[Joshboody]

I’ve been running both tunes for over a week. And I have some initial comments for those that are interested.

Power:
the power is there for both tunes. Although Cobb accomplishes this solely on boost with lower ign timing. The Procede gives you choices in user tunability. Each approach gives similar results in feel and power, but I prefer less boost and more timing… it seems more responsive, but I think this is more due to Procede’s quicker boost response.

Driving and Idle:
I have to say Procede wins here because I have wastegate rattle and it gives the ability to reduce it with WG default position. I’m biased of course cause of the condition of my WGs.

For actual driving feel, I think both are very similar. You can choose different throttle responses on both tunes, but more flexibility with Procede (although I have NOT used this feature). The thing I did not like about Cobb is that the “stock throttle” with the more aggressive response basically just scaled the throttle from 0 to 60%... so if your pedal is at 60% or 100% it’s WOT. The procede offers an aggressive response, but it’s 0-100% with more aggression in the beginning. Linear throttle is fine on Cobb for an MT at least.

Features:
Procede wins here due to gauge flexibility, map switching, and primarily Meth integration. The feature advantage with Cobb is more log channels. I have not had a situation where this is very useful, but I can see it being important in diagnosing an issue.
Meth: for those that don’t understand how meth integration works, Procede will transition between 2 different maps depending on meth flow, so the tuning parameters fit the conditions. This is a seamless and progressive transition. The option with a flash is to run aggressive constantly hoping your meth is working or watching it with gauges. Or have a failsafe which cuts boost when meth is not flowing to target so that the tuning is not too aggressive. But either way you are forced to run the “aggressive” mapping with a flash without another option until you reflash.

For those that are curious, yes I have stacked the tunes and it works well. Although I don’t really see any advantage if you are running Procede currently. For Cobb users, the advantage would be Meth, but again procede alone is fine. I will keep the Cobb for a bit and check out ATR when it comes out to see if there’s any advantages. My hope is that I will be able to customize the cooling system. I will be running them stacked for now, since I don’t want a paid tune sitting on the sidelines. One advantage of Cobb which I liked the other day… BUT IS STUPID… a coworker thought he would blow by me leaving work, but could not when I gunned it, cold… very bad Josh.

Installation: I forgot to touch on this. Cobb you use a wire and handheld unit to flash the DME. Very easy, but a little nerve racking at first when it takes 30min all on battery. But no issues. Later on everything is accomplished by the handheld… flashing (about 1min), datalogging, checking codes, etc.

Procede you have to open your ECU and plug some wires in… not hard, but some don’t like this.

Both tunes are basically plug and play. When I started pushing my car a little harder, I did do some custom tuning with the procede, and it’s pretty straight forward. This probably wasn’t needed, but I do datalog a lot and wanted to dial in the tune. You don’t have this option yet with Cobb, but I understand that we will in the future. There are some things I would change with the Cobb tune if I could… advance, load target, base WGDC, etc. So it’s not that procede needed it, but you do have the ability to tweak.

That’s my story.

[JamesM3M5]

You should edit the title to show Cobb v Procede review / testing / impressions.

Nice writeup. Thanks for sharing!

[bryce]

nice review, i agree with most of your opinions. the procede is more "responsive" and it is due to the boost control and slightly more aggressive ignition targets. furthermore, i think the procede pulls harder from 6k rpms up, while the cobb felt like it fell off too quickly in that rpm range.

[Tzu]

You staked procede on top of Cobb?

[bryce]

Originally Posted by Tzu

You staked procede on top of Cobb?

it sounds like he did. the one thing i'd wonder about doing that is the ignition timing. cobb targets lower ignition timing than the stock dme, so the procede would be retarding igntion from a different set point. i would think that would hinder performance slightly?

[Abenitez]

Thanks man nice write up! Really useful. If you could do a JB4 meth integrated vs COBB meth non integrated !!!! Very much appreciated

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

This is a good assessment and a fair one at that. You should change your title to review or something, when I first read the title I said to myself "Oh god not another tuner war thread".

