OVTune Is proud to announce our 1.05 Tune for the 2016+ Tacoma 3.5L Automatic and Manual transmission is complete! (Pending Release)



EVERYTHING IS PROUDLY TESTED ON OUR VERY OWN 2017 TRD PRO.

Our complete list of changes are outlined below, and brief explanation of each change.

2GR FKS ENGINE CHANGES

Engine Changes -

A break down of engine control changes are listed below. Note that each thing is altered or enhanced from 1.04, and our 1.05 tune includes everything from our previous tune(s) (1.03,1.04) enhanced, modified or rewritten for better control.

Throttle -

Throttle airflow scaling and throttle angle scaling has further been fined tuned for better control, response and idle stability. We have further fine tuned the 3D Throttle to torque control tables that modulate how the throttle is opened when you press the accelerator.

What does this mean?

This means you will have better response than 1.04 while also having more stable control at very low engine speeds, which is matched our our new shift changes.

Airflow Control -

We have taken additional time to fine tune airflow and air-load control tables in the ECU, these tables ultimately limit "torque" (throttle angles) in the ECU which can limit power. By changing these tables we have further "unlocked" the ECUs throttle target requests to allow better throttle angles at high load. Note** Torque modulation and control is still present in 1.05 for safety reasons and the ECU will still use the throttle to manage torque as required.

Ignition Control - We have COMPLETELY patched the stock ignition control system with our own "EROM" package that we have implemented in the ECU that allows for finer ignition calibration and a wide range of load ranges which ultimately improve response, mpg and correction for knock events. See below.

Valve Timing Control - We have COMPLETELY patched the stock Valve timing tables with our EROM extended load tables which allow for much finer Valve angle tuning. See bloew.

OVTUNE Custom Tables "EROM" Patch Package - Engine

OrangeVirus Tuning has taken the time to completely modify and rewrite the stock "tables" inside the ecu with our own design and control.

First we started with one of the biggest problems with this engine. The ignition system. From over a year of testing, logging, and getting feedback and data from many trucks across the country, we have found one major problem they all share. Extreme amounts of detonation at low engine speed. We have seen knock spikes large enough for the ECU to request 8-10* of ignition retard from the base ignition tables at low engine speed (under 2000 RPM). These are not one-off events. This happens consistently and can, over time, cause engine damage, worse MPG, worse response and overall degradation of the drive-train.

We wondered why does this happen? What is going on? Well there are multiple issues. One being that the amount of valve timing being requested at high load and very low engine speed causes engine cylinder filling that, when paired with the static compression ratio 11.8:1 and 87 octane (even the engine manual notes the testing on 91 AKI.. also known as 91 octane), causes detonation. But what's worse is that not even 91 octane will completely prevent it on the stock ignition / tune.

Here is part of the reason why. The stock ignition tables use nearly 1/3 of the entire table for idle engine range. In our opinion, over the many cars we have tuned over the years this is quite a waste of space, and a waste of the total table resolution.

Do you see the area that is highlighted in blue? This RPM range barely covers from various IDLE RPM. We are talking about 200 or less RPM increments. Even an increment from 550 to 570 RPM. The actual RPM of the engine fluctuates +/- 50 RPM sitting at idle and this entire row/column range of ignition is almost never used. Not to mention that any time the accelerator is pressed this entire range of the table (nearly 1/3) of it is quickly bypassed as the engine is now beyond the speeds outlined in this section of the table.

The right side of this ignition table is higher RPM (above 1500) and "low engine load" range, which again is almost NEVER used during normal driving. So the actual "use-able" range of the ignition table is the area in yellow and green. A very big waste of space!

So we sought out not only to enhance the stock ignition tuning, but completely change it to make it more effective overall.

We have succeeded with this and as a result our EROM (EnhanceRom) tables now take place over the stock tables.

Here is one of our EROM ignition tables.

This gives us much greater control for fine tuning the ECU. But this table alone does not prove that the ECU is doing or using our ignition more effectively than stock, does it? So we put our tables to the test.

Are we seeing more effective ignition? Are we seeing more utilization and better resolution of ignition? Absolutely. See below.



Low Load Low Engine Speed Driving

During low speed driving (normal around town cruising) we have live traced the ignition targets being used by the ECU according to engine load and engine RPM. During normal around town cruising the ECU has 9 different load columns to choose from based on engine RPM.. vs stock of 4 columns.

Moderate Load Low - Moderate Engine Speed Driving

During Moderate driving including highway and around town driving the ECU can use, depending on load our new ignition table 13+ columns based on engine load and engine speed.. versus the stock ECU which has considerably less resolution. This allows us to more accurately fine tune ignition timing during each load point, so that every little bit of calculated engine loads have an ignition target suited to it.

