Ecutek eTune through Seb@ SZ
 

Note: Due to messages I am receiving about this Ecutek eTune,I have decided to clean up the first post and put more of a personal review. I will include here;
Short introduction
First base tune review
First base tune REVIEW UPDATE.
-- 6 months later. Datalogging

DYNO #'s or any #'s ARE NOT PRESENT IN THIS REVIEW AS THIS IS A eTUNE Please read around the Tuning section to find out more about other individual mods and/or dyno#s associated with the mods. Again, I want to clarify that every tuner is different! This is just my personal review with EcuTek and Sebastian@SZ.

I had the chance to get the off-the-shelf base from Seb @ Specialty Z.
We have sent emails back and fourth to each other for a bit as I had a handful of questions about Ecutek; and surprisingly he had no problems answering my questions in detail.
His response time were out if my expectations. I would normally get emails back or even my new tunes in the afterhours.
After viewing UPREV v ECUTEK for a bit, I had decided to go with Ecutek per reviews as well as SZ carrying them w/ the option of etunes/datalog.

Ordered Thursday night; shipped on Friday. Recieved by Monday afternoon. Mind you, I believe SpecialtyZ is located in Los Angeles.

I picked up the package ASAP and was able to get my ECU# quickly and had sent it to Seb @ 5 or 6pm. Woke up to an email from him @ 10am with my stock and base tune and manage to throw the tune on the same day.
After flashing and transferring the map, some clunking is heard.. during your flash, the program will tell you to turn the ignition on and off..
He had supplied me with two maps; one for hotter weather [MAP A], one for a colder weather [MAP B], and of course, a valet map.
I had figured a tune is better than no tune at all.

--- First base tune review -- MODS: Stillen G3, Custom 2.5in Exhaust (This exhaust looked very familiar to fast intentions exhaust w/ the 12 inch resonators.)
Applies to both maps: Fan kicks on earlier. Throttle sensitivity. Idles are higher. Traction control (racerom?) settings. Buttdyno says yes to power.
MAP A: This map is for hotter weather. I can feel a difference in everything; hands down. Its smooth- but didnt feel like it put the UMPH in as in MAP B.
MAP B: This map is for colder weather. I feel like this one made a little more power than Map A.
Valet: N/A I have not touched this setting.

Throttle - Its more touchy. It almost feels like a crotchrocket's throttle. It didnt take much for the car to respond; sometimes i feel like its a little too much from trying to go from a stop or a slow.
Power - Again, my butt says yes. My tach also says yes. I can see the RPM climb faster than stock on third and fourth gear.
Sound - I dont know if many if you can hear a difference but it sounds like I have lost some sound from my Stillen G3's sucking in air. Possibly the tune fixed up the A/F?. I use to be able to hear the air/wind go through the Stillen piping, now it sounds a little dumbed down. But exhaust has a slightly more bass to it. Placebo?

End of base tune review:
After about half a year on the base tune I decided to go with the datalogging option. Summary of why is explained below.

MAP A Again. Its smoother than Map B. Felt a little underpowered in both colder weather and hotter weather compared to Map B. I did feel like I saved some gas though. [Ran this map probably 75% of the time]

MAP B Opposite of Map A. Map B felt rough. I tried to run it on both colder and hotter weather. Again, this one felt more "rough". Idle is a bit higher. Shifting points were higher in the RPM on AT MODE. More power than Map A. Shifting felt a little hard (due to increase of power?) I only ran Map B during the special drives- but never driven on this map on over 100 degrees. If I can recall, maps were based on temperature of 90 degrees and above, or lower. (HOT & COLD)

---Datalogging Feb 2017---- Current mods; stillen g3, NOW ARK GRIP Exhaust

I contacted Seb @ SZ again, It has been about 5-6 months since my base tune. He was very quick (still) to answering all my questions through email. Turnaround time has been below 24 hours. No major changes to my mods other than an ARK exhaust v Custom. I have decided to go ahead and do the datalog as I thought I was going to throw more power on there. Plans have changed and I have decided to keep my current mods for now.

