ECU Tune vs JB4

[JerseySpores]

Currently, I'm running a fully stock 2018 GT1 in Micro Blue

I would like to first try a Stage 1 tune and compare results / data with the factory mapping.

Next, I'd like to drop in few mods, which include, but are not limited to:

- Bigger Intakes (possibly cone shaped from K&N, unless there's a better alternative.)

- Snorkels to direct more airflow to the intakes (I may 3D print these if I can find .stl files for them online somewhere or try to make them myself.)

- Blow-off valves ( I want that wiiiiisssshhhhh sound ha)

- Intercooler

- Spark Plugs

- New pipes, possibly catless, how I am unsure what the Stage 3 tune would require so I'm just going by how I did my BMWs before I left them for the GT-1

- Pedal / Throttle controller to make it more responsive

- NOS System (support for 2x 10lb tanks that will most likely be in the trunk)

- Suspension

- Carbon Fiber Hood for the weight reduction

If you have any other mod suggestions, please feel free to comment them.

Should I go with the JB4 or an ECU tune?

What are some ECU tuners available where I can plug my OBDII to RJ45 cable to my phone or laptop? The only one I've ever used was bootmod3 for BMWs.

I'm already aware of that fact that when an ECU tune is done and reset, it shows up in the counter. I don't care about that.

Unrelated:
Is there any app / software remotely like BimmerCode for the Stinger? For those of you who don't know what BimmerCode is, it's an app that changes various vehicle options that are typically locked by the factory or dealer. One of the things I am trying to figure out is 'Video-In-Motion' where you can play either YT or locally saved videos on the display.

 

[G70LEbyAdoom]

No such program exists for the stinger right now for the video playing, as for the ECU tunes, the best ones on the market are plug and plug ECU swaps, all you need is a 10mm ratchet and maybe an extension or two. The JB4/Lap3 pro tuners are really the only devices that can read the information you want, with the cavate being that both those devices can make your car faster, but the dedicated ECU tunes will be even faster.

 

[StingertimeNC]

JB4 for logging, Lap3 ECU stage 2.5, with either WMI or CPI if money is not an issue. I wouldn't mid going with Lap3, just haven't taken the financial plunge yet. My car is running good as is...

 

[SIMONGUEY]

a good amount of people will say don't buy bov it's a waste of money. that is true but damn in my opinion it's one of my favorite changes! the sound is just toooo damn good.

 

[ShaPoopieZ]

a good amount of people will say don't buy bov it's a waste of money. that is true but damn in my opinion it's one of my favorite changes! the sound is just toooo damn good.

I always find this argument that they are a waste of money crazy. A good set of BOV is about 349 bucks. All the other mods people put on their cars total in the multi thousands.
Especially on a tuned and boosted car. I personally don't want to push 25+ pounds of boost and Meth injection through a crappy plastic diaphragm.
The stock pieces are Fine but they are not Great.
It's literally one of the cheapest and easiest parts on Stingers to replace. Was pretty much a no brainer for me. ‍

 

[SIMONGUEY]

I always find this argument that they are a waste of money crazy. A good set of BOV is about 349 bucks. All the other mods people put on their cars total in the multi thousands.
Especially on a tuned and boosted car. I personally don't want to push 25+ pounds of boost and Meth injection through a crappy plastic diaphragm.
The stock pieces are Fine but they are not Great.
It's literally one of the cheapest and easiest parts on Stingers to replace. Was pretty much a no brainer for me. ‍

yeah, same. I'm pretty sure they're good but I rather have some metal instead of plastic. plus they sound amazing and are esthetically pleasing.

 

[Slip_Angle]

In my opinion... JB4 is great for piggyback but I also hear Lap3 is great. Lozic is great for ECU being most cost effective and flexible with options.

 

[ShaPoopieZ]

yeah, same. I'm pretty sure they're good but I rather have some metal instead of plastic. plus they sound amazing and are esthetically pleasing.

Seriously . Why not . They are so damn good looking. Any way you slice it.

 

[SIMONGUEY]

In my opinion... JB4 is great for piggyback but I also hear Lap3 is great. Lozic is great for ECU being most cost effective and flexible with options.

what are you liking about the lozic tune so far? I'm split between lozic and lap 3

Seriously . Why not . They are so damn good looking. Any way you slice it.

those are nice!!! I'm debating on buying those bov because you can buy this extra horn that makes it sound like a whistle kinda

 

[G70LEbyAdoom]

what are you liking about the lozic tune so far? I'm split between lozic and lap 3


those are nice!!! I'm debating on buying those bov because you can buy this extra horn that makes it sound like a whistle kinda

Lozics tune seems to be pretty solid for me, its noticeably faster and making more boost on pump gas alone compared to my JB4, which required e85 (which I don't have in my state) or boostane to raise the octane to safe levels to make comparable boost numbers. I average 20lbs on 1.4bar but I've seen peaks of 22. it also is more consistent then a piggyback can be, due to the fact that the stock ECU on a piggyback is still regulating how much boost to use as a starting value based on environmental conditions.

