What Tuner? Livernois/Cobb/JB4/Bully Dog/Pandaworks??

[SnyperX]

Have been working with getting the "bolt ons" installed and now wanting to get the tuner finish it up. Have been researching the tuners from Livernois, Cobb, Burger JB4, and Bully Dog. Currently heavily considering either Cobb or Livernois. Wanting to be in the $600 range for the tuner. Can anyone comment on the various brands why you picked the brand you did?

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[Dueces]

Livernois has launch control, but it's $650 EXTRA! They do make awesome products though!

Cobb does good as well, however their canned tunes left a good amount of power on the table as Alan from Edge Autosport shows with his custom dyno tuning on Cobb on their Mav.

I run 5Star, as I already had the SCT X4 from my old F150. They are doing a decent job working with me to get things working right. Most of what I am doing is above and beyond what others will do, so their standard offerings with datalogs to perfect them will do just fine for 95 percent of people.

It's all personal preference. 5Star helped me get to 12.72@108mph on the factory turbo, and 12.09@114mph on my Corsair turbo. Their E30 tune does have a little jerkiness to it with the firmed up shifts, especially for the first 50 miles or so.....

If I had to do it again, I would probably still stick with 5Star. I would go Livernois, but charging $650 for Launch control and Map switching "because you can", goes against how I personally feel about car communities. But, to each their own!

John

 

[SnyperX]

Livernois has launch control, but it's $650 EXTRA! They do make awesome products though!

Cobb does good as well, however their canned tunes left a good amount of power on the table as Alan from Edge Autosport shows with his custom dyno tuning on Cobb on their Mav.

I run 5Star, as I already had the SCT X4 from my old F150. They are doing a decent job working with me to get things working right. Most of what I am doing is above and beyond what others will do, so their standard offerings with datalogs to perfect them will do just fine for 95 percent of people.

It's all personal preference. 5Star helped me get to 12.72@108mph on the factory turbo, and 12.09@114mph on my Corsair turbo. Their E30 tune does have a little jerkiness to it with the firmed up shifts, especially for the first 50 miles or so.....

If I had to do it again, I would probably still stick with 5Star. I would go Livernois, but charging $650 for Launch control and Map switching "because you can", goes against how I personally feel about car communities. But, to each their own!

John

John,

Thank you!! Your reply was excellent. I should probably mention I am wanting to stay close to keeping my warranty intact so that actually limits my choices now. I have been looking at the Pandaworks PM as well as Burger JB4. Now, once the warranty is up then I'll be moving to an actual reflash tune.

 

[Dueces]

Yeah that changes things dramatically, lol. I think the JB4 is the only one that won't leave a trail on the ECU? Maybe Pandaworks?

Also remember, the dealer has to prove your parts caused the failure. If you have an intercooler, and a headlight fails, they can't say your car is modded so they won't warranty it....

 

[lizardnorm]

I'm sort of in the same boat trying to decide. I had the JB4 on my VW and it was great, and support from them was awesome. But it doesn't address the trans and adjusting shifting. Doesn't look like cobb or 5star show a ethanol tune option but I m sure that's a matter of time and may not matter to everyone. Livernois seems to be pretty popular so I may go that way. I agrees about the extra cost for the launch control however. Seems a bit crazy for what it is but then again I don't have any idea what it took to make it happen

 

[IconicSilverMaverick]

Have been working with getting the "bolt ons" installed and now wanting to get the tuner finish it up. Have been researching the tuners from Livernois, Cobb, Burger JB4, and Bully Dog. Currently heavily considering either Cobb or Livernois. Wanting to be in the $600 range for the tuner. Can anyone comment on the various brands why you picked the brand you did?

I will likely be going with the JB4, primarily due to its ability to update through the app via Bluetooth/Android. I don't want to buy a computer.

Icing on the cake is that JB4 fully integrates with Burger's WMI kits. Haven't seen anyone try this yet and I might do it.

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