I did some logs on the base tune and sent it in. Received my first Datalogging flash within the same day if I can recall. Sent in morning. Received by end of day. I have only driven Map A currently as this is my HOT map. We (are) currently only doing one map at a time..I have asked him to turn down the throttle a little bit. Everyone that had tried to drive the Z isnt trying anymore due to complaints of the car being too touchy.. which is good. But I was still barely getting used to it after this long as well, so he turned it down a notch. Now new throttle is something I like!

Flash #1 Difference instantaneously. I felt the difference for sure. EVERYTHING IS SOOOOOO MUCH SMOOTHER NOW! Throttle is on point for me. I love it. Power wise? As stated above its alot more smoother throughout the RPMS. Not only is it smoother, it felt like more power has been unlocked! It feels ALOT more better on power than MAP B on my BASE TUNE.

I dont know what else to say. This is still ongoing as of Feb 2017. I will update again at the end of our datalog or per flash.




For those who will go ahead and skip everything.. I'll leave a tl;dr here.
If you can cash out on the datalogging option. I say do it! I almost regret not doing it in the first place. If your mods are done, I would go straight to the datalogging if you are not near a Dyno. OR if you have little to no mods, in my opinion, THE BASE TUNE ITSELF felt worth my money.. until I datalogged.

Specialty Z + Sebastian FTW!
Ecutek FTW!

It's worth it for the proper throttle control alone.

Sebs the man,ive done lots of etuning with him this past summer,awsome customer service.:tup:

:iagree:

Nice review on Seb and SZ. I like the guy and his work. His techs do a great job as well. What I have heard is he tends to be conservative and on the safe side (understandable) so I if you want you can ask him to eek out a little more from the car.

I need this. How much for a custom dyno tune ?

Nice, I'm strongly considering EcuTek in a month or so. Would've targeted an exhaust first, but the price+I can't take days off on the new job soon. Depending on how well this goes, I may never bother with an exhaust anyway.

Im sure your nearest shop will charge for the kit (uprev or ecutek) plus any 'dyno time' spent on their dyno at probably around 1-150$/hr
With this etune off the shelf was 650+50tax..
Custom logging would run a little more im sure as it is a two team(yourself and tuner) tune to get the best-if not closest tune


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Did you get his throttle hijack? If not ask for it. My car went from 13.1 to 12.7 on his tune over a ecutek dyno tune.

Car is more responsive.

Ecutek eTune through Seb@ SZ
 

Car is already more responsive at the moment compared to stock. Are you saying there is more that could be done?!
He had supplied me with a revised throttle mapping
Im still getting used to this throttle.. It feels So much smoother and responsive. Sometimes i find myself putting more throttle than needed on slower roads


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Ecutek has real throttle control. Tuner can make it however you want it to be

Yes, the throttle is much more touchy with the Ecutek tune. Not bad but challenging to drive smooth especially when doing a up hill start. You can easily jump ahead more than you wanted too. My car is SC so it has more power than stock which makes the throttle just that much more sensitive. I'll probably ask Seb to back off of the response just a bit.

Otherwise, the car is WOW! The exhaust got louder and deeper with his tune. All good to me.

Money well spent!!!!!!

Ecutek eTune through Seb@ SZ
 

Indeed. This was something i do not regret, nor any other mods . Wanting to go art pipes or high flows but i feel like they would be something i would regret changing out due to emissions..

Would love to go stillen SC, though i feel like a shop would charge a handful just for labor..

Its also nice that he managed to set my fan to come on sooner. I was complicating an oil cooler to hopefully drop temps to 190/200-220 as i can run 230-240 easy at night (80 degrees).. But for the fan coming on earlier i feel like about 225 is my stand currently at about 90-95..
I feel like even for a 19 row i will be seeing 180 easy in the winter; which i would like an easy 200. Anything pass 220 or at that i feel a little bogged down. A little off topic but.

Im still getting used to the throttle. Im still jumping at a light and i have an 7at. But i like it!
3rd gear feels like power throughout the powerband even at very low rpms; maybe throttle revision helped this as well.


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Yes, the throttle response is a little more critical on a 7AT than the 6MT. When I first got my Ecutek tune, my wife complained about me slamming her head against the head rest when starting out at every traffic light. My tuner adjusted the throttle response back a bit for the first 10% of throttle pedal movement and solved the problem.

Yes there is more you have to ask for it. Only works when you turn off VDC on whatever map he puts it on. I have a 7AT also.