MHP ECU/TCU Thread (updated with v1 gains: Graphs/Spreadsheet Breakdown)
12-24-08, 10:15 PM
#497
Pole Position
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: OH
Posts: 320
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Didn't I read somewhere that we have hypereutectic (spelling?) pistons instead of cast. Not as strong as forged aluminum, but much stronger than cast. I know that we used to used Keith Black Hypereutectic pistons on small block chevy engines for the street instead of forged because of the piston slap on forged when cold.
Regardless the pistons are absolutely fine in this application.
12-24-08, 11:45 PM
#498
Lead Lap
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: New York
Posts: 617
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I also wonder what warranty you provide with the tune.. i mean i guess its already been asked so
mhp has said previously in this thread that their tune retains the safety of the engine, and the rpms arent raised enough that it will effect daily driving or damage the engine
"we haven't had any customers blow up an engine, that'd be bad for business"
but it seems hard to believe that having a raised redline, and actually running the engine to that redline continuously (if you are taking advantage of the tune and racing with this car), that the engine wont show noticeable wear that would not occur if the engine didn't exceed the rpm's set by the stock ecu...
if a customer WERE to blow the engine, or any other part of the car which would be overly stressed with the increase in power/rpms due to a direct result of the tuned ecu, and then the worst case happened and the dealer DID know that the ecu had been altered, and refused to cover the damage under warranty, how would u treat the case?
unfortunately i'm not going to be able to follow MHP and Lobux's debate about ROM style ECU's.. because well, i dont know what that is =p and the difference between those and the current ones that MHP did successfully alter (pending juanca's time slips)
mhp has said previously in this thread that their tune retains the safety of the engine, and the rpms arent raised enough that it will effect daily driving or damage the engine
"we haven't had any customers blow up an engine, that'd be bad for business"
but it seems hard to believe that having a raised redline, and actually running the engine to that redline continuously (if you are taking advantage of the tune and racing with this car), that the engine wont show noticeable wear that would not occur if the engine didn't exceed the rpm's set by the stock ecu...
if a customer WERE to blow the engine, or any other part of the car which would be overly stressed with the increase in power/rpms due to a direct result of the tuned ecu, and then the worst case happened and the dealer DID know that the ecu had been altered, and refused to cover the damage under warranty, how would u treat the case?
unfortunately i'm not going to be able to follow MHP and Lobux's debate about ROM style ECU's.. because well, i dont know what that is =p and the difference between those and the current ones that MHP did successfully alter (pending juanca's time slips)
Last edited by Scythe; 12-24-08 at 11:53 PM.
12-25-08, 06:53 AM
#499
FPR1939 and Dave600hL are absolutely right. What's happening here? Everyone was excited about MHP tuning the ECU, and now that we're testing and apparently having positive results, people complain about warranty and again doubting MPH's abilities?
The moment you install an aftermarket radio on your car you may be voiding warranty on the electrical system. You want to upgrade the brake system and go to an 8-piston set up? Again, say good bye to Lexus warranty on that department. You don't want to take your car to Lexus dealers for oil change/service and something happens down the road? They may blame it on the kind of oil that you used, who knows. My point is that you take risks all the time, and if you're reading this thread is because you are excited about taking the risk of tuning your Lexus directly through the ECU for the first time. I knew I volunteered as a guinea pig on this project and I was worried not only about blowing up my engine, but about not getting my ECU back. I don't know Andy, he's on the other side of the country! But after all the information provided here, in other forums (yes, I read as many comments about his work as I could), and a lot of faith, I decided to ship my modules. I'm glad that I did it, he's been in contact all the time over the phone letting me know the status of the boxes, and after the installation back on my car he's been calling every day making sure that everything is OK. Even if the numbers don't show any improvement (which I doubt, I can't be soooo subjective) I'm glad that at least we tried. He's been honest the whole time and even after so many rough posts he decided to not only stay with us, but to dedicate a LOT of time behind his screen providing good technical information about cars and his work.