Moderate - High Load Full RPM Range Driving

Where our ignition table really shines is when you are using the full RPM range of the engine. Each little load increment and resulting ignition target means that we have a wide range of control over ignition for varying engine loads at ANY engine RPM. This means we can quickly alter or recover ignition timing from quick changes in load, unlike the stock ignition table which, by effectively removing the use-ability of nearly half the table, does not have this ability.

High Load Full Throttle Complete Engine RPM Drive

During Full throttle you can see the engine has a wide range of ignition targets to select from depending on engine load. Again this allows for more effective and finer tuning of the engines ignition timing.

Low - Moderate Engine Load - Low RPM OFF ROAD 4 Wheel Driving

One of the most critical areas of ignition control on this engine is the RPM range from 800 RPM to 2500 RPM. This is where the engine RPM will be nearly 70% of the time during driving. Due to the low resolution of the stock ECUs table, the ECU cannot select from a wide range of targets to ensure the ignition timing is safe during all load calculations for that rpm. This is critically important during offroading where you will see very high engine loads and low engine speed. People who drive their trucks and know the characteristics of the well known detonation and "stumbling" this engine has at low engine speed. This is from what we outlined above, DETONATION. Bad stuff! Detonating at low engine speed while offroading is going to kill your driving experience and ultimately, over time damage the drivetrain (pistons, valves, etc).

Note, it's important to know that every engine detonates sometimes. It's a common occurrence and the reason finely tuned knock sensors exist. However the Tacoma is the exception, not the rule. The Tacoma has excessive amounts of detonation, and very high amounts at low engine speed. Enough to cause noticeable "STUMBLING" of the engine from actual MISFIRES. Our Ignition Timing tables goal is to remedy this, but it's not the only fix we are employing. See our Valve timing EROM for further enhancements.

Valve Timing EROM

While we would rather not show exactly what we do with the cams to fix stuttering issues and make more power, we can show you an image of our EROM valve timing table. The TOP table from the image below is our modified EROM Table. This table again extends engine load so that we have more fine tuned control of the intake valves. The stock VVT table not only targets too high of advance at low RPM which causes the stumbling from MISFIRES, but it again does not have the resolution needed to fine tune valve timing to various engine loads. Our table goes from 0 to 155% engine load which the stock ECU Table starts at 15% to 110% and 155% (unreachable normally just effective max as we also have in our table). The issue with this is something that many owners complain about. Lack of effective engine braking. When the engine is decelerating, the engine load drops. But in the stock ECU, the valve timing target will still use the column of 15% engine load (same as low load drive range). As a result you're still in "Atkinson" and the cylinders are bleeding off pressure. Therefore, you're getting less compression to help with engine braking. With our EROM table we can take control of deceleration and target valve timing (like below) that helps increase cylinder pressure, and increase engine braking. Unfortunately the only true benefits of this will be for trucks that have manual transmissions due to the automatics programming logic to drop to higher gears when you let off the gas. (That's why the truck rpm will drop so low when you let off the gas). Only during downshifting will it ever come to use, but from what we have tested this leaves us with a maximum RPM range of 2000 rpm and below.

Transmission changes (Automatic) - Complete list of changes made to the automatic transmission.

- Shift Control changes for Drive Mode

One of the biggest complaints about this truck is the transmission. Everywhere we see posts on the forums, posts on facebook, everywhere! Toyota has tried, and.. created less than desirable results 4 times with various "TSBS" to fix or enhance the driving experience with shift changes. Yes, these TSBs help. But do they fix the problem? Nope. The problem is the logic of how the transmission actually selects a gear. (see our blog post on that here: Everywhere we see posts on the forums, posts on facebook, everywhere! Toyota has tried, and.. created less than desirable results 4 times with various "TSBS" to fix or enhance the driving experience with shift changes. Yes, these TSBs help. But do they fix the problem? Nope. The problem is the logic of how the transmission actually selects a gear. (see our blog post on that here: Tacomas Transmission ). So, by studying how this ECU controls the transmission, we figured out how to.. not band aid the problem. Not TSB the problem away, but actually fix the very tables that control how and when the transmission will select a gear.

We are VERY confident when we say we have SOLVED the transmission gear hunting on the highway and your truck will use 6th gear like NEVER BEFORE with our 1.05 release.

Here is a small sample video of us entering the highway and driving from 60 to 75 mph INCLUDING GOING UPHILL AT SOME POINTS.

Not only does our tune fix the transmissions "hunting" issue but we have changed the tables to make 5th gear the default downshift gear when you want to slightly accelerate from 6th. No longer will the truck dump from 6th to 4th and sling shot you forward. In most cases your truck may never even leave 6th gear on the highway, as ours doesn't! It took us a long time to understand the transmissions firmware and make effective, PERMANENT changes that allow the truck to shift and act responsibly every time you drive.

