tuning analysis - what's in a malone tune - starter kit

[burpod]

Malone Tune Analysis – What’s in a Malone tune?

This is the short version.

So what’s in your malone tune? Ever wonder? Stage1? Stage 5? here’s the skinny…

This is coming from me, a 100% tdi enthusiast. you could find this out all yourself if you got an mpps and downloaded the free edcsuite. i'm posting this very short synopsis with as much objectivity as i can

A malone stage3 is what I would call the “base” tune. Fuel is set to max “50mg” (stock alh limits). Of course, 50mg is meaningless because it’s not a truly calibrated tune, how much fuel would depend on what pump/nozzles you have + QA position (where it’s hammer modded to). This goes for most every name-brand tune. 0-50mg is what it says, but that’s not what it means. On a factory tune, of course, 40mg should mean 40mg pretty accurately. on a malone or other tune, 40mg might mean 32mg or it might mean 60mg in reality, and that will vary depending what you have and based on rpm..

A stage 1 or 2 fueling is just limited to something like “45mg”. Rest of tune is the same as a stage3. Every map.

The stage3 just takes a stock tune and fudges up the last column or two of the pump map for more fuel (longer injection duration), fudges up basic limiters for boost, timing, and fuel, deletes egr error codes etc. trivial stuff. It also fudges up the boost in the last couple columns of fuel for 40 and 45mg. Below that, it’s just a stock boost map (makes no sense when fueling has been changed). However, fueling goes to 50mg, and there’s a significant jump in injection duration between 45 and 50mg. But regardless, boost maxxes out at 45mg. not sure why you would want to do that, but that's what it does. it's virtually a stock tune with literally a few maps fudged.

(for anyone who understands this, the pump map which is [fuel X rpm X duration] is going to be very different for different pump/nozzles. you can't just use the same stock pump map fudged up for every combo FWIW).

The stage4 is the exact same tune as a stage3, except the last couple columns for 40 and 45mg are fudged up a bit more. Fueling still goes to “50mg” as always and there’s a very large jump between 40mg and 50mg. The entire rest of the tune is the exact same.

The stage5 takes it one step further, it fudges up the boost in the last couple columns a little bit more!! but the entire rest of the tune is the exact same. yet still, the 50mg boost is absent. only goes to 45mg

The most problematic thing about this all, is every tune uses the same timing maps. And they are horribly over-advanced (this is subjective ). The engine is choking to death. But he only changes the timing maps for coolant temps for 70C – 86C (the last few hot coolant temp maps). All the colder temp timing maps are simply stock timing maps.

Take it or leave it! If you think you got a stage5 custom tune, think again if you got a stage4 for your big tonky 11mm .230s and 1752 with hood stack, well, you actually have the same tune as your little buddy who coudln’t afford as much and has a vnt17 10mm .205s. Read in over 3 dozen malone tunes from all kinds of setups for 10mm/.205s and vnt15 to 11mm race520s and 2260. even the 2260 tune either has a stock vnt15 n75 map or it might have something different like a vnt17.

screenshots always help with this, but i won't post those

the summary is, stage1-5 are the same exact tune. the only difference is 1-2 have fuel limited to "45mg" or so. stage3+ goes to "50mg". from stage3 to 5 the boost map is just fudged up more in the 40 and 45mg columns, and thats it. but fueling always goes to 50mg on stage3+ so you can do the math if you want.....

edit- this only applies to ALH/VE tunes. but IMO, if you can't get VE right.. well... it's doubtful you put much time into the more "complicated" types. i've seen a few logs heh

 

[bigsexyTDI]

Subscribed!

 

[burpod]

Subscribed!

i've put this off too long. here we go...

 

[Nuje]

Well, that'd certainly explain how one can upload a file and get an "instant" tune back within minutes at literally any hour of the day.

 

[ghohouston]

Shots fired. Lol. Keep up the good work sir

 

[Nevada_TDI]

burpod, I was one of the unfortunate ones who bought into the Ma!one superiority/mystery , it wasn't and cost me $150.00 to find out.

