Who Tunes your 5.0? And Why?

[Schwerin]

My what?!?

Your smartitudiness.

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[BmacIL]

I went with VMP as well. They sell the PMAS CAI kitted with a tune already so I figured it was a well-vetted setup. Seems to be... I haven't had any running issues. The only thing is, a few monitors won't reset so it isn't emissions friendly. If I decide to take the tune off, I can still still use my CAI by simply going back to using the PMAS MAF sensor that came with the intake. Both setups work flawlessly.

If all your monitors are showing ready, that will pass emissions in almost every state that does them.

 

[Draklia]

If all your monitors are showing ready, that will pass emissions in almost every state that does them.

None of the email tuners send tunes that ready all the monitors, so passing emissions isn’t going to happen. I’d love to be proven wrong.

 

[BmacIL]

None of the email tuners send tunes that ready all the monitors, so passing emissions isn’t going to happen. I’d love to be proven wrong.

I'll post up a screen shot of all mine (that are applicable and normally active) being ready...

 

[TheLion70x77]

The first rev of the calibration had an issue with throttle surging when not up to temp. They fixed it and offered and updated revision free of charge. They even allowed owners to program it themselves without going back to the dealer as it's pretty fool proof. There are stock cars with those issues because something isn't working correctly. Citing a single example isn't really a good case against it. Also you have an entire company behind the product, not just one or two guys.

What happens if your tuner gets hit by a buss or has family emergency...? There are pros and cons to both, but as an over all package, the development effort and testing, warranties etc. It's really hard to beat the Power Packs for those who use their GT's as a dual purpose car and use pump gas. Please don't take this as me saying after market tuners have no place. They certainly do.

There are a few instances where people couldn't get the Power Packs to work right on their cars. I think Wildcatgoal was one of them. He returned it and got a full refund, went aftermarket and got it all sorted out. However the vast majority have zero issues, the few that do either get a full refund or if something fails, repairs are covered under warranty. I'm sticking with my recommendation that after market calibrations are better left for E85, Nitrous and FI applications on cars you don't necessarily need, air paid off and can afford to cover the worst case scenario which is a new short block.

 

[Draklia]

I'll post up a screen shot of all mine (that are applicable and normally active) being ready...

Please do, would love to see that it’s possible. Did you have to go back and forth on tune revisions to get the O2, HO2 and CAT to go green?

 

[Zelek]

He's also got stock headers so it's more doable for him.

I'm apparently doing hard mode trying to get long tubes to go green, lol.

 

[18GTmustang]

Shaun@ AED tuned and car runs great. I had e85 tune then i asked for trans breaktune and e85 revision and like always customer service is great with him

 

[ahl395]

I chose Lund because of their good reputation with our platform. PBD would be my next choice.

Dakota at Lund more specifically has been excellent. Back and forth almost 200 emails, has gone above and beyond working with me. I definitely recommend him.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Torrie from Unleashed Tuning, long track record of excellent tuning, from Vipers to Ford GT to Explorer Sports.

While he delivers tunes all over the US, he's in the same area as me, and I couldn't pass up the option to use someone where I could easily connect with them in person to check out the car, tune, etc.

3 years, car runs great, I was going to switch to his Flex tune, but since I may be swapping for a MY18/19, I'm going to just put that money into a tune for the new ride.

DT

 

[Nuked]

Ford Performance. Reliability, emissions compliance, OE drive ability and covered under warranty for street use / light track use is hard to beat. I doubt any of the tuners go through all 2400+ cells in the PCM maps one by one and modify all of them for the specific hardware changes, then perform full drive ability testing over temp and altitude while using a data pack to gather data in real time cycle by cycle like an OE.

You would be surprised how little is changed from the stock tune vs the FRPP 1/2 tunes.

 

[Platinum_5.0]

I'm tuned by PB Dyno. Rob has been my tuner and car runs amazing. Whipple stg 2 and every characteristic about the car is just like factory until I hit the gas then all hell breaks loose!

 

[kiszl]

I chose Lund because of their good reputation with our platform. PBD would be my next choice.

Dakota at Lund more specifically has been excellent. Back and forth almost 200 emails, has gone above and beyond working with me. I definitely recommend him.

Bro you cant name drop him otherwise everyone will find out how good he is and request him . Also tuned by Dakota and I gotta say hes great to work with. Never makes you feel like you're being a bother and always responds quickly.

 

[Ronnoc]

Lund because I wanted YOLO to tune my car.

 

[mJolnir]

Ford Performance. Reliability, emissions compliance, OE drive ability and covered under warranty for street use / light track use is hard to beat. I doubt any of the tuners go through all 2400+ cells in the PCM maps one by one and modify all of them for the specific hardware changes, then perform full drive ability testing over temp and altitude while using a data pack to gather data in real time cycle by cycle like an OE.

It's a highly integrated package and not many of the pump gas tunes are making a whole lot more power on pump gas than Ford Performance offerings with the stock or GT350 IM's. Octane learn also allows you to run 91, 92, 93 and it will scale timing for the fuel octane, very convenient if you travel out of state or take long road trips as E85 and 93 are not always available. It's an excellent street car tune you an expect to last the life of the car. Reliability trumps all in my experience unless you have cash to burn.

Power Pack 2 is focused more on mid-range punch for street, auto x and short / medium road course (take the 5th gen LT1 power band and shift it up 500 rpm higher, that's Power Pack 2). Power Pack 3 uses the GT350 IM and is focused more on top end for higher speed larger tracks where you can stretch your legs more. Engines with a lot of lower end and mid range torque typically provide better average acceleration on short tracks while top end power engines provide faster lap times on higher speed tracks.

For reference, the OBDII port reports at 200mS to 300mS intervals, the ECU operates at 8mS intervals (cycle by cycle). All after market tuners use OBDII ports for tuning, not data packs. I think if your car is a daily / pump gas car that's NA, no reason to use anything else. For E85, FI, Nitrous you have to go after market and in that case it makes sense to use them and it is my opinion as a Engineer (electrical) who is an auto enthusiast that after market tunes are better left to cars you can afford to destroy and not be up a creek. I have nothing against them, I just don't think they have a place with daily drivers you expect to last 150k~200k miles unless your running E85 or another alternate fuel that is far more resistant to detonation (greater margin of error).

Pump gas quality varies too much to run on the ragged edge all the time. I've seen some testing showing some 93 testing as low as 92 or 91 despite being sold as 93. If your ECU can't pull timing fast enough or is allowing too much knock, your going to cause damage, even if not right away, over time you can cause micro fractures in the pistons due to frequent detonation, damage head gaskets, rod bearings etc. But that's just my experience after seeing a crap tone of tuned Ecoboost 2.3L's pop motors. Even Ford Performance had one or two 2.3L's pop, but those were replaced under warranty unlike the rest who had to shell out 7k for a new 2.3L EB or swap in a used 2.3L EB in their garage they bought 2nd hand from a junk yard / e-bay retailer. Doesn't sound like fun to me!

You have to remember that any aftermarket tune uses the stock calibration from ford as a base and keeps all those systems there unless you get some butchered tune, so if you get bad quality fuel the octane learning system will still work, so even if you are on the ragged edge for 93 bolt on cars wont blow up.

FI cars are a bit different and tuners will be a lot more conservative on their tunes, knock will break your pistons much faster so you don't want to rely to much on the knock sensors or the octane learning, they are still there working as a safety net but its not something you want to need.

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