Quote:
Originally Posted by MPBK
You seem to be stuck with the idea that an engine can produce infinite power, and it's up to the software to pull that power out.
That's not the case.
Unless you can change the hardware as well, software can only do so much.
Let me give you a simplistic and not very accurate picture, in the hopes of making it easier to see the big picture.
Imagine a control panel that's wired to an engine. This panel controls all aspects of the engine operation. This panel is full of buttons, each graduated from -5 to +5. Each button controls one parameter in the engine, say a button might control the fuel/air mixture, another might control the time when spark plugs fire, etc.
Often times, the parameters are interrelated, and optimal engine performance depends on (the art of) finding the best position for each knob, given the position of all the other knobs.
Say BMW delivers this panel (or the software version of it) with all buttons in the center position (position 0).
Suppose you crank the fuel/air mixtrure button a couple of notches (to position +2). You notice that HP increases, but you may also notice that fuel economy suffers.
Well, a tuner like Cobb, whose purpose is to maximize HP and couldn't care less about fuel economy, might crank that knob up to +5. They sell that version to you.
Now let's say that BMW found some other way to control fuel economy. As a result, they can afford to turn that button up to position +2. They sell that new version as the PPK.
Your question is: if Cobb took this new BMW setting (or +2), can they now crank it up to +7? There is no +7. We're not changing hardware, remember?
Even if they revised their version, Cobb's software would probably deliver less of an increment over the BMW+PPK version, because they have already maxed out in their previous version.
Unless, of course, Cobb finds that they didn't really max out. That's a different story.
Hope this helps.
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Thanks for the explanation, but I'm really not stuck on the idea than an engine can produce infinite power. Really, I'm not.
All I was getting at is this: You mentioned that tuners use a snapshot of the engine software to base their tunes. So, like in your example, if you get a software update from the dealership that's a version higher, then, according to you, your tune may be useless because "you can't just reload the 3rd party tuner's software when you get home. You'd undo the fix the dealer made. Your tuner software is now useless, and you'll have to wait for your tuner to take a snapshot of version 4.4 and port their changes over."
So my question is simply will Cobb's tune work for cars with the PPK software version? Or will we, as you put it, have to wait for the tuner (i.e. Cobb) to get a snapshot of this version of software?
Notice I am
not asking if its possible to combine the power of the PPK and the tune. Doesn't work like that, got it.