 

[oilhammer]

I'm not sure you are reporting anything. "Stage X is the exact same as Stage Y except..." So... it isn't the same. Or did I miss something? I'm not saying that they did the best job at modifying things, but it would appear that there IS a difference between them, and as you stated, a lot more of the final outcome will depend upon what (if any) other things have been changed as well.

I've often (for years) felt that due to the programming side of things being over my head, that the tuners had largely been granted a nice money tree that a lot of people didn't understand, but for the price to modify their one or two cars it wasn't worth the hassle of learning. And if some of these guys had stayed the course I'd probably still feel that way. But now, in the post-Dieselgate era and everyone seemingly frightened of the EPA, stuff has changed, and now I wish I could do simple changes myself... not because I really want to but because I HAVE to.

I wish I hadn't stopped after teaching myself TI Basic on our TI99-4A home computer in the early '80s. I'd probably understand a lot more of that side of things.

When you are ready to do a BHW, let me know.... I need mine tweaked some as the EGR cooler is bad and I'm not buying a new one. Wish you were closer, I'd drive up there and look over your shoulder, I like to learn things hands (and eyes) on.

Anyway, keep up the good work!

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

Wow great write up. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Have you ever broke down a Kerma? That tune was a 1st tlme experience for me. It seemed to run much cleaner judged by the regeneration time. I was quite happy with it but it just seems the active regen could have been extended to trip off of the actual load rather than miles driven (approximately every 200 miles). It just seems maximizing active regeneration in-between times would be much easier on the DPF as it sees less normal to 1100*+ temp cycle swings.?? Flawed logic? Can the 5(?) Or so active regeneration requirements be tuned?

 

[burpod]

I'm not sure you are reporting anything. "Stage X is the exact same as Stage Y except..." So... it isn't the same. Or did I miss something? I'm not saying that they did the best job at modifying things, but it would appear that there IS a difference between them, and as you stated, a lot more of the final outcome will depend upon what (if any) other things have been changed as well.

I've often (for years) felt that due to the programming side of things being over my head, that the tuners had largely been granted a nice money tree that a lot of people didn't understand, but for the price to modify their one or two cars it wasn't worth the hassle of learning. And if some of these guys had stayed the course I'd probably still feel that way. But now, in the post-Dieselgate era and everyone seemingly frightened of the EPA, stuff has changed, and now I wish I could do simple changes myself... not because I really want to but because I HAVE to.

I wish I hadn't stopped after teaching myself TI Basic on our TI99-4A home computer in the early '80s. I'd probably understand a lot more of that side of things.

When you are ready to do a BHW, let me know.... I need mine tweaked some as the EGR cooler is bad and I'm not buying a new one. Wish you were closer, I'd drive up there and look over your shoulder, I like to learn things hands (and eyes) on.

Anyway, keep up the good work!

well ,there's nothing inherently wrong with stage "X" denoting a stronger and stronger boost map, gotta call it something. the problem is really, and which i was trying to point out by posting a basic and objective-as-possible summary/analysis, is that regardless of what pump/nozzles you have, you still get the same tune. a stage4 for 11mm/.230s 1752 gets the same exact tune as a stage4 for 10mm/.205s vnt17. it should be obvious to anyone, that can't be right. you look at a euro pd100 tune vs a pd150 tune, and the tune is very different.. it's not just the same tune with a fudged up boost map.

now there is a slight twist to this, and i think it has to do whether you get the tune from "insta-tune" on the website, or get it from a dealer. some people with a stage4 vnt17-ish get a "pd150 vnt17" n75 map whereas some stage4 tunes the n75 map is simply a stock alh map. neither really make sense as the fueling is different, timing is different, boost map is different, vnt15 boost pid controller maps are used (when vnt17 pid controller maps are readily available). will go into that more later, in as much of an objective way as possible.

brian - if you were closer, you'd be most welcome to come by and we could spend a whole day playing with tuning, would be lots of fun

 

[scrambld]

Interested when you do CR tunes.....you're close enough to me....

