Observations on a newly applied Bama 87s tune
03-19-2011, 02:12 PM
#1
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Washington
Posts: 192
Observations on a newly applied Bama 87s tune
In light of others who are having troubles with their SCT tuner, I don't mean to take away from that very important issue. But since the problems appear to be the delivery mechanism (the firmware on the SCT tuner), and not the tunes themselves, I thought I'd report back to you my observations with my newly applied Bama street tune (87). (and yes, I applied the latest SCT Firmware before I ever let it touch the car).
Along with the other observations that others have noticed with the street tune (quick throttle response, etc.), I wanted to share what I found as the most interesting observation as them all - making 6th useable for us with 2.73 rears with hilly terain. Previously, on my commute back from work, there is this 2 mile grade (fairly steep) on a 70mph interstate. It is just the right incline that 6th couldn't maintain speed at around 72mph (~1800 RPM or so). I kept trying, but I'm sensitive about not lugging motors. I knew how it felt, and was dancing between 5th and 6th on it. It got a tad better with the Airaid CAI. But I just came back from experimenting with the new tune, and not only was it not losing speed on that same incline, it felt down right comfortable in that gear, and pulled up the entire way with no problem.
So in many ways, the street tune can really mean a way more pleasant freeway experience. Targeting that low end torque increasse really pays off on cruising on the freeway. Makes me wonder what a 91S tune would do (93 not really available at too many places around here). Anyway, nice job Bama. I'm a believer.
And best of luck to those having the recent difficulties with the SCT tuner. Hopefully everything gets straigtened out for you guys.
Along with the other observations that others have noticed with the street tune (quick throttle response, etc.), I wanted to share what I found as the most interesting observation as them all - making 6th useable for us with 2.73 rears with hilly terain. Previously, on my commute back from work, there is this 2 mile grade (fairly steep) on a 70mph interstate. It is just the right incline that 6th couldn't maintain speed at around 72mph (~1800 RPM or so). I kept trying, but I'm sensitive about not lugging motors. I knew how it felt, and was dancing between 5th and 6th on it. It got a tad better with the Airaid CAI. But I just came back from experimenting with the new tune, and not only was it not losing speed on that same incline, it felt down right comfortable in that gear, and pulled up the entire way with no problem.
So in many ways, the street tune can really mean a way more pleasant freeway experience. Targeting that low end torque increasse really pays off on cruising on the freeway. Makes me wonder what a 91S tune would do (93 not really available at too many places around here). Anyway, nice job Bama. I'm a believer.
And best of luck to those having the recent difficulties with the SCT tuner. Hopefully everything gets straigtened out for you guys.
03-19-2011, 05:29 PM
#2
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Quebec
Posts: 207
In light of others who are having troubles with their SCT tuner, I don't mean to take away from that very important issue. But since the problems appear to be the delivery mechanism (the firmware on the SCT tuner), and not the tunes themselves, I thought I'd report back to you my observations with my newly applied Bama street tune (87). (and yes, I applied the latest SCT Firmware before I ever let it touch the car).
Along with the other observations that others have noticed with the street tune (quick throttle response, etc.), I wanted to share what I found as the most interesting observation as them all - making 6th useable for us with 2.73 rears with hilly terain. Previously, on my commute back from work, there is this 2 mile grade (fairly steep) on a 70mph interstate. It is just the right incline that 6th couldn't maintain speed at around 72mph (~1800 RPM or so). I kept trying, but I'm sensitive about not lugging motors. I knew how it felt, and was dancing between 5th and 6th on it. It got a tad better with the Airaid CAI. But I just came back from experimenting with the new tune, and not only was it not losing speed on that same incline, it felt down right comfortable in that gear, and pulled up the entire way with no problem.
So in many ways, the street tune can really mean a way more pleasant freeway experience. Targeting that low end torque increasse really pays off on cruising on the freeway. Makes me wonder what a 91S tune would do (93 not really available at too many places around here). Anyway, nice job Bama. I'm a believer.
And best of luck to those having the recent difficulties with the SCT tuner. Hopefully everything gets straigtened out for you guys.
Along with the other observations that others have noticed with the street tune (quick throttle response, etc.), I wanted to share what I found as the most interesting observation as them all - making 6th useable for us with 2.73 rears with hilly terain. Previously, on my commute back from work, there is this 2 mile grade (fairly steep) on a 70mph interstate. It is just the right incline that 6th couldn't maintain speed at around 72mph (~1800 RPM or so). I kept trying, but I'm sensitive about not lugging motors. I knew how it felt, and was dancing between 5th and 6th on it. It got a tad better with the Airaid CAI. But I just came back from experimenting with the new tune, and not only was it not losing speed on that same incline, it felt down right comfortable in that gear, and pulled up the entire way with no problem.
So in many ways, the street tune can really mean a way more pleasant freeway experience. Targeting that low end torque increasse really pays off on cruising on the freeway. Makes me wonder what a 91S tune would do (93 not really available at too many places around here). Anyway, nice job Bama. I'm a believer.
