Until just a couple of days ago, I was unaware that there were any piggyback tuning options available for the car. I like the idea of a piggyback on a potentially unreliable car far more than shipping the ECUs out for flashing and this car needs more power, so I need one ASAP. hah. Is anyone using one of those options? I was about to pull the trigger at DTE/chiptuning.com with a claimed +50hp, but it seems that TDI Tuning also has a similar offering and are showing +80hp gains. Thoughts? Reviews?
Hocky
How about the JB4 from John Burger Motorsports? http://www.burgertuning.com/alfa_romeo_JB4_bmw_performance_tuner.html
Edit: Just realized you are looking for tuning for the QV, so the JB4 does not apply.
Edit: Just realized you are looking for tuning for the QV, so the JB4 does not apply.
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I have a DTE Tuner. In all fairness I am the distributor for DTE Systems here in the US and am gauging the traffic on this site before taking the full plunge into sponsorship so I don't want to get into trying to sell the product here and violate the site terms. I can offer insight in to the market from a customer standpoint as that's how I got involved with them to begin with. I bought one for my S4. It worked. I asked the same questions about why they weren't really pushing them here. Got an ambiguous response. I offer to try and here we are.
That being said. It is a legit market. Some tuners are better than other. Some claims are accurate. Some are less than accurate. Some don't test and tune their product on a dyno, some do. There are a number of factors in what makes a successful tuner. Chief among them is signal speed, signal consistency and hardware quality. Here is my installation on my personal QV. The tune is a dyno tuned, dyno proven +50hp/+60tq.
That being said. It is a legit market. Some tuners are better than other. Some claims are accurate. Some are less than accurate. Some don't test and tune their product on a dyno, some do. There are a number of factors in what makes a successful tuner. Chief among them is signal speed, signal consistency and hardware quality. Here is my installation on my personal QV. The tune is a dyno tuned, dyno proven +50hp/+60tq.
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The boxes showed up today from TDI Tuning. I ordered mid morning on Wednesday and they arrived mid day from the UK on Friday. That is pretty good turn around. Their sales team was responsive when I asked questions prior to ordering, too. Everything looked professionally packaged, good directions, and the parts look like high quality units. I went ahead and threw them into the car right away (you receive 2 piggy backs, 1 for each bank) since the install looked like it would be quick. I popped the hood, let it sit for a bit for everything to go to sleep, and then popped the connectors on and zip tied everything in place. It took maybe 20 minutes to get everything in place, routed, and tied up. The car fired right up with no dash christmas trees, so that was a good start. You're supposed to drive for a while on level 4 before moving up to levels, so I did. There is a pretty substantial torque increase at level 4 and more so at level 7. It definitely picked up good power and torque, but it is really hard to quantify what that means exactly. Ultimately, it does work and the car does feel quit a bit stronger, particularly in the mid range where it really didn't have much punch in stock form. I'll see how it does over the coming months and once the track opens up, I'll go try to make a 1/4 mile pass just to see how the gains look. So far, so good!
TMC Motorsport Piggyback option
FWIW to the OP, I have one of these available for sale that is still BNIB. I'm going to get an exhaust and bench tune soon, so am going to hold off on installing this and use the money to fund the bench tune: https://www.tmcmotorsport.com/product/5611
I've used TMC boxes for many years and have nothing but excellent experience with them, and these are tuned specifically for each application, etc.: https://www.tmcmotorsport.com/product/5611
PM if interested.
FWIW to the OP, I have one of these available for sale that is still BNIB. I'm going to get an exhaust and bench tune soon, so am going to hold off on installing this and use the money to fund the bench tune: https://www.tmcmotorsport.com/product/5611
I've used TMC boxes for many years and have nothing but excellent experience with them, and these are tuned specifically for each application, etc.: https://www.tmcmotorsport.com/product/5611
PM if interested.
Anyone have experience with the TDI tune for a 2.0L? They claim increase to 344 BHP and it's tempting at about $400. Seems a little far fetched.
Wow, dodging potholes and running on cold tires up here with the Baby Beast and I wonder what you could possibly do with that extra power? Wait, oh yeah, you said it. Drag racing. 
Ha-ha enjoy and be safe. Let us know how it goes.
Ha-ha enjoy and be safe. Let us know how it goes.
Just for reference...
A new Giulia QV could easily be had for under $65k.
Alternatively, the absolute minimum you would ever find a new C63S for is $85k (if that) or an M4 CS at just over $100k.
--That leaves A LOT of room in the budget for other mods and tuning.
My good friend's C43 Cab came with a sticker price of just over $75k and Merc wouldn't even budge on it.
I hope you aren't comparing the Giulia to anything American Muscle, cuz that's a whole different ballgame.
A new Giulia QV could easily be had for under $65k.
Alternatively, the absolute minimum you would ever find a new C63S for is $85k (if that) or an M4 CS at just over $100k.
--That leaves A LOT of room in the budget for other mods and tuning.
My good friend's C43 Cab came with a sticker price of just over $75k and Merc wouldn't even budge on it.
I hope you aren't comparing the Giulia to anything American Muscle, cuz that's a whole different ballgame.
Haha!, That's the spirit. But we all want more power, well some of us. Me? I have not even defintely floored it yet. Not enough room around here and I didn't want to try it on my first long trip down to PA last winter. A good thing because I forgot to get it inspected after purchase and found out late on Easter. No ticket thank God.
