Cobb Accessport now available for Explorer ST

[jwuonog]

https://www.cobbtuning.com/products/accessport/accessport-for-ford-explorer-st-2020-2023

The Cobb Accessport is now available for our cars for $725. I see a lot of other Ecoboost platform tuners announcing plans to offer tuning for the Explorer ST.

Anyone planning to pick one up?

I am happy to see it available, I feel it is 4 years late. But it is on my list of future mods...

 

[Excalibur]

I wish I wouldn't have just picked up my tuner or I would have most likely. That's assuming you could have ZFGTuning work with that as well.

 

[EDWYER]

Subbed.

 

[jwuonog]

I wish I wouldn't have just picked up my tuner or I would have most likely. That's assuming you could have ZFGTuning work with that as well.

I feel that at this point, there's not really a benefit in switching if you already have a tuning device. I don't believe ZFG offers tuning for Cobb devices, but a lot of tuners from other Ecoboost platforms seem to be ready to offer custom tuning. I saw Adam from Tune+ (popular with Focus RS, Fiesta ST) has an R&D Explorer, and it looks like GooseTuned (popular with Raptor) has one also.

I think the HPTuners device may have more features at the moment, but Cobb will probably catch up and add more features in the future.

At the moment, I know the Cobb allows you to turn off auto stop start, manually enter your car tire size, enable valet mode (limited throttle, boost, RPM), and adjust the throttle pedal sensitivity.

I'm also fairly certain that it will support drive mode specific tunes capability, so if you switch from normal/sport/eco etc, a custom tuner can have a different map for each mode for different power levels and shifting characteristics.

On my Focus ST, I'm able to quickly toggle between my E30 and 93 map with the push of the cruise control buttons. Something like that would be nice to have on the Explorer for going between E50 and pump gas without reflashing a tune.

 

[jwuonog]

https://cobbtuning.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PRS/pages/3018260501/Map+Notes+for+Explorer+ST

Some more info on the OTS tune. I'm not particularly excited about the OTS tunes, but they seem to offer decent gains. Unlike the Ford Performance tune, they also tune the TCM, so the shift behavior will be modified.

If it is anything like the other platforms, Cobb will probably release Stage 2 and Stage 3 tunes in the future. Pure speculation here, but I'm guessing stage 2 will account for an intercooler, and stage 3 will account for downpipes and the rest of the bolt-ons. I've seen a lot of mixed reviews on their OTS tunes for Focus STs and wouldn't personally run one, but we'll see.

 

[MikeyP]

ZFG will not use this. He uses HPTuners and will stay that way.

Don't bother with the Cobb OTS tune. If you want to go this Cobb route, go to @GooseTuned. Winfield, who runs it, makes a custom tune file using the Cobb Accessport. He does great work on the Raptors.

I will be interested to see what numbers Goosetuned gets from this platform. Based on my Raptor experience, Goosetuned will make a great tune and Adam and Winfield should be the only tuners anyone considers for these cars. Competition is always great for us owners. The downside of the Cobb Accessport is that it's missing the ability to do the cool stuff Adam does like the DMS tune, transbrake, etc.

 

[FORZDA3]

Yeah, Cobb has not updated their ECU cracking to allow their previous Cobb Custom Features since Ford changed their protocols in 2018+ new vehicles. I’ve already gone with HPTuners software, hardware, (and ZFG Adam) on my ExplorerST. I prefer Cobb, but they’re too little, too late on this platform.

 

[Yesac72]

ZFG will not use this. He uses HPTuners and will stay that way.

Don't bother with the Cobb OTS tune. If you want to go this Cobb route, go to @GooseTuned. Winfield, who runs it, makes a custom tune file using the Cobb Accessport. He does great work on the Raptors.

