I am located in Myrtle Beach. How about yourself?

 

You're absolutely right. Was having a bad day that day. I just don't understand why some are so condescending to others. It's unnecessary and drains the fun and usefulness right out of these boards.
A BBK CAI actually cured a power loss at around 4300 rpm. Not to mention that it also benefitted greatly from it. I noticed a power and torque increase. Even if it's not what you would get from a tune or forced induction, every little bit counts.

 

I agree with you that internet forums can bring out the worst in people...but I suspect that GrabberBlue5.0 wasn't trying to be as rude as you took it...unless you guys have some history or something.

Basically, you just made a claim and he wanted you to back it up.

If you can't back it up (and you're just going by a hunch) or if you just don't feel like it explaining yourself....no big deal. It doesn't mean that you're wrong.

Most folks will agree that at the very least, CAIs look great and sound excellent when you open the throttle...that's worth something! It just should be known that the vast majority of the performance improvements come from the tune alone with little help from the CAI...
...and when it comes right down to it, I'm only going by what I have read and heard from talking to other Mustang guys since my 5.0 has only ever had the stock intake.

I'm pretty convinced that the stock box is good and I'd hate to see guys wasting their hard earned cash on something that doesn't help them go faster...just because it's a traditional "tuning" part.

If someone has dyno charts (or better yet, real world results) that show a significant improvement with a CAI, I would gladly reverse my position on this..but this is the opposite of what I have seen so far.

 

See if you can find the interview Jay Leno did with the chief engineer on the Boss 302/Laguna Seca. The engineer guy made it pretty clear that adding a CAI to the intake tract wouldn't yield much in the way of Return On Investment, that the box was getting cool air as it is. Leno seemed surprised to hear a recommendation against it.

It seems to me that Ford Racing would have a kit out by now, if there were significant potential for gains; what I see in their lineup is a (questionably) superior air filter and a tune, with or without some expensive mufflers.

Even when the '05-'09s were known to gain from CAI, it was never more than ten or fifteen percent of the gain from CAI/tune combination. Definitely not much of a bargain in the horsepower-to-dollar sweepstakes.

 

I'm in Aiken County. Cherry Grove is my vacation spot

 

The Rep also seemed to inply that a tune wouldn't help either.

 

Right on. I know Cherry Grove very well. My wife and I live in Surfside.

 

It's my experience that every car is a little bit different, so little bolt ons like that would probably help some more than others. I think that the rep saying that tunes don't help much is a little backwards, IMO.

 

I had an Airaid CAI installed on my car for a few thousand miles... looked almost like an OEM piece under the hood. Nice fit and finish with no-tune required. Felt like it had more juice compared to stock in the mid to upper range, but throttle response seemed a bit off. Took it off due to jerky/hesitant throttle response and fear of car running a bit lean without a tune. IMHO, skip the CAI unless you really like the way they look and sound. Maybe research and invest in a good tune if you require some extra grunt.

 

The rep seemed confident that the stock shifter is BETTER than aftermarket. I'm not sure about the Boss shifter, but I'm pretty confident my GT could use improvements.

This is why I'm leaning towards a Bama tune, because it seems like they are more prepared to deal with all of these variables. If right now, I decide to go with a stock air box they'll tune for it, but if I change my mind (and get a CAI) they'll tune for that free of charge.

Of course, I could always pay another company for a new tune, but if I bought from another tuner I couldn't fall back on infinite tunes that Bama offers.

 

Not knocking bama in any way, I used their tunes on my 2010 and loved it, but the "free tunes for life" is a marketing gimmick. AED sends revised tunes for minor mods, Jon Lund sends revisions for minor mods, VMP sends revisions for minor mods............ If it was truly tunes for LIFE I would have gotten a bama tune to use on my 2012. Like I said, not knocking bama at all but its just a fancy way of saying we will revise your tune for minor bolt on mods you do. I work in sales I know all about gimmicks

 

See this is what I want to hear more of, I wish other companies would clarify what their tune covers.

I've also heard Bama has a good turnaround time too, which can be critical when dealing with a daily driver, but I was unaware about other companies doing updates to their tunes free of charge.

 

I'm not sure if the other tuners have the same policy. As I understand it, you can call Bama any time you make a change to your car or any time you want to try something new...and in a couple of days, you'll have a new tune.

They even let me get a new tune when I got an entirely new Mustang (since I bought the XCT tuner for my 2009.

So... I suspect the "tunes for life" thing is more than a gimmick.

 

Bama has been good to me so far, I can say that. I tried Steeda, but fr some reason my car kept stalling (cam tune) so I went back to Bama. On the stock air box, it's great, doesn't stall all the time, and feels strong. On my JLT intake though, no matter what was tried, it would not and could not idle nicely all the time and not stall. I also had terrible surging, cold and at part throttle on the freeway. Nothing seemed to fix it. As I understand it, JLT has by far, the noisiest MAF signal, and is hard to tune.

So for now I'm using the stock box, just modded to allow more intake growl to be heard. I have no doubt though that ill be switching my stock box out for maybe AirRaid or Steeda later, for looks and sound, but only if it will be stall free..

That being said i have a lightly used JLT intake for sale for $200!

 

Maybe AM will chime in here, but I just ordered the airraid intake and tune combo, hoping I dont have the stalling problem

 

AirRaid doesn't change the intake tubing diameter, from my understanding and you should not encounter any issues. That is actually why I was thinking of them, and in a conversation, their very own Mike Wilson suggested that AirRaid might be the logical next choice for me to try.

Unfortunately a recent financial hole in the household has held me off from doing anything, heck I have new wheels in my garage, but no money for tires, so if it snows, I might be SOL on my summer only Goodyears.

 

Thats good to hear. Glad I went with Airaid. Thanks

 

You hit it right on the head. Bama isn't the only one that does free revisions. I've had three different revisions with my VMP tune and everyone of them has been free.
You don't hear from the other tuners because they are not as big as Bama with parts being sold. Bama has several guys that just hang out on all these boards and jump into threads to sell you their tune. Nothing more. Bama is the most popular because every time you turn around there they are, ready to sell you something.
That's it. Nothing more than a gimmick. Just like all these fancy names on their tunes. race, street, hybrid. You name it.

 

Gee, I'd have never guessed you are "in sales".

 

Exactly like GB5.0 stated. I am not knocking BAMA in any way, they do a great job at what they do but to base buying a tune off a "free tunes for life" gimmick is foolish IMO. Just think of the amount of people American Muscle has working for them VS. lets say Blow By Racing. American Muscle has people to sit there and answer customers 1 2 3 and sell for them.

I wanted a different shift pattern after having my steeda tune for 3 months and Matt Levine had no problem and had Gus get me the tune out the next day. Free revisions is the same thing as "tunes for life". I originally purchased a jlt & tuner combo FROM BAMA for my 2010 and when I bought my 2012 I was told I could not use the free tunes for life on the new car and I would have to rebuy into the program.