New custom tune on car today
1/12/12, 01:05 PM
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New custom tune on car today
I finally purchased the SCT SF3/X3 from American Muscle and installed the 93 Octane Race tune. After a few hiccups and a call to AM/Bama, all seems to be working great now.
The Bama tech and customer support is great! They know their stuff and are friendly and helpful.
So, here's how the story unfolded:
I loaded the Race tune and test drove. Surprisingly, the engine seemed a bit bogged down at WOT from a stop. It corrected, but WOT while cruising didn't have the zing of the stock tune, much less more from a race tune.
I drove to work with no issues, wondering if maybe I should tune back to stock. Then while driving to get lunch the CEL popped on.
I called AM/Bama and talked for a few minutes with their SCT Tech. We pulled the code with the SF3. P0041/43 - running lean. He asked if I had changed anything under the hood.
Ah, yes...yes I had. I have the Volant CAI. It comes with a harness that plugs into the MAF harnes and then into the MAF. It tricks the ECU into working correctly with a Volant CAI without needing a full tune.
I had asked Volant if the harness was needed after getting a tune. They said it doesn't matter and that I could take it off if I wanted to make the engine bay a little neater. (all in favor of a neater appearance, raise your hand
)
So, before loading the tune I removed the harness.
At this point you may be wondering to yourself "Why Volant? Why didn't you go with one of the normal CAIs?" The answer is that I have the Shaker hood scoop and air intake installed. I wanted to duct the intake into an actual box instead cutting a slot in the heat shield that all the other CAIs come with. It just looks better that way, IMHO.
Apparently the Volant CAI is not one of the CAIs that AM/Bama have specifically tuned for. They intend to get one and tune for it, but it will be a few months from now. I was told to call back around mid-summer to see whats what.
The fix was to load the stock tune back on to clear the ECU, plug the Volant harness back in, then load the Bama tune.
This tune can be better and release a bit more HP once they dial it in for an unharnessed Volant CAI, but it's already an improvement over stock.
Throttle response is instant, shifting and shiftpoints are much, much improved. Plus, it fixed the speedo error caused by the stock tune having the wrong tire/wheel combo which I paid Ford to fix. Which they didn't fix. (yes, I should have kept after them but time is difficult to come by).
Seat-of-the-Pants dyno says there's a bit more 'push' back into the seat now when launching. I don't have the same HP increase that the standard American Muscle CAI offerings have, but AM/Bama should come through with that later this year. I'll have to think of it as a staged upgrade
Volant CAI with Shaker ducting:
The Bama tech and customer support is great! They know their stuff and are friendly and helpful.
So, here's how the story unfolded:
I loaded the Race tune and test drove. Surprisingly, the engine seemed a bit bogged down at WOT from a stop. It corrected, but WOT while cruising didn't have the zing of the stock tune, much less more from a race tune.
I drove to work with no issues, wondering if maybe I should tune back to stock. Then while driving to get lunch the CEL popped on.
I called AM/Bama and talked for a few minutes with their SCT Tech. We pulled the code with the SF3. P0041/43 - running lean. He asked if I had changed anything under the hood.
Ah, yes...yes I had. I have the Volant CAI. It comes with a harness that plugs into the MAF harnes and then into the MAF. It tricks the ECU into working correctly with a Volant CAI without needing a full tune.
I had asked Volant if the harness was needed after getting a tune. They said it doesn't matter and that I could take it off if I wanted to make the engine bay a little neater. (all in favor of a neater appearance, raise your hand
)So, before loading the tune I removed the harness.
At this point you may be wondering to yourself "Why Volant? Why didn't you go with one of the normal CAIs?" The answer is that I have the Shaker hood scoop and air intake installed. I wanted to duct the intake into an actual box instead cutting a slot in the heat shield that all the other CAIs come with. It just looks better that way, IMHO.
Apparently the Volant CAI is not one of the CAIs that AM/Bama have specifically tuned for. They intend to get one and tune for it, but it will be a few months from now. I was told to call back around mid-summer to see whats what.
The fix was to load the stock tune back on to clear the ECU, plug the Volant harness back in, then load the Bama tune.
This tune can be better and release a bit more HP once they dial it in for an unharnessed Volant CAI, but it's already an improvement over stock.
Throttle response is instant, shifting and shiftpoints are much, much improved. Plus, it fixed the speedo error caused by the stock tune having the wrong tire/wheel combo which I paid Ford to fix. Which they didn't fix. (yes, I should have kept after them but time is difficult to come by).
Seat-of-the-Pants dyno says there's a bit more 'push' back into the seat now when launching. I don't have the same HP increase that the standard American Muscle CAI offerings have, but AM/Bama should come through with that later this year. I'll have to think of it as a staged upgrade
Volant CAI with Shaker ducting:
Last edited by B/W GT; 1/12/12 at 02:22 PM.
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