[JamesM3M5]

Originally Posted by Jeff@topgearsolutions

This is a good assessment and a fair one at that. You should change your title to review or something, when I first read the title I said to myself "Oh god not another tuner war thread".

That's what I thought until I saw who started the thread. Joshboody is pretty good about being informative.

Otherwise very good info. I've been meaning to do the same thing, just haven't gotten around to getting a Cobb here to play with.

[nitehawk]

^I was getting ready to grab some popcorn as well, but that was a fair review.

[dAng! E90]

This was great. You have set my mind at ease on my choice. It was down to those two tunes and now I have made my choice.

[JamesM3M5]

Don't worry, whichever you choose, 50% will say you got the wrong one, 50% will cheer you on, and 50% will ask why would you want to mod a BMW in the first place.

[Eracer76]

Nice review!
I keep reading about the Procede and I'm really thinking about trying it, along with their meth kit. In the past I've ran the JB4 on stage 1 for one week before I removed it (had to take the car to the dealer for injectors) and during that time I bought the Cobb AP. Ive since been running the Cobb stage 1 aggressive for a couple weeks and it was all good... Then I finished installing my FMIC and downpipes, but continued to run Stage 1 aggressive for a couple days and it was impressive! And now I just uploaded Cobb Stage 2+ and I have say, Im not all that impressed with it. It almost seems Stage 1 was just as powerful to me.

Now Im tempted to throw my JB4 back in the car and try it with all my mods, because I was pretty impressive even when I was stock and misfiring everywhere lol... but what I really want is to try the Procede and meth

[secretsquirrel]

Originally Posted by Eracer76

Nice review!
I keep reading about the Procede and I'm really thinking about trying it, along with their meth kit. In the past I've ran the JB4 on stage 1 for one week before I removed it (had to take the car to the dealer for injectors) and during that time I bought the Cobb AP. Ive since been running the Cobb stage 1 aggressive for a couple weeks and it was all good... Then I finished installing my FMIC and downpipes, but continued to run Stage 1 aggressive for a couple days and it was impressive! And now I just uploaded Cobb Stage 2+ and I have say, Im not all that impressed with it. It almost seems Stage 1 was just as powerful to me.

Now Im tempted to throw my JB4 back in the car and try it with all my mods, because I was pretty impressive even when I was stock and misfiring everywhere lol... but what I really want is to try the Procede and meth

Man, you're all over the place.

[dzenno]

I disagree fully, procede sucks, cobb is the best...Josh is a hater, troll etc etc etc etc all bad stuff, b-a-d lol BAN HIM! hehhee

man i wish this community matures one day and doesn't put every thread up under a microscope...this is a fair and honest end user review, which I appreciate...i personally have different goals with my current setup where some of the ones stated above are also key...let's keep an open mind and not crucify the next guy who posts a similar experience on a jb4 or cobb and says they enjoy those better...sadly, that's very hard to see happening as i know at least 1 poor soul on this forum that would immediately jump in and label it "wrong" everywhere they possibly could but that's besides the point

Let's mature as a community for once and try to weed out the business motives and bs when its out there and not support it blindly nuthugging ANY tuner for that matter...cheers to that!

[themyst]

All I gotta say is to each their own. Fair review

[Tzu]

Originally Posted by bryce

it sounds like he did. the one thing i'd wonder about doing that is the ignition timing. cobb targets lower ignition timing than the stock dme, so the procede would be retarding igntion from a different set point. i would think that would hinder performance slightly?

And boost? Amongst many things....Procede targets boost, Cobb targets load (mostly). I wouldn't think the two would get along at all.

I dont want to turn this into a stacking thread, but isn't the advantage of the JB4 that you can turn everything OFF except for what you require? I mean, in the procede user tuning interface you can set maps to zero effectively eliminating any input, but I know you cant set boost setpoints to zero. I'm not seeing the advantage of stacking here?

[Joshboody]

Originally Posted by bryce

it sounds like he did. the one thing i'd wonder about doing that is the ignition timing. cobb targets lower ignition timing than the stock dme, so the procede would be retarding igntion from a different set point. i would think that would hinder performance slightly?

