Tune worth it?

G

geophb

New member
Im debating whether or not to tune my car. Does it really make it that much faster?
Ive used an sct before on my 04 6.0 powerchoke, ran it on the extremeX race tune, it was disgustingly stupid powerful. But that was like an extra 180hp and its diesel. It felt faster than the SHO, not really all that impressed with the taurus performance wise I guess.  :pokey:
Ive read all the threads on tuning for the SHO and they say bout 50 hp is all you get. Im thinking of using LMS if that matters.
 
We dont discuss hp or tq here.  Thats for empty boasters lol.  The numbers we care about are at the wheel.  And safe max for a DD is about 500 awtq and 400 awhp, give or take.  23% drivetrain loss.

tunes are for loons :P. I say go for it!
 
I went from 14.1 @100 stock
To 12.8 @107 tuned.

And that’s a 2 bar daily driver tune that gets 26mpg on the highway.

So yeah....it’s worth it.
But you gotta pay to play. It does add extra stress on components and the chance for failure is always there.

It just depends how comfortable you are wrenching if needed.
 
Tunes on these cars are worth it and the best value for your car...bolt ons can’t touch a tune...the tune tells the turbos what to do.

These are baby turbos compared to the diesel trucks

You may only gain moderate horsepower but it’s possible to gain 200ft lbs of torque from a tune
 
It'll haul ass for sure.  In my case at altitude, the low and midrange torque jump huge then falls off after 5500ish because the turbo's can't deal with the thin air and extra demand.

 
As stated above. A tune is better than all bolt ons combined. I just got my 93 DD tune done and its worth the money for sure. Next will be an E-blend balls out tune and then a full E85 to fill the tank cheaply tune.
 
In a word, yes!  But stick with one of the reputable tuners....honestly a tune was the best performance money I ever spent in 50 years of high performance play.
 
You will be highly disappointed if you compare a tune on your SHO to tuning a diesel, you can easily grab 100hp and gobs of torque from good files on the newer stock diesel platforms. Tune that SHO and enjoy it, dollar for dollar you can’t beat good tuning from a reputable source. I personally use a fella out by College Station.
 
GAS SHO tuning is vastly different than Diesel,  but the use cases are so different it is not really a good comparison. 

the SHO drops power and has a hard limit of 5800-6000rpm.  So we tend to ''not look good' for HP numbers after tuning.  If the engine could rev to 7000 rpm we's show +70-85 hp gains just with a base tune as the rpm rises since HP is kinda of a made up number.  (HP is derived from TQ and rpm and fuzzy math).

Our gains are more tied to Wtq and why we see good gains on ''speed'' and acceleration.  I gained 230ftlbs crank-TQ with meth.. with no exhaust changes my max crank-TQ hits right about 3200rpm and applies all 100% of the 580-600 ftlbs.  if i did a catless or hiflo cat i could drop low rpm onset to 2800-ish and gain a BUNCH of 0-60 and 60' timing.

for comparison --

Untuned :
I ran 14.1 at PIR in Oregon with a 0-60 5.1 seconds with a 2000 rpm launch

JUST a tune with a 3-bar
I run 13.2 hot (not a hero run, these are back to back runs) at PIR in Oregon with a 0-60 of 4.7 seconds with a 1800 rpm launch

With a 600ml METH SPRAY at 7 pounds boost
I run a 12.619 (all night long) uncorrected in PIR in Oregon with a 0-60 of 4.5 seconds with a 2100 rpm launch
 
Now to add a dash of reality .. i'm not trying to scare you off... but know the risks.

I have had worse luck than most:

-i have had to replace both turbos.  one was me racing it to hard,  the other came busted and did not know it until we pulled them off
-i have replaced my boost solenoid spider,  extra duty racing killed it as well im sure
-colder plugs fouled my car badly after 10k miles.  in my wet climate of oregon i would not recommend going colder plugs.  this lead to stuttering, stalling and backfiring at high rpm with no codes. 
-just running the 3-bar,  aggressive AJP turbo tune i was 2 or more tenths slower than others cars. thats the car lottery,  somestimes the same tune will not yield the same results.
-i just Drove for the 1st time at 4000ft elevation.  man that was bad.  be prepared that if you change elevations DRAMATICALLY the car will perform way differently and not behave as well.

All done i  spent 1500$ tuning and in parts,  and 4500$ in repairs.  it is *possible* that you may not have issues.. or it is equally possible you may see issues.  keep this in mind.  the extra duty from the tune WILL push marginal parts out the airlock.  you should plan on a repair budget to be on the safe side,  if this is your DD it would be VERY prudent to have money at the ready just in case.

was it worth it .. for me i will say yes.  i did it and have no real regrets.  i wish i had that 4500$ back but were racers.. racers break things.

Others have had to replace the transmission,  the extra load and the sketchy OEM fluid makes for a bad combo.  most dealerships will not replace the fluid so you will need to mod and changer that yourself frequently. 

PS::
Also before you go eblow deep,  I would recommend only two tuners.

AJP and Livernois.  I use AJP solely atm but will try livernoise next year (tax money),  I have see to much negative press with others and had my own VERY RISKY tune issue with one of the 1st tuners on the scene and will never go back to him.

Lastly,  Ghost call your ford dealership,  using someone else's phone as ask for the GM.  you need to find out of he/the shop is tuner friendly.  My dealership for example will not make any warranty claims if it has been modified.  There very anti mod .. some dealerships are more ok with it and ask you to go back to stock and replicate. it is better to know before hand.  case in point,  they will not change nay fluid that is marked ''lifetime'' so eventually i will destroy my tranny.
 
I understand the risks. I fix everything myself. parts are cheap, labor not so much. only thing i cant do is tires (balancer/changer coming in the future). Its almost a 10 yr old car with 135k so warranty is non issue. Im convinced, I think im gonna go with LMS once i get this injector fixed
 
TopherSho said:
-i just Drove for the 1st time at 4000ft elevation.  man that was bad.  be prepared that if you change elevations DRAMATICALLY the car will perform way differently and not behave as well.
Click to expand...

Try going for passing a 18 wheeler up a 2 lane mountain pass at 10k ft..  You nail the throttle, jump out and are like...ummmm ANYTIME PLEASE!!!!..
 
geophb said:
I understand the risks. I fix everything myself. parts are cheap, labor not so much. only thing i cant do is tires (balancer/changer coming in the future). Its almost a 10 yr old car with 135k so warranty is non issue. Im convinced, I think im gonna go with LMS once i get this injector fixed
Click to expand...

:) welcome to the club then!  Have fun,  if you plan on meth i would go with AJP turbo,  LMS is not very helpful with meth tunes if i recall...  if you are going gas only / blended e30 LMS could be very good!
 
A tune is worth every penny.  I went with a AJP 91 octane and 2 bar tune.  I drive alot, we only have 91 octane, and it is really hot here in Phoenix (usually 108 ish).  I wanted a safe tune and Brad so far has killed it. Car is so much more fun to drive.  Maybe when it cools down, I will throw a 3 bar in and have Brad get more aggressive when the temps come down here. 
 
Update.
I went with AJPturbo for tuning. 91 no E 3bar. Very impressed, its way faster. He is a busy man but still delivers on time!
Im only on rev 1, going to datalog tonight. It shifts so fast and hard at WOT. I like to feel the shifts!  >:D
Well worth it.
 
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