And best of luck to those having the recent difficulties with the SCT tuner. Hopefully everything gets straigtened out for you guys.
Interesting,
The 87s tune was the tune I was looking to get into for daily driving on my stang eventually. So what your saying, climbing and potential passing power on 6th gear is really important to me as the bulk of my commutes are highway since it's the best way to go from my little town to the nearest cities.
My main worry however is, as the 87s tune focuses mostly on low end torque, does it sacrifice a bit of top end power vs stock? I'm hoping not.
Also, did you notice an increase or decrease in fuel economy with the 87s tune?
03-19-2011, 06:15 PM
#3
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Livin in NC, from Michigan...Yooper
Posts: 2,008
sketchy....I guess the other route is as I did when I had XCAL3...there were 2 firmware updates but I never applied and never had a problem loading ....is there a reason everyone did the update, was it required to make work.....like updating, sometimes you keep ignoring that java update...everything still works.
03-19-2011, 06:49 PM
#4
3rd Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: VA
Posts: 720
Since the earlier firmware took my car down, SCT specifically told me to wait until this firmware came out to try to flash again due to the possibility of data corruption issues. So I did and it worked fine for me. I really like my 93P tune but would really like SCT to openly tell us what's going on and give us some reassurances.
03-19-2011, 10:14 PM
#5
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Washington
Posts: 192
Interesting,
The 87s tune was the tune I was looking to get into for daily driving on my stang eventually. So what your saying, climbing and potential passing power on 6th gear is really important to me as the bulk of my commutes are highway since it's the best way to go from my little town to the nearest cities.
My main worry however is, as the 87s tune focuses mostly on low end torque, does it sacrifice a bit of top end power vs stock? I'm hoping not.
Also, did you notice an increase or decrease in fuel economy with the 87s tune?
The 87s tune was the tune I was looking to get into for daily driving on my stang eventually. So what your saying, climbing and potential passing power on 6th gear is really important to me as the bulk of my commutes are highway since it's the best way to go from my little town to the nearest cities.
My main worry however is, as the 87s tune focuses mostly on low end torque, does it sacrifice a bit of top end power vs stock? I'm hoping not.
Also, did you notice an increase or decrease in fuel economy with the 87s tune?
As far as 6th being a passing gear, probably won't ever happen with a 2.73 rear. ...The big benefit I saw was that once you get it there you can leave it there - unlike the way it was before. I added about another 75 miles today since my earlier post, and I will say that it does add a hell of a fun factor. Like most, my curious mind starting wandering into wonder what the other tunes would feel like, with different octanes.
As for MPGs, just too small of a sampling of data to be absolute. But my hunch was that after I added the CAI, the MPGs went up a bit. Seemed to stay even with the tune (maybe...), both assume that you drive as you did before. The problem was that I couldn't resist laying into it. Man that is fun...
The other guys out here have spent quite a bit of time describing the tunes, so I'd check out their reviews. I wanted to just touch on that aspect us daily drivers with 2.73s.
03-19-2011, 10:17 PM
#6
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Washington
Posts: 192
sketchy....I guess the other route is as I did when I had XCAL3...there were 2 firmware updates but I never applied and never had a problem loading ....is there a reason everyone did the update, was it required to make work.....like updating, sometimes you keep ignoring that java update...everything still works.
03-20-2011, 12:05 PM
#7
Thanks for the awesome, review! Glad that you're happy with it, and I can definitely say that I, too noticed a difference up any grades or while passing. There's a much better kick, for sure - even with 2.73's.
For those of you concerned with firmware, etc. Keep in mind that Bama sells as many as 20 programmers for 2011 v6's specifically, each day. That means there's literally thousands of them out there and only as of recently have we heard of anyone having a computer issue. We update our firmware on a regular basis, and rotate our programmer inventory so quickly that the second an update is available, it will be applied to all programmers that are shipping. Hopefully that puts some people's concerns as rest.
Enjoy the tunes!
Chris
For those of you concerned with firmware, etc. Keep in mind that Bama sells as many as 20 programmers for 2011 v6's specifically, each day. That means there's literally thousands of them out there and only as of recently have we heard of anyone having a computer issue. We update our firmware on a regular basis, and rotate our programmer inventory so quickly that the second an update is available, it will be applied to all programmers that are shipping. Hopefully that puts some people's concerns as rest.
Enjoy the tunes!
Chris
03-20-2011, 12:29 PM
#8
You shouldn't... peak power gains are going to be not only not lower than stock, but much improved from stock. We do change fueling and throttle response in the low-end in order to pick up torque and give it that low-end power. You should feel a difference all the way across the power band, regardless of RPM. Hope that answers your question!
03-20-2011, 03:13 PM
#10
2nd Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Washington
Posts: 192
Wrx, you had a good post somewhere (the hell if I can find it now...) where you described the differences you felt with the different tunes, and where exactly the power across the rpm ranges were felt. What was your take comparing the 93S and the 93P tunes? ...or just send me the link to where you mentioned that before. I'm being an idiot today.