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RANT!!! Not Happy With American Muscle / Bama Performance

  • Thread starter Thread starter SilverS550
  • Start date Start date Mar 23, 2015
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SilverS550

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Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 23, 2015
#1
  • Mar 23, 2015
  • #1
Okay, so I order the X4 for the car. All seems good, it shows up today.....that's where it goes downhill.....first and last time I'll deal with American Muscle / Bama Tuning folks.

First, the package arrives....it's got my name on the shipping label, open the box and it's someone else's tuner and someone else's little data plate thing.

Call them up, talk to Justin. Explained the situation. Send me the correct files for my car and update the serial in the system. About half an hour later I get an email. Still has the wrong tune files.

I call back, ask to speak to Justin. He left for the day.

I talk to Van, again explain the situation. I have him verify my info so we get the right files. Files show up, I go to load them on the X4, and it won't show the 93 octane tune, only a 91 tune.

Okay, let's make sure this is all up to date, which it says it is "No Updates Available". Cool, let's see if it loads.

Go out to the car, hook everything up, keep getting an error, 110AD. Call back again, no idea who it was and didn't care at this point. Explained what was going on, gave them the code, they tell me it's SCT's problem and to call them.

At this point, I told them never mind, just process this thing for a return. I'll be calling Brenspeed and Lund in the morning.

First purchase / last purchase.
 

SilverS550

Active Member
Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 23, 2015
#2
  • Mar 23, 2015
  • #2
Figured I'd at least give SCT a chance to make it right.

Been on hold for 55 mins now. Moved from position 22 to 9.
 

SilverS550

Active Member
Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 23, 2015
#3
  • Mar 23, 2015
  • #3
2 hours and 32 mins later, there is communication with the car. It took a while to get to SCT's tech support, but once I got them they were FANTASTIC. Can't say as much for AM or Bama.
 

84Ttop

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?
5 Year Member
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Mar 24, 2015
#4
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #4
SCT's tech is very good in my experience, very hard to get on the phone like you said but great once you get them. I went through a similar problem with my X4, the programmer locked up while updating and had our tuning license locked up with it. SCT fixed it no problem (after 2 hours on hold, haha) and we haven't had an issue since.

Were you able to load the Bama tune into the car? I'm curious to see how the performance is and if your afr issue is resolved with a box stock tune.
With that being said, I have worked with Lund before and the man is very good at what he does. Remote tuning has come a long way and you can easily have him remotely custom tune your car to its full potential. Currently Vortech doesn't offer any tuning for the automatic GT's and I have been recommending him to those who pick up kits for those cars and have only heard of good results.
 

SilverS550

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Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 24, 2015
#5
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #5
I was able to get it to load last night, it was just too late to really play with it. I took it for a drive and it's certainly much improved over stock. Seems odd, but the car is actually quieter.....definitely smother, that's for sure.

I'm actually getting all the data logging set up now so I can really see what's going on. I'll be ordering the Advantage software this week so I can do the tuning myself. Remote tuning it okay, but I've always done my own on the LS's and diesel, so I'm sure I'll figure this one out pretty quick.
 

84Ttop

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?
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Mar 24, 2015
#6
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #6
SilverS550 said:
I was able to get it to load last night, it was just too late to really play with it. I took it for a drive and it's certainly much improved over stock. Seems odd, but the car is actually quieter.....definitely smother, that's for sure.

I'm actually getting all the data logging set up now so I can really see what's going on. I'll be ordering the Advantage software this week so I can do the tuning myself. Remote tuning it okay, but I've always done my own on the LS's and diesel, so I'm sure I'll figure this one out pretty quick.
Click to expand...
Nice, If you've done other tuning before then you should be fine. The normally aspirated tuning is very straight forward, the boosted tuning was a little tricky since they added back the IMRC plates. We initially had a little bit of a surge under light load (0 vacuum-1psi of boost) but were able to tune around that in short time.
 

SilverS550

Active Member
Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 24, 2015
#7
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #7
84Ttop said:
Nice, If you've done other tuning before then you should be fine. The normally aspirated tuning is very straight forward, the boosted tuning was a little tricky since they added back the IMRC plates. We initially had a little bit of a surge under light load (0 vacuum-1psi of boost) but were able to tune around that in short time.
Click to expand...

It's only gonna be NA for so long. As soon as I get off my butt and finish the new turbos on the truck I'll get knee deep into this thing. I just haven't had a decent amount of time to sit down and finish the fab work on the header and piping. 30 mins here.....an hour there.....you just can't get in a groove that way.







