CAMTuning's 2025 TRD Off Road Performance & ECU tuning build

[CAMTuning]

We spent the whole day on the dyno today and have positive results to share. This was all tested on 91 octane (no ethanol added, so E10).

SXTH intake was on the truck and we did a couple of pulls on the stock mapping, then on the map that produced 309whp a couple of weeks ago. Then I did some further tuning and pulled some power power out of it.


We then left the truck strapped to the dyno and swapped the intercooler, did some stock calibration pulls, and again further tuning.

There's a lot going on in this graph:
CAMTuning map with SXTH intake and intercooler is the custom calibration done today with IC and intake. (RED)
Stock map SXTH intake is the stock calibration and SXTH Elements intake (Green)
Stock Truck CAMTune is the truck completely stock, with a custom tune using Cobb (Blue)
Stock calibration is stock tune and stock truck (Orange)

I'm impressed with the gains on the intake with no tuning (+12whp), but more impressed in the jump in total power and torque when tuning was added with the intake and intercooler (+70whp/51wtq) over stock.

We did a total of 39 dyno runs today gathering data and fine tuning. Next step will be to put the truck back on an ethanol blend with the new parts and see what it will make. It made more power on 91 today than it did on an E30 blend last week.

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[RavenYZF-R6]

Ver cool to see some real data on these, I appreciate your effort and it looks like a blast to be able to do. I am ifnorant in all things tuning and was curious what your thought is on the intake and stock tune seeming to get a slight jump on the power in both graphs.

Also I can’t quite see what the two separate graphs are differentiating. What was the change in those?

Thanks.

 

[Tacocho]

Hey Cam, I see you’re from the world of tuning Subarus! Just out of curiosity, how does your tuned Tacoma compare to a stock WRX STI? I know the Tacoma won’t put up impressive 1/4 miles or 0-60s but does it pull pretty hard?

 

[RatInsurance]

We spent the whole day on the dyno today and have positive results to share. This was all tested on 91 octane (no ethanol added, so E10).

SXTH intake was on the truck and we did a couple of pulls on the stock mapping, then on the map that produced 309whp a couple of weeks ago. Then I did some further tuning and pulled some power power out of it.


We then left the truck strapped to the dyno and swapped the intercooler, did some stock calibration pulls, and again further tuning.

There's a lot going on in this graph:
CAMTuning map with SXTH intake and intercooler is the custom calibration done today with IC and intake. (RED)
Stock map SXTH intake is the stock calibration and SXTH Elements intake (Green)
Stock Truck CAMTune is the truck completely stock, with a custom tune using Cobb (Blue)
Stock calibration is stock tune and stock truck (Orange)

I'm impressed with the gains on the intake with no tuning (+12whp), but more impressed in the jump in total power and torque when tuning was added with the intake and intercooler (+70whp/51wtq) over stock.

We did a total of 39 dyno runs today gathering data and fine tuning. Next step will be to put the truck back on an ethanol blend with the new parts and see what it will make. It made more power on 91 today than it did on an E30 blend last week.

Have you experimented with an aftermarket exhaust? I’ve heard that OTT won’t go stage 2 without one because of the restriction.

 

[CAMTuning]

Ver cool to see some real data on these, I appreciate your effort and it looks like a blast to be able to do. I am ifnorant in all things tuning and was curious what your thought is on the intake and stock tune seeming to get a slight jump on the power in both graphs.

Also I can’t quite see what the two separate graphs are differentiating. What was the change in those?

Thanks.

Thanks for the comment. If you are asking what the difference in the 2 lines of the same color are, one is horsepower and one is torque (measured at the wheels)
Here's a single graph for better explanation- RPM is on the X -axis, and in this case the Y axis is scaled the same for HP and TQ. You sometimes see them scaled differently and it will change the way the dyno looks. The HP and TQ lines will always cross at 5252 RPM, because they are related by this equation: Horsepower = (Torque x RPM) / 5,252.
You will see dyno graphs that look very different depending on engine displacement, whether or not it is turbocharged, etc. A small turbo usually makes a steep climb in torque early, and it will trail off like you see in the top left curve in this graph.

