Locked HP tune

Ted B

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OK i get why tunes get locked, but what if your like the 4-5 owner of the car your maf and Mafia take a shit, now you want to go with a blow through MAF like a HPX or something and now you cannot access the ECU to make the chances to fix er up.

Thats where im at now. My choices are to buy a new mafia and stock 03 mach 1 MAF or...actually idk what other choices I have...SCT x4, but that's not going to be able to adjust my fuel tables and do all the things the HP software can do.

I talked to my best friend who is a foreman now at a BMW dealer out in MA and he says he has free software on that he can use from his phone via usb to OBD2 plug and unlock his ECU as well as upload custom tune files that he creates. Anyone know of anything like that for the 01-04 mustang ECU, or specifically the 03 mach 1?

Im kinda stuck at this point and dont have enough exp tuning to get my car running right, it stalls all the time due the maf reading 0.08V, runs super lean, and can only muster about 1-2 lbs of boost where i should get around 8...im all assuming this is because the fuel map is telling it not to deliver anymore fuel.

so uhmm anyone HELP!
 

me32

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A tuner should be able to help you out with making a new tune for you at a cost.
 

01yellercobra

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Isn't one of the things about HP Tuners the ability to pull it from the ECU? If another HP Tuner can't pull the tune they're going to have to start from scratch as mentioned. Plus most tuners prefer to start with their own instead trying to deal with someone else's tune.

What people usually do is just start fresh. I know with SCT when you reflash with a new tune it saves whatever is currently in the ECU as the stock tune. My car came with a tune so when I reflashed it my X3 saved that tune in the place for the stock tune.

Another option would be using a Mongoose cable. I believe you can get one through decipha. You should be able to pull the tune with that.

The import scene has a bunch of different options compared to us. Plus I'm going to guess his car is a little newer. My cousin in law is getting a tune for his 2014 S6. It comes with a custom cable and a tablet.
 

Ted B

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yeah the SCT cannot do a quarter of what the HP tuning or any pro tuning software for that matter...one of the biggest things is it cannot adjust the fuel curves which is super important on power adders like superchargers and turbos....BUT I do agree it really sucks that my ECU is locked...LUND says he has a way of getting past this with his Ngauge and tuning setup...so i'm going to get the 1300 package with him and have it run on the dyno at a place in aston PA then remotely tuned by LUND. Its expensive but the Ngauge i hear is top notch, and I also hear LUND is on of the top tuners on the east coast!

Ive decided to order a new Mafia, and stock MAF and see if installing that stuff makes my car go back to normal if not its off to evolution to spend the dough, Ill have an update sometime next week when the mafia comes in.
 

01yellercobra

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I've been tuning with SCT since 2007. I've looked into HP but it didn't have anything that made me want to switch. If I do it'll be for a stand alone. But it doesn't matter which set up you go with you'll have to pay for the software.
 

decipha

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Save your money, the custom tuning software for all older mustangs is free. Go to moates.net and buy a quarterhorse. You can then read your tune off no problem and do anything you want with it. Only ignorant people use ngauge's, hptuners, or sct on those older ecu's that allow realtime tuning and are supported free.

Only incompetent tuners that do not want others to see their horrible tunes "lock" them. It' a way of not being degraded by more knowledgeable tuners. If your tune is locked chances are its crap anyways. Either way with the moates quarterhorse you cannot lock the tune since it will read it out regardless. Here's everything you need to know about getting started.

Getting Started / EFIDynoTuning

BTW, the quarterhorse is far superior than the BMW offerings.
 

Ted B

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@decipha Lol powerful statement there I almost got burned by the flames just reading it. Thanks for the info though I will def check it out as it sounds up my ally and everyone other than lund racing seemed to be kinda like I could make this work. I was like burh this is a 500hp work commuter car it needs to work and be 100 % reliable.
 

Ted B

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Also just to be clear I just need to buy the Quarterhourse for the ECU and the software to program and modify the tune is free?
 
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Weather Man

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Save your money, the custom tuning software for all older mustangs is free. Go to moates.net and buy a quarterhorse. You can then read your tune off no problem and do anything you want with it. Only ignorant people use ngauge's, hptuners, or sct on those older ecu's that allow realtime tuning and are supported free.

Only incompetent tuners that do not want others to see their horrible tunes "lock" them. It' a way of not being degraded by more knowledgeable tuners. If your tune is locked chances are its crap anyways. Either way with the moates quarterhorse you cannot lock the tune since it will read it out regardless. Here's everything you need to know about getting started.

Getting Started / EFIDynoTuning

BTW, the quarterhorse is far superior than the BMW offerings.

This has to be the dumbest post I have seen in a while.

#1 Tuners lock tunes because that tune represents an investment of time/energy and expensive lessons learned. Why should they let someone else rip it and use it without fair compensation?

#2 Your telling a guy who wants a 100% reliable car to not buy a tune from a well known tuner and buy software and just tune that sucker up himself. How many times is he supposed to blow up his car before he gets a Lund tune?

Tuning takes the right aptitude and ability and the DESIRE to do it. Hats off to guys who tune their own stuff and never once blew up their car, they are a DISTINCT minority of tuners.
 

