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Finally ordered myself a tuner...

5K views 73 replies 17 participants last post by  jayochs 
#1 ·
so I finally bit the bullet on black friday and went with the tuner from MPT, and I've read people really love their tunes so i decided to go with them over BAMA. anyone have any advice for a newb doing this stuff?

off the bat, i'm NOT doing any premium 93 octane tunes...wtih the gas tax of 23+ cents just happening in NJ, I'm not dealing with that BS, so I'm looking to fill out the form when I get my tuner for 87 tunes that MPT has. i'm hoping that i'll still notice a bit of a difference, but for black friday it was 3 tunes for no extra cost, so the entire thing cost just 399.

i'm hoping that the tune will fix the dumb annoying hesitation when you floor it after a shift (mines a manual, not auto) and the car just sounds really loud but hovers in the same RPM's until it just shoots off and you go flying. it's VERY annoying..and i recall someone once saying a tune will help. so we'll see.

so anyone else here deal with just the 87 regular tunes, and how did you like them?
 
#2 ·
Congrats you should enjoy it. Sadly even with my bama tune I would still get that hesitation when flooring it (have an auto though), but just put on my MPT street tune, just recently got 3 tunes from them as well, and so far I've really enjoyed it. Haven't noticed the hesitation yet but I was being mild on it for the first 30 miles or so while the car was adapting to the new tune. Will update later in the week once I have more miles with it.
 
#3 ·
nice, thanks! for autos apparently you can pull a fuse to get rid of the hesitation... no such luck on stick ?
 
#4 ·
You'll love your tunes. Back when I could return to stock and drive around for a few days, I never realized how 'slow' my Mustang was from the factory :(
 
#5 ·
You don't have to pull fuse #47 with an MPT tune.

MPT handles that somehow and it has become a none issue with their tunes. I've been running my MPT 91 street tune for 2 years with absolutely no problems with hesitation. You'll love the tune and the customer service :thumb:
 
#6 ·
Bama Tunes

I use a Bama 91 Octane Performance tune, on my 2011 GT (manual) and it has been great. Make sure to datalog your car and send it to Bama so they can dial in the tune for your car. Takes several days & passes but well worth the time.
 
#8 ·
I too bought my first tuner Bama X4/SF4 Power Flash Tuner from AM on Black Friday to take advantage of the offered discount. I have heard good and bad about BAMA's tunes, hopefully I did not make a mistake. Good luck with your change in driving experience with the MPT tuner. Keep us or at least me up to date and I will do the same.
 
#9 ·
well mine aren't bama, i went with MPT.

i'm going to get the 87/89 Performance for manual, 87/89 Economy for manual, and i think the 91 Performance for manual. i'm not going 93 because it's expensive as hell here and I'll never be buying 93...never be buying 91 for that matter, but i got 3 tunes with it so i might as well. don't wanna blow out my cats with a ghostcam tune either. plus i only have the touring on now, so it wouldn't sound as loud as the atak's
 
#27 ·
Not really. You need a tuner with a gear swap of 3:55 and higher. Waste of money to switch too 3:31 gears from 2:73's. So the OP would still need to buy a tuner. Tuner is always the first power mod you do. The other mods follow.

Sent from a non car enthusiast V6 mustang owner's cell phone.
 
#11 ·
hey did anyone who got this with a manual experience engine knocking? upon driving for the first time it knocked like crazy starting off and shifting into every gear. at about 10 miles it stopped the constant hard knocking but when giving gas in low rpms it knocks a bit, especially if you give it gas, get going, hear the initial knock, then it'll stop, then you hear another short knock around 1500rpm. I'm on the 87 performance tune and yeh I've got 87 regular in the car. any ideas?
 
#12 · (Edited)
I would be checking to see if they sent you a 91 or 93 octane tune by accident.

Don't run the tune until you find out what's wrong :(
 
#14 ·
****, I'm still in it. at work now. I emailed them last night and it's 1pm and haven't heard back. but it says 87 performance and that's the one I flashed.
 
#16 ·
so just to reiterate, the only time i get knocks is when i'm giving it gas after i shift SOMETIMES , when it's at lower rpms. it doesn't knock the rest of the time at all. you all really think this could be another tune put on there that isn't 87? weird. MPT wrote back saying it doesn't sound right, and to datalog. i have to find a laptop somewhere though and do it on another night when it's not crappy out.
 
#18 ·
Also, understand there is a difference between like shell or chevron, exxon, etc 87 and wal-mart 87... Where are you filling up? Also, how are you confirming that the engine is knocking? Are you seeing it on the device, are you hearing it, etc... more (specific) details, please.
 
