Emira JB4 Tuning Now Available for I4 & V6 Cars!

[675430VME]

I have said this many time before but ppl were very ‘touched’ when I said over and over again that this car needs more POWER. I hope the JB4 is an improvement because the expensive 440 from the other vendor from Austria was shit in my personal case.

From my previous experience, they delivered, with wonderful customer service. I just ordered mine a few days ago and hopefully Boomgear can tweak it even further.

 

[David s]

I've been following this thread with interest. Apologies if I have missed it, but I'd be interested to know what ECU parameters the JB4 module manipulates for the V6. Fuelling and timing I assume, but not supercharger boost as that would require hardware changes? Anyone like to explain the techy details?

Yeah. Can’t help you with such techie stuff like you asked. There are quite a few a few on this site that have quite a deep knowledge of these sort of things. All I know is that Burger dynoed the car on OEM, and then dynoed the same car on the same dyno with map 1(91oct) and then followed by map 2(93oct), and each map showed an improved HP and torque figure than the one before. That is..65 hp and 95hp over the baseline OEM. Now. If Burger is legit, and not bullshitting with its figures, that kind of works for me. How it works is for others on the site to explain.

 

[Milk242]

I've been following this thread with interest. Apologies if I have missed it, but I'd be interested to know what ECU parameters the JB4 module manipulates for the V6. Fuelling and timing I assume, but not supercharger boost as that would require hardware changes? Anyone like to explain the techy details?

This is pretty good info https://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1248685. Piggyback tunes are popular on BMW engines usually until the ECU is fully unlocked. I think JB4 started out exclusively tuning BMWs

 

[675430VME]

Yeah. Can’t help you with such techie stuff like you asked. There are quite a few a few on this site that have quite a deep knowledge of these sort of things. All I know is that Burger dynoed the car on OEM, and then dynoed the same car on the same dyno with map 1(91oct) and then followed by map 2(93oct), and each map showed an improved HP and torque figure than the one before. That is..65 hp and 95hp over the baseline OEM. Now. If Burger is legit, and not bullshitting with its figures, that kind of works for me. How it works is for others on the site to explain.

Piggyback basically just fools the ecu into thinking it is under boost so it up the boost. What separates JB4 from others is the ability to run real time log through CANbus so it knows where the limit is, while other generic piggybacks will be running much conservative for safety reason, hence not much performance gain.

 

[675430VME]

This is pretty good info https://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1248685. Piggyback tunes are popular on BMW engines usually until the ECU is fully unlocked. I think JB4 started out exclusively tuning BMWs

And Audi

 

[675430VME]

But I like to point out once again, unlike many would believe a piggyback is undetectable by dealers or manufacturers, this is far from the truth. Modify at your own risk.

 

[freefall_junkie]

This is pretty good info https://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1248685. Piggyback tunes are popular on BMW engines usually until the ECU is fully unlocked. I think JB4 started out exclusively tuning BMWs

Interesting read, thanks. The thing that puzzles me is that the supercharger on the V6 is a fairly simple mechanical device with no electronic control. The bypass valve is controlled by vacuum pressure from the inlet manifold with no electronics involved. So, if the JB4 is not adding boost but getting big hp gains from just increasing the fuelling and tweaking the timing, my concern would be that there may be a risk of over fuelling the engine leading to potential reliability issues down the line (e.g. fuel wash or carbon build up). I'm not seeking to cast doubt on the JB4 product, I'm just interested to know more about how it works and what the potential trade offs might be.

 

[Beachbum]

But I like to point out once again, unlike many would believe a piggyback is undetectable by dealers or manufacturers, this is far from the truth. Modify at your own risk.

This in spades
Unless you have money to cover engine work you would have expected to be covered by a warranty, I would be cautious at adding these. Extra power is all well and good, but a hefty bill that isnt covered, I am not sure is worth it
As said above, Lotus will know if things have been "enhanced"

 

[Eagle7]

Yeah. I guess all that bullshit about our v6 emiras are fast and powerful enough was just bullshit.

They ARE fast, and they DO have enough horsepower for the street. For track that's a different matter, but for the street what they've needed the most (at least in my experience) is more torque in the low to mid range rpms. The 2.5k-4.5k range of rpms just needs more beans when canyon carving or momentum driving in the twisties. More horsepower isn't needed in those situations, it's torque.

The problem has been the ridiculous prices we've seen from the two main aftermarket companies, and one of them still hasn't made theirs available in the U.S. after promising they would. Now that tariffs are coming into the picture, the cost of those other solutions are going to be even more astronomical. JB is a U.S. vendor (no tariffs), his price is very reasonable compared to everything else, and the reports from the early adopters verifies his mod works. I expect he'll be able to refine it even more, once data from actual users out on the street starts coming in.

It makes sense if you want more power and torque, to go this route than wait for Lotus to come out with a more powerful version that will undoubtedly be much more expensive than the cost of this upgrade.

 

[Eagle7]

More sauce has arrived.
Shipping all of these out today

What kind of backlog do you have on these?

 

[David s]

But I like to point out once again, unlike many would believe a piggyback is undetectable by dealers or manufacturers, this is far from the truth. Modify at your own risk.

That is correct.

