Thread: ecu upgrade

Hi all I am looking to do an ecu upgrade I am thinking of a stage 2 now I have no idea who does the best ecu upgrade I have narrowed it down to Davis performance ,Les Richmond and TRS my car is an 01 td5 Discovery manual. I am not interested in overseas upgrades just would like to know who people think does the best upgrade I will put in a D2A intercooler I have a 3 inch exhaust no muffler.
Tanks all Phillip

Originally Posted by laney

Hi all I am looking to do an ecu upgrade I am thinking of a stage 2

What is 'Stage 2'? It's just a designator that many places use to compare their own offerings between each other. It's not necessarily comparable between different brands/tuners.

Originally Posted by laney

I am not interested in overseas upgrades just would like to know who people think does the best upgrade..

Sounds to me like you don't really want to know who does the best tunes as you've already stated that you don't want to consider overseas options which drastically limits your choices. Consider the size of the Td5 market over in Europe compared to here in Australia, where do you think you'll find the tuners with the most experience?
I've also noticed, and experienced, that in the past few years a number of the overseas tuners have made some significant developments in their tuning ability able to produce more power, torque, better economy and less smoke as a result of these refinements through better knowledge and capability.

Originally Posted by laney

I have no idea who does the best ecu upgrade...

The 'best' is dependant on what your goals are to achieve. Someone whose chasing big power at any cost won't be happy with an economical towing tune. The best tune for one won't be the best tune for another. Define your intended goals for the tune first, then start looking at who will best achieve that.

Personally, in choosing the tuner I'd look for the following at a minimum:
Make sure that if they're loading a generic/predone tune in, that it's being tailored/customised either based on time on the dyno, test drivers or reviewing data logging (e.g. with international tuners working remotely you'll do test drives logging on the Nanocom and they're review the fueling inputs to alter the tune)
make sure that the tuner is willing to do the above mentioned updates and adjustments at no further cost
if you plan further modifications, such as aftermarket turbos (hybrid and/or VNT), intercooler, etc. check what happens on updating the tune to suit - full cost again, discounted price to change or free?

One of the biggest things you'll need to realise straight up is there is no measured/tested best. There's very few people who've used more than one tuner so there's little in the way of actual comparisons. So (as a hypothetical - I'm not saying that this is the way it is) someone who gets a Bruce Davis tune to their standard Td5 might think it's fantastic, without knowing that Jose could achieve better response, slightly higher power, less smoke and identical fuel economy. The reality is we are likely to never know who is the best.

Originally Posted by laney

I spoke to Bruce Davis he said a stock D2A intercooler would be fine

So are you just after 'fine' or 'the best'? The D2a intercooler is slightly better than the stock D2, but as James has mentioned, the aftermarket offerings are far superior and if your wanting to push the factory tune and turbo performance a worthwhile investment to help those gains, control EGT and provide some reliability in the mid to longer term.

​

Originally Posted by Kaaaiju

Why not an allisport or serck intercooler? Something bigger to help the egts