69MustangCoupe393cid

I'm thinking about getting one for my 2000 GT 5 speed. I only have minor bolt on's but I want some more power out of this thing. How hard are these to use? Are they pretty user friendly, or is there a pretty steep learning curve? Any thoughts or input is appreciated.

Mods:

CAI
75mm TB/Plenum
Magnaflow catback

UDP in the future and possibly a catted h pipe, but for now stock.

H0SS302

SF is EASY to use. Any idiot can use it, its Commando that has the learning curve.

As long as you have a wideband O2 sensor and a laptop...your good to go.

It wouldnt be a bad idea to actually pick up a book and read about tuning though, just so you have an idea of what your changing.

tbirdscwd

Yeah, the Special Forces is really easy to use. But that being said, you need to know what you are doing before you go trying to tune your car.

69MustangCoupe393cid

Yeah I have a tuning book, but it was for obd1. I have a Tweecer RT for my 93 SHO, but I still can't make sense of it.

How necessary is a wideband though? I have one for my SHO since it's more modified, but I only have minor boltons on my GT and didn't want to spend the money on one if I could help it.

tbirdscwd

You shouldn't have to mess with the fuel at all with your current mods. Keeping the stock injectors/maf, the factory maf transfer rate should be damn near perfect even with the minor mods you have. The sniper stuff is still a good alternative to a regular handheld for someone looking into doing some minor tuning on their own

MJH78

It's easy. It's going to give you a screen to mess with the air/fuel, but you're obviously going to stay away from doing any changes there unless you have the wideband sensor and such. It's pretty user friendly and guides you through the options. Basically all you're going to do is bump the timing for whatever octane fuel you want to use. For instance, I ended up bumping mine 2 degrees for 91 octane. It made a real nice difference. Go gradual with your advances on the timing and make sure you're not getting any pinging. You can also disable rear O2s, recalibrate your speedo if you get gears, adjust idle speed, etc.

If I remember correctly, the "canned" tune it spits out after you go through the options telling it specifics about your vehicle will NOT advance the timing any so if you create the base tune and load it to the vehicle and you don't notice a difference, that's because it didn't change the timing for you. I think you have to create a base tune and then go back and change the timing

69MustangCoupe393cid

Ok cool, I wasn't looking at getting that deep into this thing as far as installed a wideband. But I just pulled the trigger and picked one up. Is there any benefit to turning off the rear o2's? or am I better off leaving them on? I have a stock h pipe so the thing passes emissions with flying colors.

Any tips on what I should do when I get it? Basically load the mods I have and or the base tune it has, then bump timing slowly and listen for detonation? I'll be running Shell V-Power (93 octane)

I might start with no timing bump and keep using 87 to see if I get any gas mileage increase just by telling it it has some new mods.

cliffyk

It depends on what version of the SF software you have.

Version 1.x bumps the timing in the base tune, regardless of what octane you choose, by 2.0° globally and 1.0° to 1.5° in the rpm based ranges. Version 2.x does not do this and makes different timing changes according to the octane you select (this is due to the current prevalence of E-10/15 fuel).

Both versions lean out the Stabilised Open Loop Fuel table a bit, because the OEM tune is nearly pig-rich at WOT. Other changes in the base tune are mostly just basic "clean-up" stuff to remove some of the the limits and odd-settings in the stock tune.

When you get it post what version you have and I can provide more detail. There are updates available for both versions--check out these postings on the DF forum:

Click here for Special Forces v1.x upgrade;

Clicj here for Special Forces v2.x upgrade;

You also want to check out my SFDocumenter application that automates documentation of your tunes, saves those settings that SF does not between sessions, and includes the updates described above (mostly because I wrote them):

Click here for SFDocumenter v1.x;

Click here for SFDocumenter v2.x;

Both of these apps let you capture a report describing the settings you selected:



and provide a mechanism for saving and reloading the fine tuning and other settings that SF does not retain between sessions (because of legal liability issues):



You will find SF very easy to use, however as other's have stated you still need to know what you are doing--Greg Banish's book Engine Management: Advanced Tuning is a great place to start.

Here's more info about Special Forces from my mostly neglected blog...

tbirdscwd

Are there any updates for the Commando software?

StriderTacticaL

I think my SF software is currently version 1.4. I selected 91 octane (that's what I run) and I also added 1.5* global and then added 0*/0.5*/1.0* in the low/mid/high spark tables per your recommendation in the past. Will the software upgrade for my version still bump a fixed amount of timing in the base tune regardless of octane selected, or will it now bump timing according to the octane selected as it does in version 2.x?

Also, with the upgraded software, would I be able to play with the smaller increments for injector slope settings? I remember in the past you said I should leave mine alone because the increments were too high. I vaguely remember you saying it had something to do with my 04 GT coming with 21# injectors unlike the 02 and below years coming with 19#'s which was better for the stock injector slope settings or something like that...


Thanks