 

[2004LB7]

I don't want to bash Malone as I've been generally pleased with his tunes. But, I got a stage 5 on my BRM with GTB1749V, 1043 injectors and colt #2 cam. Was way over fueled at first. Smoked out the lane on just light driving and smoked during idle too. 2nd revision was much better but still a little bit more smoke then I'd like. 3rd was clean but basically gutless down low. I have no idea if he was tweaking the tables or just sending me pre-built tunes to try. When the engine is cold, or not fully warmed up it idles smooth. But when up to temp it's a little rough and no amount of cam torsion value adjustment would clear it up.

I think, just based on how the engine sounds and runs, and experience tuning the Duramax, that there is more timing revisions that can be done to make it run better. But being PD injectors I don't know what kinda range limits there is on them and if they are maxed out or not. Fueling map can probably be adjusted too for a more linear response. If I had access to edit the maps myself like I do for the Duramax I'd be all over it to get the best out of this tune. Power without smoking is what I'm after

 

[burpod]

I don't want to bash Malone as I've been generally pleased with his tunes. But, I got a stage 5 on my BRM with GTB1749V, 1043 injectors and colt #2 cam. Was way over fueled at first. Smoked out the lane on just light driving and smoked during idle too. 2nd revision was much better but still a little bit more smoke then I'd like. 3rd was clean but basically gutless down low. I have no idea if he was tweaking the tables or just sending me pre-built tunes to try. When the engine is cold, or not fully warmed up it idles smooth. But when up to temp it's a little rough and no amount of cam torsion value adjustment would clear it up.

I think, just based on how the engine sounds and runs, and experience tuning the Duramax, that there is more timing revisions that can be done to make it run better. But being PD injectors I don't know what kinda range limits there is on them and if they are maxed out or not. Fueling map can probably be adjusted too for a more linear response. If I had access to edit the maps myself like I do for the Duramax I'd be all over it to get the best out of this tune. Power without smoking is what I'm after

don't really want to get into stuff like this here, but i have a pretty good idea what was going on there. BTDT with a couple other people on PD tunes.

 

[coolusername]

Malone Tune Analysis – What’s in a Malone tune?

This is the short version.

So what’s in your malone tune? Ever wonder? Stage1? Stage 5? here’s the skinny…

This is coming from me, a 100% tdi enthusiast. you could find this out all yourself if you got an mpps and downloaded the free edcsuite. i'm posting this very short synopsis with as much objectivity as i can

A malone stage3 is what I would call the “base” tune. Fuel is set to max “50mg” (stock alh limits). Of course, 50mg is meaningless because it’s not a truly calibrated tune, how much fuel would depend on what pump/nozzles you have + QA position (where it’s hammer modded to). This goes for most every name-brand tune. 0-50mg is what it says, but that’s not what it means. On a factory tune, of course, 40mg should mean 40mg pretty accurately. on a malone or other tune, 40mg might mean 32mg or it might mean 60mg in reality, and that will vary depending what you have and based on rpm..

A stage 1 or 2 fueling is just limited to something like “45mg”. Rest of tune is the same as a stage3. Every map.

The stage3 just takes a stock tune and fudges up the last column or two of the pump map for more fuel (longer injection duration), fudges up basic limiters for boost, timing, and fuel, deletes egr error codes etc. trivial stuff. It also fudges up the boost in the last couple columns of fuel for 40 and 45mg. Below that, it’s just a stock boost map (makes no sense when fueling has been changed). However, fueling goes to 50mg, and there’s a significant jump in injection duration between 45 and 50mg. But regardless, boost maxxes out at 45mg. not sure why you would want to do that, but that's what it does. it's virtually a stock tune with literally a few maps fudged.

(for anyone who understands this, the pump map which is [fuel X rpm X duration] is going to be very different for different pump/nozzles. you can't just use the same stock pump map fudged up for every combo FWIW).

