JT93 Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Has anyone order a Bama tune from American Muscle? I've been debating wether to order one and install the tune myself or take the car to the local speed shop and have them tune it and dyno it for me. If anyone has a review of a Bama tune, or speed shop tune, that would be most helpful. Just trying to see what would have the best result for the money spent so I can get even more mods into the car this summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jer Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Has anyone order a Bama tune from American Muscle? I've been debating wether to order one and install the tune myself or take the car to the local speed shop and have them tune it and dyno it for me. If anyone has a review of a Bama tune, or speed shop tune, that would be most helpful. Just trying to see what would have the best result for the money spent so I can get even more mods into the car this summer. I'm a big proponent of good local shops as opposed to a "canned" tune. If you have someone who's a good, experienced, RESPONSIBLE tuner in your area, that'd be MY recommendation. That way, the tune is for YOUR car, YOUR gas, YOUR mods, YOUR environment and elevation, etc... My car saw a great result from a good dyno tune (Dan Carlson at Realspeed in NY). BTW, many people have had good luck with a "canned" tune. Many will post below. Watch. Jer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socalwrench Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Put it this way, canned tunes aren't perfect. The best ones that I know of are from Brenspeed. You can get a SCT tuner, and a custom tune for your combination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inyadreems Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 I'm a big proponent of good local shops as opposed to a "canned" tune. If you have someone who's a good, experienced, RESPONSIBLE tuner in your area, that'd be MY recommendation. That way, the tune is for YOUR car, YOUR gas, YOUR mods, YOUR environment and elevation, etc... My car saw a great result from a good dyno tune (Dan Carlson at Realspeed in NY). BTW, many people have had good luck with a "canned" tune. Many will post below. Watch. Jer I had BAMA tunes on my 06 GT AT and absolutely loved them. When I bought the 10 GT500 I had free tunes for life and received free tunes for the GT500 from AM. I am happy with the tune, but will be switching to VMP tuning. Although a dyno tune might be the way to go, I have heard of tuners like Jon Lund and Justin Starkey fixing tuning issues with emailed tunes that local tuners could not. (Search button) Also, you can always data log your car and then email the logs to your tuner of choice and they can adjust the tune to your cars specific needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyBlueHeaven Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 I just ordered one from them last week after debating it for a while. I guess we'll see what the turn out is soon enough. I can tell you that they just sent me an email and said they were going to send me the tuner blank to get a strategy scan even after I filled out the form with all my info. They said because of the SGT's pre-installed tune they wanted to ensure they get it right, which I'm glad they are being cautious but getting impatient waiting to put parts on that need the tune to go with. I'll post again hopefully next week with an update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT93 Posted April 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 I just ordered one from them last week after debating it for a while. I guess we'll see what the turn out is soon enough. I can tell you that they just sent me an email and said they were going to send me the tuner blank to get a strategy scan even after I filled out the form with all my info. They said because of the SGT's pre-installed tune they wanted to ensure they get it right, which I'm glad they are being cautious but getting impatient waiting to put parts on that need the tune to go with. I'll post again hopefully next week with an update. Thanks, I'm curious to see what you think and how much of a difference "adding" to the stock tune will help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socalwrench Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Well, it won't be adding the FRPP tune, it will be replacing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT93 Posted April 20, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 Well, it won't be adding the FRPP tune, it will be replacing it. Right, you were able to think of the words I couldn't find. I know that it wouldn't actually add to the FRPP tune, but it'll have a more aggressive tune. New Tune=FRPP Tune+More Tune, in theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
