Understanding how SCT x4 Tune works HELP

[GreenS550]

I hope someone can give me understand what is going on with my tune.

My car is sc and has a non-stock engine. I had a bad tune from LMS and since there was no stock tune on their proprietary tuner, a different tuner in town had Ford reflash it to stock, then built a custom tune from that. Since he used HP tuners, and there was no device, he emailed me the stock tune. His tune was good, but I decided to give Palm Beach Dyno a try.

They sent me the sct 4 and send me a tune. I downloaded the tune on to the device and somehow, without the car having a stock tune on the device, was able to download this custom tune to the car. The car ran great. PBD wanted to get the tune just right to they had me datalog the car. I did this and emailed to them. They sent the revised tune back to me and the car ran really bad on light throttle. So, I put in the original custom tune from PBD. It ran similarly. Rob at PBD said he didn't know what happened. Still waiting for a response from him.

So, yesterday I called SCT and they had me do several things. It turns out, according to SCT, that the car somehow has the Ford stock tune in it. They said the PBD tune was a "piggybacked" tune and with now the stock tune it is not running correctly.

So, I hope you guys can help. Is it possible that the SCT tuner pulled the stock tune from my computer? SCT had me return the car to stock and since it loaded correctly are saying it IS the Ford stock tune. Is it possible for the device to "think" the earlier custom tune from the shop with the HP tuners is the "stock Ford tune"?

When I returned the car to stock at the direction of SCT it threw a check engine light and ran poorly which seems right for the stock tune on a modified sc car.

Please, someone, help me understand how these tunes work. In the meantime I'm hoping to speak with Rob from PBD today.

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[Mustanggt5.02011]

The way the SCT tuner works is this. The X4 is not a smart device. When you hook up the X4 to marry it to a vehicle it will look at what ever tune is in the car (if there is one) and treat it like its the "Stock tune". Regardless of whether it is the stock tune or custom tune, it will transfer it into tuner. So when you "put it back to stock" it will take that tune and put it back into the car. So if the tune that was in the ECU before you flashed the custom tune was corrupt or not working, you will be back to that state again. Best of luck.

 

[GreenS550]

I have the stock tune the tuner that used when the car was reflashed by Ford. He used HP tuners to tune the car, but saved the stock tune and emailed it to me. Is there some way to put that tune on the device and have PBD tune from that?

 

[GreenS550]

I just got off the phone with SCT and they are telling me "for sure" only the stock tune is called stock. This is only on the fifteens and up. He said the sct device pulled the stock tune off the HP tuner tune. They matched the data up with the Ford stock tune and the SCT has perfect alignment with a stock tune from a fifteen mustang gt. So, go figure. And, I told PBD about this today and they are looking at my datalog from yesterday.

I just saw your post and PBD never asked for my stock tune file.

 

[GreenS550]

I guess not because after I received your post I called Mike at Palm Beach dyno and ask him if he wanted me to email the stock file and he said no. Rob's working on the datalog I sent him yesterday today. One thing's for sure I'm learning a lot about how these things are tuned I mean as far as the software mechanism.

 

[BadGTR]

HP reads the vehicles stock tune or ROM. That tune is opened and changes are allowed to be made in the tuning software to dial the car in. If the tune pulled with HP is still labeled with the stock name, maybe that is why they are saying it has a stock tune?? Nevertheless, I believe the SCT tune overwrites what is currently located in the PCM. Your car should be strictly be running off the tune file. Putting a stock tune back on your car with many mods is going to make it run poorly and have a check engine light.

 

[GreenS550]

HP reads the vehicles stock tune or ROM. That tune is opened and changes are allowed to be made in the tuning software to dial the car in. If the tune pulled with HP is still labeled with the stock name, maybe that is why they are saying it has a stock tune?? Nevertheless, I believe the SCT tune overwrites what is currently located in the PCM. Your car should be strictly be running off the tune file. Putting a stock tune back on your car with many mods is going to make it run poorly and have a check engine light.

Yes, when it went back to stock that did happen. I am using PBD's custom tune which needs some changes. But, how the SCT got the stock tune from the only tune on the car at the time, the HP Tuners tune amazed me. SCT is certain this happened as they compared the information the car called stock to the Ford stock file and they are identical.

According to SCT the x4 will not load any custom file on the car as "stock" unless it exactly matched what the device says should be stock. According to two different tech people at SCT this is the case on only Fifteen and up Mustangs using the SCT X4.

 

[JennyStang]

Rob will get you fixed up. It’s prob the Lms 11.5 to 1 motor and that cai LMS made for you that rob had to fix.

 

[GreenS550]

I got the updated tune and datalogged. Rob says we're good to go. This thing makes big big power now. Amazing...

 

[Bespinoza66]

Glad you got the problem fixed, that seemed like a nightmare. I'm not a fan of the SCT X4, I have one but it messed up on me and my warranty is up so SCT can't fix it because they will not accept payment from California.

 

[GreenS550]

Glad you got the problem fixed, that seemed like a nightmare. I'm not a fan of the SCT X4, I have one but it messed up on me and my warranty is up so SCT can't fix it because they will not accept payment from California.

Wow sorry to hear that. The Socialist Republic of California will not allow anything to do with tuning eh?

 

[Bespinoza66]

Wow sorry to hear that. The Socialist Republic of California will not allow anything to do with tuning eh?

So I spoke with SCT today regarding the issue and they were cool about it. They declared it a dead device and are going to send me another one since they were working on it a few days before the warranty was up. Now I just need to hope it does not mess up again.

 

[GreenS550]

So I spoke with SCT today regarding the issue and they were cool about it. They declared it a dead device and are going to send me another one since they were working on it a few days before the warranty was up. Now I just need to hope it does not mess up again.

I felt they were competent and concerned about really helping me as well. Glad to hear they are taking care of you

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