Cobb stage 1 ots or protune?

Comparison for your purposes... apparently v330 is quite aggressive and there is limited gain from one to the other though I hope its marginally safer. And YMMV.

I flashed Cobb Stage 1 a few weeks ago in anticipation of a protune.

To make a long story short, Cobb stage 1 gave a lot of torque, did not sound as good, did not feel as good in the 1st 3 gears, it just felt like it wanted to rip away but not in a good way, the gears did not last as long in a bad way. Datalogs were safe according to my tuner, but it threw a CEL due to overboosting under load when hot and A/C on in a high gear trying to pass. Overall meh. Even with the CEL, I'd say the tune was "safe", but it's not safe to go into limp mode while trying to pass! Throttle response meh, sometimes better than stock, other times not, harder to heel/toe downshift or drive smoothly at low speed. Power pretty good, but without suspension mods even Cobb Stage 1 feels a bit too much for the otherwise stock setup. Enjoyable, probably overall better than stock, but hardly worth the ~479 bucks. Overall rating is decent but not great if you've never been protuned, after protune I'd say Cobb OTS is very meh because...

Protune... wow. The difference from 93 octane OTS (stock airbox) to protune was the same as stock to Cobb stage 1 OTS 93. MAssive increase in power, now boosting 20psi but tapers to 18.5. Under 3,000 rpm a little less total power, way better throttle response. Massive gains are present, I mean the car just charges very, very hard. Tuner told me w/ a very safe tune he can push it to 90% of what a well protuned stage 2 (but downpipe only, no pump, no headers, no TGV delete) setup will do.

Amazing throttle response, even better than stock for heel/toeing (he's been working on it for years and has charts on how to do it). Easy to drive smooth in traffic even on S#, but the power is breathtaking. It sounds very, very mean, it growls.

What did I post elsewhere? They say Cobb stage 1 is smooth like buttah. Protune stage 1 is like drinking heavy cream boosted with brandy while you're running with the bulls of Pamplona.

mheyman said:

Uh, lets hope there's a massive difference at 20psi! Guess that's not quite as much as it sounds with no down pipe, (delta P across DP) but the comparison is fair since you are comparing apples to apples.

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Actually upon closer inspection it's closer to about 19-19.5psi.

No, an upgraded downpipe and all its deltaP/DP makes little difference with the stock turbo. You can go more aggressive with an OTS stage 2 map with an upgraded downpipe, but that's about it. People think stage 2 is a big difference over stage 1, and OTS it is. Then people think stage 2 protune is a big difference over stage 2 OTS, and it is.

But the biggest difference of all is stock to stage 1 protune because according to my tuner that is about 90% of the gains that a stage 2 protune will give you because on the GR's, especially 2011 on, the downpipe is so unrestrictive that an upgrade, without an upgraded turbo, gives you little.

Now if you're also doing TGV deletes, headers, fuel pump etc for the full stage 2.5 setup, then you get some decent gains, but again, the stage 1 protune is really that good and I would confirm it. Subjectively I'd say the gain from stock to 93 Cobb OTS is the same difference as Cobb 93 OTS to stage 1 protune

mooshoo said:

Ugh. Can't make up my mind. Any thoughts or input? I'm not intending on going beyond stage 1.5 as I'm actually quite ok with the power levels- I'm more of handling kinda guy. I'm jus looking for better drivability and getting rid of the dangerous stock tune and hesitations.

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I originally had Stg1 91ACN OTS map on my 08, then i installed a AEM intake & got a Stg1.5 protune from Mike at GST.
It was a very nice improvement, smooth tune that peaked at ~19.5psi, gained 23whp & 22wtq, and ran great for over a year before i went E85. Its a great option if you want a bit more hit than Stg1
Dyno below, comparing Stg1 OTS to the protune