[iluvsti]

I've searched and didn't find satisfactory answers, so here it goes. Im wanting to go stage 2 very soon. Im familar with cobb ap, but not so much ecutek. I asked around and alot of people in my area seem to have and prefer the cobb over the ecutek. I was told though if you just want to stay stage2 go for the cobb, but if you want to go bigger get the ecutek because its more capable of handling bigger turbos etc. Im not so sure if this is true so Im wondering for the fellow suby owners who have cobb or ecutek please tell me the pros and cons of both.

[ninjaboy76]

If you purchase a Cobb AP, you will initially download maps from the Cobb website and use those for stage 1 and 2. These are referred to as off the shelf (OTS) maps. If you decide that you want to go with a larger turbo, then you will need to contact a Tuning shop or tuner that has Cobb Protuner software. This software is just as good as ecutek and will allow the tuner to have that same exact access to all of the ecu tuning parameters as ecutek. The tuner will use the Protuner software to make AP maps specific to your cars setup. So when you are searching around on here and read about a stage 2 Protuned car, that means its a stage two setup car that was protuned by a tuner in order to extract any extra power that might be in the car. The Cobb OTS maps are very conservative, so there is usually some more power that can be made by protuning. Plus the Cobb maps don't address other bolt on items like intakes, headers, boost controller / solenoids, turbo inlets, etc. So a protune will give you a map(s) that are specific to your cars mods. The nice thing about Cobb software is that you can have the tuner make you multiple maps. So you can have the tuner make you a safe conservative daily driver pump gas map, and you can also bring some race gas with you to your tune and have him make you a race gas map with more boost and more aggressive timing for when you want to go to the track.

Ecutek will allow a tuner to access your ecu and flash in one map, but thats it. You can not switch maps. You are stuck with one map unless you get retuned. You can still run race gas with ecutek and just turn up the boost if you are running an external boost controller, but the map won't take full advantage of the race gas because it won't advance the timing anymore than whats programmed into the ecu. Therefore you're not getting the most out of the race gas. Plus just pouring in race gas and turning up the boost can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing, and don't have a way to datalog your car. A lot of ecutek guys actually went out and bought UTEC piggyback systems so that they could switch maps. They ended up spending $800 for ecutek reflash, and probably $1000 or more for the piggyback plus tuning time when all they had to do was purchase a Cobb AP and have multiple maps made.

Go with Cobb, you won't regret it... unless of course your like me and want to learn how to tune on your own. Good Luck!

[iluvsti]

Well that was very informative thanks!

[ninjaboy76]

Your welcome. Just hit me up if you have any other questions.

[2004_ASPEN_STI]

I have never use Ecuteck before, not too familair with either.
But I love the Cobb AP,
to me, it idiot proof, all you (the owner) do is plug it in and it tell you want you need to do. Plus the stages maps, and anti theft, valet, launch controll, and basically any map on theres,
It much easier with an AP.


T

[Neanderthal Racing]

ecutek is old news. cobb's tuning tools are the gold standard aound here for the stock ecu.

[WRXTek]

I am using Ecutek with an AVC-R. Very satisfied. But I also heard very good things about Cobb.
But theres a sticky about the Ecutek reflash. You should read it. If you plan to switch back and forth between ecutek and cobb or any other reflash. Stay away from Ecutek.

[steveos_sti]

I have a Cobb V2, and before a tune, I was running about 280 to the rear wheels, and WAY WAY too rich. After the tune I had 302 whp, and my oil didn't smell like gas any more.....so there is some more to be gained with the tune. I had a 93 and a 110 octane map done, and the reside in the AP, very, very easy to change the maps, which is the advantage (IMHO) of the Cobb.

.....but don't skimp out, the protune is very worth it, more hp, and the car seems to run better than the OTS stage 2 map.

[Attris]

Ninja what software do you use to tune on your own?

[chaos311clarity]

with ecutek easy ecu you can switch maps. i have it...


my theory on this debate is that if you dont have a tuner near you, get the AP, they are safe maps, if you do have a tuner near you... get ECUTEK...

[ninjaboy76]

Originally Posted by Attris

Ninja what software do you use to tune on your own?

Well since I own an evo IX, I'm using ecuflash. Most subaru self tuners are using enginuity. All you need is to purchase a tactrix cable (tactrix), and download enginuity off of here: Downloads - OpenECU
Then you'll need a wideband and someone to help you get going. However, thats usually the main problem though, the lack of self tuners in the Subaru community means that there isn't a lot of information out there to help you. The Cobb AP is so easy to use that there hasn't been a lot of people trying to tune on their own. Thats one of the biggest reasons I purchased the evo. There are a lot of self tuners that own evos and evom has a great section on its forum dedicated to ecuflash. I was tired of getting screwed around by "Protuners". I'm sure you could get the help you need by doing some research. There isn't to much of a difference between tuning a STI and tuning an Evo, but the software support and information about ecuflash is readily available thanks to evom. The Cobb AP just came out for the evo, and I really don't think its going to do quite as good in the evo community as it has here. The Cobb AP in the subaru community is about the only tuning method that some people know.

[Keiro]

I think this should be a sticky just for all the info with the AP and the Ecuteck great read!

[Attris]

Ty ninjaboy76 I have the AP but I love knowing how things work so I'm going to see about tuning myself. Thanks for the info.

[Loubaru]

Originally Posted by Attris

Ty ninjaboy76 I have the AP but I love knowing how things work so I'm going to see about tuning myself. Thanks for the info.

There is a lot of good info in the NASOIC tuning forum and on the enginuity forum (although i think its down now).

[ninjaboy76]

Yeah, enginuity forum hasn't been up for some time. Don't know whats going on with that. The Tari site is down as well. It was another great place that offered free datalogging software. Its too bad.