pick and choose your moments to speed because a tune could get you in trouble with the men in blue.

That's what the radar is for

 

[Civics4Ever]

I

Today showed me once again why my Ktuner tuned car puts a smile on my face.

My drive to and from work is filled with aggressive drivers. They cut out in front of you with no warning, tailgate incessantly, slam on their brakes, etc.

My area (Baltimore) has the dubious reputation as having the worst drivers in America. And today, the tailgaiters were out in force. Had a Ford F150 on my a$$ because 70 in a 60 apparently wasn't fast enough for him. Sure I could have changed lanes but I wanted to stay put. I feathered the throttle and took in up to 80. He followed. And then, seeing no traffic up ahead whatsoever, put my foot into it.

He was a tiny speck behind me in no time. I guarantee my car had him thinking "how the hell could a Honda Civic be that fast? Does he have nitrous?" This tune is fun.

You just have to pick and choose your moments to speed because a tune could get you in trouble with the men in blue.

I was travelling through Arkansas on the interstate and was behind a Genesis and a Ram pickup hemi and as soon as the left lane was clear ahead, the both took off. I didn't hit it as soon as them but when i did i started to keep pace until i noticed i was at 133mph, time to let off! Fastest I've ever been, but was good to know i had enough power to keep up.

 

[gtman]

Yeah, it's kind of amazing. "Theoretically", I've kept up with cars my stock tune couldn't have come close to. Everything from Hemi engine trucks to V6 luxury/sport sedans, GTI's etcetera. Today was very interesting. I had a 9th gen Si side by side with me on a nice curvy off ramp. He gunned it to show his "Si power". I easily pulled ahead with my 16.5 psi "commuter" tune. Guess he didn't know I had a tuned turbo. I love having an EX-L sedan. It looks a little sporty, a little stylish but no big wing or 19" wheels to give things away. I like being stealthy.

 

[gtman]

First off, I apologize in advance for the length of this post and I hope others find it helpful. Let's call this one "Adventures in Tuning... the good and the scary".

Today, I decided to upload a slightly modified version of the tunes I've been running. Plugged my V2 in, put the car in accessory mode and chose my tune. And then the "oh shit" moment happened. Normally the V2 says "erasing" when it first starts a flash. For some unknown reason the screen was all garbled and pixelated. I waited a few minutes and nothing changed, and at that point I knew there was trouble...

I went ahead and turned the car off. I knew what this meant. I was now in "recovery mode" and the car wouldn't start. Luckily I didn't panic. From recovery mode, I uploaded the factory tune and this time the screen looked fine and the tune flashed. So at least the car was running but on the factory tune.

I don't know if newbies know this but our batteries suck. And flashing uses a bunch of battery. KTuner was now showing battery voltage at 11.5 after the two consecutive flash attempts. So thankfully, I have a battery tender (slow charger) and used it as I went ahead and finally (and successfully) uploaded my newest setup. Yes, it was a little dicey, but in the end things worked out. The key is, don't panic.
--------

After uploading my new tunes, I took a test drive. My numbers look good and Knock Control quickly settled to .49...

I kept my Tune 1 the same as before. 16.5 psi and medium quick adjustments. That's my everyday tune and it's perfectly fine. I bumped the power of tune 2 up a bit to 19 psi and set the part throttle turbo response a bit more aggressively. Tune 3 stays at 21 psi with ramp and part throttle turbo responsiveness set to max aggressiveness.

I absolutely love it. Econ button is set to the factory tune on all 3 on the fly tunes. Each tune feels different. Sort of like Stock ~ Stock+ ~ Sport ~ Sport+.

If you only get one power mod, get a tune. Even Hondata is a decent upgrade. But KTuner is so much better and less expensive to boot.

 

[aighead]

@gtman are you leaving it on the trickle charge while uploading tunes? I saw someone else mentioning this but didn't quite understand.

 

[gtman]

@gtman are you leaving it on the trickle charge while uploading tunes? I saw someone else mentioning this but didn't quite understand.

In the past, I've trickle charged it for a bit before tuning and removed it, but this time I left the tender on while uploading my tunes.

 

[KMui]

@gtman Hondata has come out with "mods" to the basemap not too long ago like improved throttle response and turbo response (which does make a noticeable difference). Were you comparing ktuner to the hondata before that mod update or afterwards?

 

[gtman]

I was actually one of the people who suggested to Hondata to add improved throttle and spool. Unfortunately, I had the CARB which never got the mods. Beyond that, as far as I know, the Hondata tweaks are just on or off, correct? With KTuner there are multiple levels available for each driveability tweak.

By the way, I've never said Hondata isn't a quality product, it is. But taking everything into consideration, I'm very happy I switched to KTuner.

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