To bama tune or not?

[Darkhelmet22]

Originally Posted by re-rx7 When you start getting into FI and Spray I believe that you should have a tune for that particular car. It was when the 5.0 came out.

I agree.

[DirtyD]

It was when the 5.0 came out, and also after Mike Wilson left Bama, IIRC. Bama was trying to do things on their own instead of asking for a little help and guidance from the other tuners in the country and they paid the price.

[Darkhelmet22]

Not to get off topic but how do those Michelin super sports do in your car DirtyD? Are they 255? Or did you squeeze a 275 on?

[re-rx7]

OFF TOPIC: I see you still have the chrome 5.0 badges. Im stripping my plasti dip off now. LOL

[DirtyD]

Originally Posted by Darkhelmet22 Not to get off topic but how do those Michelin super sports do in your car DirtyD? Are they 255? Or did you squeeze a 275 on?

Never tracked or AutoX'ed them, but I will find out how they do at the end of this month in Crandall. Daily driving wise, they are stout, handle well, and ride well.

255/40 on the front and 275/40 on the rear.

Originally Posted by re-rx7 OFF TOPIC: I see you still have the chrome 5.0 badges. Im stripping my plasti dip off now. LOL

[NZERO21]

Wow, this is a great topic that much of us are eagerly attempting to get the final solution. Now I do understand that it may sound that a shop tune may be better than a bama tune, simply for the fact that each car is different and you get an opportunity to discuss your options with the expert while he is looking at your car in that moment in time. As much as I would like to say that I want to hit the track, I generally will use this car for daily driving purposes but if lets say a "camaro" or "corvette" were to line up next to me, I would like to be able to have a lil something to show for it. Keep in mind that even though the 412 hp is advertised on these 2011 mustangs, I fully understand that its much less when it hits the floor. However, like many of us, we are cost conscious about what we want to do so we also feel that we don't want to break the piggy bank for an extra 5 hp in comparison. Its all about choices.

Personally, since i am just starting out and still have warranty on the vehicle with 23k on the odometer, I am hesitant as to what I should get. Still thinking about the ford racing intake and possibly the JLT air intake to go along with it. Eventually doing the tune once those puppies are installed with possibly some hooker headers and h-pipe.

Love the feedback. Let me know what you guys think?

[Grandpa]

Truestreet tuned my car over a year ago and it's been flawless. No drivability issues, decent power gains and throttle response.

As for remote/email tunes, some tuners are certainly better than others. A remote/email tune can be done very well, but there is something to be said about a tuner actually sitting in the car feeling how the car is behaving as its doing it rather than looking at the datalogs post-pull.

A mass email tuner like Bama generally throws a tune together from a previous car based on mods that should be close to yours throws it out to you, then re-tweeks it to even out the tune. Sure, the car might run abit better, but it's far from an optimal tune and it's being done by God knows who with the revolving door of tuners they have going in and out of that place.

[fordplay]

I love my bama tune, of the 4 I've had its the best, tunes for life and customer service? I've had at least half a dozen tunes from them and they have never taken more than a day to get back to me. They speak to you on the phone and keep a file of you on the system, and they encourage you to request a new free tune from time to time as they are refining the tunes.. try that with any other tuner.. that being said.. If I go Fi or add nos. I'd use their tune to get me to a local tuner to look at it real time.. you can data log and get back with bama and work it out but... I'd want a local guy to say "yes your tune is good"

[NAVAG]

I have a BAMA Tune
89 Street
93 Performance
93 Race

My mustang is a daily driver and I had it on "Street" for one day. Didn't see any MPG savings and it had the engine running so lean that after nearly stalling while going up the tall ramp from 635 to I30 by Town East I switched over to "Race"

While on "Race" I notice my Air/Fuel ratio stays around 13.5 and drops to about 12.5 with the throttle wide open where stock settled in around 14. MPG dropped like a ton of bricks and I didn't feel much difference between the "Race" and "Performance" tunes. There might be a small difference, however, I haven't done any pulls on a dyno yet to see.

I leave it on "Performance" most of the time. I can feel a good increase in HP over 4000 RPM compared to stock and I average 26-28 MPG on the highway.

I feel like I got more gains from the CAI than I did with the BAMA tune with normal driving until I get on it. But then again, I'm not setting this car up for racing. If I were then I would drop some serious coin on a blower and a custom dyno/tune. Bama tune just helps the stock engine with moderate bolt-on mods reach its potential.

[re-rx7]

Originally Posted by NAVAG While on "Race" I notice my Air/Fuel ratio stays around 13.5 and drops to about 12.5 with the throttle wide open where stock settled in around 14.

What?

[NAVAG]

While waiting for my tuner to arrive I selected Air/Fuel Ratio under "Gauges" and watched it for a while. I figured that this is where I would notice the most difference after the tune, other than how it felt while driving it. It tended to stay around 14.0 and didn't drop much under hard throttle. After installing the Race tune it stayed around 13.5 and would drop as much as 1.0 under hard throttle. I figured they were just programmed to dump more gas in the mix. If I had more data I would know what else they "tweaked"

anyway, the performance tune works great. The race tune worked just as well but seemed to waste more fuel.

[Soulowd]

What about BBR tune? I have one in my tuner that I got when I bought my sct tuner from Late Model Resto but havent put it on Yet. Anyone here ever used it?