HPTuner MPVI2 & VCM Suite Review: 100% Full PCM Access For 2005-2006 Jeep Wrangler TJs

Chris said:
I’ve talked to everyone who seems to know anything on this matter, and they’ve all told me that HPTuners and B&G Performance are the only options out there for fully accessing and flashing the PCM. Anything else is just a piggyback controller.
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Hey Chris, I have recently built a stroker and I redid my exhaust system with some torque tube headers and all. I removed the 3rd cat, and bought new ss pre cats. Anyhow, it seems to be running good. But I cant help but think about someday removing the front cats, and depending on how it goes, I might leave um. But I would like to be able to tune this rig. Anyway, long story short, too late, what is with the credits? I don't really understand why a guy needs to buy them. What's that all about? Thanks for all the great info!
 
Jeep89 said:
Hey Chris, I have recently built a stroker and I redid my exhaust system with some torque tube headers and all. I removed the 3rd cat, and bought new ss pre cats. Anyhow, it seems to be running good. But I cant help but think about someday removing the front cats, and depending on how it goes, I might leave um. But I would like to be able to tune this rig. Anyway, long story short, too late, what is with the credits? I don't really understand why a guy needs to buy them. What's that all about? Thanks for all the great info!
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You need credits for each vehicle you use it with. Its there way of making money.
 
Chris, I have found this whole article educational. I am building a stroker for my 05 TJ. I’m not going big it’s just clegg’s stage 2 rotating assembly. Probably just going to use their stage 2 cam. My question/fear is that by the time I’m done (probably a year) I won’t know where to get help tuning.
From what I’m reading I would just buy the HP tuner and their credits???
 
toddw706 said:
Chris, I have found this whole article educational. I am building a stroker for my 05 TJ. I’m not going big it’s just clegg’s stage 2 rotating assembly. Probably just going to use their stage 2 cam. My question/fear is that by the time I’m done (probably a year) I won’t know where to get help tuning.
From what I’m reading I would just buy the HP tuner and their credits???
Click to expand...

Yes, for the 2005-2006's you can buy the HP Tuner, download the VCM software, and buy two credits. You need a PC laptop.
 
JMT said:
Yes, for the 2005-2006's you can buy the HP Tuner, download the VCM software, and buy two credits. You need a PC laptop.
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I just built a stroker for my tj, did it all myself, and would be happy to help answer any questions you might have. Clegg is a great company to work with, I personally bought alot of parts from them. The stage 2 cam is not going to work well with an mpi engine. Carbureted, you can get away with it, but does not like to work well with the jeeps pcm. Also, the point of an inline 6 is to develop torque numbers at low rpms, to much over lap with your valve timing, will create a better draft and flow through the motor, to scavenge and draw in new fuel/ air etc., but at the expense of low end torque; it is much better suited in a V8 or race engine. A stage 2 cam will kill your low end torque, it may make more torque, but at a higher RPM. Inline 6's work best with an RV type cam, which seals off each individual stroke, thus not detracting from usable power on the down stroke. Hope this helps/ makes sense. Also depends on what you are using your motor for. If you wanna build a race motor, then go for the stage 2 or 3 cam, but it will not make a great jeep type engine, in my opinion.
 
Jeep89 said:
I just built a stroker for my tj, did it all myself, and would be happy to help answer any questions you might have. Clegg is a great company to work with, I personally bought alot of parts from them. The stage 2 cam is not going to work well with an mpi engine. Carbureted, you can get away with it, but does not like to work well with the jeeps pcm. Also, the point of an inline 6 is to develop torque numbers at low rpms, to much over lap with your valve timing, will create a better draft and flow through the motor, to scavenge and draw in new fuel/ air etc., but at the expense of low end torque; it is much better suited in a V8 or race engine. A stage 2 cam will kill your low end torque, it may make more torque, but at a higher RPM. Inline 6's work best with an RV type cam, which seals off each individual stroke, thus not detracting from usable power on the down stroke. Hope this helps/ makes sense. Also depends on what you are using your motor for. If you wanna build a race motor, then go for the stage 2 or 3 cam, but it will not make a great jeep type engine, in my opinion.
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Well I’m going to use it for trail riding and around town. Clegg actually told me of a new cam they call stage 1-1/2 Have you heard this cam?
 
Yeah, I found a bunch of write-ups after I asked the question. What I believe I have learned is that the higher the lobe centerline degree like 114 degrees (Clegg's cam) the more computer friendly the cam is. But you lose bottom-end torque. And the smaller the degree like 109 degrees, the less computer friendly the cam is but the more bottom end torque you have. Am I understanding this correctly? If I am then a person can't really win?
I would appreciate any input.
 
Chris said:
NOTE: At the time of writing this, HPTuners only offered access to 05-06 PCMs. However, that has changed and they now provide access to all 97-06 PCMs.

