Originally Posted by Ziggyrama

Yup, yup, yup. You're not telling me anything I am not aware of Every model year of the WRX I tuned in the past, 02-07 had a different rev of the ROM. So, that's 6 different revs just for WRXs. STIs add another few to the mix. That means every rev has the maps in different ROM addresses

I really doubt that each trim of a Z for a given model year has a different ROM version. That would be insanely expensive to manufacture. They most likely have the same ROM which is capabable of working with different hardware options available on the car.

From what I've seen, finding the maps is actually pretty straighforward in the ROM. They are usually easy to spot since the ECU usually does a pretty obvious instruction set to access them. The hard part is figuring out how all the logic works along with the numbers in the maps. Another piece is figuring out the exact representation of the numbers and conversion formulas. For example, timing map will not store the degrees of timing in exact numbers that are human readable. There's usually a conversion formula to interpret the numbers so you or I can read them. Basic adjustments like timing or fueling are relatively easy to alter since the usage of the map is straightforward. It's all the other nasty little maps that are criptic that tend to be a pain to work with like open/closed loop transitions, knock detection ranges, compensation maps, etc. Those are a pain to figure out.

Technosquare is most likely staying busy disassembling the new model year ROMs and remapping everything for the new years. I really doubt that they keep going back to older year versions and redoing things. Every reflash company that I have seen prety much operates this way. They really don't spend the time to go back to older ROMs and redo things. I am willing to bet all the work now is happening on 07 ROMs.

I know it's a lot of work. I know it's hard. But hey, people have done this already on other cars. We have to aim high and hopefulyl with enough bright people willing to help, we can perhaps get something going. I'm sure Technosquare didn't get their reflash perfect either. The things that Cobb did wrong were just plain old out of laziness. For example, the maps weren't rescaled to higher than stock loads which were guaranteed on modified cars. The end result was like running on a half map with insufficient map ranges to cover the load values. Lame. Same went for knock detection ranges. In higher loads, the ECU would just stop listening for detonation because the "tuner" never got around to raising stock knock thresholds. That's just bad.

Maybe I am tainted after my experiences with tuners and the quality of the work. I just have a hard time buying into a product that a single place that makes it tells me is good and works awesome. I'd like to make that determination myself I guess. So it may take several years If anything, it will be lots of fun.