The stage4 is the exact same tune as a stage3, except the last couple columns for 40 and 45mg are fudged up a bit more. Fueling still goes to “50mg” as always and there’s a very large jump between 40mg and 50mg. The entire rest of the tune is the exact same.

The stage5 takes it one step further, it fudges up the boost in the last couple columns a little bit more!! but the entire rest of the tune is the exact same. yet still, the 50mg boost is absent. only goes to 45mg

The most problematic thing about this all, is every tune uses the same timing maps. And they are horribly over-advanced (this is subjective ). The engine is choking to death. But he only changes the timing maps for coolant temps for 70C – 86C (the last few hot coolant temp maps). All the colder temp timing maps are simply stock timing maps.

Take it or leave it! If you think you got a stage5 custom tune, think again if you got a stage4 for your big tonky 11mm .230s and 1752 with hood stack, well, you actually have the same tune as your little buddy who coudln’t afford as much and has a vnt17 10mm .205s. Read in over 3 dozen malone tunes from all kinds of setups for 10mm/.205s and vnt15 to 11mm race520s and 2260. even the 2260 tune either has a stock vnt15 n75 map or it might have something different like a vnt17.

screenshots always help with this, but i won't post those

the summary is, stage1-5 are the same exact tune. the only difference is 1-2 have fuel limited to "45mg" or so. stage3+ goes to "50mg". from stage3 to 5 the boost map is just fudged up more in the 40 and 45mg columns, and thats it. but fueling always goes to 50mg on stage3+ so you can do the math if you want.....

edit- this only applies to ALH/VE tunes. but IMO, if you can't get VE right.. well... it's doubtful you put much time into the more "complicated" types. i've seen a few logs heh

This is very interesting information, but I have a couple of questions.
1. What are your thoughts on the more complicated Malone tunes available for the CR cars? You alluded to a low opinion of them, based upon what you've said here about ALH/VE tunes, but I'm still curious, being an owner of a CR car myself. I'd like to read a write up on that if you're willing to do one.
2. What's your angle? It seems a bit weird to me that you're specifically calling out Malone with nary a mention of the three or four other tuners and their processes. Are all of the tunes available like this? Or is there one specific tuner that you'd like to promote that doesn't follow this practice?

I'm not trying to sound accusatory, just trying to see where you're coming from.

 

[lemoncurd]

Interested when you do CR tunes.....you're close enough to me....

in due time
mr burpod and i are reasonably close.... and i have recently had a spare EDC17CP14 + hardware arrive at my door..

 

[lemoncurd]

I don't want to bash Malone as I've been generally pleased with his tunes. But, I got a stage 5 on my BRM with GTB1749V, 1043 injectors and colt #2 cam. Was way over fueled at first. Smoked out the lane on just light driving and smoked during idle too. 2nd revision was much better but still a little bit more smoke then I'd like. 3rd was clean but basically gutless down low. I have no idea if he was tweaking the tables or just sending me pre-built tunes to try. When the engine is cold, or not fully warmed up it idles smooth. But when up to temp it's a little rough and no amount of cam torsion value adjustment would clear it up.

I think, just based on how the engine sounds and runs, and experience tuning the Duramax, that there is more timing revisions that can be done to make it run better. But being PD injectors I don't know what kinda range limits there is on them and if they are maxed out or not. Fueling map can probably be adjusted too for a more linear response. If I had access to edit the maps myself like I do for the Duramax I'd be all over it to get the best out of this tune. Power without smoking is what I'm after

my $0.02 on malone is that they have served me extremely well and dealt with my antics. i am sure owain knows what i mean LOL

from what i've seen, their CR tuning is "better" than the older TDI tuning. and i have been very happy with my custom stage "4" tune for my GTB2266. theyve been responsive and we have worked with me to get multiple revisions etc

i picked up a spare ECU so i can play around with tuning myself without breaking my good ECU with the malone tune. i cant help but tinker with **** i probably shouldnt be tinkering with

 

[burpod]

This is very interesting information, but I have a couple of questions.
1. What are your thoughts on the more complicated Malone tunes available for the CR cars? You alluded to a low opinion of them, based upon what you've said here about ALH/VE tunes, but I'm still curious, being an owner of a CR car myself. I'd like to read a write up on that if you're willing to do one.
2. What's your angle? It seems a bit weird to me that you're specifically calling out Malone with nary a mention of the three or four other tuners and their processes. Are all of the tunes available like this? Or is there one specific tuner that you'd like to promote that doesn't follow this practice?

