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Any tuning precautions?

Wulf Titan

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Before i tune my car is there ANYTHING i need to do maintenance wise? Things like an oil change, spark plugs, catch can. It will be the first time i have tuned my car and i don't want anything to go wrong. I am a bit nervous.
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Busser48

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Before i tune my car is there ANYTHING i need to do maintenance wise? Things like an oil change, spark plugs, catch can. It will be the first time i have tuned my car and i don't want anything to go wrong. I am a bit nervous.
All of those things plus spark plugs and an intercooler Asap!!
 

PRG3k

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Before i tune my car is there ANYTHING i need to do maintenance wise? Things like an oil change, spark plugs, catch can. It will be the first time i have tuned my car and i don't want anything to go wrong. I am a bit nervous.
All of those things. Any go fast mod deserves an equal and opposite attention to maintenance.
 

Lexman

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You're on the right track, oil change, spark plugs, catch can, and very important -> Intercooler.
 

S7N

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You can get away with just the tune. All the above mentioned mods are not a necessity unless you're looking to squeeze out every bit of hp out of the motor. The stock intercooler is sufficient for daily driving unless you plan on tracking the car then I'd say upgrade the intercooler or unless you like spending money. Just my 2 cents.
 

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jbailer

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It sounds like from your question, you've already read a bit but I'll go into a little more detail.

Plugs: From the factory Ford has been doing a terrible job at gapping the plugs. Gaps between the 4 plugs have varied quite a bit for most customers and not just for the Mustang. It makes a difference without a tune but is much more important with a tune since now you are going past the stock tune. If you keep the stock plugs, I'd recommend gapping them all at .028 which is down from factory recommendation. I'd highly suggest better plugs though. Adam @ Tune+ sells pre-gapped Denso ITV22 which are 1 step colder. Plus the electrode on iridium plugs are very fragile, if you aren't familiar with how to gap them, you should look it up if you do it yourself.

Catch Can: I'm not sure what it is but this engine seems to get a lot of blow-by. I've put catch cans in other cars that barely got any oil and I would only check it at oil changes. This gets a fair amount of oil and needs to be checked more frequently. I think this is a must for anyone, just like the plugs.

Intercooler: For stock, this is debatable, depending on how you drive and what you'll use your car for. The stock intercooler is very light and recovers temp quickly but is absolutely terrible at managing the temps under any load. If you were leaving your car stock and only pushed it very little in bursts, you would be ok with the stock intercooler. Since you are asking about with a tune, this is highly suggested. Yes you can get a tune without it but the tuners can do more if the heat is managed. I recommend looking at an intercooler with a stepped design as they perform much better than the stock stick shaped. ATM, Levels and Full Race all provide very good quality stepped intercoolers. I went with ATM and LOVE it! In warm temps stock or aftermarket FMICs will heat soak. The difference is then when you hit the gas hard, the stock can't recover due to load and heat generated vs the aftermarket can quickly recover. An example, on an 86* day I did some data logging. My Charge Air Temps were up to 107* sitting still. In 5 seconds under full throttle, my temps had dropped to 97*.

In my opinion, those are exactly the 3 things you should definitely consider before a tune. Other than that, you want to know your goals for the car. If you want to do more mods, I'd recommend looking for a tuner like Adam @ Tune+ that offers a lifetime tune so you can add things and get adjustments rather than having to pay for another iteration of the tune.
 

Busser48

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You can get away with just the tune. All the above mentioned mods are not a necessity unless you're looking to squeeze out every bit of hp out of the motor. The stock intercooler is sufficient for daily driving unless you plan on tracking the car then I'd say upgrade the intercooler or unless you like spending money. Just my 2 cents.
100000000% wrong! No offense
 

Busser48

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You can get away with just the tune. All the above mentioned mods are not a necessity unless you're looking to squeeze out every bit of hp out of the motor. The stock intercooler is sufficient for daily driving unless you plan on tracking the car then I'd say upgrade the intercooler or unless you like spending money. Just my 2 cents.
A catch can doesn't squeeze horsepower out of the car and neither do spark plugs, an intercooler is a necessity of u tune this car period! Grab an Accessport and log charge air temps, and I'm not even talking about on the track. Just as a daily driver.
 

Busser48

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If you care about your warranty, do not tune your car! This comes from experience, trust me!
Sorry about your experience, but it is subjective. There is no equal definitive way they handle this subject. Some get lucky, some don't
 

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Mustang2.3

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Sorry about your experience, but it is subjective. There is no equal definitive way they handle this subject. Some get lucky, some don't
I agree it is subjective. My engine was covered 100%, however it was three agonizing weeks of waiting to see if it would be covered. I consider it a huge lesson learned....do not tune or modify your car if you are worried about the warranty.
 

Busser48

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I agree it is subjective. My engine was covered 100%, however it was three agonizing weeks of waiting to see if it would be covered. I consider it a huge lesson learned....do not tune or modify your car if you are worried about the warranty.
^this
 

KadenW23

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Before i tune my car is there ANYTHING i need to do maintenance wise? Things like an oil change, spark plugs, catch can. It will be the first time i have tuned my car and i don't want anything to go wrong. I am a bit nervous.
Welcome to the forums bud, its nice to see another Dallas Eco Driver on here. But on to your question. I wouldn't call myself an expert my any means , but doing these minor maintenance upgrades will never hurt your car, and only help it perform better while also staying reliable. I did this exact thing before I tuned mine fresh fluids and new spark plugs. so if you plan on tuning you've got the right idea for prep work.
 

S7N

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100000000% wrong! No offense
Just because you don't agree doesn't make it 100000% wrong bud. I'm tuned all stock accept a cai no issues. Don't believe everything you read on the internet. No offense!
 

Damndave

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Just because you don't agree doesn't make it 100000% wrong bud. I'm tuned all stock accept a cai no issues. Don't believe everything you read on the internet. No offense!
But you are wrong..... Catch can doesn't add horsepower and just because you run your car on stock fmic, and a tune with the boost turned up doesn't mean you aren't doing long term damage. That's not something I read on the Internet. It's fact when you look at charge air temps on stock intercooler V's charge air temps on a bigger more efficient one. That's real world data.....
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