KMPSGT1066 Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Well I bought an SCT livewire tuner for my car. When it arrived I plugged it in to put the pre-loaded 93 tune on. Well it didn't work so I called tech support and was told with my car it would only take a custom tune. Ok fine with me since it will hold 3 custom tunes. My question is does anybody know where to get a good custom tune anywhere around northeast texas +100 miles.. called around to 4 or 5 different places and just got the run around.. SCT tech said some people could email a custom tune? No experience at all with this so any help appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARMORINE Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Well I bought an SCT livewire tuner for my car. When it arrived I plugged it in to put the pre-loaded 93 tune on. Well it didn't work so I called tech support and was told with my car it would only take a custom tune. Ok fine with me since it will hold 3 custom tunes. My question is does anybody know where to get a good custom tune anywhere around northeast texas +100 miles.. called around to 4 or 5 different places and just got the run around.. SCT tech said some people could email a custom tune? No experience at all with this so any help appreciated. contact VMP tunin in florida, they just sent me a custom tune for my shelby. havent put it in yet but i have heard very good things about them. theyr customer service is great. talk to justin tell him you have a sgt tell him what parts you have , the more details you give him the better. he'll email you a tune and off to the races you go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekheavy Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 I've used both Brenspeed and Bamachips for emailed custom tunes. I've had great results with both companies tunes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffIsHereToo Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Well I bought an SCT livewire tuner for my car. When it arrived I plugged it in to put the pre-loaded 93 tune on. Well it didn't work so I called tech support and was told with my car it would only take a custom tune. Ok fine with me since it will hold 3 custom tunes. My question is does anybody know where to get a good custom tune anywhere around northeast texas +100 miles.. called around to 4 or 5 different places and just got the run around.. SCT tech said some people could email a custom tune? No experience at all with this so any help appreciated. Ok, why are you doing this? The car has a custom tune from SAI and you say you have no experience at all so I guess I'm loss as to why you're messing with something that can render the car inoperable or cause you long term damage or performance issues? A tuner is a great thing in the hands of someone that knows what they are doing, uses a dyno and tests, tunes again, rise and repeat. There are also companies that will sell you a "general" SGT tune but again the real value is using it to get the most out of your car. So again, why are you doing this? What is your goal? What issues are you trying to resolve? What are you trying to improve? Then maybe someone can point you in the right direction...preferably to a good speed shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffIsHereToo Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 contact VMP tunin in florida, they just sent me a custom tune for my shelby. havent put it in yet but i have heard very good things about them. theyr customer service is great. talk to justin tell him you have a sgt tell him what parts you have , the more details you give him the better. he'll email you a tune and off to the races you go. Ok, and how do you know that? I mean most people don't seem to be doing any dyno testing, you don't have the Ford laptop program and connector to see what values have been changed. Like some placebo effect if you sent me $300 and I just sent you back a standard SGT tune how would you know? I'm asking this maybe more for me because I wouldn't know and would I just imagine I'm a little faster? It's like those hard drive guys that you have to pay to try to rescue your data. I mean if you send me $300 to try to rescue your crashed hard drive and I send it back and tell you it was a total loss, how do you know I did anything for your $300? Maybe it 's me because I also don't know how to tune a car these days and I don't know how I would know that it really changed anything and it wasn't my imagination or myself just pushing it harder. I had a more "driver experienced" friend of mine take my car out on a track near here and I thought we were driving in a different car! I was amazed at how well the car did and realized I just wasn't pushing it enough. If you had given me the same tune and charged me $300 and then had my friend drive I would swear the tune woke up my car like night and day. I'm on the fence with these "mail-in" tunes...I hear people say they worked out great but I really don't know how you really know that and how much is in your head. I know enough at least to know I don't know...so those more experienced I hope can enlighten me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tekheavy Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Having an automatic tranny, I can safely say my car has a night and day difference between the stock SGT tune and my current Brenspeed tune. I don't have that lag anymore when you first push down on the accelerator. The shift points and shift pressures are dramatically improved. The car now shifts as if I had a stick. For me, the stock SGT for an automatic tranny is way too mild. I have never had my car dynoed and probably never will. All I know is that it feels 100% better to me and that's all I care about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMPSGT1066 Posted March 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Ok