I'm not trying to sound accusatory, just trying to see where you're coming from.

my angle is very simple - i love these engines and have just gotten a bit more personal with them the last few years i like to see them perform flawlessly and better than factory. i'm an efficiency nut at heart, but i also like power but only if efficiency and engine health isn't sacrificed (to any significant degree). i'm very focused on trying to figure out how to do it right to the best of my abilities.

as far as malone CR tunes. i have my opinions based on a number of and in depth interactions with a few people, and logs i've seen, and i would say i'm not impressed. but that's about all i would say on that now. i can have my opinion, someone else can have theirs

i have opinions on other tuners tune's i've seen, but i try to keep those to myself or to those i talk to on a more personal level, for many reasons. one is, i haven't seen as many of them. and this stuff can be complicated. it's easy to tune around problems too. you have to spend a lot of time to make sure hardware is truly 100% and no weird issues going on. a "bad" tune can run pretty good with one particular hardware issue, and you load a "good" tune on the same car, and drives like sh*t. it can take a lot of time to sort out, and it's always a big chicken-egg problem. and there's always more than one way to skin a cat. so if i tell someone i don't think this or that tune is not good, thats my opinion of it based on what i've done and tested myself, on the particular cars i've tested it on. and it's not always so simple to just look at a tune and say "oh, that's crap" in some cases, or make any kind of judgement on it. you would need to test it, ensure car is 100%, take logs, etc. so for tunes i've seen where i can see some sort of effort has been put into it, i might think its not right if i compare it to a tune i've done for the same hardware, but that gets into a more subjective area. in the case of malone tunes, it's pretty obvious everyone is just getting the same thing....

there are a number of tunes i have seen tho, that aren't as common here on tdiclub, that i really don't have a high opinion of whatsoever, at least as far as VE/PD goes and if you can't get VE right, well, i don't have much faith in what is being done with CR.

personally, i think VE tuning is more difficult than people on the ecu forums say. everyone says it's easy. in some ways, things are easier. but getting the fueling right on VE is pretty damn tricky.... the other parts of it is simpler

 

[lemoncurd]

Tearing into a rival's tune is a great way to drum up business

not my intentions what so ever. malones tune's will stay on the ECU in my vehicle currently and not be touched. i am not one to rip someone else's IP off. super not cool!

plus in order to even unlock the ECU in my car to read malones tune's off, i would have to crack it open like the ECU above. and i am sure as hell not doing THAT when i need that ECU to be my fall back when i eventually break something pretty bad lol

 

[burpod]

.. and in case i didn't mention, when i first got into this, i only had my previous tune to go on as some sort of reference, aside from the various factory tunes you can download. then i read in an old tune on my brothers car. for many months that's all i had to go on, and i'll have to say, looking at those "tunes" really just kinda threw me off. but i didn't know what the hell i was doing at first. just had to figure it out on my own in the end.... took a lot of time to realize how "simple" it was.

 

[lemoncurd]

+ no stealing other peoples work! unlike some other tuners who lurk around the forum + facebook groups....

 

[coolusername]

+ no stealing other peoples work! unlike some other tuners who lurk around the forum + facebook groups....

I didn't mean tearing into as in stealing, I was more talking along the lines of criticizing a rival tune to uplift your tune in comparison. "Tearing into" was the wrong phrase. But even then I replied to the wrong guy, burpod is the one with this whole analysis. My bad.

