To tune or not to tune - that is the question.

Good day to All, This may have already been beat to death, but I have not found a satisfactory answer that was applicable to my particular car, that has no other engine modifications. As ICE are essentially air compressors, More In= More Out: Re: Intakes/Throttle Bodies/Manifolds/ Exhaust How do the various software, "Tunes" actually make more power/torque on a Base 2.9 Cayman ? Are the manufacturer advertised gains actually true? Are they worth the almost $1000 for most of them. Most important, have any of the 2.9 Cayman / Boxster enthusiast's on here with a Base/No engine Mod car installed a software tune, and if so your honest opinion and results would be greatly appreciated. Is the juice, worth the squeeze? This is a great forum/group and I thank you, ALL in advance!

It is very hard to get much more power out of an NA car like yours with just a tune and no other modification. You can lean the mixture and advance timing a bit which can make the car feel a little more responsive over a factory fuel trim setting. If the tune raises the redline a little bit you can get a little more HP that way too and maybe add some higher octane fuel to cope with the mixture and timing, but I'm not sure it's really worth the risk for a just a little more. If you changed intake, exhaust you could get more gains but it can depend on the intake and exhaust too. Some intakes not properly designed can draw in warmer air than a factory intake and some exhaust system not properly tuned to the engine can adversely affect air scavenging leading to a gain in HP at the top of the range but at the cost of driveability in the low, low-mid range. I think you are correct to be skeptical of a tune only on modern, totally stock car.

The modification I felt the most of all that I made on my previous boxster was the RSS under pulley. You can instantly feel the reduction of parasitic drag when you’re rowing the gears.. it did include a case knob trim and of course a new belt.

I have no experience with tunes, but for the money, much less of it, I love my Sprint Boost throttle body mod. Although there is no real increase in horsepower, the seat of your pants will attempt to convince you that you have gained 10 to 20 HP. By altering the response from the pedal to the throttle body there is a noticeable effect on the G-force felt when starting from a stop or accelerating while moving. Love mine and will never remove it.

Thank you! Just as I suspected. I live in the mountains with tight, twisty and narrow roads and loads of elevation changes. My BC is perfect here and honestly has enough power for the mission profile. But, we all like to explore sensible options. Thanks again!

Thank you! I'll have a look.

Thank you, Boris! I'll have a look.

Do headers and then a tune. You will be happy.

I saw some relatively "affordable" cattless headers from Racing Dynamics that look promising. So in order of upgrades, headers THEN tune after? I am not looking for crazy noise or track stats. Just more "driveability" and enjoyment of these lovely machines.

I would go with catted headers unless it’s primarily a track car. Catless smell and might throw a code. Catted headers are pricey so look around at all the options. There is even a service where they cut out your stock cats and replace with high flow. I went with Soul long tube headers catted. I love them but it was the most expensive mod I have ever done.

did you tune for them? I have soul headers and a topgear ( soul ) exhaust and I’m thinking softronics but havnt pulled the trigger yet. car is a backroad toy

I got a stage 1 tune on now. I did pay for the FVD header tune but you need to flash back to stage 1 too pass emissions here. So stage 1 is on for now.

Often it is timing advances at higher rpm for high octane fuel. But you want that knock protection. In other cases it is to increase torque, and not protect your transmission, axles, or tires. Is replacing your transmission worth a better 1/4 mile time? In some cases, a trim, especially the base model, was de tuned for the purpose of price discrimination. Motor vehicle manufacturers then upsell the same displacement in one or more higher power variants that were just software non-detuned. The turbo and turbo s Panamera are great examples since the main difference is the amount of boost of the same hardware. Tesla can sell the same car in different top speed and power flavors, all software controlled. Same idea, but more transparent what's going on. The Toyota Supra with a solid 2JZ-GTE was famous for having a low power out of the gate due to some handshakes about hp limits. But...these are the cases where a tune really does you some good. In your case, it probably won't. Auto makers know exactly what's going on in the aftermarket despite screaming they have no idea and they also know what will happen when they are designing things, and the cases where they make mistakes and users can simply get a higher trim by buying a stage one tune are more and more rare. When it even helps power, it's likely to, by design, cause premature engine failure. But you might want a specific ecu mod, like a cooler cut on for a cooling fan. (Yes, I've paid for that!!!)

Hi Racerx996, I did a thread with my review of the Softronic tune I recently installed an have 300 miles on. Check it out. I'm a big fan. Happy to answer any questions. I was a sceptic before also.

I ended up going softronic on my 987.2 base. It feels stronger, the midrange is more powerful. There is actually an emissions related lul in the power curve to hit an emissions target, and that being deleted alone makes a difference. Power ‘range’ in the rpm is wider, car pulls more linearly through the rev range. It’s not like doing a downpipe tune on my Subaru sti daily, where you pick up 40-50hp from an ecu flash. It is more subtle but it smooths the car out nicely. I drove an unmodified and not tuned version of my car the other week and it is noticeably slower. The headers have a lot to do with that I’m sure

I did a detailed review and basically agree. I'm getting about 2-3 less mpg but worth it!

Thank you for your input. From the responses it seems that the tune does favorably impact a Base, no other mods motor. Now, to wrestle with the, "Is the juice worth the squeeze", as it is not an insignificant amount of $. Thanks again!

My take on the cost is that yes, it's not trivial. I debated it for over a year. Finally pulled the trigger because: I was mildly disappointed with the power and severely disappointed by the throttle mapping. My rationale for the power increase was that I got halfway to an S power wise for a fraction of the S incremental cost. Note that 1st gear is 10% and 2nd gear is 5% shorter than an S so it's arguable that +10% from 255 HP to 280 HP is getting equal acceleration in 1st and close to it in 2nd gear. (vs 2010 S with +20% to 310hp and taller 1st/2nd gears) I could have gotten a throttle remapper for about 300$ so the power upgrade cost was an incremental $700. Personally I'm so happy with the power bump and think it's totally worth it because it wasn't really happy before... Now I am... It wasn't a high power car before and it still isn't now but it's now "enough" Caveat: I haven't driven an S of my year so all of the analysis is theoretical based on numbers.

Thank you, Jobu! You and the whole group have been very helpful and insightful on this and other subjects. A testament to the value and quality of our members. I'm starting to lean over the fence on this upgrade, but first comes new tires and really thinking about the Carnewal upgrade, which also has very good reviews. Thanks again!

If I did not have PSE I would definitely do the carnewal exhaust .

Base 718 and 992 .1 4s - factory detuned turbos so softronic stage 1 tune made great sense. Very happy. I did not consider tuning my NA vehicles.

I've heard some mixed opinions- mostly negative - regarding Cobb OTS tunes. Anyone have recent experiences with Cobb ? I see FVD, Softronic recommended above.

My FVD tune is great. But I have heard nothing but good things about softronic .