Oliver Enterprises

Guys,

I'm kind of curious to be able to "tune" our 1UR-FSE. I wouldn't expect to get much out of it because I have to believe our engine is tuned really well already. I've never tuned anything that ran via ECU, just my old school 1972 Plymouth Scamp with an LA 360.

I've spent a lot of time and effort tuning the Scamp, it has made me want to "tune" everything, right down to the lawnmower! (Ok, not really.) While my friend who gave me the Scamp was a very competent owner, he was old school. I have used some level of technology (AFR gauge and my own tuning spreadsheets), and I have increased the power approximately 70 hp (~+35%). The only hardware change was a new exhaust due to the old exhaust being rotted out.

But, tuning the Scamp has made me curious into what may be possible with the LS. So I've started checking into it. I'm brand new to the ECU tuning game, and not even sure I'm going to attempt anything. It looks like I would need a) software (I would go with TOAD), and b) a "TUNER KIT." The tuner kit is the interface to the car's ECU, and is where the problem lies. There's a big long list that this tuner kit applies to. But Lexus is not on the list. Toyota is on the list, but only select vehicles, and the LS is not one of them.

Would anyone here have any experience with this? Has anyone here cracked into their ECU programming?

Anfanger

I read somewhere that the V8 on AWD had to have its performance tuned down to prolong life of the transmission and differentials. It could be that RWD has more room to "play around" with tuning.

sdls

If that’s the case then the AWD should have more room to get gains from tuning, right?

Anfanger

It is a "yes" for the engine but in an expense of the drive train. A single front left side CV-axle costs $1k+. If somebody wants to gamble with that kind of bills, I am not going to stop them, but I will not recommend it. F Sport parts might have better reliability under higher that normal loads though.

Oliver Enterprises

I don't really want to get into a debate, or off the subject, but having worked in design for Toyota, I have my doubts that the "tuning down" of the engine has much (or anything) to do with potential damage to front end driveline components. If we new the exact reasoning for it, I think we would be a bit surprised. Building vehicles is a very complex business. I also have my doubts that F-Sport components would be any more robust than the standard vehicles. Except maybe the brakes. Design engineer for Toyota or not, I DON'T KNOW that for a fact. I'm no expert. The drivetrain was not my area. But it is surprising to see the real reasons why decisions are made behind the curtains.

Here's just an example (I'm making this up). Maybe Toyota has some kind of standard for how much they would allow the front wheels to slip upon full throttle acceleration from a dead stop. With too much tire spin, directional control is reduced. Perhaps they had to tune the fuel mapping just a skosh to work better with their traction control system. This is just a for instance. Who really knows? (Some Japanese engineers in the powertrain group I suppose). The potential reasons for the slightly lower posted numbers could be a very long list.

And the expense of that CV axle is likely due to volume produced (economy of scales). How many AWD LS 460's are produced compared to say, the number of Camrys produced? Probably close to 400k Camrys a year now. How many AWD LS's? I don't know, maybe 1/10th of the number of Camrys?

Striker223

You should be able to pick up around 40 through a tune, it's near impossible to do on a stock ECU since Toyota locks their computers down more than anyone else in the industry.

drgrant

I always thought the AWD was only nerfed because of the exhaust routing being way different than the RWD car....

cochiseg

awd = more moving parts = more energy loss = less whp, less tq

Oliver Enterprises

cochiseg - I don't believe the published horsepower ratings are hp / tq measurements at the tires. I think they are engine measurements with attached accessories and exhaust.

drgrant - That sounds like a logical reason he AWD may be rated a skosh lower.

drgrant

I'm not talking driveline losses I'm just talking motor rated. the LS AWD is rated 360 the RWD is 380.

On the other hand RWD and AWD GS350s are rated the same HP. Like 306 for the 2GR-FSE and 311 for the FKS.

SW17LS

The reason the AWD car has less HP is the exhaust design

sdls

Do you know if the goofy log manifold is responsible for all of the horsepower loss? The HP difference seems to be a bit much just on account of exhaust design imo

ausLX

This subject interests me also. I would like to know what it takes to tune the ECU in the LS460, how much HP could be gained by doing so, and what the limiting factors are. Would a piggyback ECU need to be used?

cryptodonis

Hey Oliver, this is an area I've been interested in as well and I've spent quite a bit of time scouring the internet for every bit of info I can find thusfar.. Someone replied above that the ECU cannot be tuned due to being locked down however this is no longer true. Tuners have cracked and tuned Toyota/Lexus Denso (NEC chipset in our case) for a few years now. There is one vendor right now that specifically caters to Lexus vehicles and offers tunes for the LS450, both RWD and AWD models. The company name is Sector7 Tuning and it's run by a gentleman named Steve Abbinanti. Here are the links to their FB page:

https://m.facebook.com/sector7tuning/community

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=706283568

I had contacted Steve a few months back and emailed back and forth a bit regarding the specifics and pricing, here are the pertinent contents of those emails:

Luke,


The tuning package consists of an obd2 handheld, our tuning software and all necessary cables. The handheld communicates with the car to flash the ecu and load the performance tunes. The software loads the tunes to the handheld.

