Upgrade to V2 or stay with my V1

[Matt0matic]

Just got a V1.2 that hasn't been upgraded and has zero licenses remaining. So my options are to either buy a V1 license for my car or upgrade to the V2.

I bought it just to play around with it with my car; so bare minimum I would need to purchase one license to do just my car. But I don't want to spend money pointlessly- so I'm concerned after purchasing one license for my car and after tuning that I will want to upgrade to the V2, which comes with two licenses. So $125 for one PCM license and stick with the V1 or another $500 for the V2 with two licenses.

So my question is what would you do in this situation? Upgrade? Stick with the V1? Does the V2 offer enough benefits over the V1 for someone who is completely green to tuning?

Thanks for any responses!
Matthew

[joecar]

Hi Matthew,

The main difference is that V2 allows you to read/write the PCM without needing the laptop present in the vehicle.

What year/model/vehicle do you have...?

[Matt0matic]

The car is a '99 Camaro with a 5.7 and manual.

So with a V1 I'd need to be in the car with the Flashscan and a laptop and do the reading/writing from inside the car; were-as with the V2 I'd only need need to read the PCM with the Flashscan and then can modify the tune on any PC and then reflash the computer with the new tune by plugging in the V2?


Hi Matthew,

The main difference is that V2 allows you to read/write the PCM without needing the laptop present in the vehicle.

What year/model/vehicle do you have...?

[ScarabEpic22]

Yes, with all V1s you must have a laptop (or nearby desktop) to flash tunes. You can do some standalone logging for ~30 mins as well with a V1. V2s allow unlimited standalone logging (drop in a 2gb sd card) and you can read and flash tunes without a laptop.

Really depends what you want to do with your car. Do you just want to tune it once and call it good, or continually tweak it? I have both a V1 and V2, havent touched my V1 since about 6mo after I bought my V2 as I dont need to.

Sidenote- What license type is your V1? Personal Scan&Tune or Commercial Scan&Tune? (I ask because a common upgrade for 99-01 F-bodies is to flash an 02 OS in, better driveability and more table resolution, you cannot perform this upgrade with a Personal license so you'd have to spend more $$ to upgrade to Commerical to do that.)

[Matt0matic]

Really depends what you want to do with your car. Do you just want to tune it once and call it good, or continually tweak it? I have both a V1 and V2, haven't touched my V1 since about 6mo after I bought my V2 as I dont need to.
Continually tweak it. Learn as I go along. If I do some drastic upgrade to the car I'd probably take it someplace to get it professionally tuned then continue to tweak as time goes on. Building an LS2 with L92 heads to go into the car eventually which I figure is probably past my current tuning ability.


Sidenote- What license type is your V1? Personal Scan&Tune or Commercial Scan&Tune? (I ask because a common upgrade for 99-01 F-bodies is to flash an 02 OS in, better driveability and more table resolution, you cannot perform this upgrade with a Personal license so you'd have to spend more $$ to upgrade to Commercial to do that.)
Personal. Would it be worthwhile to take it to a shop and has the '02 operating system installed?

[joecar]

The upgrade from V1 Personal to V1 Commercial is $50 and like Erik said will allow you to flash in a different OS.

You could actually flash in the 2002 OS... you would copy all your tables into the new file (table-by-table, takes about 2 hours of steady work), and then you could flash this into your PCM.

V2 already includes the ability to flash OS's so you would be looking at the V1 to V2 upgrade for $499. If you do it right, you can duplicate the licenses from your V1 to your new V2 and retain the 2 unused licenses that come with V2 (i.e. your new V2 would have all your V1's licenses plus the new unused licenses).

You said that you would continually tweak... V2 is perfect for this as on the SD card ($5 from Amazon) you can store many tune files and log files.

As of a recent firmware release candidate V2 has gained the ability to full flash the LS1B/0411 PCM (i.e. perform an OS change).

Sure, the V1 to V2 upgrade is almost $500 (you would end up with 2 unused licenses and you would duplicate your V1 licenses), but you would need to spend $150 on your V1 (Commercial upgrade plus 1 license).

If you do the V1 to V2 upgrade, then your V1 will be frozen where it's at, it will not be able to accept any more new licenses (it will still retain its current licenses as a backup).

[ScarabEpic22]

Thats a tough call, as Joe mentioned you're looking at $175 just to make your V1 do what you want (you really should do the 99->02 OS upgrade, everyone says it makes a huge difference). Or $500 for 2 licenses and a new V2 (licenses $125ea, so for $250 you get a V2).

It comes down to whether you think you'll ever want to tune a vehicle that the V1 doesnt support (anything that uses CAN) and/or want the standalone features the V2 offers. If not, then the V1 still does the exact same thing at the end that the V2 does: tune your car. Do you have a laptop to take in the car with you? If not, then might be worth it to buy a V2 and not get a laptop (believe me, $250 laptops suck).

[joecar]

Thanks Erik, I forgot that the licenses are $125 each.

[Matt0matic]

Thats a tough call, as Joe mentioned you're looking at $175 just to make your V1 do what you want (you really should do the 99->02 OS upgrade, everyone says it makes a huge difference). Or $500 for 2 licenses and a new V2 (licenses $125ea, so for $250 you get a V2).

It comes down to whether you think you'll ever want to tune a vehicle that the V1 doesnt support (anything that uses CAN) and/or want the standalone features the V2 offers. If not, then the V1 still does the exact same thing at the end that the V2 does: tune your car. Do you have a laptop to take in the car with you? If not, then might be worth it to buy a V2 and not get a laptop (believe me, $250 laptops suck).

Yep Erik that sums up my opinions. I can do $175 (License and commercial) and stick with the V1 OR another $325 for the V2 with a spare license..

If I stick with the V1 the manual transmission doesn't have any PCM programming? So I won't need to purchase two licenses if I stick with the V1 and my six-speed car.

[Matt0matic]

Thanks for the responses thus far! Seems like there really isn't a cut and dry and clear winner in this situation. I'll have to think about this some more; as I do not know if the additional utility of the V2 will be worthwhile in my unskilled and current lack of interest in tuning more than my car. But I will be at a clear loss if I decide to tune another car and stay with the V1...

[ScarabEpic22]

For your car, the engine and transmission are controlled by the PCM so you only need 1 V1 PCM license (for the Duramax LB7/LLYs you'd need 2, 1 for the ECM and 1 for the Allison TCM). But down the road, if you want to tune a vehicle that has both an ECM and TCM, you'll have to use 2 licenses with a V1 vs 1 with a V2.

Id look at it like this: Do you want to use EFILive on any other vehicle besides your Camaro, now or in the future? If the answer is yes, then a V2 upgrade might not be a bad idea to future-proof yourself. If it is no, then buy a V1 Commercial upgrade and a V1 license and be on your merry way.