However, I am NOT a fan of the "Boost Ready" function as the slightest touch of the gas pedals will get me spooling to several lbs when its unnecessary. I did buy my tune used however and the person I bought it from had that enabled, so I am going to live with it until I feel like coughing up the extra money he wants for Support and modifications to the tune that he would normally do for free if you bought the tune directly from him, So I'm not counting it as a negative as I knew what I was getting into.

Lozic does also offer a "Boost by Mode" feature which effectively caps how much power you make in eco and comfort. As long as the Boost cap for the Custom drive mode is set to the same limits as sport mode is, then I plan to enable that as it seems like it would be a good thing not only for gas mileage, but also if you have someone that is less than comfortable driving a fast car, just throw it in eco mode, the car will probably be as fast as the 2.0T is stock, and Comfort mode will get you the cars stock level of power I believe.

you can also customize other things like pops and bangs and whatnot but I am really not a fan of that kind of thing so.

I have 0 experience with any of the Lap3 tunes so I got nothing for you there, but they do have local support instead of needing to ship stuff to south Korea, and Im sure if you asked the Lap3 guys to do a boost by mode feature or something similar, they probably would for the right amount of money.

 

[ShaPoopieZ]

what are you liking about the lozic tune so far? I'm split between lozic and lap 3


those are nice!!! I'm debating on buying those bov because you can buy this extra horn that makes it sound like a whistle kinda

I have the tuned trumpets.
They are bad ass. They sound almost like Lazer beams. The cars in storage for winter or I'd get a video clip of it.

 

[SIMONGUEY]

Lozics tune seems to be pretty solid for me, its noticeably faster and making more boost on pump gas alone compared to my JB4, which required e85 (which I don't have in my state) or boostane to raise the octane to safe levels to make comparable boost numbers. I average 20lbs on 1.4bar but I've seen peaks of 22. it also is more consistent then a piggyback can be, due to the fact that the stock ECU on a piggyback is still regulating how much boost to use as a starting value based on environmental conditions.

However, I am NOT a fan of the "Boost Ready" function as the slightest touch of the gas pedals will get me spooling to several lbs when its unnecessary. I did buy my tune used however and the person I bought it from had that enabled, so I am going to live with it until I feel like coughing up the extra money he wants for Support and modifications to the tune that he would normally do for free if you bought the tune directly from him, So I'm not counting it as a negative as I knew what I was getting into.

Lozic does also offer a "Boost by Mode" feature which effectively caps how much power you make in eco and comfort. As long as the Boost cap for the Custom drive mode is set to the same limits as sport mode is, then I plan to enable that as it seems like it would be a good thing not only for gas mileage, but also if you have someone that is less than comfortable driving a fast car, just throw it in eco mode, the car will probably be as fast as the 2.0T is stock, and Comfort mode will get you the cars stock level of power I believe.

you can also customize other things like pops and bangs and whatnot but I am really not a fan of that kind of thing so.

I have 0 experience with any of the Lap3 tunes so I got nothing for you there, but they do have local support instead of needing to ship stuff to south Korea, and Im sure if you asked the Lap3 guys to do a boost by mode feature or something similar, they probably would for the right amount of money.

lozic seems like the cheaper way to go at the cost of having to ship the ecu out if I need to change something. the boost ready feature is what I'm excited about!!! i love the woosh sound and the turbos or bov!! in loveeeeee witthhhh itttt.

I have the tuned trumpets.
They are bad ass. They sound almost like Lazer beams. The cars in storage for winter or I'd get a video clip of it.

man that's awesome! I'm really debating on switching.

 

[G70LEbyAdoom]

lozic seems like the cheaper way to go at the cost of having to ship the ecu out if I need to change something. the boost ready feature is what I'm excited about!!! i love the woosh sound and the turbos or bov!! in loveeeeee witthhhh itttt.


man that's awesome! I'm really debating on switching.

Don't get me wrong, I love the sound it makes as well, but it makes it ALL the time when accelerating at all, as well as when you use between 30% -70% of the throttle, it skips and jumps like its constantly trying to open and close the wastegate, and makes the whooshing do a very unpleasant pulsating. Not to mention that because your car is basically always in boost, it makes your gas mileage go way down. on the stock ECU, I could average 24mpg highway in comfort mode, with lozic ecu, because of the boost ready, I barely average 20 to 21 MPG highway in comfort, and I can manage to get back to 24 in eco.
Normally I would make the excuse that the lowered MPG is because the car is tuned, but I purposely grandma'ed the shit out of my car for two weeks testing this to make sure I was not going insane. I have a 60 mile round trip commute every day for work, so its pretty easy to get averages.

Boost ready does serve a legitimate purpose though. If you do not have a tuned TCU or have done a brake snip mod, it will allow you to build a couple extra lbs of boost on the factory LC, allowing for quicker 0 to 60's. I do have a tuned TCU though, and while I don't mind getting lower gas mileage, I would rather have better gas mileage if possible as well as not having to put extra wear and tear on the turbo's because of it.
I really think the best option would be the ability to have it active only in sport/custom mode, but from what they have said on here, it seems like its actually a feature that the ECU offers from the factory and its just not enabled, and not a feature that lozic himself designed. I could be wrong on that though.

