Hi everyone!

I had a Eurocharged ECU tune done on my NA in 2011. It made the car feel more responsive (on top of a sprint booster) and squeezed out a little more hp/torque but it was definitely noticeable and fun.

Years later, after selling my NA, I purchased a SRT6 with a pulley and Eurocharged tune on the car from the previous owner. Since The 65mm Supercharger pulley was the black aluminum pulley and the bearing was definitely on its way out. Since I only heard bad things about aluminum pulleys and don’t trust that they can withstand the pressure the SC puts on them, I upgraded to a 65mm Steel pulley (the ONLY way to go unless you want to have a pulley grenade in your engine bay).
From attending many Cars & Coffee as hearing great things about the company on MBWORLD I wrote to V-Tech in Georgie (the country). The owner has a great reputation on multiple forums and have been around for many many years.
So I had him send me an OBDII cable and tailor a tune for the smaller pulley. I asked him to send me a 91 Octane tune as well as a 93 octane tune as I had always been curios if there really is a felt difference.

Let me tell you, the V-Tech Tune was AMAZING. Huge difference from Eurocharged. The car felt so powerful, torquy and the pedal way more responsive (I actually turned off my sprint booster for now till I get used to it).
I would even say, with the V-Tech Tune you won’t need a Sprint Booster. This is by no means a knock on Eurocharged as I know how amazing, reputable and safe their tunes are but man…I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a huge difference with the V-Tech Tune. I then installed a Needswings Dual Cold Air Intake and had him send me another tune.
His tuning upgrades are free and the price is about half of what NW charger. After doing weeks of data logging, I haven’t found anything in-safe or “on the edge” of acceptability when it comes to long term reliability. The tune is AMAZING!
What other tuners do you guys use and what has been your experience in respect to ECU tunes?

Now on to TCU tuning….I have always wanted the Crossfire Automatic to shift just a little bit more aggressively. So I did my research….V-tech offers a TCU tune I would love to try sometime as I hear great things about it.
There is also a guy, Troy, who has a website named MK-Ultra. He sells a wide variety of TCU tunes with all sorts of cool functions. He doesn’t have the Crossfire/SLK listed under his list of cars but he tunes any 722.6 Transmission and so he could draft up a tune for our cars easily. Unfortunately he is pretty short communicating per email, won’t answer a lot of questions and stopped responding after a couple of email exchanges.

There is a video on his TCU tune on YouTube called MKUltra SLR Tune. He offers tunes baes on the SLR software and all sorts of Manual/Manual+ tunes. Again, sounds like the tunes would be great but if you can’t get him to sell you one, it’s pretty pointless. Unfortunately it seems like he loves to also badmouth other tuners and he literally told me he isn’t interested in entering the Crossfire Community as there aren’t enough Crossfire for him to make it worthwhile. Not the best sentence to potential customers and I doubt he sells TCUs every day like hot bagels so I’d imagine he would be glad if more people would give his product a chance.

That brings me to Andrew Tieken…he is a forum member and sells his 4-Mode tune through the Mercedes Swap Shop. The tune comes with 4 modes - Comfort, Sport, Agility (racing mode) and Manual. You switch cycle through the different modes by pressing the W/S button back and forth. The Manual mode is a true manual, that will not up or downshift automatically and only once you either use the shifter (or if you have your paddle shifters).
Man do I love Agility mode and all the other modes. If you want to cruise and it’s wet, the Comfort mode is amazing, you won’t feel the shift points at all. But the real fun begins in Agility as it has very fast shift points, hold the gears longer and is quicker to downshift at slight depressing of the pedal completely changing the properties of the car. It’s an amazing tune and worth every $ of it.
What other TCU tunes have you used or what are your experiences with TCU tunes?

Lastly, there is a very interesting project going on by a guy named Rand_Ash. He has a few videos out on YouTube but his website is https://ultimate.nag52.net.
He basically built a 722.6 from scratch but much better with better processors and way higher capabilities. He is in the testing phase and is looking for testers but from what I have hear and seen, his work is amazing. The TCU he built, if fine tuned will be like nothing else out there and can be used in many different models and easily tuned towards what it is your are looking for. So it’s been a cool project to follow. He also is a great guy and very honest, which isn’t always the case in the tuning scene,
Can’t wait to see how his TCU turns out once it’s all the way tested and finished and I would love to test one myself. I know he has a couple of folks with Crossfire among his tester group.

Either way, I’d love to hear your experience with ECU/TCU tuning and what other tuners are out there you might have used.

 

Im honestly surprised there isnt more folks interested or talking about the "ultimate nag52" for our cars.


I just wanted to say, i just finished building one of his v1.3 boards, and as soon as the warmer weather shows up, ill be tossing it into the car and getting to the tuning!