#19 · (Edited)
sure. I just filled up at wawa 87 prior to the tune. when I first started the car and took off out of the driveway, I was bucking like crazy and it knocked upon takeoff because I had to get used to that crazy new low end torque. as I drove every time I shifted, when I let off clutch and gave it gas, I heard a knock. so starting off and shifting into atleast 3rd. and if I'm in 6th for example and around 50 cruising and I give it slightly more gas than cruising gas, I'll hear a bunch of little lower knocks.

also random, but my compass was messed up for like 24 hours and didn't work after I did the flash.

but yeah the car has never really knocked before. the knock sounds like when you're driving stick and take off and don't give it enough gas, so it knocks a bit. it's always that sound, but I'm not driving it any different. plus I mean I've been driving stick since my permit, so like 15 years lol so I'm pretty sure it's not me.
the hardcore knocking everytime I took off and shifted gears stopped for the most part but it still randomly does it. 40 miles on the tune now.
 
#20 ·
ok well my POS laptop doesn't last 2 minutes unplugged, so how can i datalog without a laptop?
 
#21 ·
nevermind dudes, got it. ran a data log with mpt parameters on device only and sent to them. I was able to get it to knock every time I shifted. when I would come off the clutch and fast shift, so give it gas immediately, it would knock in every gear. so I let them know that. I really hope they can see like my shift points on the graph to see where it's knocking.
 
#22 ·
wow. even my economy tune is giving slight knocking. wtf???
 
#23 ·
Again, are you confirming knock via the datalog? If you are, can you double check this for me:

The knock sensor PID is measuring crank degrees in the direction of rotation that are added to or subtracted from the normal (usually borderline knock table) spark timing.

When the KS PID reads positive numbers, it means there are more crank degrees at ignition, which means a spark that happens later than normal, and most people call that ******. A negative number means fewer crank degrees at ignition; sure enough, that's ADVANCE.

When you first encounter it, it seems odd, but once you understand it, it makes sense.

You should normally see negative numbers as the KS looks for incipient knock - that's how the gets the most power out whatever octane you're running. It hunts relentlessly for the edge of knocking. Positive values mean your spark tables are providing too much advance.

In laymen's terms, this means "negative knock," is the computer adding more timing, and "positive knock" means the computer is pulling timing due to actual knock.

Taken from:
http://www.mustangevolution.com/forum/f356/t360180/


Or are you still only "confirming" it audibly?
 
#24 · (Edited)
hey volt, thanks for helping :) i'm only confirming audibly. i'm looking at the data and honestly this is my first data log and i've got no idea what i'm looking at lol..according to what i tihnk i'm seeing here, Knock Sensor value is 0. minimum is -2.75 and max is 4.44, average is 0.13. i'm really going to have to learn how to read this log

so here's the thing. i decided to run to stock, and then run the economy tune to test it, and i was noticing the same knock the same time in economy as well. went back to stock, and it hardly did it, but i was able to replicate it at least once.

i'm wondering if my shift timing is just crappy randomly and i'm not giving enough gas and getting a knock. it's the same exact knock as when you start off in a stick and have a real bad start with not enough gas and it knocks....but on the Performance tune, a few times i noticed i'd shift, give gas, not get a knock, but like 500rpm later get a slight knock as it was going up. it's just very weird. it's NOT pinging or any of that, this is definitely knocking sounds.

i usually use wawa gas and was told wawa is crap, so i'm going to run this down to pretty much empty and give sunoco a shot. maybe it's bad gas and it's just accentuated with the performance tune? i don't know. i really hope there's nothing wrong with my car!



datalog import in the SCT program only shows like a second worth, weird. if you're interested, here's my CSV file:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B26x3Ho6M4AmTkRRTWE4ZVl0Z0U
 
#25 ·
So if you want help reading that datalog feel free to poke through that thread i linked.

Another way to help isolate your issue would be to just log the specific event. BTW, the SCT has a ridiculous logging rate, so it records a TON of data in a short amount of time. Basically you can just start the log, perform whatever action causes the "knock," and go from there. Typically its a good idea to log at least 3 times to average out any anomalies, but you get the idea.

---------- Post added at 08:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 PM ----------

So if you want help reading that datalog feel free to poke through that thread i linked.

Another way to help isolate your issue would be to just log the specific event. BTW, the SCT has a ridiculous logging rate, so it records a TON of data in a short amount of time. Basically you can just start the log, perform whatever action causes the "knock," and go from there. Typically its a good idea to log at least 3 times to average out any anomalies, but you get the idea.
 
#26 ·
hey thanks volt. I'm going to have to do some reading and learn this stuff haha
 
#28 ·
so MPT got back to me with a revised tune, but he also wrote me this:

"Jason,
I have reviewed your log and you are correct it’s pulling timing.

Here is the thing…
The timing after it’s pulled is less than stock which tells me your fuel quality is not there even for 87.
I’ve updated the tune for you here, but the better solution is to choose a different station for fuel."


so in the end, maybe this is all just a crappy fuel issue. i always thought wawa gas was good; i never had a problem..but after speaking with VIG about it, and him telling me down by him, wawa gas is awful in one of his cars, and now this, i'm not going to be getting regular there anymore. my next try is the Sunoco that's next door to it. hopefully they've got better gas.

i'm going to run the revised tune and see what happens, but i also asked him if i should go back to the original V1 of the tune when i switch stations after i run this tank to E or not. we'll see!
 
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