Ted B

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@Weather Man to be honest, in this situation all i need to do is probably replace the Mafia, and my stock MAF and ill be ok. As of right now I'm unable to even know what the tune on my car is, and how its setup so i'm kinda in the dark as I bought the car this way. Other than spending 1400$ or so to have Lund remote tune something from scratch which I'm sure would be an awesome tune, I'm ok with my tune as it was, but I think there is some small improvements I can make to driveability so what he suggested is not that far off from what I might consider. However his delivery might have set a few people off, but i'm sure his intentions were good.

I think of this as an open area for everyone to be able to bring stuff to the table, and he did, and its still an option if the replacement of my mafia and maf don't bring my car back to where i was a few months ago.
 

01blckcobra

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I kinda have to agree with decipha. Its been my experience. You dont get that "perfect match" tune for your car. More less decent "canned" tunes. There are great tuners out there btw, but usually have to know them to get %110
Ended up just tuning the car myself and getting input from a lot of OG racers. Cars never been better. But that's just been experience.
 
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decipha

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1> because its not there tune its the customers that PAID for it i.e. services rendered
thats like paying someone to build your custom house and then they lock you out.
not cool

2> there are literally thousands of people out there that tune their own vehicles without blowing them up. Just go to www.efidynotuning.com forum. Over 1400 members and not a single I blew up my engine thread.


This has to be the dumbest post I have seen in a while.

#1 Tuners lock tunes because that tune represents an investment of time/energy and expensive lessons learned. Why should they let someone else rip it and use it without fair compensation?

#2 Your telling a guy who wants a 100% reliable car to not buy a tune from a well known tuner and buy software and just tune that sucker up himself. How many times is he supposed to blow up his car before he gets a Lund tune?

Tuning takes the right aptitude and ability and the DESIRE to do it. Hats off to guys who tune their own stuff and never once blew up their car, they are a DISTINCT minority of tuners.
 

01yellercobra

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I like decipha. He's helped me in the past. But my biggest issue is the word free being thrown around. Yeah, the software is free, but you still have to buy the equipment to connect to the car. The Moates is $250 right? Does that include the cable and everything else needed? For comparison I paid $300 for my archaic SCT software that I've had for over 10 years. In the time I've had it I've only added one car to it. Most people that tune only need to worry about tuning their own cars so they don't care about needing to add other cars.

If I didn't have software already I'd look into decipha's set up. But since I do I'm not really wanting to drop another $250 on more stuff when I'm currently set up and it works just fine for me. Even with all the steps I had my car tuned in about half a day. That includes having to drive and datalog.

YMMV
 

Weather Man

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1> because its not there tune its the customers that PAID for it i.e. services rendered
thats like paying someone to build your custom house and then they lock you out.
not cool.

Take the plans for your custom house and try to sell them for profit, you will find yourself served and in court.

The Chinese have the same attitude about this, plenty of companies no longer around as a result. Hell, someone already shipped John Klasses new SR-71 cylinder head off to China to be copied. Perfectly OK right? Guy bought the head, he can rip it off, right?
 

01blckcobra

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Honestly, I think moreless the tune is locked for liability reasons. Don't want someone messing around that doesn't know what they're doing..Why you go to a tuner in the first place right? Plus if you need a revision, because you upgraded or ect, they know where the tune is at. Saves time and money then having to start over again.
Far as tuning is concerned, Not every engine / setup is the same. So really not like you can pull a tune off one car and put in on another and expect it to perform the same. Plus when datalogging you can pretty much see everything they have done....
 

01blckcobra

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Take the plans for your custom house and try to sell them for profit, you will find yourself served and in court.

The Chinese have the same attitude about this, plenty of companies no longer around as a result. Hell, someone already shipped John Klasses new SR-71 cylinder head off to China to be copied. Perfectly OK right? Guy bought the head, he can rip it off, right?

No patent, sure... people do it all the time. Why we have so many performance options...
 

Weather Man

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Honestly, I think moreless the tune is locked for liability reasons. Don't want someone messing around that doesn't know what they're doing..Why you go to a tuner in the first place right? Plus if you need a revision, because you upgraded or ect, they know where the tune is at. Saves time and money then having to start over again.
Far as tuning is concerned, Not every engine / setup is the same. So really not like you can pull a tune off one car and put in on another and expect it to perform the same. Plus when datalogging you can pretty much see everything they have done....

Seeing everything you have done and knowing how to fix it are 2 very different things...I.E. it took over 2 years for tuners to figure out why they were torching the #8 cylinder on Coyote. I would imagine the first tuner to figure it out protected that strategy like the gold that it was. Don't even talk about how many ecoboosts were torched, by experienced tuners.
 

01blckcobra

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Not knowing coyotes but guessing its the same problem about every ford motor has experienced the last 30+ years. Lack of cooling?
But i get what you're saying.
 
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Ted B

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well I think that going back and forth on why tuners do what they do is irrelevant...one we cannot stop them from doing what they choose to do, just go somewhere else. your choosing someone for their expertise, and YES you are paying for that, so the tune in legality standpoint is yours, however the intellectual property within that tune is trade secret and belongs to the tuner...its a weird thing but i looked it up and checked it with my friend who is a litigator for vanguard.

POINT is my car runs like shit... and i need help :) you guys have been great, after i get my new parts installed the next step is HOW well is it running, if thatch the case im prop going to spend the money on the quarter horse so I can see if mi able to tune out anything not smooth myself. If not ill be out a little money and time and have to have it pro tuned by someone who 100% knows what they are doing.
 

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