Especially when you're stuffing 3 of them in there.....





 

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Last edited: Mar 24, 2015

Noobz347

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor
Admin Dude
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43,100
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Mar 24, 2015
#8
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #8
Well no wonder it doesn't work. Your turbos are full of latex gloves.
 
Reactions: jetmech807 and SilverS550

Bullitt347

I have been doing it wrong this whole time
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Mar 24, 2015
#9
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #9
Noobz347 said:
Well no wonder it doesn't work. Your turbos are full of latex gloves.
Click to expand...
I think those are blue paper towels...........but what do I know
 
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Noobz347

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#10
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #10
Bullitt347 said:
I think those are blue paper towels...........but what do I know
Click to expand...


Oh... PAPER TOWELS! Then it's ok. Crank it over!
 

SilverS550

Active Member
Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 24, 2015
#11
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #11
Ahhh, they'd never make it past the intercooler anyways. lol
 

SilverS550

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Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 24, 2015
#12
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #12
I think we're ready to make some vroom vroom noises tomorrow and see what it does with nothing but the tune on it.







 

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SilverS550

Active Member
Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 24, 2015
#13
  • Mar 24, 2015
  • #13
Bone stock with a tune, we'll see what it does tomorrow when I strap it back down.

 

SilverS550

Active Member
Mar 5, 2015
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East Alabama
Mar 25, 2015
#14
  • Mar 25, 2015
  • #14
Well, if this doesn't tell the story, I don't know what will.

Sorry for this being a cross forum post, if that's bad juju I appoloize and feel free to delete it....just didn't feel like reposting all of it.

Long story short.....NO GAINS using the Bama Performance tunes. NONE. Well, okay, 4 hp over the entire curve....

Putting it back on the dyno today - Mustang Evolution
 

SilverS550

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Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 25, 2015
#15
  • Mar 25, 2015
  • #15
As promised, here's the video of the runs. It's nothing exciting....the dyno is kinda boring when nothing goes wrong....

http://youtu.be/jX2ulcd1cuE

Let's put this into perspective....

Almost $400 on tuner / tuning, 3 hours on the phone, emailing 4 people / speaking to 6, fuel, dyno, reading data logs.......for 6 HP. I really don't even think it was truly 6, I forgot to turn the AC off on the stock pulls.
 

Noobz347

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#16
  • Mar 25, 2015
  • #16
You're looking at it ALL wrong.



All you have to do is take the HP that the magazine gave you and add it to the HP from article in the other magazine from when you got a cat-back then put those on top of your (enter favorite here) mod.


Don't bother averaging the three as it will only make the number smaller.
 
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SilverS550

Active Member
Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 25, 2015
#17
  • Mar 25, 2015
  • #17
But, but, but.....ricer math says.....lol

Let's see, my intake gives me 18 hp, my exhaust is 30, my tuner is like AT LEAST 80 (I gotz it on kill mode), ohhhhh and I got the biggest wing in town.

Don't forget the Monster sticker in the back window. That's the clincher.

;-)
 

justinakajuice

Active Member
Jan 20, 2015
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#18
  • Mar 26, 2015
  • #18
Don't blame them. It was your fault for not putting the sticker on before the pulls. THAT'S where the real power is!
 
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SilverS550

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Mar 5, 2015
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Mar 26, 2015
#19
  • Mar 26, 2015
  • #19
justinakajuice said:
Don't blame them. It was your fault for not putting the sticker on before the pulls. THAT'S where the real power is!
Click to expand...

Damn it! NOW ya tell me. Stupid fancy dyno measuring thing.....it lies I tell ya! ;-)

It's always fun to watch people after they get off the dyno.....

Before: Man, my car makes like eleventy million hp...

After: WTF?........

The Heartbreaker doesn't lie.
 
Reactions: Still Bill

84Ttop

They make new pistons every day, so why worry?
5 Year Member
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Mar 26, 2015
#20
  • Mar 26, 2015
  • #20
SilverS550 said:
Well, if this doesn't tell the story, I don't know what will.

Sorry for this being a cross forum post, if that's bad juju I appoloize and feel free to delete it....just didn't feel like reposting all of it.

Long story short.....NO GAINS using the Bama Performance tunes. NONE. Well, okay, 4 hp over the entire curve....

Putting it back on the dyno today - Mustang Evolution
Click to expand...
This is honestly what I expected to see, far to often the out of the box universal tunes don't make any more hp and in some cases (diablo is the worst offender in my book) I have seen cars lose a substanial amount of HP. Sucks either way
 
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