Here's a different example to show a very large (76mm) turbo on a 2.5 L Subaru that I tuned last year. Look how torque comes in so late, but HP and TQ are held much better up top. This car is zero fun on the street, but for drag racing it moves.

 

[CAMTuning]

Hey Cam, I see you’re from the world of tuning Subarus! Just out of curiosity, how does your tuned Tacoma compare to a stock WRX STI? I know the Tacoma won’t put up impressive 1/4 miles or 0-60s but does it pull pretty hard?

You're correct! I still have my first WRX, my son has an 08 Outback XT manual with 345whp on flex fuel, my daughter has an 09 Forester XT Auto with 330whp on E85, and the wife has a stock but tuned 2020 Ascent.

It's difficult to compare these trucks to an STi for 2 reasons:
1. STi is easily 800-900lbs lighter, so you would need 80-90 hp more to match the the same power to weight as them.
2. STi is a 6 MT, which is a lot of fun to drive, but also slows you down unless you're banging gears. Auto transmissions are always faster than an H Pattern in a straight line. There's something about a small turbo auto transmission turbo 4 cylinder that is a ton of fun. The truck is so quiet that it's deceptive. You get up to speed really quick. It's much quicker than it should be for what it is.

Now that my truck is tuned, and making ~70whp more than a stock STi does on our dyno, I believe it would have no trouble hanging with or beating one from a roll. Maybe I'll get one of my Subaru buddies to race me in their STi so we can get some video.

 

[CAMTuning]

Have you experimented with an aftermarket exhaust? I’ve heard that OTT won’t go stage 2 without one because of the restriction.

I have not. Are they claiming the catback is the restriction, or the downpipe? In all of the turbo 4 cylinders that I've tuned over the years, the downpipe is the restriction until you reach fairly high power numbers (500-600+). Most of the new turbo vehicles I've been tuning have stock cats that flow very well compared to 10-15 years ago, and while they are a restriction, it's not as big as it used to be.
What do they consider "stage 2"? In most other platforms, stage 1 is either tuned or tuned with an intake, and stage 2 always includes a downpipe.

 

[RatInsurance]

I have not. Are they claiming the catback is the restriction, or the downpipe? In all of the turbo 4 cylinders that I've tuned over the years, the downpipe is the restriction until you reach fairly high power numbers (500-600+). Most of the new turbo vehicles I've been tuning have stock cats that flow very well compared to 10-15 years ago, and while they are a restriction, it's not as big as it used to be.
What do they consider "stage 2"? In most other platforms, stage 1 is either tuned or tuned with an intake, and stage 2 always includes a downpipe.

From what I’ve read on the forum their stage 2 consists of an intake, intercooler, tune, and exhaust. They’ve mentioned downpipes but I’m not sure if it’s currently a requirement for their stage 2 tune. All i’ve read is that the stock exhaust is just a little restrictive, so they require an aftermarket exhaust for anything above stage 1. Just curious if it would add a bit more power on your truck. (I think they specified 3in exhaust diameter)

 

[CAMTuning]

From what I’ve read on the forum their stage 2 consists of an intake, intercooler, tune, and exhaust. They’ve mentioned downpipes but I’m not sure if it’s currently a requirement for their stage 2 tune. All i’ve read is that the stock exhaust is just a little restrictive, so they require an aftermarket exhaust for anything above stage 1. Just curious if it would add a bit more power on your truck. (I think they specified 3in exhaust diameter)

Possibly an exhaust is in the future then.

 

[Glizzy]

I've been working with Cam on my 2024 TRD OR and the results have been pretty awesome. I live at 6500 ft ASL and the truck feels incredible now. Stock is so much better than a 3rd gen powertrain. COBB OTS maps really smooth things out on the power and trans side. And a custom tune from Cam is even MORE power and great shifting in every drive mode. The awesome part is that once you install the Accessport, it takes less than 3 minutes to change a map and you only have to connect through the OBDII port. Makes it really easy to flash a new map revision or even change to an 87 octane OTS map if I can't get good gas on a road trip or something. Even for daily driving and not going full throttle all the time, the difference in how the truck drives is MASSIVE.

Nice work Cam and all this R&D is badass!

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