Tuners

[chesterlily]

Hey-

I am new to the sight and also new to tuning. I am overwhelmed and was looking for some direction and guidance. I live in MN and DB performance does E85 tunes near my house, but I have read great reviews on Lund, Fathouse (600R package), Brenspeed among others. I assume not all E85 tunes are the same by each tuner?? Or is it a straight forward tune that would be the same from each? Anyway, I lack in knowledge and hope to educate myself a bit before choosing.

Thanks,

Mike

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[Teej1911]

Bro, I've been looking at FatHouse too! Their youtubes and website seems solid and for 6K for that package, seems like a good deal with what it includes. Indiana is a bit far for me, so I was looking at Palm Beach Dyno. They are nation renowned for mustang add-ons and their tuning. Then I drove my car to work.. Sure, it can be tweaked to get more power, but if you can also 'tweak' it to become lighter which increases the power to weight. My $0.02 is to leave the engine alone. The Ford engineers designed the engine and everything behind this way for a reason. BUT! if you can lighten it up, i.e. lightweight battery, rear seat delete, carbon fiber hood, roof, fenders, trunk, lighter wheels, you will shed a sold 150+ lbs and keep the reliability of the drivetrain.
I am literally in the same boat you are in. I feel the car needs more power, and having 530 RWHP would be dope, but at what cost? You will never be the fastest car out there. I'm sure you bought the car knowing that. This car will outdrive most of the owners (me included). Enjoy the car for what its worth and it will repay you with longevity and reliability.

 

[lightrules]

lund and palm beach dyno are the two best known tuners for our cars. sai li is pretty solid too and fathouse uses johnson tuning. brenspeed does good work and i think they tune in-house but i am not sure of it. if you are going to tune i'd stick with a reputable tuner that knows the mustang/gt350 platform. but also realize a tune is going to leave a footprint and ford will know and that could mean warranty issues depending on what needs repair.

take your time, read up, and think thru all the pros and cons.

 

[chesterlily]

Thank you both for the reply. The local guy at DB performance uses Lund to tune. He has been tuning for over 22 years (Fords). He is fine with just a tune, but for the most bang for the buck he suggested a pro charger plus Lund tune. On the fence. I know I will never track the car or push it to the limits. Would be nice to have more tourqe and some HP. Again I appreciate the reply.

 

[ShatterPoints]

lund and palm beach dyno are the two best known tuners for our cars. sai li is pretty solid too and fathouse uses johnson tuning. brenspeed does good work and i think they tune in-house but i am not sure of it. if you are going to tune i'd stick with a reputable tuner that knows the mustang/gt350 platform. but also realize a tune is going to leave a footprint and ford will know and that could mean warranty issues depending on what needs repair.

take your time, read up, and think thru all the pros and cons.

I think people should know.... Back when the s197 came out Lund and a few of the other remote tuners used customer cars to learn on. The whole cyl 8 fiasco can be researched extensively and when you remove the hyperbole, the anecdote, and the general ignorance of the user/owner. The common denominator is these tuners did not know what they were doing. While not soely responsible they did contribute to failures in customer cars. The tuners did "learn" from their mistakes and you saw ghost cam tunes go away and other "safety" measures they used such as NOT disabling knock sensors, or changing their sensitivity at all. Which is the same as leaving it default. Sure it's been 8 years since the S197 showed up... but I believe a tuner should not use a customer's car to learn on, and though tuners might have learned from their mistakes, I wont risk it with my car.

So I will second what lightrules recommends in that be sure you find someone who absolutely knows the platform. Additionally there is not much HP to unlock with an N/A powertrain without a power adder. Maybe that's a cam, but the stock air box or exhaust wont be beat by a meaningful amount. Otherwise you'll want a super/turbocharger for more power.

 

[honeybadger]

Agree with the above. A tune alone on this engine is so not worth the risk. Power gains are negligible (20-30whp) and you risk a warranty hassle. It takes big money to make any decent n/a gains. I have my own feelings about adding forced induction to this engine, but I'll keep those to myself since most know how I feel.

That said, Shawn at AED is the best in the business. He tunes a ton of drag cars and road race cars. Dude knows his stuff. I've got buddies with Lund tunes that I track with. Sure, their fireballs and snap/crackle/pops are cool, but running on the ragged edge isn't a smart long-term decision

 

[chesterlily]

Again I truly appreciate everybody's feedback and insight. The conclusion I have come to is for the money one is not getting much "bang for his buck" with just a tune, headers ect... So, I may choose to go forced induction with in reason. I don't need 800 to 1,000hp. Thanks again as I have gained some knowledge thru our correspondce.

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