I also have to thank 8speed for bringing Andy over here. Most of the time I don't agree with 8speed's post, and he knows it. There are other threads where I go hard on him, and we even had a PM conversation where I told him my point of view regarding his posts. Now is the time to tell him THANKS 8speed because your contribution has been important.
Well, time to go, I have to keep putting miles on my car. I might be at 200 by this weekend, but I don't think I'll be able to have a dyno session until next week.
Happy holidays to everyone.
The moment you install an aftermarket radio on your car you may be voiding warranty on the electrical system. You want to upgrade the brake system and go to an 8-piston set up? Again, say good bye to Lexus warranty on that department. You don't want to take your car to Lexus dealers for oil change/service and something happens down the road? They may blame it on the kind of oil that you used, who knows. My point is that you take risks all the time, and if you're reading this thread is because you are excited about taking the risk of tuning your Lexus directly through the ECU for the first time. I knew I volunteered as a guinea pig on this project and I was worried not only about blowing up my engine, but about not getting my ECU back. I don't know Andy, he's on the other side of the country! But after all the information provided here, in other forums (yes, I read as many comments about his work as I could), and a lot of faith, I decided to ship my modules. I'm glad that I did it, he's been in contact all the time over the phone letting me know the status of the boxes, and after the installation back on my car he's been calling every day making sure that everything is OK. Even if the numbers don't show any improvement (which I doubt, I can't be soooo subjective) I'm glad that at least we tried. He's been honest the whole time and even after so many rough posts he decided to not only stay with us, but to dedicate a LOT of time behind his screen providing good technical information about cars and his work.
I also have to thank 8speed for bringing Andy over here. Most of the time I don't agree with 8speed's post, and he knows it. There are other threads where I go hard on him, and we even had a PM conversation where I told him my point of view regarding his posts. Now is the time to tell him THANKS 8speed because your contribution has been important.
Well, time to go, I have to keep putting miles on my car. I might be at 200 by this weekend, but I don't think I'll be able to have a dyno session until next week.
Happy holidays to everyone.
12-25-08, 12:46 PM
#502
Pole Position
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: OH
Posts: 320
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
With our v2 tuning (what Juan has) we warranty the engine from whatever damage could be caused by our tuning. As much as our legal dept hates this--what if someone puts on a nitrous kit and blows a hole through a piston, or someone's wife puts in 87 octane, etc--it's something we've decided to offer for the owners piece of mind.
We won't cover hydralocking because that's not a tuning issue, and if someone does blow a hole in a piston (which isn't even theoretically possible with our tuning specs) we're going to need to see the motor (we'll pay to have it shipped to us to go over). If it's found that the engine has been tampered with or the tune wasn't the cause of the failure then the cost of shipping/disassembly/inspection is deferred to the owner. If by some random act of God our tuning caused the failure we will rebuild your motor to better than factory tolerances (we'll use CP 2618 pistons, custom 4340 con rods/upgraded rod bolts, etc) to remedy the situation. By doing this the customer ends up with a better/stronger motor and no one gets reemed by Lexus/Toyota. Our lead engine builder holds more world records and has built/rebuilt literally every possible type of motor on earth including everything from $50k a pop NHRA pro stock bike motors, to Cosworth DFX F1 V8s to Blown alcohol funny cars.
We do not offer any sort of warranty whatsoever on transmissions simply because trannys of all types have failed behind stock engines. MB 7As have grenaded behind 3.5L 268hp V6s (and that's the same trans we use in the AMG 63s). Again though our tranny tuning will extend the life of the trans--aside from excessive rpm nothing kills trannys faster than heat which occurs during slower shifts. The longer the shift, the more heat that builds up between them.
If there are specific questions regarding this please feel free to PM or call anytime.
