I PMed Gravesport last evening, and found a reply when I turned on my computer this morning:
"
Hi Jim,
Soon as the airbox mod kit is completed for resale, we will get it on the website and make things available for everyone. The rest of the parts are available now through Graves or Bayside right now. Tuning options will need to be addressed by Chuck and Flash Tune's ability to lock our files like we've discussed in the past. If anything has changed with FT at the product release you'll be the first to know. Cheers and have a great week.
"
To clarify what I think they mean:
The airbox mod kit is being readied for production and sale, and will be added to the Gravesport website when ready.
The cam chain tensioner and slotted (i.e. adjustable) cam sprockets are already available either directly from Graves or from a Graves dealer. (The email refers to Bayside Performance, my nearest and preferred Graves dealer)
Matching tuning files are needed to harvest the benefits enabled by the mechanical changes (the airbox mods, and the adjusted valve timing via the slotted cam sprockets), and the exact tune needed of course varies with EACH of the mechanical changes made (e.g. which Graves exhaust is installed, is the airbox mod installed, and is valve timing changed via slotted cam sprockets?).
But there is a potential delaying factor here: Graves cannot release the tuning files "unlocked", as that would enable anyone to buy a single copy of the tune, and then give it for free to others, resell to others, analyze it and make a "clone" that they then resell, or worst of all, make an erroneous damaging change to it and distribute it, which would harm Graves's reputation. Any of the above actions would either hurt Graves' ability to actually recover the time and money they have invested in developing the products, or would trash their reputation.
So, once they have each of the various tune file versions ready, it needs to go through FTECU's "locking" process, which to oversimplify, targets the tune file to a specific ECU and prevents its loading onto any other ECU. That process unfortunately has been very backlogged at FTECU. This is why it took me 4 months to get the tune file to match my Graves Cat Elim exhaust. (And yes, it was VERY worth it once I got it - see my posted thread on it)
Until those "locked" ECU files are made available, the only other way to harvest the benefits of the mechanical changes is install the parts and get a custom dyno tune done, using either a current other FTECU file and modifying it, or using a Power Commander or other tuning box. The problem with that approach is that it can be expected to be much more costly, and it requires a tuner as skilled as Graves's tuner, and as I pointed out in an earlier post on this thread, the evidence is that the Graves tuner is very talented indeed, so you won't easily find an equivalent.
Unless FTECU makes a stunningly fast turnaround in their backlog situation, we may have to be frustratingly patient.
Jim G