Upsh1ft

Finally cracked and got the goods.

First I must say I am pleasantly surprised, 6 business days for Canadian shipping is pretty sweet.

Installation of the Airaid was longer than expected and everything fits in pretty tight that's for sure. All in all, however, it was simple.

Installing the tune was even easier and took tops 10 minutes the first time around.

Overall, no issues.

Performance, my butt-dyno didn't notice much in terms of overall power but I blame that on this being the street tune. I did notice a few interesting things however: Low rpm power is definitely improved and I can feel a good difference in 6th gear at highway speeds(60-70mph). The really nice bits however are improved throttle response and best of all, smoothness. Whereas on-off throttle manipulations while already engaged in 1st 2nd and sometimes (but much less so) in 3rd gear(at low speeds) proved jerky in stock trim. The car is now smooth as silk in those situations after the tune.

Sound: The engine has a much meaner growl. I love it! My one complaint though is I seem to be hearing a lot more mechanical noises from the engine than before and I wonder if that's normal.

car: 2012 Mustang V6 6MT 3.31 rear. Currently have 91 octane in the tank when the whole thing was setup.

fishtale1

Has your mileage changed? I have a 6 with 3.33 rear and air-raid induction.. thinking of
tuneup device,but which one?looking to keep 87 octane.

Upsh1ft

well my 50/50 mileage was unaffected and I run 87 street tune daily. 22.4mpg average.

However I did do a LONG pure highway 4 and a half hour road trip and my mileage calculated by hand at the pump was 29.2mpg!

Remember I have the mods + 3.31 rear end + manual + I was driving at a more or less constant 75mph and had the AC on most of the trip. Occasional acceleration for passes also. Overall I'm impressed

hogasswild

I didn't notice much difference other than smoothness on 87. I think the 93 race tune is the bees knees though.

Upsh1ft

@Hogasswild
To be quite frank, concerning 93 race, I didn't notice the "day and night" difference people keep talking about or the "track only" sensitivity of the throttle. It felt very streetable. The only difference I really noticed was a bit of extra power in 3rd gear after 60mph @WOT, seems to accelerate faster at that point. It also lacks the 2000-3000rpm torque that the 87 street tune has, which is where I do 95% of my driving.

You're right about the smoothness in the 87 tune that's for sure!

sketchy00

Your comment about the lower end torque is why I still prefer the street tune over the others. I seem to be in the minority on that, but helps address that lower end that needs all the help it can get. I've tried many times to like the others, but the street tune was the one for me (91 octane, as its just way too tough to get 93 around here). Interestingly enough, I had to do a return-to-stock today because of my scheduled complimentary dealer oil change. What a relief to put that tune back on after it was done.

Upsh1ft

Agreed!

Oh and I might be crazy but I find I now have enough power in 6th gear starting from 60mph for passing now! I rarely need to drop to 5th.

Upsh1ft

Well this is a tad disappointing. And this is not an attack against the BAMA crew as they have provided me with excellent support so far.

I did a few datalogs a couple of weeks ago with my car with the 87s tune and a tank full of quality 87 octane fuel and the run shows that it starts knocking at WOT past 4500rpm and knock sensor readings peak in the -5 range when you reach redline. So of course I contact BAMA and send them the datalog. Right now I got their 4th revision on friday and did a run and still no cigar . Although you cant hear the knocking you can tell it loses power especially past 5krpm. It's a shame because the lower RPM range works beautifully with the tune.

I have done run with the stock ECU and with the CAI installed and it runs perfectly in that configuration, no issues no unhappiness.

I haven't tried any other tunes because the 87s is the one I use regardless.

I don't know why this is occurring and BAMA are aware so I will keep you posted on what happens next, it could be that my car or ambient conditions are just too different. So just a bit of advice for everyone: When you get your tune, download the livelink software from the SCT website and install it on a windows laptop, daisy chain your car to your sct tuner and the tuner to your laptop with a USB cable, run the software, setup a few sensor to monitor and start recording. It would seem that each car can be very different.

It's a shame because I liked that tune a lot in the low RPM range.

Joenpb

You do understand the street tune is mainly for driving under 4k rpms, correct?

If you're driving in the higher rpm/power range try the performance or race tunes.

There is a definite difference between those and the stock tune. I did try the street tune, wasn't impressed, & never went back.

I also went to 91 octane tunes.

Upsh1ft

Yes I understand however note that no tune should cause some fairly high levels of detonation at high RPM even if it is a street tune unless you actually ask for it. And I remember Chris himself mentioning that even the street tune is supposed to provide some small gains at high RPMs which means it should actually function without knocking.

Also I don't DRIVE in the higher rpm/power range. My range is 2000-3000rpm for most of my driving but I do like the occasional onramp sprint or to perform downshifts to pass. So I concur that the engine should be running healthily at any RPM range.