How comfortable do you guys feel with basicaly a stock vehicle with a tune from Bama or Brentspeed or whoever? I've read a lot of people saying that your tailpipes will turn sooty black after the tune. and lack of down hill engine breaking and o2 sensors being turned off. Does it bother anyone that there tailpipes are turning black with soot? If your tail pipes are turning black (with cats) imagine how clogged your cats are going to be with the soot and how gummed up the valves are going to be with carbon and unburned gas. Thoughts?????? Sure the cars feels quicker but at what expense?

 

I've run Bamachips tunes for over a year, mostly the 91 torque tune. I have an automatic. I have an AEM intake, slp loudmouths and the tune as my only "performance" mods.

The car runs great, never had any problems at all. NO soot on/in my tail pipes, no pinging at any rpm, no problem coasting down steep inclines (the car noticably engine breaks especially when I have OD off.

I have ZERO negatives to report with my mail order tune, and btw the 02 sensors don't need to be turned off with my set up.

I would have no reservations pointing anyone to Doug and his tunes and do any chance I get.

I love the tunes, especially the torque tune and even if it gave no added power, the throttle responce and shifting is so much inproved it would still be worth every penny.

 

I am running Lidio's from Alternate Automotive 93 octane tune for my auto for a little over 1 1/2 years. I have no issues at all with any of the problems you speak of. I have tried several others tunes and I like Lidio's the best so far. What or who's tune are you running that causes these issues? And I still average 23 mpg driving back and forth to work!
Scott

 

I used to feel good about my tune! Until 70MACH1OWNER explained the auto tune he has from Lidio!

 

I am running Lidio's tune as well, but for a manual trans.
no comlaints, no black soot.

I have not seen too many comments on this board from people reporting any problems from any tune, the occasional check engine light but seems like nothing serious.

if this is a problem, Black sunshine brings up some good points.

 

I was recently having problems with the soot and pinging with a tune that I was running. I'm going to leave the names out of it for now, because I don't want to bad mouth anyone in the forums. It could have just been a bad tune.

Anyway, I recieved a 93 octane race tune from Doug at Bama, and all of my problems have went away. The car feels very smooth now, and is blazing fast. No more soot or pinging either.

Doug gets my recommendation 110%

Mark

 

I too am running Lidio's 93 manual tune. The car runs strong and I have zero drivability issues; starts perfectly and never hicups. I couldn't be happier.

 

Bama Chips 93 race tune and no problems... Unless you count the a severe case of LeadFootitis!

 

I've been running Doug's 93 performance tune for 14 months and haven't had any problems or lights/codes. I am going to get a dyno tune in a few months once I have finished modding to get the best I can get out of my engine.

 

the way i see it, you should buy one of the many of air/fuel monitors to see what ratio you' re getting, seems like a lot of guys have an issue when dyno'ed from the mail order tunes. this way you can you can report to your tuner for a more efficent tune. otherwise you really have no idea, most of our tuners will never lay eyes on our cars. and you see it all the time... one guy switch tuners and have better luck, others stay with the same guy and has the same good luck. point is, this S197 is only a couple or three years old. and you have guys going from a screwdriver to computer tuning. i have a tune and would'nt have it any otherway but i also have the, fast dual monitoring device.

 

Doug's dyno tunes are amazing. His mail order tune was outstanding as well.

 

I have doug's 93 Race tune with C&L Racer CAI (that's it in the performance category.. everything else is stock)

-Yes, I have a little more black soot on the stock pipes than I used to.
-Yes, it smells bad when I start it up in the garage.
-Yes, I'll have to reflash back to stock and put the stock airbox back on for my Northern Virginia emissions test.
-Yes, I have to pay more 'cause I now pump 93 octane.
-Yes, the engine sounds louder/stronger at WOT.
-Yes, I got 10% more hp for a pretty simple mod.
-Yes, I may have to replace exhaust parts (if it comes to that but I never really thought about it.)

So in summary, I love it and wouldn't go back to stock at all.
(are you really concerned about engine braking? I mean, isn't that what the middle pedal is for?)

 

Bamachips 93 race tune here, not one issue, if anything, I have 0 soot versus soot with the stock tune My tailpipes and inside the muffler that you can see from the back are cleaner then the outside by far.

 

Most all the people that report no soot are not running a O/R pipe from what I can tell.....I have more soot but only since putting the o/r pipe in really. You are not going to see the black soot with the cats really, it helps burn off the extra fuel. Soot is a good thing since that means you are on the rich side usually, better than no soot and running lean as a MFer.

 

Brenspeed tune here..... no problems. When I was NA I tried both Brenspeed and Bama tunes; they were both really good but the Brenspeed tune pulled noticeably more at higher rpms and got much better mileage. This was back before Doug got into marketing tunes like "race", "torque", etc. I think the Brenspeed tune was overall a great combination of all factors and it worked better in my car. However like I said you can't go wrong with either tune, but I will argue (go ahead 'Bamaheads, flame away) that Brenspeed has better customer service. How many threads have there been about "where is Doug?". You just don't see that about Brenspeed, who has a dedicated shop with installers and salespeople.

 

are you really concerned about engine braking? I mean, isn't that what the middle pedal is for?

Yeah... you took the words right out of my mouth!
Scott

 

I am going to get mine tweaked at a shop with a dyno. I want to make sure that I am getting every once of power out of my pony without blowing it up. I would say that most tunes are alittle on the fat side. Doesn't do a tuner any good if people are blowing their cars up on their tunes. JMO~

 

+1

 

I have a Bamachips 91 octane perf. tune and it works great. Last week I had the chance to run someone at the track who had the identical car to mine but his was completely stock except for a K&N CAI. I ran him twice and beat him by 1 - 1.2 seconds and 10 - 11 mph. I think this is a pretty good indicator that Doug's tune works pretty well as it seems to take full advantage of my modifications.

 

Been running my tunes from Doug for about a month now and no lights or probs. No soot either. switched from the 87pref to the 93race after a week, haven't looked back since!