 

[burpod]

no worries. i'm not into that. i like to do things my own way. i go deep. the same way i used to approach computer programing. if i am given anything, i analyze and compare. at this point i'm well beyond that. it's useful to see but i generally treat anything i come across as the way to *not* do it lol

 

[ahldailydriver02]

Well I will chime in here. I have to admit that I have used Malone tunes for a long time and on 7 different vehicles. I will say that Malones stage 1 tune for the ALH TDIs is a definite upgrade over the stock tune with performance and FE, however that is what most of my cars were, stage1. Once I went to stage 2 on my first ALH I had issues with dialing in the IQ, not terrible but it wasn't plug and play. After several adjustments and weeks I was able to dial it in. The car ran good, plenty of power and FE was great, 50+ but this was also 15 years ago. Recently upgraded injectors on a different one and went to stage 2 tune again because of the results with the last car. To my surprise it was a totally different experience, same injectors and tune as the previous car, except this car has no power and FE is terrible. I thought to myself, how can this be? After several emails to malone, their response was to upgrade my tune to stage 3, which is not what I wanted to do. Then their response was to spend another $220 to purchase a FlashZilla to download my tune and send it back to them. I was like, wait, I already purchased stage 1 and paid a good fee to upgrade to stage 2, why should I have to pay more to do this again. Very frustrating since this new stage 2 did not run anywhere near the old stage 2 I had years ago. Someone had led me in the direction to Burpod. After a brief conversation I decided to take a leap of faith and see what he had to offer. I will say this Burpod has been extremely responsive since the beginning, his tune is far superior to what I had with Malone too. My FE isn't there yet, but its close and the performance is hands down amazing. Not to bash Malone because I have used his stage 1 tunes for a long time with good results, but his stage 2 tunes are something to desire that's for sure and the up cost each time has gotten more expensive since the beginning too.

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

Ive watched burpod for quit awhile and can only say he's genuine. It takes alot of effort to share in detail like this. Kudos

The truth is I went with Kerma over Malone for a few reasons. One of which was I never saw code setting as being any kind of problem. This was important to me as I was "tune experiance impaired".

I would go with either Kerma or Malone ANY day depending on delete or non delete. Malone has a much bigger task to fill being a delete probably pulls in more of the unrealistic expectation type. I.E. 900mpg, nail bitting hp...

 

[Nevada_TDI]

Yup, I don't believe burpod is being an a$$, or talking smack to send more business his way, he really does go out of his way to make sure everything is right. Years ago I had a "Stage 3" tune in my Jetta; I had Franko6 .205 nozzles and 18 PSI tune done by other than Malone.
My Jetta hauled butt, and broke 50 MPG @72 MPG with 4 adults and luggage from Reno to Tulsa and back. My turbo died and got a hybrid 17/56 and .230's, and then I wanted a Stage 4 tune: 24 PSI or so. The car ran crappy, dirty, and sluggish. Okay I thought maybe ,216's would help the fuel economy with no noticeable loss in power, it did not. So I spent way too much time messing with the IQ and got nowhere.
I gave Malone a try and he kept telling me to lengthen the actuator arm again, and again, and again too many times due to spiking: the tune I had before did not have spiking issues, but I was willing to give him a try. I told him the elevation I lived at, and I wanted the 18 PSI tune equivalent tune at altitude. His tune maxed out at 14 PSI due to elevation, I told him I was running 18 PSI at elevation and he needed to fix it. He told me that would be a "Stage 4" tune and wanted more money and his FE was crap too.
I unloaded his tune onto his rented box and sent it back, charging me $150.00 for the box rental and his "time" or whatever he said...
I went back to the tune I already had and after many re-writes, I still wasn't happy but I wasn't going to burn $350.00 for Charlie's tunes either after hearing his tunes weren't perfect either.
Fast forward a few years and burpod and I started talking (emailing) and I loaded one of his tunes, although not perfect (is anybody's?), I swore I had a new engine. Really I did, so here we are a couple of revisions later, I cannot say anything negative. My Jetta never burned the tires in second gear on dry pavement, it will now if I lean on it. The power is really usable my FE is way back up there, and although we may have a tweak or two in the future, I am good with it. One of the tuner's challenges for me is my daily Elevation of 4600' and boost control. No issues here at all.
I will stop now.
EDIT: the .216's I have now were done by Franko6, my last set were done by the "other guy" and were really crappy acting. The same size nozzles from Franko6 were night and day, I forgot how exceptional he is at setting up nozzles/injectors.

