So I'm finally getting ready to do a custom tune for my 2011 Sport AWD & wondered if any 2010-2012 Sport owners would chime in on their experiences with the best places for their tunes?
I originally thought Steeda, because I've got the Steeda CAI, throttle body spacer & strut tower brace from them, but am also open to other options.
Right now I know of
Steeda
Tuning by James
Unleashed Tuning
MPT(More Power Tuning)
Was curious if anyone had any others I'm missing?
I'm not sure how each of those do their tunes. If they essentially ask what mods you've got done & just send a stock file, or if they actually send you the datalogging config file to have you do some real testing with & then send your results back for them to really fine tune the tune? I'd certainly prefer the latter, as would get much better results from...
Any opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
NPG also does tuning. They did my 3L Duratec swap in my old Cougar and I had no problems with it.
Steeda sends you a canned tune, it's a safer tune but no datalogging, I currently have one on my Sport and have had no problems with it.
James and Unleashed both do datalogging. I have heard very good reviews about James tunes and from what I've read and seen he is very familiar with our cars. Guys who had the Steeda say the James tune is a night and day difference. I think Unleashed does a lot of Focus tunes and i believe a few Sport guys have an Unleashed tune and love it too.
It seems like James has the most experience with our platform and the 3.5L Duratec. One thing to keep in mind is your not going to get a perfect tune even with datalogging without a wide band O2 sensor.. I'm not too sure about the parameters and how well our factory sensors are at reading things but from my general research about tunes the wide band is a nice addition to get it 100%. It's not totally needed but they do help.
The last thing that's worth mentioning would be a proper Dyno tune. Although it is by far the most expensive they will be able to dial in your Fusion the best.
So the O2 sensor piece... I'd need to replace my O2 sensor with a wide-band sensor to really be able to realize the very best tune? Just from a few minutes of Googling, I'm finding Bosch makes wide-band O2 sensors & range from $40 - $200. They state "plug & play", but I've never replaced an O2 sensor on my Fusion & aren't there numerous o2 sensors?
Any more info you could share would be great. Hadn't even occurred to me about the O2 sensor piece of things...
Do you know off hand any mfg that do the wide band sensors for our Fusions? I checked with Bosch today & they don't make any O2 sensors for Fusions whatsoever...
I'm not too sure about that, I've always tuned without one and have had great results. Sure it's not 100% but it's pretty damn close.
I'd email the tuner your thinking of going with about it. He might be able to get it 100% without one. I've never wrote tunes or anything so I'm not exactly sure what info they need and what info our cars are able to upload to the datalog with our stock sensors.
I'm sure it's not necessary on my lightly modded Fusion Sport, but I'm sure on ridiculously high performance vehicles, it's definitely something worth looking into. I'm sure I'll be happy with my tune. Feeling pretty solid about James being my pick here.
You could try a company like innovative. You still run the stock O2 sensor, but you weld a bung onto the exhaust to mount the wide band sensor. Then you'll have some sort of gauge in your car to monitor the A/F ratio.
I've got a tune from Steeda along with the CAI that includes the larger diameter MAS tube (the sleeve has been removed).
To be honest I don't think it did much to the car. I initially had them send me an 87 and 91 octane tune (that's all we have here in CO), but was not happy with the results and had them send me a 93 tune as well.
The 93 seems a tad bit better, but not by much. I'm still running 91 octane (again all we can get in CO) with the 93 tune. I have checked the knock sensor on a variety of occasions to see if its kicking in at any point, but it hasn't. I think the Steeda tune is still conservative and not pushing the engine much here at altitude.
From my understanding the tuner I worked with at Steeda left the company, so I'm not even sure if they have someone on staff that can do tunes for older Fusions now days.
I ordered my X4 tuner today & have been going back & forth with James on a tune. I really like the fact that he sends a config file & you do datalogging with his tunes, so you truly know they're specific for your vehicle, not just canned octane tunes like from Steeda.
Will do! My X4 tuner should be in tomorrow & I'll likely start doing the datalogging piece immediately. Hopefully I'll have the tune this weekend & report back.
So, have had my Tune by James for about a week now & LOVE IT! James was extremely responsive & for a newbie to tuning, was very thorough on the whole process.
The car? Noticeable difference in pull between about 3,000 - 6,000 RPMs & the shifts, much "snappier" or faster? Definitely can tell the difference in performance & oddly enough, an increase in my MPG, even though I've been driving like a bigger asshole than usual since the tune.
I would highly recommend using James again in the future.
Do you get higher shifting RPMs than stock tune? I posted two video clips on bobistheoilguy.com after loading James tune. Some people said that the shift is not crisp and shifting RPMs are too high, which are bad for the car.
Yeah, shifts in straight Auto & SST are both "snappier", for lack of a better word. Seems like it shifts faster & I get more pull upon that shift to the next gear.
Working with James was a true pleasure & he's extremely knowledgeable, so we starting speaking about the wide band O2 sensor & now, after having so much success with his tune, has me wanting to grab an Innovate LC-2 & be able to plug up to my SCT X4 for some true datalogging. But if I'm going to do that & pay to have someone drill into my exhaust & weld the bung, then maybe I should get an exhaust system & just do it all at once.... I swear, I do one thing, am so happy with the result that I then find myself moving onto another new project. It's never ending...
How much did you pay to get a tune with dataloging? Did you get any error code after loading the tune? My car gets P06B8 every time after loading a custom tune, and SCT said it's a problem unsolved for two years.
James suggest taking the car to a local dyno shop and having them do a couple dyno pulls with AFR instead of datalogging, and said if there were problems that were not caused by the tune then he would charge another $200 for retune. In that case, is it better just take the car to a good tuner in Texas for dyno tuning?
See the torque drop off past 6K rpm? You're hurting performance if you're shifting much past 6K. And that applies to stock as well as their tune. Not to even mention that HP has dropped of quite a bit by then as well.
The shift from 2md to 3rd, took you from 7K down to 6K, so you're really not going to benefit from the best part of the power curve for long. Myself I would rather be a bit on the front side of the torque curve, not the backside.
Granted it seems like the 3.5L Cyclone does better at the higher RPMs (even in the latest version available) but the Steeda Dyno result suggests there are limits you should not exceed if you want to stay in the best power curve possible.
At some point I'll record a WOT on my vehicle so you can compare.
Vidmo
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