New owner - where do I start?

Hey guys,

I've just purchased a 2010 MPS luxury in QLD. I've been doing a lot of reading on tunes and upgrades but nothing that truly applies to what I wanted to get out of this car.

I wanted to get some more kw out of the car, without increasing the volume too much. I'm more interested in that lower end torque. I've read about various tunes, specifically ECUTEK. As someone who is new to this world, I wasn't sure what was required or where I should start. I don't know if I need to upgrade any parts to handle a remapped ECU, or if there are any steps that should come prior to this.

Any or all information is greatly appreciated!

Thanks frems...

Hi and welcome!

Getting a bit more torque and throttle response is fairly easy with some of the off the shelf tunes - COBB or hypertech are two examples that don't necessarily need any mods and will improve throttle response, lift torque limits in the lower gears and give you a bit more.

Focusing on low end torque is an interesting but potentially risky approach. There's a few things to consider - low end torque, or at least too much of it puts you into danger territory in terms of reliability. You can't push the boost too high below 2500rpm without detonation; that's something to watch out for.

But you can get some strong torque response in the low and mid range with minimal mods and a tune. This is a little like what I was chasing when I thought about what I would do with my BK. What I chose to do was to open up the intake and exhaust close to the engine and leave the stock OEM airbox and downpipe in place. I did inlet pipe, big 3.5" TMIC, turbo manifold and basic tune. Torque and throttle response is great and the OEM airbox and DP place a hard limit on gas flow through intake and exhaust, which minimizes risk of overdoing it and pushing beyond the fueling capacity which can be quite risky in our vehicles.

I expect my BK would not keep up with more comprehensively modded vehicles in the top end, but at low to mid rpm, and with the low gear torque limits lifted by a tune it is extremely torque-y and responsive. Chirpy sharp launches are pretty easy - a lot easier than stock that's for sure. Requires a bit of throttle modulation - easy to give it too much and axle tramp on standing start or simply light the fronts up on rolling WOT.

To push mine further, the obvious next mods are then a pod filter and downpipe - the ones I chose not to do when I wanted torque and response without sacrificing reliability - but to support those mods, the high pressure fuel pump becomes very important to upgrade so it doesn't lean out and pop your motor, and the tuning should be carefully tailored to the vehicle, again to avoid expensive boom. Attention to detail becomes more and more important the further you take it.

In terms of tuning, it is more a case of adjusting the ECU to suit your mods rather than choosing mods to suit what you are doing with your ECU. You can get modest gains from ECU tuning with no mods at all. For example the entry level mods that COBB recommend for their stage 1 tune is just an aftermarket filter and a rear engine mount.

thank you for that info nexus helped me out a bit i just got my 2007 mps mazda 3 .

i want to keep my car pretty low key and simple what do you think about just upgrading a coldairintake insted of the box ( i like the sound )
an doing a tune threw chip torque on the goldcoast as that seems to be the closest tuner to me thats good.