 

[ahldailydriver02]

Yup, I don't believe burpod is being an a$$, or talking smack to send more business his way, he really does go out of his way to make sure everything is right. Years ago I had a "Stage 3" tune in my Jetta; I had Franko6 .205 nozzles and 18 PSI tune done by other than Malone.
My Jetta hauled butt, and broke 50 MPG @72 MPG with 4 adults and luggage from Reno to Tulsa and back. My turbo died and got a hybrid 17/56 and .230's, and then I wanted a Stage 4 tune: 24 PSI or so. The car ran crappy, dirty, and sluggish. Okay I thought maybe ,216's would help the fuel economy with no noticeable loss in power, it did not. So I spent way too much time messing with the IQ and got nowhere.
I gave Malone a try and he kept telling me to lengthen the actuator arm again, and again, and again too many times due to spiking: the tune I had before did not have spiking issues, but I was willing to give him a try. I told him the elevation I lived at, and I wanted the 18 PSI tune equivalent tune at altitude. His tune maxed out at 14 PSI due to elevation, I told him I was running 18 PSI at elevation and he needed to fix it. He told me that would be a "Stage 4" tune and wanted more money and his FE was crap too.
I unloaded his tune onto his rented box and sent it back, charging me $150.00 for the box rental and his "time" or whatever he said...
I went back to the tune I already had and after many re-writes, I still wasn't happy but I wasn't going to burn $350.00 for Charlie's tunes either after hearing his tunes weren't perfect either.
Fast forward a few years and burpod and I started talking (emailing) and I loaded one of his tunes, although not perfect (is anybody's?), I swore I had a new engine. Really I did, so here we are a couple of revisions later, I cannot say anything negative. My Jetta never burned the tires in second gear on dry pavement, it will now if I lean on it. The power is really usable my FE is way back up there, and although we may have a tweak or two in the future, I am good with it. One of the tuner's challenges for me is my daily Elevation of 4600' and boost control. No issues here at all.
I will stop now.
EDIT: the .216's I have now were done by Franko6, my last set were done by the "other guy" and were really crappy acting. The same size nozzles from Franko6 were night and day, I forgot how exceptional he is at setting up nozzles/injectors.

I will testify on Franko6 nozzles too. My current nozzles .205 set up by him are better than my previous .205 from another vendor. Night and day difference is very accurate.

 

[oilhammer]

Couple of thoughts I have on this discussion, and this mostly relates to the VE90 cars, specifically the ALH:

For those of us that were fortunate enough to experience these cars NEW, and having been able to drive a LOT of them, I think we'd agree that they can vary a little car to car as to what any definition of a base line "tune" could be. And I'm talking totally stock unmodified cars here. The pre-ULSD days had intake manifolds that would clog down to the size of a pencil, and I've even had a couple come in that literally stopped running altogether because that last little pea-sized opening had a chunk of gunk fall over it and clog it off completely. Then we have people who drive in a myriad of ways, quite often to the detriment of the car's ability to run well. Not only gunked up intakes, but stuck VNT mechanisms, oil-filled intercoolers, etc.

Plus, the EDC15 system as it applies to these engines, is woefully crude and simple. They have no feedback on the combustion side of things, as well as no way to monitor things like the actual intake manifold temp or anything but the most basic EGR control via the MAF. No way to really do any cam-crank synchronization in that they have no CMP sensor, and the needle lift sensor isn't really the same nor can it give that sort of information. In some ways, this means they are pretty forgiving.... these things can run godawful bad, and that happy little MIL will stay out. I mean really, the engine management on most 1981+ gas cars WITH A CARBURETOR was more complex.

