Bought my 2nd tuner today.

[Jtrain]

Well,

Buying (this car &) my first tuner was an impulse buy and I paid for it. I purchased a tune from Lund Racing. Seems like these guys are pretty good with mustangs, and sell tunes for Ford Explorer sports as a way to pay someone at the shop's car payment for one of these cars. I had a terrible experience top to bottom, so much that it drove me to consider either bringing the car back to stock and not touching it-- or actually buying someone else's tune.

Don't need to go into all the dirt- Bottom line is their tune doesn't do anything they say and their poop doesn't stink. I've got a dyno sheet to prove the previous statement.

Torrie's communication and reputation is stellar, Which caused me to order:

3 Bar sensor
New plugs (to be gapped @ .30, 1 step colder)
170 tstat.

I'm holding off on exhaust modifications until after my wedding at the end of this year-- I'm hoping that I can work with Torrie to bring the top end of this car alive (Like a DOHC turbo car should be) Even with the inherent back-pressure.

Just wanted to give everyone at these forums and a shout-out for leading me in the right direction, and not doubling down on a 600$ mistake.

 

[SHOdded]

Congrats on your upcoming wedding, and the new tuner!  Looking forward to your tuning adventures

 

[Jtrain]

Thank you!

I made sure to buy a few extra things just so I don't feel like I spent an extra 400$ just to get customer service

Wedding is getting in the way of opening up my exhaust T_T

 

[PokerMunkee]

Sweet, I'll be joining the Unleashed club in a few months.  Still making sure my car has no issues, since I just got it a few months ago.  I already bought the 3BAR, sitting in my glove box.  Undecided if I'll do the T-Stat, as my car almost never sees more than 85F for a few months out of the year.

Trying to convince the wifey to get a XSport in a few years but she wants a $70K Yukon XL Denali.  I can't believe how expensive the GM big guys are now.  Need them to depreciate like my SHO so I can buy it for $17K off sticker in 6 months/5k miles lol.

Look forward to your review.

 

[2010SHOtime]

You will love the tune! His service is second to non and the tunes are awesome!!! Enjoy!

 

[panther427]

I have been very pleased with unleashed.  I have ran his handy work for several months now.  He has always been helpful and quick with his reply.
I had a base tune from him and just stepped up to the 3 bar plugs and t stat. Still waiting on my packages to show up.  Also gonna be running e25.  If I see similar results as the lms guys I could break into 12$ at bandi. From my best of 13.5. 

Sorry about your previous bad experience.

 

[wasinger3000]

Sweet, I'll be joining the Unleashed club in a few months.  Still making sure my car has no issues, since I just got it a few months ago.  I already bought the 3BAR, sitting in my glove box.  Undecided if I'll do the T-Stat, as my car almost never sees more than 85F for a few months out of the year.

Trying to convince the wifey to get a XSport in a few years but she wants a $70K Yukon XL Denali.  I can't believe how expensive the GM big guys are now.  Need them to depreciate like my SHO so I can buy it for $17K off sticker in 6 months/5k miles lol.

Look forward to your review.

Regardless of ambient Temps your car will run cooler with a different Stat. The fans come on and keep it cooler than stock. Which is what we want since heat is the enemy.

It's an inexpensive mod that I'd recommend.

 

[Jtrain]

Sweet, I'll be joining the Unleashed club in a few months.  Still making sure my car has no issues, since I just got it a few months ago.  I already bought the 3BAR, sitting in my glove box.  Undecided if I'll do the T-Stat, as my car almost never sees more than 85F for a few months out of the year.

Trying to convince the wifey to get a XSport in a few years but she wants a $70K Yukon XL Denali.  I can't believe how expensive the GM big guys are now.  Need them to depreciate like my SHO so I can buy it for $17K off sticker in 6 months/5k miles lol.

Look forward to your review.

Man up! I've got 1300 miles.

 

[Jtrain]

Speaking of manning up. Someone with a 3 bar and tstat want to speak to the reliability! Anyone try and do a warranty service for anything with a new sensor / tstat in. Do most dealers notice or care?

I'm cool with flashing back to stock and unplugging the battery if something typical goes wrong. Just looking for feedback if anyone's run into this.

 

[wasinger3000]

Speaking of manning up. Someone with a 3 bar and tstat want to speak to the reliability! Anyone try and do a warranty service for anything with a new sensor / tstat in. Do most dealers notice or care?

I'm cool with flashing back to stock and unplugging the battery if something typical goes wrong. Just looking for feedback if anyone's run into this.

Been to the dealer several times with the 170* tstat. No one noticed or cared. I assume they will never even know unless you have a cooling system issue.

As for the 3 bar. I change it out because the car won't run with it in on the factory tune. It's a 2 min job to swap out.

 

[ZSHO]

Most imortanly,as many members would agree it depends on the dealer,also it helps to have a good relationship with the service dept,i have a good relationship with the service advisor,and on my last visit for the rear light assembly recall,i mentioned to him that I have a tune,he was not aware what a tune was,i guess he related it to the tech,cause when they did the oil change,nothing was reset on the monitor,honestly I read somewhere the car should of came with a 170 stat,and a 170stat and 3-bar should be the least of your worries.

 

[Jtrain]

Okay,

I appreciate that. I love modding cars, but this is my daily. I promised myself I'd get it to be at least as fast as my old SRT8 Jeep-- but I just wanted to make sure I wasn't about to make a really bad choice

I know dealers can be cool and REALLY shitty. I'm not trying to turn this into one of those threads.

Thanks

 

[Jtrain]

Today was a fantastic day.

Credit Card company gave me my money back for my first tune. Lund was so unhelpful and so unprofessional and couldn't speak intelligently to anything; it's the first time I've disputed something like this-- but I did... AND WON (Today)

Today my Strat for my Explorer sport came in via SCT for Torrie. So this is probably a pretty rare review... one tune vs. another apples to apples (nothing changed)

Lund Tune: Clunky shifting, (Especially downshifting) car didn't feel like it liked it, or it added performance. More responsive, especially downlow, mid range power-- you could tell there was some more boost: mostly by sound. Top end: Felt worse than stock ( I tuned it back to stock just to make sure).  The dyno sheet was a mess, and explained the top end lack of power

Unleashed (Torrie). Power EVERYWHERE, shifting is CLEAN fluid and helps move the car. My VTA stock bov SCREAMS when I get on it-- Rolling into it and bringing the boost in is just how i likes it-- gives the car a whole new personality... races to 60 instead of groaning to 60.


Recap: I "returned" my 600$ investment from Lund... respent that money at Unleashed to recieve... a 170 tstat, 3 bar sensor, and a new set of gapped spark plugs AND a better tune (with a much better handheld) Oh, and he sent me a stock tune, and already sent me a 3 bar tune... and when I upgrade my exhaust..... Yep, he's going to send me ANOTHER tune. Something Lund absolutely wasn't going to do.

Couldn't be happier, even if I didn't get my money back from Lund-- But that's just the icing on the cake.

 

[panther427]

Glad you got a double win.  Torries customer service is amazing. Enjoy you brand new ride lol.

 

[11BLKFX4EB]

Great to hear! Torries customer service is the best I've come across. Curious to know what octane tune you're running. I'm still on my 91. About to try the 93 in the next few days

 

[Jtrain]

93 octane, Would be interesting to hear if you can notice a difference from 91 to 93.