I'm new to tuning and had a few questions about it. First, I noticed that American Muscle sells tuner and CAI combo kits. Is a CAI required for a tune, or can you tune it with the stock air box? I'm looking to add a little HP and MPG without breaking the bank and don't really want to spend close to $700 if I can avoid it. If it can be tuned without a CAI, is there much difference in the HP and MPG gains with and without a CAI? Thanks in advance.

 

You can run your car with a tune and no CAI ... you will see good gains. When you add a CAI the gains improve and so does the ability to add more performance parts with greater gains.


We did this more recently with our 2011 Mustang GT. This same principle will apply with earlier/newer model Mustangs.

On this test the car was loaded with a basic tune with no cam timing changes just so we could have a higher rev limiter that way we could rev the engine to the same RPM with both intakes without running into a limiter. Ignition timing was the same for both tunes.


The results show a “peak” gain of only 5 horsepower, but there is a lot more there if you read the dyno sheet. Gains started at about 4,500, with gains of 6 to 9 horsepower between 4,500 and 5,000. Between 5,300 and 6,100 gains were 7 to 10 horsepower. And between 6,700 and 7,200 the gains were an impressive 12 to 15 horsepower. So you can see measureable gains from a cold air intake.



Best Regards,
TJ

 

Razrpig256,

Welcome to the tuning world! You can definitely run just a tune if you'd like. Ford left a ton of room for error on the table when creating your car! So you'll be able to pull out a decent amount of power and torque with just a tune. We can also play with a lot of settings in the transmission. On the automatics we have full control of the shift points, firmness etc.. and on the Manuals we can eliminate the skip shift option! However if you're looking to get better gas mileage etc.. then a CAI will definitely help with that. The new found Air that the Intake provides definitely helps in that department!

We offer a lot of CAI/Tune combo kits to help out our customers on the expensive cost. When we put the kits together we offer them at a discounted price since you're purchasing it in a kit. However if you do decide to purchase them individually our free tunes for life program definitely comes in handy! If you go with just a tune and a CAI later, just give us a call and we'll send you an updated file in just a few minutes.

I hope this helps, let me know if you ever have any questions on tuning or just need some assistance! Our Bama Performance tuning specialists are here in the building Monday-Friday from 9AM-5:30PM EST and Saturday 9AM-5:30PM EST. You can hit them up directly at 888.226.9764 and they'll get you squared away!

-Dan

 

" and on the Manuals we can eliminate the skip shift option and more!"

can you go into detail on this one.

 

That’s exactly what I did and while I don’t have any numerical “gains” to post, the tune did wonders for my 2012 V6 automatic. With more than 6,000 miles since the initial tune, I can’t imagine ever going back to the factory stock tune. Here’s my Steeda tune review:

https://themustangsource.com/f801/st...review-510821/

 

Yes of course! On the 11+ Mustang's they came out with the Skip Shift feature. Basically this won't allow you to shift into the next gear at a certain RPM, it will tell you to skip 2nd and go into 3rd etc.. However, within the tune we can get rid of this feature completely!

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any questions!

-Dan

 

Skip-Shift is only on the 11+ GT

 

Correct! I was just technically speaking in my post, that feature doesn't apply for the OP's 13' V6. The V6 doesn't have this option because they aren't really gas sippers like the GT!

-Dan

 

Silverstate777,

We appreciate the review and glad that Gus was able to get your tune spot on.

Thanks for the props and hopefully others will follow suit!

Best Regards,

TJ