let me specify JeffIsHereToo.. no experience at all with the email tune. And yes SAI put a tune on it. But who says it did anything? I would be able to tell if it improved the performance believe me. Tekheavy and Armorine thanks for the inputs, I will for sure look into those places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARMORINE Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Ok, and how do you know that? I mean most people don't seem to be doing any dyno testing, you don't have the Ford laptop program and connector to see what values have been changed. Like some placebo effect if you sent me $300 and I just sent you back a standard SGT tune how would you know? I'm asking this maybe more for me because I wouldn't know and would I just imagine I'm a little faster? It's like those hard drive guys that you have to pay to try to rescue your data. I mean if you send me $300 to try to rescue your crashed hard drive and I send it back and tell you it was a total loss, how do you know I did anything for your $300? Maybe it 's me because I also don't know how to tune a car these days and I don't know how I would know that it really changed anything and it wasn't my imagination or myself just pushing it harder. I had a more "driver experienced" friend of mine take my car out on a track near here and I thought we were driving in a different car! I was amazed at how well the car did and realized I just wasn't pushing it enough. If you had given me the same tune and charged me $300 and then had my friend drive I would swear the tune woke up my car like night and day. I'm on the fence with these "mail-in" tunes...I hear people say they worked out great but I really don't know how you really know that and how much is in your head. I know enough at least to know I don't know...so those more experienced I hope can enlighten me! our club has worked with vmp before and all of our cars have been dynoed afterwards, the results are good. vmp has been around for along time. most of our members have either used them or brenspeed. i sent them the part numbers for everything on my car. they tune it accordingly. the thing with mail tunes is you dont jst take it to any body(90% of the shops out there couldnt pull it off) the key here is to use shops who have massive amounts of experience. theyve dynoed enough cars to know what has to be done to make alot of power. most of the "canned" tunes are crap. when it comes to these mail tunes though word spreads fast. brenspeed, bamachips and vmp are the most highly recommended. consequently theyr the most critisized as well. if they didnt work people wouldnt use them. ultimatly it comes down to who you have used before. who has the best reputation. if you hear bad things about some one dont use them. bottom line its your choice. sory that wasnt the most coherent post i have ever done but i had to hammer it out since im at work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greaser Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 brenspeed and bamachips both have heavy experience with modifying s197 mustangs and when it comes to seting up a tune thats all they need. no you wont squeze every avalable horse out but it is going to make a noticable difference. what you have to remember is that ford the ones who wrote our tune have to take into account for a lot of factors that cause them to send a soft tune with the car. if you ever make it to MN ill put the stock tune back in mine let you take her for a spine then put the bama race tune in and let you try again and you WILL notice a huge difference in the car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMPSGT1066 Posted March 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Greaser sounds like a great plan. But that's quite a journey up there so I will take your word for it :beerchug: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffIsHereToo Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Ok let me specify JeffIsHereToo.. no experience at all with the email tune. And yes SAI put a tune on it. But who says it did anything? I would be able to tell if it improved the performance believe me. Tekheavy and Armorine thanks for the inputs, I will for sure look into those places. "Who said the SAI tune did anything?" Of course it did, try putting in a standard GT tune and you'll find you have a 3000 pound paper weight. Anyway, Armorine gave a good response...but I fear many of these email and snail mail tunes, and these tuners that are sold, are nothing but Snake Oil in the hands of inexperienced people. There seem to be some firms that have a some experience and references so go with them and make sure you get a stored version of both your SGT tune and the new tune should it ever have to go back for warranty work and for some reason needs to be flashed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMPSGT1066 Posted March 21, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Right. The livewire is able to switch to stock tune when needed. And are we all born knowing how to do something? How does the inexperienced become experienced? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARMORINE Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Right. The livewire is able to switch to stock tune when needed. And are we all born knowing how to do something? How does the inexperienced become experienced? the stock tune in the livewire is for mgts not sgts. keep that in mind. if thats a reference to the tuning shops well they get it by doing ALOT of dyno tunes. stick with the ones with a good rep. and im not talking about ones that sell parts. as for people well you gotta stick you arm out. if it gets cut off hopefully you know a good surgeon, either way you just gained valuable experience but seriously experment little. do serious and heavy research on a part before you put it in. you will get the best results that way. now if you gentleman(and ladies) will excuse me im going home! