Jb4 custom tuning: an honest discussion.

[M3ltdown]

I refreshed Jesse’s page on custom jb4 tuning, and it is now 808$ usd to get a tune from him.

Add on 700 ish for a jb4 at msrp and we’re at 1500…

Is it still a more economical option at this point vs a partial unlock?

I haven’t seen many dyno charts from the Jesse tune but from what I read the concensus is that on average jb4 + custom tune + dp and intake will net you about 450 ish wheel?

Idk if it makes too much sense at these price points?

Anyone have done a dyno run after a Jesse tune on jb4 with the common combo of dp and intake?

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[ColonelAdama]

I refreshed Jesse’s page on custom jb4 tuning, and it is now 808$ usd to get a tune from him.

Add on 700 ish for a jb4 at msrp and we’re at 1500…

Is it still a more economical option at this point vs a partial unlock?

I haven’t seen many dyno charts from the Jesse tune but from what I read the concensus is that on average jb4 + custom tune + dp and intake will net you about 450 ish wheel?

Idk if it makes too much sense at these price points?

Anyone have done a dyno run after a Jesse tune on jb4 with the common combo of dp and intake?

I still see Jesse's price at 575, but honestly you can just get a secondhand JB4 here for $400 and run an OTS map...

Or post the logs in my thread, or on the JB4 forum for review to see if custom tuning is needed. Its not required to get a Jesse tune... He can charge what he does because everyone thinks its mandatory lol.

Expect ~440whp for dp, intake on 93 if you've got clean logs.

Femto + BM3 would be easily over $2k before even getting into custom tuning. You could make 40whp+ gain easily for under $500 on JB4.

 

[Awales74]

I'm starting to think there's an anti JB4 and 1 Fast Supra bias.

1 Fast Supra charges $575 American Dollars for a tune on a single type of fuel. In Canada, that's $794 based on my internet research. Nothing has changed but the exchange rate.

Is the JB4 solution a bit rich compared to the unlock and tune? Yes and no. Price to enter the JB4 game is still cheaper. The device is $529. The Blue Tooth is brutal at $149 plus another $30 for the app. $700 you have everything you need. The installation is a breeze (except for that stupid connector near the throttle body) so no need to pay for installation. Your car is never down. You never have to worry about your ECU going missing in Finland.

You also have the added benefit of being able to take it off and sell it. Tired of the game or you want to upgrade -- then you can sell the $700 for about $4-500. So your cost of ownership was only $2-300. Done.

Then you can consider getting the 1 Fast Supra tune. You don't have to. But if you do it's an additional $575. Unfortunately you can't really resell this. So cost of ownership of this is a bit brutal.

So $1275 all in paying full retail price. If you want out then you can recover about $500. Total cost to you was $775. Most of that went to 1 Fast Supra ONLY after you had a chance to play with the JB4 to see if it was for you.

About the other tuning solutions? You sell the car or decide you don't want a tune anymore? Can you recover the unlock money? Go to the dealership and forget to tell them to no program the car. How much more do you have to pay to re-unlock? How much again, is the tuning software and hardware? How much can you resell that for? What do you get out of the box OR are you having to go to a tuner and buy that too. How much can you resell the tuner's tune? How long was the car down? Good gosh what happens if the ECU gets lost or damaged. etc.. etc..

 

[ColonelAdama]

I'm starting to think there's an anti JB4 and 1 Fast Supra bias.

1 Fast Supra charges $575 American Dollars for a tune on a single type of fuel. In Canada, that's $794 based on my internet research. Nothing has changed but the exchange rate.

Is the JB4 solution a bit rich compared to the unlock and tune? Yes and no. Price to enter the JB4 game is still cheaper. The device is $529. The Blue Tooth is brutal at $149 plus another $30 for the app. $700 you have everything you need. The installation is a breeze (except for that stupid connector near the throttle body) so no need to pay for installation. Your car is never down. You never have to worry about your ECU going missing in Finland.

You also have the added benefit of being able to take it off and sell it. Tired of the game or you want to upgrade -- then you can sell the $700 for about $4-500. So your cost of ownership was only $2-300. Done.

Then you can consider getting the 1 Fast Supra tune. You don't have to. But if you do it's an additional $575. Unfortunately you can't really resell this. So cost of ownership of this is a bit brutal.

So $1275 all in paying full retail price. If you want out then you can recover about $500. Total cost to you was $775. Most of that went to 1 Fast Supra ONLY after you had a chance to play with the JB4 to see if it was for you.

About the other tuning solutions? You sell the car or decide you don't want a tune anymore? Can you recover the unlock money? Go to the dealership and forget to tell them to no program the car. How much more do you have to pay to re-unlock? How much again, is the tuning software and hardware? How much can you resell that for? What do you get out of the box OR are you having to go to a tuner and buy that too. How much can you resell the tuner's tune? How long was the car down? Good gosh what happens if the ECU gets lost or damaged. etc.. etc..

Good objective analysis of it. I've said it before, and will continue:

Jesse is definitely the most knowledgeable for 1 on 1 tuning support to get the absolute most out of your car.

That aside,
I regularly review logs and provide feedback for free, here and on JB4 forum because why not. I'm not going to give you the 1 on 1 tuning support at any hour of the day because I'm not paid for it. But you are more than welcome to share logs of running an OTS map and I will look when I can, and make a recommendation. 2500 rpm to redline in 3rd or 4th gear. Upload to datazap and link in my thread.

Anyone can look on the JB4tech forums that I've gotten several B58 cars sorted out over the last few months.