Reason ive gone down this path is i have been driven to the point of insanity with how horrible the stock 722.6 TCM programming in on the srt-6 cars. It is by far one of the slowest and lethargic transmission controllers ive ever experienced. Many might not even notice it during day to day regular driving, but the factory tcm program is extremely "lazy". My 2 big beefs were always, slow lazy shifts at low throttle input beyond the point of reason. And excessively delayed shifts when commanding a shift in manual mode. "ive got my foot into it, i told you to shift 2 seconds ago, let me pass that onto the transmission via morse code..... 5 years later..".
Eurocharged has a tune that ive heard helps fix these issues, but its still held back with the original mb cpu.. You cannot deny the fact that Rand_Ash's amazing work is 100x fold more capable then what MB did 20+ years ago with cpu speeds and sensor feedback logarithms. Hes using the latest high speed cpu's and much more complex torque and shift program logarithms. Just the increase memory space in microcontrollers really opens the doors to implement many more features. Along with the ability to run the 722.6 in standalone mode for those of use who have other theoretical projects that could swap a 722.6 into...

Obviously this isnt a set it and forget it venture. This is suited for those of us who want to have full control over shift feel, performance, and feedback, and are willing to take the time and effort to fully utilize a open source fully adjustable TCM. For those who want a set it and forget it package, this isnt for you imo.

I am looking forward to the spring, and i will definitely keep everyone updated on here with how it goes.

 

all sounds great, but Josh and James did a tune and tcu 4 mode tune on my srt6, I now hold the record for a srt6 with no posi rear and street tires ,,12.008 @114
in the 1/4 mile, my transmission was /is stock only with the tunes that Josh& james did for me . to me if U want a great tune for your ECU or TCU you should
call josh at the mercedes shop. jim, home of the world fastest crossfire 10.59 @ 132

 

<<It is by far one of the slowest and lethargic transmission controllers ive ever experienced. Many might not even notice it during day to day regular driving, but the factory tcm program is extremely "lazy". My 2 big beefs were always, slow lazy shifts at low throttle input beyond the point of reason. And excessively delayed shifts when commanding a shift in manual mode.>>

This is my biggest complaint since owning my NA. I mention it to other owners and they have no idea what I am talking about. Takes way too long to downshift on command. James

 

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it. I also want to know it.

 

Definitely keep us posted! I am looking forward to your results. His project is super fascinating but I think eventually, to reach the masses, he will have to offer a "user friendly" version of his TCU. I know it's still kind of in the testing phase but the average user doesn't want to donwload updates constantly and tinker with self-tuning.
I hope he eventually gets there because his board and conductors/processor is sooooo much more powerful than the OEM Bosch one and the capabilities are endless. And it can be tuned for just about any vehicle which is super cool.

Besides that, I currently drive the Mercedes Swap Shop, programmed by Andrew Tieken, TCU tune and like it very much. It does have 4 modes (Manual, Sport, Comfort and Agility) and is definitely worth it. It turns the car so much sportier and shifts become that much quicker. If anyone is considering getting a tune, I'd suggest getting that one. I hope in the future the Rand_Ash Ultimate TCU will be a plug and play and forget kind of TCU with all the cool features and those super fast shifts.

I was always wondering if anyone is driving the MKUltra ECU tunes from Troy. I heard great things from the Mercedes community, especially the M113K folks. Unfortunately he isn't very responsive per email and when asked questions he wasn't the most friendly fella I ever came across plus he basically said in no uncertain terms that he couldn't give a crap about the Crossfire community cause we are too small for him. That said, he does offer TCU tunes for the M112 and M112K platform so that would work in our car. I just never met anyone who actually can give a review on those tunes.
He has quite a few options, some based on the Mercedes SLR programming (which I think the Tieken tune might be adapted from as well).

 

I will definitely keep everyone updated as i progress thru this. I built a 2nd board as a spare and they are both currently waiting to be tested on the xfire once the better weather finally arrives and the car comes out of hibernation. I also have a friend with a e55 wagon that will likely be a candidate for one tcu controller, and setting up some fun shift modes.

Obviously yes, this isn't in its current form a set it and forget it type of tcu controller for the masses. But offers full customization for those who can and want to tinker. But i honestly have full respect for Rand_Ash for the time spend, development, and reverse engineering hours he has spend on this project. Its a serious feat, and im honestly very grateful that these types of home brew type ventures are becoming capable as tech evolves.

 

I have said it before and I will keep saying it: A Crossfire with an automatic transmission is NOT a "sports car". An SRT Crossfire with the MSS Transmission mod IS ONE HELL of a sports car.
Ive driven an SRT with and without that tuning mod - night and day difference. I had all the control over the transmission in James' SRT that I have in my manual.