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGT3131 Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 I purchased the SCTIII this week. The main reason was to be able to change my speedo after installing the 4.10 gears. Expensive way of doing this I guess. I am not close to being confident in trying a tune yet. As some mentioned the SAI is a ford tune that takes into account the Air intake mods. (also listed in ford power parts for the GT) I suspect this is about the only difference in the SAI tune and the normal GT tune but I am by no means sure of this statment. I have read that to install a tune you need to go back to the stock tune and then I have read just the opposite. I'll admit to spend 379.00 just to change my speedo is a lot but I figure it may come in handy for other tuning in the future. For example I know that the ford tune offered by SAI is conserative and I like that but may want a change to see the results. The SCTIII can be used up to 5 times on different cars before having to be sent back to SCT for a new program at a cost TBD. After I find the perfect gear combo with the supercharger (sometimes in the next few months when Bud calls me) I'll most likely sell mine. I have been told the best way to get the perfect tune is to have a dyno shop (good one) dyno the car and install the tune they write at thier shop. I have also been told to stay away from dyno shops that have not writtne tunes before other than to get some baseline numbers. I have been told so many different things that I have come to the conclusion that I know very little in this area. It would be great if we could have a tuning thread where we added our mods and the tuning , tuners and the results. Just a thought. It would help me if we could see facts verses thoughts on some of these. I say this because I hear all kind of things on the streets and come here to try and get facts as much as possible. Thanks, -Billy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahmann Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 brenspeed and bamachips both have heavy experience with modifying s197 mustangs and when it comes to seting up a tune thats all they need. no you wont squeze every avalable horse out but it is going to make a noticable difference. what you have to remember is that ford the ones who wrote our tune have to take into account for a lot of factors that cause them to send a soft tune with the car. if you ever make it to MN ill put the stock tune back in mine let you take her for a spine then put the bama race tune in and let you try again and you WILL notice a huge difference in the car. +1 Running a custom tune, even without any mods, is the easiest and cheapest source of power and fun out there. Bamachips has been my go to tuner since day 1. I've tried others, but Doug at Bama just seems to get it right. The throttle response throughout the entire RPM band is phenomenal with his custom 'race' tune. For $50, you absolutely cannot go wrong! Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilmor Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 The tune I want is to slap a 550 supercharger on there and have Tasca tune it!! DONE!!! Working with a stock SGT, however, from what I've read on this forum over the past 1 or 2 years, it seems like everybody is pleased with Brenspeed's SGT tune. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greaser Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 as far as loosing youre shelby tune when you first hook up any of the SCT tuners it downloads and saves youre tune so you can retrieve it at any time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARMORINE Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 as far as loosing youre shelby tune when you first hook up any of the SCT tuners it downloads and saves youre tune so you can retrieve it at any time. now thats slick! it almost justifies the price...not quite though. still very cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2007_Shelby_GT Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 I see what Jeff is saying - I always want real proof, not just seat of the pants! Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your email tune didn't do anything, I just want to see some actual real data on my car. I'm considering a custom tune and since VMP (Justin) will be at the Mustangs and Mustangs show doing Dyno pulls, I think that might be a good time to actually try one, test, and see the results. Now, with that being said, if I was in to conspiracy theorys, maybe the Dyno could be rigged! No offense to anyone, and none taken by me! Sam AKA: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARMORINE Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 I see what Jeff is saying - I always want real proof, not just seat of the pants! Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your email tune didn't do anything, I just want to see some actual real data on my car. I'm considering a custom tune and since VMP (Justin) will be at the Mustangs and Mustangs show doing Dyno pulls, I think that might be a good time to actually try one, test, and see the results. Now, with that being said, if I was in to conspiracy theorys, maybe the Dyno could be rigged! No offense to anyone, and none taken by me! Sam AKA: haha yeha if you want to tamper wiht a 50k plus peice of equipment! actauly i dont know whay a mobile dyno jet costs...im sure its more then most people make in a day! any ways whens this mustangs and mustangs show? im putting my new stuf on today and putting the new tne in so maybe i'll go and put it on the dyno jet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2007_Shelby_GT Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Mustangs and Mustangs is at the Fantasy of Flight