So let me preface this by saying that the reason I bought an HPTuner for my Jeep is because with my Magnum Powers supercharger, I needed a sure fire way to tune my PCM to optimize the air, fuel, and spark for the increased performance of the supercharger. Up until now, many of us have been led to believe that there is no way to tune the PCMs on our TJs. The Superchips don't work, nor do the Diablo Tuners. The Split Second unit works, but that is a piggyback system (which doesn't refresh the PCM itself), and while I had success with it on my last supercharged TJ, I don't think it's ultimately a replacement for tuning and flashing the PCM directly.

Enter the HPTuner MPVI2 and VCM Suite (which consists of the VCM Editor and VCM Scanner). With this hardware / software combo, you'll be able to access the PCM on your 2005-2006 Jeep Wrangler 100%. With it you can enable or disable functions of the PCM (i.e., turn of the O2 sensors). You can also use it to tune your engine, such as setting the amount of air, fuel, and spark your engine gets at any RPM. This understandably comes in handle when you add forced induction, as you'll need to have more fuel at any given RPM.

The kicker here as mentioned above is that this only works on the 05-06 models. I'm not 100% sure why this is, but according to their website, it won't work on anything prior to 2005.

One of the things I am using this setup for (aside from tuning it for my supercharger) is to disable all the emissions. With it I have successfully turned of my post cat O2 sensors (you need to keep the pre-cat O2 sensors), which will in turn allow me to remove the pre-cats entirely, at which point I intend to have a custom header made for my 4.0.

I've also used it to disable the evap system entirely, so that I can remove that junk and throw it in the garbage. Now before any of you guys warn me about emissions or inspections, I'm only doing this because we do not have either where I live. Yes, I am aware of the environmental impact, but you should also be aware that I probably put 2000 miles a year on my TJ at most. I'm also aware of the federal fine for removing catalytic convertors, and I am not condoning this in any way. I am simply putting this information out there to let people know what this HPTuner package can do.

In the process of disabling my evap system and the post-cat O2 sensors today, I took some screenshots to share with you guys how this software works.

First off, you need the MPVI2, which will set you back $299. In addition, you need two "universal credits", which will run you $100. This allows you to purchase one license, which locks the serial number on the MPVI2 to your VIN number, and insures that you can't use it on any other PCM, unless you spend another $100 and purchase more credits.

Here's the MPVI2 unit that plugs into your OBDII port and connects to your computer via USB:

View attachment 67606

After connecting it and opening the VCM Editor program, you'll need to connect to your PCM. You do this with the key turned to the on position, but the vehicle NOT running.

You can see that once connected, it recognizes the vehicle, VIN, and both the ECM and TCM (which combined we refer to as the PCM):

View attachment 67607

Once you're in, have a look around. Under Transmission > General, you can see the option to enable or disable the automatic transmission. So how would this be beneficial? Well, let's say you bought a PCM from a TJ that had a manual transmission, but you needed it to work with your automatic transmission equipped TJ. Easy peasy! Just select "Enable" from the drop down, and flash the PCM, and you're good to go.

View attachment 67616

Here's a shot of some of the options under the "Engine" tab:

View attachment 67608

If you navigate to Engine > Oxygen Sensors, you'll see the screen where I was able to disable the post-cat O2 sensors:

View attachment 67609

Head over to the "Fuel System" tab, and you'll see where I was able to disable the evap system:

View attachment 67610

Here's an example of the "Speedometer" settings:

View attachment 67611

If you go under the System > General tab, you'll see the option to enable or disable SKIM (read this thread if you don't know what SKIM is: Sentry Key Immobilizer Module (SKIM) Install / Retrofit):

View attachment 67612

Check out all the options under Engine > Spark:

View attachment 67613

And here's the Engine > Airflow options:

View attachment 67614

Here's the Transmission > Shift Scheduling options (haven't explored these yet as I'm not 100% sure what they do):

View attachment 67615


What you're seeing above is only a very, very small portion of what this tool can do. In addition to giving you full access to the PCM, it also serves as an OBDII scanner, has Bluetooth connectivity (so you can go wireless with it), and it also will provide 100% real-time data logging.

For instance, once of the things I plan to do once I install my supercharger is hook the laptop up and take it on a bunch of drives. I'll log the data in real-time (using a wideband O2 sensor), save the files, and Josh Pearl (the guy who is doing my supercharger tune) is going to fine-tune everything until we get the tune perfect. We'll do this probably a dozen times or more, and each time I'll provide him with a new data log for him to tweak. Eventually we'll finally get it perfect!

If you own a 2005-2006, I highly recommend this tool. Hell, you could even tune your stock engine to probably get a few more horsepower out of it.


Conclusion
I will continue to update this review as time goes on and I use it more-and-more (especially once I get into the actual engine tuning portion). So far, I'm really, really impressed with this thing, and I'm absolutely over the moon that I finally have full access to the PCM!
Click to expand...

Hey do u have a tune file already.
I need to delete the downstream O2 sensors and all the emission and evap shit
 
Chris I am going done the same road u have been with ur tj
Mine is the same jeep 2003 Rubicon ,automatic
Hoping u can give me some advice
I wanna supercharge also, do not know where to start on that, b
I have different header now to
Also need to delete evap systems and emissions
My jeep is only for off road or just driving it to go off. Roading
[email protected]
 

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