Rickster1823

I haven’t read many post or recommendations of tuning a 10th gen civic with an SCT tuner. Does anyone know how or where you can get canned “pre-loaded” Tunes by just using your ECU code?

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

I'd spend the money on getting a reputable tuning unit (e.g. ktuner or hondata) because they're proven to be safe on the platform. I've had a 21psi tune (KTuner) on my 18 Sport Hatch CVT for... about 20k miles with zero issues. Maybe the occasional tank with **** fuel economy because lead foot puts a smile on my face. lol.

mac25

I'd second that. It may sound expensive to buy those units, but take it from someone who's bought 2 different cheaper piggy back systems, and built customers street tunes

you end up paying way more in effort, time, and possibly brake even money wise on cheaper options.

a stand alone unit is designed and setup specific to your vehicle, which cuts down research and testing, greatly.

Rickster1823

i owned a 2011 corvette and a now a 2013 5.0 and canned tunes have been a breeze to install, not to mention safe. I Cannot back up my statement with actual data but i been running canned tunes on my GT for 7 years now and i Have never had an issue. They are more effective in most cases when you need a quick change in Tunes. All this data logging and custom tuning is for the real racers, motorheads who are trying to build and actual race car. I am Just simply looking for a bit more juice in my engine as my civic is my daily drivers.

Maybe i misunderstand the use of the Hondatas or Ktuners but i seen many videos on how it works. It is complicated over a simple Plug and upload from your OBDII port by only using the list of mods and computer code on your ECU. This is my first Civic Ever so i am new to this. Anything you guys recommend i will definitely consider.

mac25

There probably is a company making OBD2 uploadable tunes for the newer turbo hondas. Since there is an option their to raise boost to make power.

But they wont be as prominent as stand alone replacement ecus since older hondas weren't turbo and already ran at their most efficient and most powerful due to, dual, built in timing, fuel and ignition maps (vtec), for the two different camshaft profiles.

most domestic vehicles didn't have variable camshaft profiles until 2005-2010, some still dont. That's why you could change the peramitors to be more fuel efficient with less power, or more power less fuel efficient. Rather than sitting in the middle.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

A cool thing Honda did with these 10thgens is they gave us a rewritable ECU from the get-go. Previously, to get this kind of capability, you'd have to chip the ECU or get a standalone unit.

KTuner and Hondata are units that plug into the OBDII port to flash the ECU with tunes. Stock, the ECU sets a torque target, so it cuts boost when your car reaches the desired torque. The "boost meter" on the fancy instrument clusters doesn't show actual manifold pressure, but really target manifold pressure. The most boost I ever saw with an actual manifold reading was 12.5PSI, a good amount shy of that 16.5 that Honda said these turbos produce. With the 21psi tune, I've definitely seen 21psi, and you can feel the difference, too.

I should also note that when you flash a tune, it does save the original tune in the unit. It also locks the tuning unit to that specific ECU when you flash a tune. That said, when you go to unlock the unit (e.g. returning back to stock, selling the tuning unit), it'll flash your ECU back to OEM

There have been some horror stories of people killing their engines/transmissions when tuned, but what a lot of people fail to look at is what they were pushing. Any story you find, I can almost guarantee you they tweaked the maps to give them more boost than the "off the shelf" tunes.

Like I said, I've been tuned for about 20K miles with zero issues. I mostly drive chill, flow of traffic, but when I wanna have fun or I'm on an on-ramp with heavy traffic, yeah, my foot will meet the floor and I'll get that happy bit of boost. I still get 40+mpg on highway road trips and about 28-34mpg with combined city/highway miles, depending on distribution of city v. highway and/or lead-footedness. It's seriously the best $450 I've spent on a mod for my car since I stuck with the KTuner v1.2

If you decide to go the ktuner/hondata route, make sure your ECU is on a list of supported ECUs. You'll need to pop the hood and find your ECU part number for that. Honda apparently has a few different software protocols and each ECU part number acts differently.