museum (Kermit Weeks) in Polk City, Florida, April 11, 2009. Would be a real nice cruise for you! Sam AKA: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARMORINE Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Mustangs and Mustangs is at the Fantasy of Flight museum (Kermit Weeks) in Polk City, Florida, April 11, 2009. Would be a real nice cruise for you! Sam AKA: DANG IT...im pretty sure i have school that week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2007_Shelby_GT Posted March 21, 2009 Report Share Posted March 21, 2009 Aww nuts, for us it's the last weekend of Spring Break! Sam AKA: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGT3131 Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Hey Guys, Got the 4.10s finished and as previously mentioned I purchased the SCTIII from Amercian Muscle. I did not ask for any special tune or anything when I purchased the SCTIII due to the fact that all I wanted to do at this time is correct my speedo. If any of you could look below at what I ran into and provide some help I sure would appreciate it. Intalled gears, works great and just like everyone said, I really like the 4.10 as it is almost perfect. I then came home and after reading the info and directions a couple of dozen times I connected the SCT to the PCM terminal. Please see comments below. (A) Turned on the SCT and retrieved my vehicle information. NOTE the following. It gave me my VIN = too long to print here, COMM:=CAN ( I suspect this means Can Buss for communication, kind of like the RS 232 for computers etc, and then STRATEGY: = FPASAU9. HEX (B) I read the DTC's and none were found © Still trying to find where I could change my gear ratio I tried to enter "Program Vehicle". I then entered the "Strategy Tune" and then the "Custom Tune" and the the "Return to Stock Tune" all in hoping to find the gear ratio option while paying close attention not to really load a tune I did not want. I really was not to concerned since I did not order any tunes on the SCT. (D) On each attempt to enter a tune to find the gear ratio I got the following message on the SCT: Message reads: " Un Supported Vehicle Code, FPASAU9. Have any of you ran into this? Do I need to order a tune just to be able to get into the gear ratio area of the tuner? Should I have purchased the Diablo Preditor tuner? Man I hope not isne I paid $379.00 for this SCT. As you can see this old man is lost. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks, -Billy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelbytexan Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 I started not to respond because there have been several good comments about these tuners. Most of us have bought our tuners with a program already set up. Unless you dyno a before and after then you will really not know how much you have gained on these cars. I can understand Jeff's hesitants as there are a lot of gimmicks out there. I bought the sct 2 from Brenspeed on account of many people on this forum praising them. Did i really know anything about these tuners? The answer is NO. Everyone kept talking about the seat of the pants feel and i was like i've heard this before. Well i found out they were right. Breenspeed does not advertise a big horsepower gain, maybe 5 or 10 h.p. The big difference is in the torque. The feel when putting the pedal to the floor is as if you gained 20 or 25 h.p. No hesitation when driving it hard. I've installed JBA shorty headers and i'm sure they gave me as much if not more h.p. than the tune but one thing they couldn't give me more of,torque. The headers installed was about twice the price. I installed a 4'' aluminum driveshaft with adj. upper control and still not as noticeable for nearly three times the price. Needless to say you don't always get what you pay for but a tune and 410 gear you do as i am a witness to. Brenspeed says they are the number one sct tuner in the country and sell over 300 per month.Wonder why? Because it works. I discussed with them about taking my tuner to a speed shop and getting a so called custom tune. They informed me that i probably would get very little improvement out of it because they already get just about all you can get out of there tune leaving for very little improvement. I suspect Bama is the same way and probably parallels brenspeed in many ways. You can call Brenspeed and or Bama and they can help you get a program on your tuner. Also i think you mentioned you bought a sct lll so you can set your gears to 410. you can do that with a sct ll. You'll love the difference, especially for the money. Good Luck, Kenny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank S Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 I've learned by experience that the "tune" part of a standard upgrade of "tune plus CAI" is a night-and-day change for the better; since the SGT starts with both on there (that's right, isn't it?) I'd be surprised if the difference were as dramatic as on a standard GT. You figure twenty bucks a HP for the tune, thirty bucks a HP for the CAI on a GT. Adding a tune on an already-tuned SGT is not going to be that cheap, $/HP. Even then, it's worth it every time you start the engine and shift into gear, on an automatic. Like your port-and-polish job, you may never be able to pin down the improvements number-wise, but just knowing it's there may be worth it to some ... (Edit:) I have the BamaChips tunes; they are magnificent, and Doug does excellent support, including free emailed updates if you add modifications that require them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelbytexan Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Agree. With the already tuned Shelby GT you want gain much h.p. but what you gain you will feel because of the torque increase and it's the torque in the right places that counts. Kenny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kahmann