We do the tuning on our end and provide the finished tune. There aren't any settings on the user end to adjust unfortunately. We try our best to make all customer requests happen if its within our limitations in the tuning software.

The tuning package is $450 and that includes everything mentioned above plus the tune! We have a few units in stock so just let us know if you have any other questions or if you'd like us to get you set up with our tune!

Thanks

S7

Hey Luke,


No worries, life happens! Yes our tune will provide quite a bit more than just raising the speed limiter. We raise the rev limiter also as the car pulls very well to 7000rpm, adjust fuel/ignition timing/vvti/torque limiters/shift schedule/shift pressure/torque converter/drive by wire, etc. We are working in a permanent solution to the shifting, as some of that just isn't in our control at the moment. The shifting is somewhat improved in the tune though.

Since we already have your email address, we would just need your shipping info so we can send you an invoice through PayPal.

Side note: The handhelds are only compatible with Windows based computers and unfortunately not with Mac at this time. Hope that's not an issue for you!

Thanks

S7


Regarding the part about shifting in particular this was in response to my asking if they offered a TCU tune and more specifically whether or not they had the ability to apply the faster shift speeds and the rev-matching/throttle blipping up and downshifts from the LS460 sport. They currently don't have this capability however Steve seemed to agree with me that it should be at least theoretically possible to do and I know he had asked around a few places on different FB Groups is anyone had a TCU from a 2010-2012 LS460 Sport which is obviously what would be needed to obtain those maps and files, etc.

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The same guy who owns that tuning company had shared a bit of info and a video clip of a Larger MAF/Custom Intake project that he'd installed on his personal GS460 and while I had obviously done a ton of research regarding custom intake options and came up with nil this was the first time I had personally come across a larger MAF on a Lexus V8. I really think this would be doable and reasonable expense wise and coupled with one of the upgraded throttle bodies currently available from LEMS or Think Design (possibly even a larger TB?) may prove worth the effort and cost given that the potential can be exploited via tuning. I asked Steve what he thought and if it would be feasible to install a bigger MAF and fab up a custom intake system for our 1UR's - this was his reply:



​​​​​Obviously (as you well know probably better than anyone here lol) there are numerous options exhaust wise, although less so for owners of AWD models like myself however the biggest area of disappointment at least as far as I am concerned is that performance headers are an impossibility either because for AWD owners the log style factory headers, which by the way are responsible for the majority of the HP discrepancy between AWD and RWD models, were used to begin with because they are the only thing that could fit or for owners of either drivetrain model the cost to have headers designed, fabbed, tuned etc. would be significant!

There are a few other aftermarket parts out there marketed specifically as performance options and made to fit our vehicles. One product that I have been kind of skeptical of but would love to be legit and capable of improving performance is the VVTi Solenoids marketed by Quantum Solenoid and others..more on that in a moment. This is only applicable to the exhaust side solenoids for our 1UR's as our VVT system uses electronic motor-driven intake side VVT controls and the more common Oil Control Valve solenoids on the exhaust side. Quantum Solenoid posted a dyno chart on their Twitter page last year and a claim of 25 HP & 22 Lb Ft Torque @ 5900 RPM improvement. Here is said dyno chart:

Our engines have two exhaust side solenoids and Quantum Solenoid lists the set of these @ $500...HOWEVER while doing more research on these I came across an offering from a company called MaxJen International who markets the Red Bullet VVT-i Solenoid. I reached out to Max the owner of MaxJen asking for more information and for a direct comparison to the QS product. Max informed me that Quantum Solenoid and Red Bullet are identical products - both coming from the same manufacturer in Taiwan. In comparing the below photos of both companies solenoids it becomes obvious they are the same and both made by Izumi? in Taiwan.

RedBullet

Quantum Solenoid




​​​​​​You can purchase the set from RedBullet for $145 !!!

​​Okay while there's likely far more I could gone on about incessantly this is probably a good start and far too long already lol.

cryptodonis

XAT Racing just recently introduced high-performance billet camshafts for the 1UR also.



Also mention I've researched and attempted to learn as much as I can about ECU/TCU tuning in hopes of maybe being capable enough some day of tuning it myself. From what I can tell based upon compatibility, popularity/availability, and capabilities either the BitBox tuner or the KESS/KTAG combination from Alientech are the top options for these purposes. While tuning over CAN via the OBD2 port is possible obviously it appears that tuning the ECU via a JTAG connection to the board directly is most common with newer factory locked ECU's such as ours.​I also was able to find some photos and diagrams showing how to solder a JTAG connection to our boards:


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