 Welcome to another episode of Cobb U. Getting the most performance out of our car is what we're constantly trying to achieve. But did you know that the first step in the upgrade path is not a bolt-on part, but rather an ECU tune? So why is an ECU tune so important? It'll allow you to take your car out on the weekend and have some fun. Back to business as usual, come Monday morning. And when you're ready to hit the town, they don't have too much fun with it. And then right back to having fun when you want! That's great, but how does it all work? All modern vehicles over the last few decades have an ECU, or engine control unit, like this one, to monitor and control your engine. Think of it like the brain of your engine. The ECU connects to a multitude of sensors all over your engine, like this MAF sensor in the air intake. Each sensor is unique and is sending specific signals back to your ECU about the parameter it's monitoring. There are hundreds of parameters being monitored simultaneously. They can range from the basics, like air-fill ratio, timing, boost, to things that are a little more complicated, like turbo-dynamics and wheel-slip percentage. The ECU then takes this information and does calculations to make your engine run the way the manufacturer wanted it to. Now, each manufacturer has already programmed how to tune your car from the factory. They've made decisions on how your engine should run based on a number of factors, like performance and fuel economy. For example, a GTR out of the factory is going to be tuned to give you the most power, so it's going to be less fuel efficient, whereas a base model Corolla is going to be tuned for the best fuel economy. So you might not get to your location very fast, but you're going to have a lot of fuel. These tunes are accessible and can be adjusted to meet your desired results. That's what ECU tuning is all about. The adjustments are made using calibration tables for various things, such as RPM, load, and air-fuel ratio. The ECU reads data from these tables and controls the engine accordingly. The values are adjusted to account for different fuels, specific modifications, or just get more power out of your stock parts. By doing this, the performance of your engine can be increased immediately, even on a stock vehicle. For example, if we look at boost on a stock STI and adjust the target, which determines how much boost we are trying to run, we can target more boost to increase power. We can see that by doing this, we gain more power and even more if we adjust additional tables. This power gain is through just tuning without ever touching your engine. As simple as that sounds, each vehicle responds completely different from the next when adjusting the same parameter. This is where having solid knowledge of what your vehicle is capable of handling is extremely important because adjusting the parameters incorrectly could lead to engine failure. Nobody wants that. We strongly recommend leaving these table changes to the pro-tuners or advanced users with knowledge of what each parameter does and how it affects your car. Gaining access to your ECU not only allows adjustments to existing calibration tables, but also allows Cobb to create brand new tables for custom engine builds or add new features to your car that weren't there before, such as launch control or flat foot shifting. Having access and tuning knowledge can really take your car to the next level. Throughout the life of ECU tuning, there have been and are various ways of tuning from chip or ECU replacement to open source software to what we do here at Cobb, handheld tuners and custom tuning software. Our access port is a handheld unit that gains access to your ECU by connecting it to your OBD2 port, which is usually found under the driver's side dash. The access port is a tool that is designed to be used over the life of your vehicle as you add or remove modifications or simply data log and monitor your car's performance. It's not just limited to flashing maps onto your ECU. There are a number of really cool features that are useful on a daily basis. Gages, which allows you to monitor between one to six gauges that are completely customizable to show you exactly what you want to see. A shift light that can be set to your desired RPM. The ability to data log a multitude of engine parameters then easily review the data to monitor the health of your vehicle. Access port manager software that allows you to transfer calibrations and data logs between the access port and your computer. Code reading and resetting. Preloaded OTS maps for complete plug-and-play action. Storage for up to 100 off-the-shelf or custom-protuned maps. Vehicle mounting accessories with magnetic holster and removable faceplates that you can paint with your favorite color for a custom look. That's going to do it for this episode. In the next video, we'll discuss what happens once you've tuned your stock car and you're ready to upgrade other parts. Thanks for joining us. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you can check out future episodes. I'm Emmy, your host for Cobb U. Remember to check out Cobbtuning.com for all your parts and tuning needs. Do you like the storage solutions featured in our studio? Then visit SonicToolsUSA.com to get more detailed product information.