Has one tried using an ECU flasher (I.e. Predator U7146) on a 2001 Bullitt. The flasher bumps you up to 93 octane, but they claim 15-20 horsepower. Just curious if anyone has tried this or other brands and if so, what were their results were.

MLT

 

All the "canned tunes" do is bump WOT timing which means you have to run premium gas to prevent spark knock or detonation. You might see 10+ Hp at the wheels but each car is different. A custom tune done a dyno is best for power and reliability. Predator, Sniper and SCT are all simular, it just depends on if you ever want a custom tune does a local shop support that brand of tuner.

 

I've got the SCT Flsh and I've noticed more of an increase in gas mileage on the economy tune. No crazy increase in HP when i'm on the 93 performance tune though. They also give you a two step rev option which is pretty cool from American Muscle but the guy who does the tuning messed up my chip so it doesn't work on mine now. If your going SCT sadly I'd say don't go AM. Good customer service but bad quality as far as tuning

 

buy it used..dont pay more than 210 TOPS for a tuner.
IMO, 15 RWHP for 200 dollars is a heck of a deal..lb for lb, greater than a lot of the mods you see people waste money on.

 

I'm not so sure about the predator, but my 01 Bullitt didn't like any of the tunes the SCT came with. Each tune caused some pretty bad pinging at WOT at ~4000rpm. I had to revert back to the factory tune to keep any pinging from occurring. Now I have nothing more than a very expensive code scanner.

 

I just bought the SCT SF3 because I'm going to need it to retune as mods go on, and the first few mods I can change in the tuner myself ie. gears, off road x pipe.

I put the 93 octane tune in, and I also got some pinging, but it was also 40 degrees outside. Dropped down to the 91 octane tune, and have no pinging at all on 93 octane. This isn't really a concern, because once it warms up, I'll just swap back to the 93 tune. I noticed an SOTP increase above 3200rpms, we'll see what difference it makes at the track in a couple weeks.

I would suggest getting whatever tuner you can get custom dynotuned from personally. The best tuners around here all use SCT, so I bought it for the ease of future modifications. A tuner by itself isn't going to make much HP, but it will be worth it once you start adding other mods.