For timing there's no need to retard, at least in the winter... I do advance when on meth.

[Joshboody]

Originally Posted by Tzu

And boost? Amongst many things....Procede targets boost, Cobb targets load (mostly). I wouldn't think the two would get along at all.

I dont want to turn this into a stacking thread, but isn't the advantage of the JB4 that you can turn everything OFF except for what you require? I mean, in the procede user tuning interface you can set maps to zero effectively eliminating any input, but I know you cant set boost setpoints to zero. I'm not seeing the advantage of stacking here?

You are right, not much (if any) advantage... mostly I was curious, since no one else was doing it. Procede targets about 1psi over DME as base.

[rooringhusky]

Originally Posted by dzenno

I disagree fully, procede sucks, cobb is the best...Josh is a hater, troll etc etc etc etc all bad stuff, b-a-d lol BAN HIM! hehhee

man i wish this community matures one day and doesn't put every thread up under a microscope...this is a fair and honest end user review, which I appreciate...i personally have different goals with my current setup where some of the ones stated above are also key...let's keep an open mind and not crucify the next guy who posts a similar experience on a jb4 or cobb and says they enjoy those better...sadly, that's very hard to see happening as i know at least 1 poor soul on this forum that would immediately jump in and label it "wrong" everywhere they possibly could but that's besides the point

Let's mature as a community for once and try to weed out the business motives and bs when its out there and not support it blindly nuthugging ANY tuner for that matter...cheers to that!

Lol I started reading this and thought this thread was gonna go in another direction

Great review Josh...I've haven't had the chance to run a Procede yet but hopefully one day!

[GmoBmw]

Great review. Very Helpful.

[Velocity26]

I mostly agree with the OP, but would like to add some additional observations to what he has stated.

Install: While the both take about 30 minutes, you spend those 30 minutes doing nothing on the Cobb, simply watching and listening to all the strange noises that the car makes and codes that the car pops while waiting for it to finish the back-up of the old file and installing the new flash. About the only thing that you can/should do is attach a battery charger so that your battery does not go low while the unit is flashing your ECM. That would likely suck.

With the Procede, you are actually taking stuff apart, pulling the ECM out, tapping into the wiring harnesses, and then putting it all back together. Nothing is really hard, but you have to take your time and be careful not to break anything or stretch any wiring. If you did mess something up, it would be really difficult to explain how that happened and close to impossible to diagnose or repair things inside of the ECU container yourself. For me, the hardest part is running the Serial cable into the cabin through the firewall.
Advantage: Cobb.

I like the fact that the Procede can change maps on the fly, add shift lights, gauge hijacking, and has user adjustability. The Cobb requires that you attach the handset, and “flash” the map that you want onto the ECM. The process only takes about 90 seconds, but you are parked with the engine off while you do that.
Advantage: Procede

In reading codes, clearing codes, logging runs, the Cobb is very simple, everything is in clear English and you carry the handset over to your computer (desktop or laptop) rather than carrying the computer to your car, like with the Procede. The Procede is more cumbersome and you sometimes feel that you have to learn a new language to communicate with it.
Advantage: Cobb

Procede has integrated Meth, and can change the tune of the car based on if Meth is flowing or not. If something goes wrong with the Meth system, the Procede protects the engine. The Cobb tune is what it is, it does not react to Meth, actually has no idea if you have meth. Your meth system needs to have an internal failsafe if the engine cannot survive the tune without Meth.
Advantage: Procede

There is no clear-cut winner, it all depends on how much weight you give each advantage. If you are a “hands-on”, “tune to the limit” kind of person, you will likely prefer the Procede for the Meth integration and adjustability. If you want to be less involved in the tuning of the car and just want good performance that you can install and remove easily, without getting your hands dirty, the Cobb would likely be your choice.

I think that both of these products are great, in their own way, but each will appeal to different people, depending on what they want, and how much effort they are willing to put into it.

[tscdennab]

OP, so what is the actual tune that you have paid money for ?