I will be interested to see what numbers Goosetuned gets from this platform. Based on my Raptor experience, Goosetuned will make a great tune and Adam and Winfield should be the only tuners anyone considers for these cars. Competition is always great for us owners. The downside of the Cobb Accessport is that it's missing the ability to do the cool stuff Adam does like the DMS tune, transbrake, etc.

Wondering how long it will take COBB to get up to speed with other tuners? Why did they not come out the gate with all the bells and whistles like Adam DMS tune or Livernois fuel calibration, transbrake, etc....

 

[jwuonog]

ZFG will not use this. He uses HPTuners and will stay that way.

Don't bother with the Cobb OTS tune. If you want to go this Cobb route, go to @GooseTuned. Winfield, who runs it, makes a custom tune file using the Cobb Accessport. He does great work on the Raptors.

I will be interested to see what numbers Goosetuned gets from this platform. Based on my Raptor experience, Goosetuned will make a great tune and Adam and Winfield should be the only tuners anyone considers for these cars. Competition is always great for us owners. The downside of the Cobb Accessport is that it's missing the ability to do the cool stuff Adam does like the DMS tune, transbrake, etc.

Winfield got some pretty decent numbers on day 1 of custom tuning the car:


This was with an Intercooler, Intake, and charge piping on E50. I imagine he still has some more tuning to do. He is also at a much higher elevation, and the smoothing on the dyno is set to 4, so that will bring down the figures a bit.

Adam Brunson from Tune+ will have his single turbo setup running soon:


Some other tuners I know of:
-Tune+ is pretty popular with Focus RS, Fiesta ST. He has had a development Explorer ST for a while, as shown above.
-PDTuning (now Ryan Martin at EMS) is a solid Ecoboost tuner. I've seen him tune a lot of Focus STs, RSs, and Ecoboost Mustangs. I think he made over 900whp on a 2.3L Ecoboost. I've seen him in the Explorer ST facebook groups.
-Unleashed Tuning: Not sure if Torrie is a Cobb tuner, but he's been tuning Ecoboosts for a very long time
-Tunewerks: Randy Robles (Formerly at Mountune) has been tuning Ecoboosts for a long time as well. I see he offers tunes for the Raptor, I can't imagine why he wouldn't for the Explorer.
-Edgeautosport: Alan Jackson is touted by many in the Focus ST community to be the GOAT. I had a great experience and result with him, so I will have him tune my Explorer ST when the time comes...

 

[UNBROKEN]

All Cobb tuners will be playing catch up for a while. Winfields numbers show that…they’re currently way down from ZFG E50 numbers.

 

[GooseTuned]

Thanks for the post about COBB! So far it looks very promising.

I spent all weekend on the ST, I'll be making a pretty big update post/vlog shortly.

I will say this: just because COBB is late to the ST world doesn't mean we'll be playing catch up for long. The jump from Ecoboost to Ecoboost is short once you understand what the Bosch ECU is doing, it easily translates. I've also tuned this ECU in other platforms over the last 5yrs.

My E50 numbers were low because I did 75 pulls that day, so I ran out of time. Pump gas numbers were better than the other offering, on 91.

I should also say that I was able to do so many pulls because the COBB Accessport takes 1min to flash the ECU, not 5min like HPTuners.



Here are my numbers, SAE, smoothing at 5.

DAY 1 Results

 

[FORZDA3]

Yeah, Cobb has not updated their ECU cracking to allow their previous Cobb Custom Features since Ford changed their protocols in 2018+ new vehicles. I’ve already gone with HPTuners software, hardware, (and ZFG Adam) on my ExplorerST. I prefer Cobb, but they’re too little, too late on this platform.

Cobb really blew it this time. They have no plans to release the end-user Accesstuner software. That totally kills even the possibility of me buying anything for my Explorer from Cobb. It’s sad really.

 

[GooseTuned]

ATR won't be coming back, on any COBB platform.

Unfortunately too many random guys (not pro tuners) turning off lights ruined for everyone. When Greenspeed hit, ATR went away for good.