07SGT5687 Posted April 20, 2011 Report Share Posted April 20, 2011 IMO, canned tunes are the best way to go for our cars. If from a reputable shop that is and especially if your car is only lightly modded. All due respect Jer (seriously), I just don't think those absolutely minute variations have any significance when it comes to our cars. And frankly, if you have a near stock SGT, our mods don't affect the tune (unless your talking stuff like cams, intake manifolds, delete plates, etc.). And I wouldn't want my car tuned specifically for my elevation... that's when you have trouble when you go on those road trips at 4k foot elevation differences because your cars tune is now too specifically tuned for 5k feet and you'r now driving it at sea level. The parameters necessary to increase performance on our near stock setups are easily "can" tuned and frankly the thousands of cars they've done just like them, they just continually make them better. I've used Evolution tunes and Brenspeed tunes and to date (other than some problems getting them to load to the SCT properly... not Brenspeed or Evo's fault), I've loved the tunes. And for $150 for lifetime tunes from Bama? That's a fantastic deal, and if you ever need a retune for added mods, just call them up and they'll send you an adjusted tune. If you ask me, that can't be beat versus local tuning which will VERY LIKELY cost you MUCH more and you'll have to do that again every time you want to add a significant (tune-required mod). Now if I were supercharging with pulleys and other such, more specific, high horsepower mods that have been replicated far less often by the speed shops, I'd probably go custom. Or if you require the ultimate, uber performance out of your car... to get like 3 more hp then the next stock SGT... then custom tune, I just don't see the value there. But for something that has been done literally thousands of times by these speed shops... their canned tunes are in the vast majority of cases, excellent. Especially the top shops, Brenspeed, Bama, Evo, etc. My old 05 GT ran an Evolution tune, developed around 2k feet on the east coast and I used it nearly 6k feet in the mountains (Bandimere Speedway) and it ran like a champ. I had people asking my all the time how I ran .1-.3 faster than them with the exact same mods. That 4k foot elevation jump didn't seem to make bit of difference. Just my thoughts... PS - I'm running Brenspeed right now and I love it. Drastically woke the car up! And it was as simple as email, load tune to SCT, plug in, upload, ! All for $50. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank S Posted April 21, 2011 Report Share Posted April 21, 2011 Speaking to the "is it worth it to put a tune on over the 'stock' SGT tune?" question, I'd say Very Definitely. The FRPP "Bullitt" CAI can be had with the FRPP ProCal tune, which I believe is substantially the same as the SGT tune; at least the advertised HP numbers are close within measurement variance. I have the Bama Torque, Performance, and Race tunes for off-road use, and the difference in performance when they are put on over the Bullitt tune is perceptible and measurable. On the manual-shift car, the FRPP Bullitt tune is very satisfying, and again, perceptibly and measurably more powerful than the stock tune; with the Bama Race tune installed I have trouble leaving a standstill without spinning the wheels. With no other changes, it's worth about 0.15 seconds in the eighth-mile drags. If that kind of thing isn't important to you, the change may not be worth it to you. On the automatic car, on Race tune it will spin the wheels all the way through first gear, halfway through second gear, and deliver a pronounced "chirp" on the two-to-three shift - this is on sticky Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 275-35x19 tires on ten-inch rims. At the strip, just about the same ET improvement as on the manual-shift car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyBlueHeaven Posted April 21, 2011 Report Share Posted April 21, 2011 IMO, canned tunes are the best way to go for our cars. If from a reputable shop that is and especially if your car is only lightly modded. All due respect Jer (seriously), I just don't think those absolutely minute variations have any significance when it comes to our cars. And frankly, if you have a near stock SGT, our mods don't affect the tune (unless your talking stuff like cams, intake manifolds, delete plates, etc.). And I wouldn't want my car tuned specifically for my elevation... that's when you have trouble when you go on those road trips at 4k foot elevation differences because your cars tune is now too specifically tuned for 5k feet and you'r now driving it at sea level. The parameters necessary to increase performance on our near stock setups are easily "can" tuned and frankly the thousands of cars they've done just like them, they just continually make them better. I've used Evolution tunes and Brenspeed tunes and to date (other than some problems getting them to load to the SCT properly... not Brenspeed or Evo's fault), I've loved the tunes. And for $150 for lifetime tunes from Bama? That's a fantastic deal, and if you ever need a