 

[AtomicGTL]

Don't get me wrong, I love the sound it makes as well, but it makes it ALL the time when accelerating at all, as well as when you use between 30% -70% of the throttle, it skips and jumps like its constantly trying to open and close the wastegate, and makes the whooshing do a very unpleasant pulsating. Not to mention that because your car is basically always in boost, it makes your gas mileage go way down. on the stock ECU, I could average 24mpg highway in comfort mode, with lozic ecu, because of the boost ready, I barely average 20 to 21 MPG highway in comfort, and I can manage to get back to 24 in eco.
Normally I would make the excuse that the lowered MPG is because the car is tuned, but I purposely grandma'ed the shit out of my car for two weeks testing this to make sure I was not going insane. I have a 60 mile round trip commute every day for work, so its pretty easy to get averages.

Boost ready does serve a legitimate purpose though. If you do not have a tuned TCU or have done a brake snip mod, it will allow you to build a couple extra lbs of boost on the factory LC, allowing for quicker 0 to 60's. I do have a tuned TCU though, and while I don't mind getting lower gas mileage, I would rather have better gas mileage if possible as well as not having to put extra wear and tear on the turbo's because of it.
I really think the best option would be the ability to have it active only in sport/custom mode, but from what they have said on here, it seems like its actually a feature that the ECU offers from the factory and its just not enabled, and not a feature that lozic himself designed. I could be wrong on that though.

Interesting, I just recently gave my order sheet in to Lozic with the boost function on. Should I edit and only have it on certain modes?

In your opinion aside fromm mpg, is there any downside?

 

[G70LEbyAdoom]

Interesting, I just recently gave my order sheet in to Lozic with the boost function on.

In your opinion aside fromm mpg, is there any downside?

"I love the sound it makes as well, but it makes it ALL the time when accelerating at all, as well as when you use between 30% -70% of the throttle, it skips and jumps like its constantly trying to open and close the wastegate, and makes the whooshing do a very unpleasant pulsating"

That's the main issue with it. I don't think something is actually wrong, it just sounds like their is.

The reality of it is, do you have a tuned TCU/brake snip mod? if so, the boost ready feature doesn't make much sense to have on as you will build boost using those methods.

It would also help ever so slightly (Like, hundredths of a second at best kind of slightly) if you are roll racing, but realistically, if a roll race came down to a win by a few hundredths of a second, you would only know at a drag strip, you would not be able to tell on the street.

I just don't see any real benefit unless the ECU tune is the only power mod you have and you still want to race.

 

[AtomicGTL]

"I love the sound it makes as well, but it makes it ALL the time when accelerating at all, as well as when you use between 30% -70% of the throttle, it skips and jumps like its constantly trying to open and close the wastegate, and makes the whooshing do a very unpleasant pulsating"

That's the main issue with it. I don't think something is actually wrong, it just sounds like their is.

The reality of it is, do you have a tuned TCU/brake snip mod? if so, the boost ready feature doesn't make much sense to have on as you will build boost using those methods.

It would also help ever so slightly (Like, hundredths of a second at best kind of slightly) if you are roll racing, but realistically, if a roll race came down to a win by a few hundredths of a second, you would only know at a drag strip, you would not be able to tell on the street.

I just don't see any real benefit unless the ECU tune is the only power mod you have and you still want to race.

Thanks for the input! Yeah I do have a tuned tcu by lozic. Ill msg and see if he can manage it the boost on certain modes like Sport/Custom and less on Comfort/Eco.

If not I guess ill turn it off.

 

[G70LEbyAdoom]

Thanks for the input! Yeah I do have a tuned tcu by lozic. Ill msg and see if he can manage it the boost on certain modes like Sport/Custom and less on Comfort/Eco.

If not I guess ill turn it off.

I just sent him a message asking the same thing a few hours ago, so Im sure one of us will find out lol

 

[JerseySpores]

No such program exists for the stinger right now for the video playing, as for the ECU tunes, the best ones on the market are plug and plug ECU swaps, all you need is a 10mm ratchet and maybe an extension or two. The JB4/Lap3 pro tuners are really the only devices that can read the information you want, with the cavate being that both those devices can make your car faster, but the dedicated ECU tunes will be even faster.

I went with CarStream (newest release) from the AAAD app and it works flawlessly. It plays YT, full web browser and some other capabilities. Also works in motion.

 

[JerseySpores]

I always find this argument that they are a waste of money crazy. A good set of BOV is about 349 bucks. All the other mods people put on their cars total in the multi thousands.
Especially on a tuned and boosted car. I personally don't want to push 25+ pounds of boost and Meth injection through a crappy plastic diaphragm.
The stock pieces are Fine but they are not Great.
It's literally one of the cheapest and easiest parts on Stingers to replace. Was pretty much a no brainer for me. ‍

Any decent BOVs to recommend?

 

[JerseySpores]

a good amount of people will say don't buy bov it's a waste of money. that is true but damn in my opinion it's one of my favorite changes! the sound is just toooo damn good.

I agree. I just want that sweet sweet wiiiiisssshhhhh sound.