Thanks
Andy
12-25-08, 01:42 PM
#505
Forum Administrator
iTrader: (2)
I'm going to step in here with a request to all in this thread and a reminder of our Club Lexus forum guidelines for members and vendors.
Members and moderators: Please give MHP and their volunteer testers from our forum a chance go through the process-in-flight to document the results of their tuning capabilities. I'd even go as far to guess that on the 'first attempt' for each model there could even be some back-and-forth issues that need to be resolved (not anything I'm aware of but this has been a very rapid process and maybe with experience there will be tweaks or changes to provide more gains or capabilities).
Give 'em a chance... I think it's entirely fair to them to let them learn and prove out their capabilities. MHP and our other CL vendors pay each month to support Club Lexus and keep it up and running for all of us to enjoy free of charge (thank you).
If you have questions or concerns by all means post them up, that's what this forum is for. A request though based on the thread history: 1) do your research to see if the question has been asked and answered 2) be both polite and patient (for results to be documented) if you are skeptical or dubious 3) don't beat the same questions or concerns into the ground.
EVERY modification we do to our cars has ramifications to the warranty and potential longevity of the components. It's up to the individual to figure out if that risk is worth it for the gains they may achieve. This thread is a good place to discuss those pros/cons.
Vendors: A reminder to MHP that the IS-F forum is in Club Lexus' main discussion forum, not the vendor marketplace and as such is the exact right spot for members to discuss their questions and concerns (within the guidelines I linked above). If you'd like a clean thread where you have greater control over the content please start one in the Vendor Marketplace. I'd also suggest you take some of your detailed replies here and create a FAQ in that thread.
All:
The same rules I linked above regarding personal attacks, etc apply to everyone who posts on our forum - members, moderators, vendors and me. Please PM me with any questions about my statements above and let this thread get back on topic to the ECU/TCU tuning and not on the people posting in the thread.
Members and moderators: Please give MHP and their volunteer testers from our forum a chance go through the process-in-flight to document the results of their tuning capabilities. I'd even go as far to guess that on the 'first attempt' for each model there could even be some back-and-forth issues that need to be resolved (not anything I'm aware of but this has been a very rapid process and maybe with experience there will be tweaks or changes to provide more gains or capabilities).
Give 'em a chance... I think it's entirely fair to them to let them learn and prove out their capabilities. MHP and our other CL vendors pay each month to support Club Lexus and keep it up and running for all of us to enjoy free of charge (thank you).
If you have questions or concerns by all means post them up, that's what this forum is for. A request though based on the thread history: 1) do your research to see if the question has been asked and answered 2) be both polite and patient (for results to be documented) if you are skeptical or dubious 3) don't beat the same questions or concerns into the ground.
EVERY modification we do to our cars has ramifications to the warranty and potential longevity of the components. It's up to the individual to figure out if that risk is worth it for the gains they may achieve. This thread is a good place to discuss those pros/cons.
Vendors: A reminder to MHP that the IS-F forum is in Club Lexus' main discussion forum, not the vendor marketplace and as such is the exact right spot for members to discuss their questions and concerns (within the guidelines I linked above). If you'd like a clean thread where you have greater control over the content please start one in the Vendor Marketplace. I'd also suggest you take some of your detailed replies here and create a FAQ in that thread.
All:
The same rules I linked above regarding personal attacks, etc apply to everyone who posts on our forum - members, moderators, vendors and me. Please PM me with any questions about my statements above and let this thread get back on topic to the ECU/TCU tuning and not on the people posting in the thread.
12-25-08, 02:13 PM
#506
Tech Info Resource
iTrader: (2)
12-25-08, 02:44 PM
#508
Pole Position
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: OH
Posts: 320
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
12-25-08, 04:49 PM
#510
Rookie
Join Date: May 2007
Location: miami, fl
Posts: 89
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
im ready whenever he is. ill be checking periodically 2 see if he hits his 200 miles. im really excited to see what MHP has done. dyno would be great but im here if he wants to compare before the dyno...