 

[Milk242]

Interesting read, thanks. The thing that puzzles me is that the supercharger on the V6 is a fairly simple mechanical device with no electronic control. The bypass valve is controlled by vacuum pressure from the inlet manifold with no electronics involved. So, if the JB4 is not adding boost but getting big hp gains from just increasing the fuelling and tweaking the timing, my concern would be that there may be a risk of over fuelling the engine leading to potential reliability issues down the line (e.g. fuel wash or carbon build up). I'm not seeking to cast doubt on the JB4 product, I'm just interested to know more about how it works and what the potential trade offs might be.

Yea those are the downsides of piggyback tunes vs traditional tunes which actually tweak the ecu parameters

 

[David s]

Yea those are the downsides of piggyback tunes vs traditional tunes which actually tweak the ecu parameters

One thing that has to be taken into consideration is that Burger has been doing this for quite some time now. And with some pretty expensive brands such as BMW, Audi, Porsche, etc. the owners of these cars are comfortable “gambling” with their very expensive engines which cost several times more to rebuild than our Toyota base engines. If they were reckless punters, we would have seen plenty of evidence in that with there history. Worst case for us is the cost of rebuilding our engines with forged parts at a fraction of the cost of rebuilding a v10 Audi lump. So I guess that has to be taken into consideration when embarking on this venture. We haven’t had to take in the stress of being their test dummies…well..sort of. Each owner has to weigh up their own appetite for risk for the reward of enhanced performance. I for one, don’t like driving a car that looks like and exotic, but doesn’t perform quite like one. That’s just my sin.

 

[FST]

One thing that has to be taken into consideration is that Burger has been doing this for quite some time now. And with some pretty expensive brands such as BMW, Audi, Porsche, etc. the owners of these cars are comfortable “gambling” with their very expensive engines which cost several times more to rebuild than our Toyota base engines. If they were reckless punters, we would have seen plenty of evidence in that with there history. Worst case for us is the cost of rebuilding our engines with forged parts at a fraction of the cost of rebuilding a v10 Audi lump. So I guess that has to be taken into consideration when embarking on this venture. We haven’t had to take in the stress of being their test dummies…well..sort of. Each owner has to weigh up their own appetite for risk for the reward of enhanced performance. I for one, don’t like driving a car that looks like and exotic, but doesn’t perform quite like one. That’s just my sin.

How difficult is it to make it a 3.7L (or even a 4.0L) with a different bore or strokerkit on these 2gr-fe engines with sc? That will give more torque on the low end and the increased hp on overal performance?

Once things break and you have to rebuild, this is the way forward I think (you go all or you go home )

 

[Coreyalert3]

I think it manipulates the MAP and MAF sensors on the V6 to make the car run at a more aggressive timing map on the factory tune or if the car is using a torque based tune then its manipulating those sensors so it allows a more aggressive torque setting. I'm shooting from the hip here haven't looked into how Lotus does the tuning at all.

Basically makes the car think conditions are one way and so it stays in a more powerful part of the Lotus tuning map where normally the data would have it in Lotus OEM more conservative part.

You can feel the increased power delivery and it adjusting at times.

As far as boost goes there are ways to manipulate a static boost pressure on a belt driven supercharger but it would only be to decrease boost not increase it as a supercharger is spinning in relation to the engine and can't create more boost unless there is a flow restriction but that doesn't mean you make more power. Mods that increase flow to the motor can decrease the boost the car sees as well but not at a power loss just being more efficient from my experience.

Would be nice to know exactly what the JB4 is doing.

 

[jp129]

How difficult is it to make it a 3.7L (or even a 4.0L) with a different bore or strokerkit on these 2gr-fe engines with sc? That will give more torque on the low end and the increased hp on overal performance?

Once things break and you have to rebuild, this is the way forward I think (you go all or you go home )

Not difficult, just takes time and money.

If you re-sleeved the block and bored to 97mm with aftermarket pistons, that'll get you close to 3.7L (3.68L) with stock rod length and stock stroke 83mm. I'm not intimate with the 2GR platform, so I can't say if one would run into HG sealing issues under boost with a 97mm bore.

Likely the juice isn't worth the squeeze compared to running more boost via a smaller S/C pulley or running a larger blower.

 

[chirowolf]

It always seemed to me that Lotus builds in considerable overhead to increase power. JB is taking advantage of that overhead

 

[GRP]

What kind of backlog do you have on these?

Based on current open orders and how these have been coming in I would estimate a 2-3 week wait time.

 

[GRP]

Not difficult, just takes time and money.

If you re-sleeved the block and bored to 97mm with aftermarket pistons, that'll get you close to 3.7L (3.68L) with stock rod length and stock stroke 83mm. I'm not intimate with the 2GR platform, so I can't say if one would run into HG sealing issues under boost with a 97mm bore.

Likely the juice isn't worth the squeeze compared to running more boost via a smaller S/C pulley or running a larger blower.

100% , Look at the Cosworth built 2GR's from the Evora GT4 cars for instance, (albeit they were not supercharged) they made good power at a 4.0L built NA engine but the cost to do so was crazy money. You can make great power with a stock bore/stroke engine setup with a little more boost and some other parts at a fraction of the cost.

 

[luciddaydream]

Forgive me as I have not reseached this too much.. but it seems the power of the Burger tune is less "down low".
Do you think Burger could ever custom tweak it to give it more power in lower gears?