Sorry but what can an SCT tuner really do?

midnightdriver · Jan 9, 2010

I have read all the information on their website and such and know that this is prob a very common question. But I just want to know exactly what I can use the tuner for besides what is listed on the website. I am looking at getting a preloaded tuner.

Questions regarding emissions equipment like can I turn off certain items ?

Am I able to adjust per the fuel I have in my tank, 87-91(cali) or is it just a single hot tune?

Am I able to mess up my car badly by playing around with the settings or is there a manual that explains how to adjust for the mods that are on the car. For future reference, my car is stock now.

I just don't want to end up with another paperweight motor.

Lastly what website/company should I purchase the tuner from?

Thanks

peepeeskillz · Jan 10, 2010

you can disable the rear o2 sensors and egr valve. it comes with preloaded tunes for 87, 91 and 93 octane, and yes you can mess up your car, like if you advance the timing too much it will ping, and if you set it up for 93 and run 87 it will also ping because of the timing. you can also change the a/f ratio, and change the tire size/gear to correct speedo, and i dont think it really matters where you get it from ive never seen it any cheaper than AM, everywhere ive seen it was like 379

wmburns · Jan 10, 2010

ODB2 PID dataloging

The ability to monitor and/or datalog ODB2 PID's is a powerful diagnostic tool that many ppl overlook. It can be complicated to decide which PID's to log. Also, it does take some understanding of how the engine management works to understand the logs. But once you do crasp it, the results (in terms of the kinds of problems it can solve) will surprise.

deftsound · Jan 10, 2010

The main thing for a stock car is being able to upload the 93 octane tune. Basically it advances the timing, thus gaining power, but you have to use 93 octane gas.

Dragstr05 · Jan 10, 2010

Enable/disable rear O2 sensors and EGR valve - helps with future mods.

Data log - allows you to watch the data list parameters in the PCM. Granted, there arent ALOT, but some of the real important ones are in there and I have used it many many times. Allows you to look at coolant temp, long term and short term fuel trims for both banks, intake air temp, vehicle speed, engine speed, etc. Special note for those that dont know; when looking at fuel trims, +% indicates running lean, -% indicates a rich condition. Also, the fuel trims are off a BASE tune. If you have it tuned to run on the rich side and its running right, your fuel trims will indicate at or near 0%. They will vary for this when the PCM tries to compensate for things.

Read & erase DTC's - self explanatory.

Adjust for tire size and gear ratios.

Tune change on the fly - You can literally change your tune very quickly. Say you're N/A and close to stock and trying to save a little coin you can upload their 87 octane tune. Going to the track? Swap to the 91/93 tune in about ten mins and have a ball. You cant do that with a chip.

When getting dyno tuned they dont have to burn you a chip every time, just load it to your programmer. I really dont know if this makes it cheaper or not when getting a tune done, but I'd venture to guess it should.

midnightdriver · Jan 10, 2010

Thanks for all the info, just one more question. Since I live in California and the max octane number is 91, does this mean that I am losing out on the tuner. Since the max power tune is rated for 93?

deftsound · Jan 11, 2010

Dragstr05 said:
Enable/disable rear O2 sensors and EGR valve - helps with future mods.

Data log - allows you to watch the data list parameters in the PCM. Granted, there arent ALOT, but some of the real important ones are in there and I have used it many many times. Allows you to look at coolant temp, long term and short term fuel trims for both banks, intake air temp, vehicle speed, engine speed, etc. Special note for those that dont know; when looking at fuel trims, +% indicates running lean, -% indicates a rich condition. Also, the fuel trims are off a BASE tune. If you have it tuned to run on the rich side and its running right, your fuel trims will indicate at or near 0%. They will vary for this when the PCM tries to compensate for things.

Read & erase DTC's - self explanatory.

Adjust for tire size and gear ratios.

Tune change on the fly - You can literally change your tune very quickly. Say you're N/A and close to stock and trying to save a little coin you can upload their 87 octane tune. Going to the track? Swap to the 91/93 tune in about ten mins and have a ball. You cant do that with a chip.

When getting dyno tuned they dont have to burn you a chip every time, just load it to your programmer. I really dont know if this makes it cheaper or not when getting a tune done, but I'd venture to guess it should.

Yes it does make it cheaper, considerably.

deftsound · Jan 11, 2010

midnightdriver said:
Thanks for all the info, just one more question. Since I live in California and the max octane number is 91, does this mean that I am losing out on the tuner. Since the max power tune is rated for 93?

Depends on how you look at it. With the tuner you are paving the way to future mods/dyno tunes because your tuner will need it to upload your custom dyno tune.