Here is a video of us entering the highway and our truck did not leave 6th for the entire drive. That's including varying the vehicles speed.

Previous drive test, colder weather

- Shift Scheduling changes

Shift scheduling changes have been completely retuned from 1.04 and 1.04R tune files. This includes completely rewriting the trucks AI shift / Cruise Control shifting with our EROM package.

- Shift Lock in S Mode

S Shift lock was covered in one of our previous blog posts and will be an optional add-on for 1.05. This allows you to lock the gears when you are in S mode and press the ECT button, disabling the trucks automatic downshifting and allowing you to full throttle the truck from nearly any RPM in any gear.

- Torque Converter Locking Control

We have modified the Torque converter locking control for unlock status, Half-Lock status and full lock status. This allows us to fine tune torque and locking for higher gears, especially on the highway where the truck will now be locked 90+% of the time, transferring the torque directly from the engine to the transmission.

Each gears torque converter control table(s) have been independently and uniquely tuned to match our shift scheduling changes.

- OVTune Custom "EROM" Patch For the Transmission (Automatic)

So.. Cruise control sucks huh? Probably second on the list of biggest gripes about this truck is a completely belligerent cruise control. 6th gear. No 4th gear. no 4th gear again. 5th gear NO 4th gear again!. While I'm not personally a fan of cruise control I understand the necessity. Tuning the cruise control was painful, but necessary. One thing we realized is that when the ECU is not using your foot as the commander for control, some wonky things happen with the AI. It becomes much harder to tune. So, we implemented our own "AI" into it, by modifying the tables with EROM. Rather than try to tune the stock cruise shift tables, we've implemented EROM patching to the tables and have rewritten the tables to our design, so that each gear is now more effectively used like in our new D mode. Note** with our EROM patch to cruise control, it works best when using it above 55mph.

At this current time our EROM changes do NOT work for adaptive cruise. Sorry we are working on this!

What is EROM?

EROM.. is OVTunes custom designed calibration tables inside the Toyota Phase 5 firmware. EROM, or EnhanceROM, has enhancements to stock tables by modifying the firmware itself. No longer are we constrained to the stock tables size, axis scales, or data interpolation. Using our custom EROM tables we can create any table we desire, at any size, with any axis resolution we desire. This makes tuning the Engine and transmission much, much easier while also creating a BETTER tune for you. Luckily Toyota leaves plenty of space (more than 300kb of empty ROM space) for us to fully utilize. The Phase 5 ECU use a 32 bit proprietary NEC based processor from Renesas and is quite powerful. (Not quite as powerful as the new RH850 in the newest Toyotas and Lexus.. but don't worry we will EROM those too!).

So, what is EROM and why does it help?

I'm going to explain this from a tuners point of view. Imagine a tuner as an "electronic painter.".. Bob Ross of the Binary age.. if you will. Well what is one thing we know about painting? When you have a bigger canvas, you can paint more, you can use more colors, and you can make your painting just that much better. Imagine if the "Last Supper" was painted on a napkin. It wouldn't be much more than stick figures. Well...that's an issue tuners run into when calibrating stock ECUs. They are limited to the canvas the stock ECU programmers put in there.

So, in the toyota ECU, we have exploited this "canvas" so we can stretch it. Squash it. Reshape it completely.

Here is an example of what we mean. Take a look at this "canvas."

Not too much can be done with it right?

What if a tuner desires MORE canvas. We need more canvas to create a better tune. In 99% of cases.. a tuner is limited to the size and implementation of the table from the OEM manufacture. Not the case with us.

We take the stock manufactures table and exploit it. In a good way. We create a bigger canvas, and as a result more work can be done, creating a finer tune.

Much, much better. More work to be done and more work can be done.

So, what is EROM? it is our own table implementation firmware inside Toyota ECUs. It is our own way of making the "canvas" work for what we want it to do, not what Toyota wants it to do.

1.05 Release information -

So, everyone is wondering, when does 1.05 release!? Well, we are working on that! We are hoping to have everything ready for release before Christmas 2018. Now that our tune update is officially complete, we are working on updating the framework for updating our customers, like flash manager, flashing software updates, etc.

Our Goal is to bring you 1.05 before years end.

Thank you everyone! Happy holidays and Happy tuning!

So, we sought out to completely rewrite the tables with our own design. We modified the table size / allocation in memory, the axis data and targets themselves. Below are examples and explanations of of why we did this.Here is an image of theignition table(s) (there are quite a few of them for various scenarios, and high / low octane also known as "high det" "low det" tables).