So for anyone still following this, I got my sct tuner loaded with bama tunes and their tunes caused my heads to detonate. Don't use bama tunes!

 

Details? What exactly happened?

 

Never heard of heads detonating....need more info than that

 

Basically whenever I would get on it I would hear a very distinct ticking/pinging sound and when I would shut the car off it would smell like a burning belt. Talked to a couple buddies who have built their termis and they both said it sounds like my heads are detonating from not enough fuel

 

The pinging is called detonation. Could be from bad gas, bad tune. A large number of factors. If you loaded a tune for 93 octane and have 87 in the tank it will knock or ping. Nothing to do with the heads themselves. Return it to stock. Run the tank down and refill and make sure it's good gas. Then reload the Bama tune and try again.

 

The only time my 5.0 ever saw anything less then 91 was when the dealership filled it up for me when I bought it lol I've only put 91 in it and that's what the tunes were written for

 

Could still be bad gas, I would call AM and have them verify they sent you tunes for 91. Also recheck the CAI. If it's got a bad seal or loose it can cause the MAF to read incorrectly

 

I did both of those. Bama wants me to do a data log but if I'm having detonation I don't want to run the tunes

 

Something is off...I can put 87 in with my tune and it will pull enough timing to prevent knock. But it's way down on power. You should be ok data logging. Just don't beat on it

 

Mmm, 4.10s

 

Too much gear for these transmissions whether auto or manual with the gearing they already have.

 

I can almost bet that the tune is no good in one way or another.

 

Have you figured this out yet? Inquiring minds would like to know

 

I think I gave you this warning.

 

I talked to some friends and they said the tune did not have enough fuel going in. Dyno tune in less than 2 weeks!


Jay, I'm sure you did. I had several people on both sides of the argument. Unfortunately I made a poor choice trying to save a buck, learned a tough lesson, and won't make the same mistake twice.

 

That makes no sense and your friends shouldn't be feeding you information that's not true.

 

This happens more often than not.

 

Keep us posted onequickstang. I was considering Steeda CAI with their tune for my mustang as well.

I just found your thread here, and it is one emotional roller coaster! I am a well trained driver, and I recently purchased my 2014 GT Track Pack 6M for road course racing on the weekends. And for now I'm keeping it mostly stock, because regardless of how much experience you have, once you get to race your own car, your outlook changes!

My advice would be to (1) get some seat time in your nearly stock car to get a feel for how it actually handles, and more importantly so you can work on the most important mod of all: (2) driver mod. If you have a very modified car it's a lot more difficult to learn/tell all the little yaw/lat adjustments you have to make, and quite frankly it becomes more difficult to become one with your own car.

My #1 advice to you is to become very familiar with your ride, so that you can work on becoming a better driver with your own car, and so you can tailor your mods to your driving style and your needs.

I've driven performance cars for work for the last 8 years (I've been lucky enough to drive one Ferrari, one Lambo, multiple Corvettes and top end Camaros) and I've started racing my own Mustang just recently, and so far my only real mods have been:
1) Race Brake Pads
2) Shifter bracket to fix missed downshifts
3) (soon to be mod) a set of racing wheels/tires specifically for the track

As others have said, power mods should not even come into the picture until you as a driver can handle them, and your car's suspension can take the extra power. And in terms of gearing, I think 3.55 are the perfect road racing gear set. My GT Track Pack came with 3.73s, and I think they are too steep for road courses (though I do LOVE them on the street!). I have to shift a lot more than I really should, and in some corners I run out of gear and bounce off the rev limiter as is. I think 4.10s are good for drag racing, but they would really hurt you on a road course.

My two cents. You seem to be lucky enough not to worry about the financial impact of mods. I'm very happy for you in that regard, and I wish you luck in honing your driving skills, and finding the perfect combination of mods for your driving needs and style! Congrats on your sweet Mustang too!

 

Basically he was telling me there wasn't enough fuel for all the air, but that's how I interpreted it I could have misunderstood (very likely with how green I am) basically after my cold air intake & tune I am done with power mods for quite a while. Once I get my taxes back I plan on getting my wheels & tires, because with the little driving I've done I feel like larger wheels would help quite a bit. Then I'm going to plan and save for a track day, and then just drive the car and get used to it. I'd like to save up for my coil overs next hopefully by the end of 2014 ill have the tires & coils. As for not worrying about the finances, this is going to be a very long project lol

 

Ok, so it sounds like the tune you had did not achieve the right air/fuel mixture then? Were you able to get that issue resolved with a different tune?

Good plan on wheel and tires. I will get either 275/40-19's or 275/40-18's for the track. The car has more than enough power to overcome stock tires. Good luck and congrats on getting into motorsports!