Also it allows you to turn off the CEL light if/when you decide to put an O/R (catless) midpipe on. Otherwise you would have to buy MIL eliminators which are around 80$.

And it allows you to adjust your speedometer if/when you decide to put a different set of rear-end gears in. Otherwise you would have to bring it to a tuner and pay him to do it.

Don 95Vert · Jan 11, 2010

Dragstr05 said:
Enable/disable rear O2 sensors and EGR valve - helps with future mods.

If you have it tuned to run on the rich side and its running right, your fuel trims will indicate at or near 0%. They will vary for this when the PCM tries to compensate for things.

Tune change on the fly - You can literally change your tune very quickly. Say you're N/A and close to stock and trying to save a little coin you can upload their 87 octane tune. Going to the track? Swap to the 91/93 tune in about ten mins and have a ball. You cant do that with a chip.

Just to clarify - The handheld with preloaded tunes will not allow shutting off rear 02 sensors and EGR, you need a custom tune for that. It does allow a lot of different adjustments though.

Short Term Fuel Trims, when they are right, will show 1.0 - but they jump around in response to the 02 sensors switching, so they'll never be exactly 1.0, they move around plus or minus 3-5% or so - if they are stuck on 1.0 then you have a problem because it's not going to closed loop.

Changing a tune on the fly means not having to shut off the engine - which you can't do with an X2/X3. You have to shut down and reflash. I think handhelds offer a lot more than chips, but switching tunes with a chip is a LOT faster than a handheld - if you have an SCT switch chip - you just move the switch position and you go from tune A to tune B. SCT says you can switch between tunes without shutting off the engine with a chip, but we always tell customers to shut down the motor, but the capability is supposedly there. The only live tuning solution is the Moates Quarterhorse where real time tuning changes are applied while the engine is running. But you have to tune it yourself.

The coolest part of using an X2/X3 is the ability to email datalogs to a tuner and then get emailed retunes back from the tuner. We remotely tune cars like this, from all over the world, all the time. If you have a wideband, you vcan get comparable results to a dynotune for a lot less $$ but a little more effort on your part. BTW - we have datalogging instructions on our website - see sig if anyone wants to know some of the basic critical things we need to have logged for tuning - it's in the tech section.

Don

DawgStang · Jan 11, 2010

Is it even WORTH it to get a custom tune/tuner ala X3 if you're N/A and nearly stock? Or even with the meager mods that I have?

deftsound · Jan 11, 2010

Don 95Vert said:
Just to clarify - The handheld with preloaded tunes will not allow shutting off rear 02 sensors and EGR, you need a custom tune for that. It does allow a lot of different adjustments though.

Short Term Fuel Trims, when they are right, will show 1.0 - but they jump around in response to the 02 sensors switching, so they'll never be exactly 1.0, they move around plus or minus 3-5% or so - if they are stuck on 1.0 then you have a problem because it's not going to closed loop.

Changing a tune on the fly means not having to shut off the engine - which you can't do with an X2/X3. You have to shut down and reflash. I think handhelds offer a lot more than chips, but switching tunes with a chip is a LOT faster than a handheld - if you have an SCT switch chip - you just move the switch position and you go from tune A to tune B. SCT says you can switch between tunes without shutting off the engine with a chip, but we always tell customers to shut down the motor, but the capability is supposedly there. The only live tuning solution is the Moates Quarterhorse where real time tuning changes are applied while the engine is running. But you have to tune it yourself.

The coolest part of using an X2/X3 is the ability to email datalogs to a tuner and then get emailed retunes back from the tuner. We remotely tune cars like this, from all over the world, all the time. If you have a wideband, you vcan get comparable results to a dynotune for a lot less $$ but a little more effort on your part. BTW - we have datalogging instructions on our website - see sig if anyone wants to know some of the basic critical things we need to have logged for tuning - it's in the tech section.

Don

Well i know for a fact with the diablo tuners you can turn off the rear 02's

Back when i had a diablo tuner the very first thing i did was turn off my rear 02's so the CEL light would turn off...

deftsound · Jan 11, 2010

DawgStang said:
Is it even WORTH it to get a custom tune/tuner ala X3 if you're N/A and nearly stock? Or even with the meager mods that I have?

With the 93 octane tune you will see a gain of 5-10rwhp. So, if you buy the tuner for 350$ thats about 35$ per HP gained if you gained 10rwhp. All in all, its considered to be worth it by most people.

sneaky98gt · Jan 11, 2010

You haven't said yet if you have a stick or auto, but a programmer does worlds for the auto. The shifts are harder, quicker, and firmer. I recorded around .3 seconds gain 0-60 just by changing the shift points and firmness. That by itself is worth $300.