retune for added mods, just call them up and they'll send you an adjusted tune. If you ask me, that can't be beat versus local tuning which will VERY LIKELY cost you MUCH more and you'll have to do that again every time you want to add a significant (tune-required mod). Now if I were supercharging with pulleys and other such, more specific, high horsepower mods that have been replicated far less often by the speed shops, I'd probably go custom. Or if you require the ultimate, uber performance out of your car... to get like 3 more hp then the next stock SGT... then custom tune, I just don't see the value there. But for something that has been done literally thousands of times by these speed shops... their canned tunes are in the vast majority of cases, excellent. Especially the top shops, Brenspeed, Bama, Evo, etc. My old 05 GT ran an Evolution tune, developed around 2k feet on the east coast and I used it nearly 6k feet in the mountains (Bandimere Speedway) and it ran like a champ. I had people asking my all the time how I ran .1-.3 faster than them with the exact same mods. That 4k foot elevation jump didn't seem to make bit of difference. Just my thoughts... PS - I'm running Brenspeed right now and I love it. Drastically woke the car up! And it was as simple as email, load tune to SCT, plug in, upload, ! All for $50. I think that was what sold me on the bama tunes, the tunes for life deal. I plan on adding the FRPP intake next month and FRPP hot rod cams in September, I just don't have the money to do it all at once right now and waiting till September for both is out of the question. Getting a little done at a time and having their "tunes for life" allows me to get these mods done and enjoy them right away without having to go to the dyno/speed shop everytime and pay though the nose like you said. Spoke to the bama guys yesterday and the tuner will be here today, once they get the initial scan emailed from me they will write my tunes and email them back to me hopefully tomorrow or Monday. In the meantime, I'm anxiously waiting like a kid in a candystore. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyBlueHeaven Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 Has anyone order a Bama tune from American Muscle? I've been debating wether to order one and install the tune myself or take the car to the local speed shop and have them tune it and dyno it for me. If anyone has a review of a Bama tune, or speed shop tune, that would be most helpful. Just trying to see what would have the best result for the money spent so I can get even more mods into the car this summer. Just wanted to give you an update about the Bama tunes. I got the tuner Friday with out tunes like they stated in the email they had sent. plugged it into the car to get the strategy code and called the tuner with the info. He finished the tunes and emailed them to me this morning. I loaded them on to the tuner and went right to the car. I loaded the 93 octane race tune and took her for a road test. I have very few performance mods, BBK 62mm throttle body, Steeda carbon fiber elbow on the FRPP CAI, and the BBK underdrive pulley that has nothing to do with the tune. I noticed a nice difference in power available right away starting with the throttle response. I'm looking forward to adding the FRPP intake in June and hope to get a few more ponies out of it. The Bama guys were very responsible, making sure that they had every bit of info about the car before they sent me the tunes. All in all I'm happy I got it, and with the tunes. Only time will tell as far as the tunes for life goes and one day after I get the cams and exhaust on it I'll take it to a shop around here to get it on the dyno and see how it does. Hope this helps Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jer Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 To me, it's like setting up a guitar (Isn't EVERYTHING? Oh, man, I have an illness... LOL). IF YOU HAVE A GREAT, RESPONSIBLE TUNER NEAR YOU: Get it tuned there. IF YOU DON'T: Get a "canned" tune. There is NOTHING wrong with a "canned" tune, but it is NEVER "superior" to a GOOD local tech. Read that again. I said "GOOD". My tech was Dan Carlson at Realspeed in NY. He worked as an engineer and designer at Steeda for 9 years. That's not your local "Kickass Mustangs" shop that wants to put up a big number like it's pornography. Remember, a local dyno visit will give you info about your car that no e-mail relationship ever can. That being said, the people going local to get 10 or 15 more horses out of a "factory" tune (FRPP, etc....) may be asking for trouble. This ain't a game. Trying to show a big number is stupid, that's not what I'm recommending. Any idiot can run an IRRESPONSIBLE Air/Fuel ratio to show you made 9 million HP, and you'll be buying a new short block soon. For the money? The canned tune will suffice. For the true tune of an individual engine? Canned tunes are a compromise. How can they NOT be? Jer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.