No ticket thank God.Yea, that is definitely true. The traction control and power limiting is definitely over active. The other thing that really kills me is the inability to brake boost the car from a roll. The transitional lag is bad so it makes doing stupid stuff on the highway not as good as it could be. Regardless, I didn't buy the car for its power - the driving dynamics are fantastic. If we can make it a bit faster than all the better. hah
Ordered the TDI chip...will post back results.
not a lot of guys modding their Stelvio QV's, nor track prep plans, over on stelvioforums.com :frown2:
interested to see lap times in this truck vs my GT3/GT4/RS...
not a lot of guys modding their Stelvio QV's, nor track prep plans, over on stelvioforums.com :frown2:
interested to see lap times in this truck vs my GT3/GT4/RS...
Hey there, Giulia QV owners! Did you all happen to see, very shortly here in February, that Madness Autoworks is releasing an “Engine Control Module” for the QV?! I am pretty excited about it myself, as I have been very pleased with Madness and their quality products and overall dedication to Alfa Romeo aftermarket parts and service. Here is a link to the module, which, in essence, is a piggyback tune:
https://madnessautoworks.com//alfa-...ulia-quadrifoglio-qv-29l-engine-control-module-maxpower-pro-by-madness-pid11001
I inquired with Madness on a private message using this forum, and I was able to speak at length over the phone with the Sales Manager here in SoCal at their Signal Hill location. He was great and spent time going over with me the module and its expectations. Sounds like up to +80hp and potentially even more torque can be generated with this tune. Since my pride and joy, a 2017 QV, is out of warranty come January 2022, I thought this may be a great add-on in the interim. Anyways, just wanted to share and ask if anybody else had done any research on this unit.
I do know there are some great ECU upgrades out there, and I simply wanted to share what I had read and learned regarding this Madness option. Thanks for your time, and be safe out there (but have a blast in the driver’s seat)!
https://madnessautoworks.com//alfa-...ulia-quadrifoglio-qv-29l-engine-control-module-maxpower-pro-by-madness-pid11001
I inquired with Madness on a private message using this forum, and I was able to speak at length over the phone with the Sales Manager here in SoCal at their Signal Hill location. He was great and spent time going over with me the module and its expectations. Sounds like up to +80hp and potentially even more torque can be generated with this tune. Since my pride and joy, a 2017 QV, is out of warranty come January 2022, I thought this may be a great add-on in the interim. Anyways, just wanted to share and ask if anybody else had done any research on this unit.
I do know there are some great ECU upgrades out there, and I simply wanted to share what I had read and learned regarding this Madness option. Thanks for your time, and be safe out there (but have a blast in the driver’s seat)!
I believe Flash Tunes are around $1300 at a couple of sources. That said, the piggyback is 2/3rds that, doesn't involve pulling/installing the ECUs and currently holds the fastest QV 0-60, so depending on what you want out of the car, it's pretty viable and pretty reasonably priced. That said, I think that 10.75 quarter mile QV is a flash.
Odds are, in a few years, more QVs will have been crashed and 2nd hand ECUs should come down in price... and a clone setup may be more viable.
Though it all comes back to the one question I've yet to hear answered. How come the dealer can flash my ECU but no one aftermarket can? I'm pretty sure they didn't pull my ECUs for the last update. I get that there's encryption involved, but when did that stop anyone? Pulling encryption keys out of memory on a running system is borderline common these days. Bribing someone with access to the keys is even more common. But I digress. I think my point was $900 for a piggyback vs. $1300 + time (every time you get a dealer flash update...) is pretty reasonable. All the way up until someone with an ECU flash crushes that 3.49 0-60, and suddenly the "value" for that $1300 flash goes up.
I love the fact that people are pretty exhaustively embracing all the options out there, as it allows the rest of us to make more informed decisions later.
Odds are, in a few years, more QVs will have been crashed and 2nd hand ECUs should come down in price... and a clone setup may be more viable.
Though it all comes back to the one question I've yet to hear answered. How come the dealer can flash my ECU but no one aftermarket can? I'm pretty sure they didn't pull my ECUs for the last update. I get that there's encryption involved, but when did that stop anyone? Pulling encryption keys out of memory on a running system is borderline common these days. Bribing someone with access to the keys is even more common. But I digress. I think my point was $900 for a piggyback vs. $1300 + time (every time you get a dealer flash update...) is pretty reasonable. All the way up until someone with an ECU flash crushes that 3.49 0-60, and suddenly the "value" for that $1300 flash goes up.
I love the fact that people are pretty exhaustively embracing all the options out there, as it allows the rest of us to make more informed decisions later.
I brought in my QV for the distance controller recall today. It took me 20 min to uninstall the Madness unit. Driving around without it all day, the car felt slugish and like I needed to give it more gas to get going--both off the line and in the mid-range. It was raining all day so I didn't get to play with the top end to compare it to what I am now used to.
I just put my baby daughter to sleep and went straight to the garage to re-install it. Once you get use to the throttle response and its eagerness to go there is no going back. a word of caution though, when there is a traffic gap, make sure you have enough space before you punch it as it is like getting shot from a slingshot and you will be standing on the brakes when that bumper you thought was so far away is not right in front of you.
I sure a flash is slightly faster but for the increased throttle response and power, I am happy with my piggy-back as it is more power than can be reasonably used in spirited driving. Also, when the turbo hits it is a lot more harsh so if you are not looking for that "push you into your seat" acceleration, than it is not for you.
I just put my baby daughter to sleep and went straight to the garage to re-install it. Once you get use to the throttle response and its eagerness to go there is no going back. a word of caution though, when there is a traffic gap, make sure you have enough space before you punch it as it is like getting shot from a slingshot and you will be standing on the brakes when that bumper you thought was so far away is not right in front of you.
I sure a flash is slightly faster but for the increased throttle response and power, I am happy with my piggy-back as it is more power than can be reasonably used in spirited driving. Also, when the turbo hits it is a lot more harsh so if you are not looking for that "push you into your seat" acceleration, than it is not for you.
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