Don 95Vert · Jan 11, 2010

deftsound said:
Well i know for a fact with the diablo tuners you can turn off the rear 02's

Back when i had a diablo tuner the very first thing i did was turn off my rear 02's so the CEL light would turn off...

Great, but you can't with SCT's tuners without a custom tune. Rumor has it Diablo stopped doing that too - manily because the USEPA did not like it....

Kilgore Trout · Jan 11, 2010

sneaky98gt said:
You haven't said yet if you have a stick or auto, but a programmer does worlds for the auto. The shifts are harder, quicker, and firmer. I recorded around .3 seconds gain 0-60 just by changing the shift points and firmness. That by itself is worth $300.

I came here to say this so I will just add that it will make your peen bigger also.

ForPointSex · Jan 11, 2010

Be sure to get a tune from a good tuner. Mine was too lazy to enable most of the "features" and it doesn't do much besides switch tunes.

The max RPM on my XCal2 dont work, 2 stange launch control don't work, traction control on/off....don't work either.

The OBD2 reader only works on Fords. It wont work on Toyota's, Nissans, Hondas... And it does not tell you what the code means. A $30 ELM327 scanner tool is a lot more useful.

It's a shame that Subaru, Mitsubishi Evo have an open source tuning and all you need is a $100 cable. But mustang guys are too dumb to tune their own cars without $400 software.

deftsound · Jan 12, 2010

ForPointSex said:
Be sure to get a tune from a good tuner. Mine was too lazy to enable most of the "features" and it doesn't do much besides switch tunes.

The max RPM on my XCal2 dont work, 2 stange launch control don't work, traction control on/off....don't work either.

The OBD2 reader only works on Fords. It wont work on Toyota's, Nissans, Hondas... And it does not tell you what the code means. A $30 ELM327 scanner tool is a lot more useful.

It's a shame that Subaru, Mitsubishi Evo have an open source tuning and all you need is a $100 cable. But mustang guys are too dumb to tune their own cars without $400 software.

Mustang guys are dumb because they don't know how to tune their cars? Gee, sorry I guess i forgot that everyone should know how to adjust fuel parameters and tune their cars properly. Coming from someone who can't even use correct grammar and spelling, i find that a statement a little ironic...

Kilgore Trout · Jan 12, 2010

ForPointSex said:
The OBD2 reader only works on Fords. It wont work on Toyota's, Nissans, Hondas... And it does not tell you what the code means. A $30 ELM327 scanner tool is a lot more useful.

Are you trying to say only Ford has ODBII? If so you sadly mistaken its an industry standard. And I would rather google the code and get up to date information than go on some that a little box says.

ForPointSex said:
It's a shame that Subaru, Mitsubishi Evo have an open source tuning and all you need is a $100 cable. But mustang guys are too dumb to tune their own cars without $400 software.

Shall we talk about warranty implications of modding next? How mod friendly is a Mitsu service manager compared to a Ford one? Have you ever heard of Mitsu employees going to track events getting VINs and then voiding warranties for "racing"? I have. Why don't you GTFO and go get a nice four door "race" sedan

trombonedemon · Jan 12, 2010

"For Point" my friend, you came to the wrong place to critcize mustang owners, hence the "stang" in Stangnet. As to the O.P., I mean what are your mods, I have simple bolt ons and probaly won't see to much of gain from a pricey peice of equipment, and if I were going to go all out, get something like the Live wire or something of that caliber so it would be a while before newer technology comes out that dosn't make you feel your purchase was a waste, if something hasn't already. I would wait and get Forced Induction, or spend the cash on some titanium internals like new Corvette, then F.I.

2002BLGT · Jan 15, 2010

deftsound said:
Well i know for a fact with the diablo tuners you can turn off the rear 02's

Back when i had a diablo tuner the very first thing i did was turn off my rear 02's so the CEL light would turn off...

Diablo quit offering this due to EPA regulations , If you have an older unit I have the CROM file saved that was the last one to offer the O2 delete but you can only load it on an unit that was originally that version or older .....Their CMR dealers can make a custom tune just as the SCT , Delta Force still offers the O2 sensor delete out of the box though

Sorry but what can an SCT tuner really do?

midnightdriver

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peepeeskillz

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wmburns

deftsound

Please ask me how much my supercharger cost

Dragstr05

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midnightdriver

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deftsound

Please ask me how much my supercharger cost

deftsound

Please ask me how much my supercharger cost

Don 95Vert

DawgStang

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deftsound

Please ask me how much my supercharger cost

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Please ask me how much my supercharger cost

sneaky98gt

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Kilgore Trout

Fried or Broiled ?

ForPointSex

deftsound

Please ask me how much my supercharger cost

Kilgore Trout

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trombonedemon

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2002BLGT

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