Went to AAM on Friday for the flash and tune. My gains were pretty good IMO. In all fairness though it was pretty ideal conditions to dyno (58 deg F and 7% humidity) Nice torque and power increase at midrange My z feels much more alive when driving her. Mike did a great job. I also got a tour of the place and saw some really beautiful z's and other rides with some awesome setups. Total cost of the tuned reflash was $980. Thanks again to Mike and the entire staff at AAM for their great work and professionalism.





Brought my dad with me:

 

Excellent numbers. isnt $980 a lil bit high for a reflash? I mean you could have gotten Emanage ultimate instead for the same price. congrats though.

 

Yeah it wasnt cheap, but I know nothing about tuning piggybacks... I really dont think one could have given me better gains and aren't they about the same price? Also, dont you need the reflash to take full advantage of them?

 

Excellent numbers and thanks for the dyno and photos. $$$$! WOW! Bring your credit card.

What were your dad's impressions?

 

My dad actually had a great time even though he looks bored as hell in that photo. As you know, he loves American muscle cars, but he gets excited over any type of extensive work on a car- like we saw in AAM's garage.

Mike really tuned the flash well. After the reflash we did some runs and then Mike manipulated some codes with the program and flashed my ECU again (I think he adjusted and flashed 4 times total). With him playing with the reflash parameters I saw my gains double compared to just the straight reflash. Its also good to see my exhaust pipes starting to get dirty again (I must have been running super lean).

 

Thank you for posting nice pics/info. It must be sweet to have your ride optimally dynoed!

Can anyone recommend a great affordable ECU piggy back system with menu selectable upgrades that yields decent DIY gains? Granted this will never achieve 100% custom dyno results, but intermediate gains until finishing all updates.

 

Matt,

Thanks for the kind words! It was great having you and your father over, and I enjoyed working with your Z on the dyno. Its always fun when a little tuning picks up 16lbs. torque in the midrange - where the power really counts Hope to see you and your father again in March when we have our 350Z/G35 Barbeque and Dyno Shootout!

 

If you want a user-tunable devise I would try the UTEC. You should pick up a good 5+hp & torque out of the box, and can then fine tune for another 5-10hp gain on the dyno.

Hope this helps,

 

Thank you Mike for the quick reply. Being in the middle of upgrades the self-tuned comparison to custom is very helpful.

 

WIll the ECU reflash void the factory engine warenty?

 

nice gain

 

One of the advantages of the ECU relash vs. a piggy-back computer is that we haven't heard of any customers having a warranty issue.

The Flash is vertually undetected by the dealer, as they cannot plug in and tell that anything has been changed.

Hope this helps,

 

Mike,

Can a removed UTEC be detected after driving it long enough for the ECU to resync itself (say two weeks)? Granted if the car isn't running....it won't resync.

Thank you!

 

If you had a UTEC, and removed it - nobody would be able to know it was there. The factory ECU doesn't store any codes, etc. when a piggyback computer is properly installed.

To take this a step further, when the UTEC is installed it is esentially "fooling" or "manipulating" the factory ECU. So the factory computer isn't aware it is installed and, therefore, doesn't set off any codes.

Hope this helps,

 

Thank you Mike for the clarification! UTEC appears an awesome upgrade.