Posted March 22, 2009 Report Share Posted March 22, 2009 Hey Guys, Got the 4.10s finished and as previously mentioned I purchased the SCTIII from Amercian Muscle. I did not ask for any special tune or anything when I purchased the SCTIII due to the fact that all I wanted to do at this time is correct my speedo. If any of you could look below at what I ran into and provide some help I sure would appreciate it. Intalled gears, works great and just like everyone said, I really like the 4.10 as it is almost perfect. I then came home and after reading the info and directions a couple of dozen times I connected the SCT to the PCM terminal. Please see comments below. (A) Turned on the SCT and retrieved my vehicle information. NOTE the following. It gave me my VIN = too long to print here, COMM:=CAN ( I suspect this means Can Buss for communication, kind of like the RS 232 for computers etc, and then STRATEGY: = FPASAU9. HEX (B) I read the DTC's and none were found © Still trying to find where I could change my gear ratio I tried to enter "Program Vehicle". I then entered the "Strategy Tune" and then the "Custom Tune" and the the "Return to Stock Tune" all in hoping to find the gear ratio option while paying close attention not to really load a tune I did not want. I really was not to concerned since I did not order any tunes on the SCT. (D) On each attempt to enter a tune to find the gear ratio I got the following message on the SCT: Message reads: " Un Supported Vehicle Code, FPASAU9. Have any of you ran into this? Do I need to order a tune just to be able to get into the gear ratio area of the tuner? Should I have purchased the Diablo Preditor tuner? Man I hope not isne I paid $379.00 for this SCT. As you can see this old man is lost. Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks, -Billy Hey Billy, I plugged my Livewire in to try to help you out. Here's what I did to access the option page where I could change my gear ratio. I went to Program Vehicle, then selected custom tune. Next, I chose the tune that I was running. After that, it asked if I wanted to modify my file settings. That's where you can access the 'saved settings' or 'default settings' pages, where you'll find the programmed gear ratio. Mine is 4:10. Since you're running the stock file, I wouldn't be able to see what you're seeing, unless I reload the stock file. Let me know if you'd like me to try this. You'd think that making a simple gear ratio change wouldn't require you to purchase a custom file?? You may want to give SCT a quick phone call. I'm sure they'll have the solution for you. Good luck! Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SGT3131 Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Thanks for the input guys. Ken, I'm going to try your suggestion Tuesday night and see what I can find. I'll let you know. I do not want to put you to the trouble of loading different tunes but I really do appreciate the offer. I'll be in touch with my next effort. If needed I could spend the money for a tune from one of the good tuners mentioned. Thanks, Billy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ARMORINE Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 well i put my cdc delete plates in last weekend and put in my 91 one performance tune. the first couple of starts were EXTREMELY rough(computer was retraining it self to the new specs) after the first three starts it ran extremely smoothly, have it currently set to idle at 750. i got it out and ran it for the first time yesterday and let me tell you "jesus rides with the hells angles" you can REALLY feel the torque increase. im not talking high end im talking i picked it up big time on the low end too. i can spin it in 3rd without much difficulty now(none speed shifting). to make things even more interesting the throttle response is so rapid now im having to relearn the pedal touch again. just BARELY touching the pedal and it wants to jump to 2k rpm. first through third feels like a whole new car. i havent taken it to fourth at full throttle yet but i expect solid gains there as well. its been nothing short of amazing. VmP tuning hit the tune DEAD on. the fuel burn is supposedly only a little higher then before(or so my car comps telling me) i'll start taking notes at the next fill up and record everything till i empty the tank to find out the fuel burn. i'll give you guys a report on it then and when i get it dynoed i'll post the numbers and stats. i am EXTREMELY EXTREMELY happy with the tune, i wont lie though im still afraid of my engine flying part(unfounded fears i have simply because i can't afford an engine right now) but it runs better then before. the exhaust note has changed alittle bit it now has a more aggressive bite to it and at full throttle there is a noticeable after pop when you shift and let the engine spin down slightly. i have yet to speed shift with it because im afraid i wont be able to keep up with the engine in its new settings(i probably can just havent gotten the balls to do it yet lol) from what i have experienced getting a good tune is more then worth the money. its a difference between night and day. hope that helps EDIT: just fyi for those of you wandering what the micture ratio is on a stock sgt, my first one when i dynoed it it dynoed at 275(automatic new ones a manual) and it was running a stock tune, air/fuel ratio was 10.5 to 1 fairly conservative. this was on a 70 degree day. can;t give anymore stats i lost the print out. idealy if i remember right we want a 12 to 1 ratio(max power) but its harder(a tiny bit) on the engine and you burn more fuel. these more aggressive tunes change the ratio and advance timing. if i missed anything or somethings wrong. its beena very long time since my engine classes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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