I have seen quite a few different tunes posted here about tunes. I am mostly interested in a tune for auto's, so it would be nice to have someone,RedCandy maybe, compile the different tunes from each source, so it might be easier to make an educated decision. I would like to have one just to reduce or eliminate that slight hesitation when you pickup the throttle, and firmer crisper shifts would be nice also. I had a custom tune on my 2000 GT, and it really helped the car shift and generally feel stronger. Anyone like to volunteer that is good with an Excel spreadsheet?

 

Dude im computer illiterate so im a bad canidate. All the very good tuners are all going to be around the same in #'s. You are looking at 25-30 rwhp right now and all adjust the same parameters. Brenspeed will be posting graphs and videos this wk as they have claimed 30rwhp and over 30 in rwtq. One thing about Brenspeed customer service is top notch. American Muscle is also a good canidate as they have Bama/Rose and great customer service.
My only concern is if a CAI is worth the money as they are only gaining 6-8rwhp.

 

If I understood tuning at all, I would be curious why manuals need to be tuned.

 

I was thinking of just ordering the SCT tuner with tune for $379.00. Is the Brenspeed different from the SCT, or do they just use the SCT device with their own custom tune?

 

I've always been conrcerned about a tune becuase I've heard that they can void your warranty on your car, but one day i take my car to get serviced I'll have a chat with my service guy to see what is best to do to avoid possible warranty issues.

 

Pretty much... if you screw with the PCM, they'll use that to void your warranty. Conventional wisdom says, "Just flash it back to stock." That MAY work but there's NO guarantee. This is only something I would do a) with FRPP and a warranty or b) a car that's out of warranty.

 

BrenSpeed knows there stuff, so you can't go wrong with them. But as mentioned, they're all pretty relative.

As far as voiding warranty- you can always reload the stock tune back into the car if you wish. And, it'll be rare if it messes up the engine. I can't remember hearing anything bad come out of the tune... then again this is a new engine, so one never knows... but still I vote it'll be fine.

 

From what i hear, Ford can retrieve info from the cars computer via OBD and get data such as highest revs, how many times the can has hit the rev limiter etc. Not sure if it's true or not but something to think about.

 

The factory (and the FRPP) tunes are very conservative, designed to completely maintain reliability for the drivetrain and its related systems (as well as minimize warranty issues), ergo there is some power to be found by utilizing more aggressive tunes (and given the nature of the 3v and Coyote fitted with VVT, you can even change the character of the engine).

 

Just flash it back to stock parameters. They'll never know.

 

The other thing that everyone has to understand about the claims of the various tuners is that these generic tunes are going to vary in how well they do from one car to another, one dyno to another, no two cars or dyno's are EXACTLY alike.

So, a tune that gets 30 HP in one car on one dyno may only show 25 HP in another car on another dyno.

 

The computer (ECU) is in control of spark timing advance and air/fuel ratio. Within reason, the more advance (how far ahead of TDC the spark plug flashes on each combustion cycle) or the leaner the A/F mixture, the more torque you'll get, but also the more likelhood of preignition/ping. It's balancing act, and higher compression makes it more difficult. Your stock engine is safely tuned to accept regular 87 octane and also meet exacting emissions requirements under prescribed driving conditions and last thru the warranty period. I am still amazed it's got an 11:1 compression ratio.

Anyway, what this means is there's an opportunity to get more torque and thus power. If you "promise" to use higher octane gas, the spark advance curve (degrees spark advance at each rpm) and A/F ratio can be made more aggressive (by the tuned ECU) to produce more torque (and thus more power). Margins to trouble (ping/too lean) are reduced so you're running a little closer to the "edge". Basically, the compromises introduced by mass-producing an engine with the stock tune are leaving about 30-40 hp on the table, since that seems to be what they're able to provide without changing any hardware/components.

There's a lot more to this, but I think it captures the idea.

 

If you're talking in general terms, I'd drop the 30-40 HP and call it 8-10%. But basically you're absolutely right.

 

Yeah, thanks, sorry it was a bit disjointed - I was trying to type while on the phone dealing with a survey taker, and I am TERRIBLE at multitasking!

Interestingly, direct injection adds about 10% more power (in general), but I read in my Car and Driver article that Ford saved $200 per engine by not going that route on the 5.0 - just yet. Of course it would cost FAR more than that to add DFI. I think that may be Ford's next step since the V6 already has it.

 

Convential wisdom with the 05-09 engines was that flashing back your car to stock was always safe and a dealer would never know the difference for service/warranty work. HOWEVER, if you were for some reason very unlucky and had a very suspicious warranty claim, a dispatched Ford Engineer could determine how many times the PCM had been flashed before.

I have never heard of this happening to deny engine warranty work though.

 

Can we ask when buying a tune from various vendors what are the specs of their tunes. I mean we have to know what this tune will do to our engines. I'm getting a Steeda tune as well as a CAI. I got the CAI and waiting on the tune which they sent via e-mail once you have the SCT tuner on hand as well as the computer code.

 

I really want to get a tune but I keep hearing that the computer will log any time it has been flashed. If the tech sees it has been flashed in its datalog, bye bye warranty. Can someone please clarify this?

 

Pretty much nobody will divulge their tune specifics.

And the file they send you can't be read, only downloaded to the handheld device.

 

Dumb question: Do tunes, like the SCI tune, always require additional hardware, like CAI, or can you do a tune only? I saw that the SCI tune was adding 25-30 rwhp with the tune only but didn't know whether it was understood that you'd have to add CAI as well.

 

You can use a tune only, and/or you can have a tune built specifically for the mods on your car. Last car I had a Superchips 91 Tune, then added an AEM Brute CAI, then Superchips provided a 91 Octane/AEM CAI Tune. I didn't go further than that, but is my understanding you can work with your tune build with what you have on your car and they can "personalize" your tune to your vehicle...