Now, we add in the fact that the newest of these cars is two decades old, and "low mileage" examples are few and far between. So anyone joining in the really granular level of modifying these really should, in my opinion, take this into account. Imagine if you were a heart expert, and instead of a baseline of what the human heart "should" look/sound/act like, taken from a pool of a bunch of 26 year old non-smoking non-obese people, and had to figure it out based on a bunch of old fat 50+ year old smokers. That is kind of what we are dealing with. A bunch of old, worn, imperfect engines and fuel systems.

Then, add it all the potential modifications people have made on them, for better or for worse. And I could type for hours on the stuff I've seen.

So I don't think it is necessarily a surprise that someone whose only avenue to your car's engine is a few lines of code from a software dump from an ECU would be giving out boilerplate solutions. The possibilities are just too varied, and of course what the driver thinks gets thrown in the mix, too.

So a one-on-one, case-by-case custom tune is certainly an awesome proposition, but I don't think it is realistic to expect everyone to do that.

My own experiences, which have been with Wetterauer, Upsolute, Speedtuning USA, Rocketchip, Malone, Stevenson, and probably some other one I have forgotten, have all had one thing in common: the car's engine was more powerful afterward, and the car was faster. Not all of these were TDIs, and not all of them were even Volkswagens. (the Wett-tuned Audi A6 Allroad, with the biturbo 2.7t, is a freaking hoot.... you'd not think two tons of station wagon could scare a Corvette, but it can, LOL).

But anyway, that's my thoughts. Take it in context.

I sent a log from one of my own cars, my daily driver 2000 Golf, to pod, and his reaction was "OMG GONNA 'SPLODE OH NOES"... But, from my standpoint, the car has been running like that since I untooefed it at 383k miles.... currently at 612k miles. It starts instantly, hot or cold. It doesn't smoke (its start-up puff is less than any of my dubs, even my gasser), the oil stays clean (I run 20k service intervals), it gets 45-55 MPG reliably depending on how far into the illegal side of the speedo I go (it hits triple digits quite regularly), it makes good power (I'd say it is equal to a stock BEW, maybe a smidge more), and I tow with it from time to time. MIL has never come on. OBD readiness is always set. And I drive the snot out of it. If it was gonna break, I think I'd have broken it by now. And I think it is easily one of the best running ALHs I've ever driven. Not the fastest, but the best running. Good driveability. Sadly, the person that did its software is out of the game. But he did good on this one.

 

[Fahrvegnugen]

My Jetta never burned the tires in second gear on dry pavement, it will now if I lean on it.

Mine smokes tires in 2nd too (by accident) with burpod tune and franko6 nozzles. I was shocked! Finally fast enough to box out trucks trying to pass on the right.

The previous stage 3 didn't get it done and the truck cut me off after passing on right, and sent me over the median in my effort to avoid collision. The stage 3 overboosted, limp moded, gummed up the turbo. My only burnt item then was the clutch.

 

[Nevada_TDI]

Another happy @Franko6 customer. No he does not do "hot swaps" as he has been sent unusable nozzles/injectors in the past.
He hand tests every nozzle before it leaves, I don't know really what it is that he does differently, there is defiantly a difference.
EDIT: defiantly was going to be "there is a difference", but I decided defiantly is the right term. SO THERE!

 

[PakProtector]

Ahhh...youse are too much. And yes, I am running some of burpod's work. Going to run some more( I have a herd now, one a BEW ).

Ultimately this is a fine starter on why there are so many 'hammer-mod/adjust the rod' instructions given for the canned tunes. That and I learned a wee bit about tuning through this. Also, have not seen the boost spiking a few other tuners admit exists so as to justify not coming very close to the 2.5Bar limit of the OE MAP with burpod's work.

Douglas

 

[pkhoury]

i've put this off too long. here we go...

YES YOU HAVE!