Second class citizens - lack of aftermarket CVT tunes

gtman

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I get it, the Si is a more performance oriented car. But, the truth is, I guarantee there are as many or more Ktuner owners with the base 1.5 turbo / CVT combination. And a lot of these owners are looking for something beyond the base tunes but not as costly as a full custom tune.

The aftermarket companies out there like TSP and MAP only offer their Stage 1 tunes for the Si which royally sucks for us "losers" driving the non-Si's. Hopefully some smart company will see how much money is to be made with the base turbo/CVT guys and design a tune for us.

Vent over.
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PowerPerLiter

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Buddy I think its more the cvt limits that your frustrated with. The lack of support is because there is a physical limit on what it could handle especially long term. Its a much weaker point than the engine and nobody wants to put their neck out there to get blamed for cvt failures.
 
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PowerPerLiter

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btw I have an si rear swaybar setup with endlinks and brackets that came off my car at 1100 miles if your looking for one.
 
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gtman

gtman

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Buddy I think its more the cvt limits that your frustrated with. The lack of support is because there is a physical limit on what it could handle especially long term. Its a much weaker point that the engine and nobody wants to put their neck out there to get blamed for cvt failures.
The irony is that all the CVT cars that have way overdone the power have thrown rods and such but I haven't heard of a single CVT failure.
 

Two Step Performance

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A TSP CVT tune is not out of the question. We just need someone to drop off their unmodified CVT 1.5T Civic with Derek in PA for a couple of weeks of R&D.

LOTS of time is spent to carefully develop our TSP tunes. Testing is completed on the dyno, on the street, and with multiple fuel types. Once all of the local testing is completed, files are distributed across the United States to test in different climates, at various altitudes, and with other fuels. As you can imagine, a lot goes into having a tune that can perform well but also be distributed to the masses in a safe manner. The Si was an easy starting point, because Derek owns one himself.

I only know of one 10th gen Civic CVT failure, someone got a bit aggressive with their flex fuel tuning. A lot of fun can be had with the CVT if done carefully.
 


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I guess time will tell. Im not saying they are weak by any means. Just the torque these engines are capable of I would have to see long term results more to completely trust around 300 foot pounds. But I will say I would'nt doubt it if they do hold up.

Ask yourself when to stop pushing?
When it slips?

Im sure yours is already a blast to drive.
 
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gtman

gtman

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I guess time will tell. Im not saying they are weak by any means. Just the torque these engines are capable of I would have to see long term results more to completely trust around 300 foot pounds. But I will say I would'nt doubt it if they do hold up.

Ask yourself when to stop pushing?
When it slips?

Im sure yours is already a blast to drive.
I like the Ktuner base tune but I wish we could get some more hp out of the engine at higher rpm (4500-6000). Low end torque and driveability is great. But it really runs out of ooomph at high speed on the highway which is my stomping ground. Maybe it's an impossible dream with this engine/turbo.

Don't get me wrong. My car is way more fun and confidence inspiring with a tune. I just wish it was tweaked a bit more. I'm not enough of a pro to do much more then up the boost. I know there's a lot more to it than that.

I'm thinking about going up to PA to get it dyno tuned if no one comes out with a better CVT tune. The only thing stopping me is the $500 plus cost.
 
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givemeadollar

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The Si and type R are the performance variants of the econobox so they get the r&d time/effort/money because the people willing to fork out the cash for the performance variants are the target audience to fork out some more cash for performance add-ons.
 

FK7Hatch

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Give Steve at etunez a call if you're looking for a cheap etune
 
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gtman

gtman

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If I can't get some sort of Stage one aftermarket tune, I'll probably go to Carlisle PA and get a dyno tune. That whole back and forth revision/reflashing/retesting/re-datalogging stuff and our weak ass batteries seems like a problem/issue/pita with the etunes.

I've had both Hondata and Ktuner and generally I like Ktuner better. But (at least to me) it feels like the top end runs out of steam faster than the Hondata tune did.

I was watching a Youtube vid where a guy in an Si compared the TSP Stage one to the Ktuner base tunes. He said the same thing (starting at about the 2:40 mark in the vid). The Ktuner base tunes just fall of a cliff after 5000 rpm and the TSP tune keeps on pulling. That's where I want the improvement. Down low and in the midrange the Ktuner tune rocks.

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