 

[Mori]

I feel like with all the info in Colonel’s thread, you probably have enough clues to DIY map 6 on an AT at least

 

[ColonelAdama]

I feel like with all the info in Colonel’s thread, you probably have enough clues to DIY map 6 on an AT at least

Yup, @i3igpete with a 2023 AT, worked with him a bit to understand the differences between MT and AT (with similar mods). AT definitely easier lol, less issues when running the same map.

 

[ope_sry]

Jesse is great, I’ve had his custom tune on Jb4+E40+meth for over a year with no complaints. Ballpark 450- 500whp, and great support. Will be unlocking soon, but I think this is the best price of admission to have some real fun in the car.

 

[M3ltdown]

My apologies, it’s the first time I see 1 fast Supra convert the prices to cad. It’s still the same price. I thought it jumped to 808 cad my apologies.

Mods if you see this message I was unable to delete the thread, please delete.

I'm starting to think there's an anti JB4 and 1 Fast Supra bias.

1 Fast Supra charges $575 American Dollars for a tune on a single type of fuel. In Canada, that's $794 based on my internet research. Nothing has changed but the exchange rate.

Is the JB4 solution a bit rich compared to the unlock and tune? Yes and no. Price to enter the JB4 game is still cheaper. The device is $529. The Blue Tooth is brutal at $149 plus another $30 for the app. $700 you have everything you need. The installation is a breeze (except for that stupid connector near the throttle body) so no need to pay for installation. Your car is never down. You never have to worry about your ECU going missing in Finland.

You also have the added benefit of being able to take it off and sell it. Tired of the game or you want to upgrade -- then you can sell the $700 for about $4-500. So your cost of ownership was only $2-300. Done.

Then you can consider getting the 1 Fast Supra tune. You don't have to. But if you do it's an additional $575. Unfortunately you can't really resell this. So cost of ownership of this is a bit brutal.

So $1275 all in paying full retail price. If you want out then you can recover about $500. Total cost to you was $775. Most of that went to 1 Fast Supra ONLY after you had a chance to play with the JB4 to see if it was for you.

About the other tuning solutions? You sell the car or decide you don't want a tune anymore? Can you recover the unlock money? Go to the dealership and forget to tell them to no program the car. How much more do you have to pay to re-unlock? How much again, is the tuning software and hardware? How much can you resell that for? What do you get out of the box OR are you having to go to a tuner and buy that too. How much can you resell the tuner's tune? How long was the car down? Good gosh what happens if the ECU gets lost or damaged. etc.. etc..

 

[black_sedan]

scoop a used JB4 for $400ish. If you like maps 1/2 then spend the extra coin for the custom map. If you dont like it, you can re-sell the JB4 for close to what you paid and move onto an unlock/tune.

I just went the Jb4 route myself and the seller provided it with the car I bought. Im happy with map 1, but he did include Jesse's custom map with the JB4.

 

[i3igpete]

I feel like with all the info in Colonel’s thread, you probably have enough clues to DIY map 6 on an AT at least

eh, i would say that the workarounds that are discussed in that thread (overtarget/underboost) is not necessary on an AT and can cause the ecu to get confused down the road as the weather changes.

At the end of the day, the JB4 cannot adjust fuel or ignition timing on these cars. You cannot dial in -50% fuel and make it go lean even if you wanted to. This alone eliminates a lot of the dangers associated with piggybacks in the past like an s-afc, arc2, e-manage, vpc, etc. the jb4 is a boost controller, period. it just happens to operate via spoofing pressure sensors and wastegate duty cycle, rather than a traditional boost controller's pneumatic solenoid or stepper motor.

As long as you set the boost limits to be low and don't make wild changes between iterations, everything is well within the bounds of the factory lookup tables. If someone 20 years ago had figured out a way to get the stock ECUs to handle closed loop fueling at WOT, that would have blown everybody's balls off. Today the engine can run stoich mixtures at full Boost (thanks to DI) and doesn't even mind.

It's unfortunate that there isn't very much jb4 discussion on this forum, and there's so much garbage out there if you're just starting out. Everything on Facebook is continually rediscovered and then forgotten again. There's really no central place like stealth316 to start learning about the fundamentals anymore, and that's kind of a shame.

 

[ColonelAdama]

There's really no central place like stealth316 to start learning about the fundamentals anymore, and that's kind of a shame.

Agreed - most of the "dangers" anyone as ever had with the JB4 is probably running Map 3 or other strong additive maps, while they have a downpipe or other mods that will cause overboosting without proper WGDC tuning + not having a boost safety set.

Set a boost safety of 23 psi and you will never blow your turbo up.

As for JB4 fundamentals, i recommend the JB4 bible - written for N55, but similar enough to B58. Accumulation of most DIY info BMS have ever posted:
https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1224328&d=1433827618

 

[bushido]

JB4 is a piggyback, which some people prefer, so it can be more expensive than a partial unlock and people would still buy

don't use custom maps created for a car that isn't yours, period

 

[ColonelAdama]

don't use custom maps created for a car that isn't yours, period

More specifically, if you buy your JB4 used - factory reset it to the settings shown on this page: https://www.jb4tech.com/forum/model.../4984-jb4-b48-b58-firmware-settings-and-notes

and set it to Map 1 for logging.

 

[Delta1Seven]

Side question. Whats the best way to update my firmware of my JB4? It says to update firmware when you car is on battery power but engine off, I don't really think we have that option with push-button start?

 

[ColonelAdama]

Side question. Whats the best way to update my firmware of my JB4? It says to update firmware when you car is on battery power but engine off, I don't really think we have that option with push-button start?

Probably in the time between shutting off the engine and opening the door. The update will take a few min.

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