94-95 Tuning help

Termi 03

Team Cobra
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new albany
i have a 1995 Cobra with a 306, stock GT40s, stock 1.7's , stock cobra upper and lower, stock 24lbs, pro M mass air, E303 cam, and FR Long tube headers. i took it to get it dyno'd and tuned last summer at a local mustang shop. so i had to buy a SCT 4 blank chip. anyways i got it tuned and we could never get it to idle correctly, the guy told me that it would be this for a couple days until the computer learned the tune.:??:(it ran really good and was a lot faster than when i took it there, just no idle) i took it back a week later and still no good idle. you cant take your foot off the pedal for more than 5 sec without it dying. i gave up on that tuning place and just tried retiming it and resetting my TPS and replacing sensors. still didnt help. this went on for about a year. i was getting so fed up with this car so last week i just took the chip out and it idles perfectly. but now the throttle response and the pick up just sucks. my car isnt as loud as it was when i had the chip in. and my buddies i would race and beat are now beating me. i need help on what to do now. idk if i could of had a faulty sct chip or the guy that tuned it didnt know what he was doing. anyone on here use an anderson PMS tuner for a 94-95? anything would help thanks!
 

SublimeRT

'94 Slooowbraa
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That whole story sounds wildly familiar. Your car and the mods to the motor sound almost just like mine and it was a nightmare getting it to run correctly. As a matter of fact, it never did run correctly except for WOT. I tried a Tweecer RT and to tune it by myself....the support and info on that was nonexistent when I tried it, so I had much difficulty with it. It was WORLDS apart from the little OBDII tuning I had done in the past with a SCT Pro racer package. Sold that and got a SCT 4 bank chip with a mail order tune from Don Lasota at Lasota Racing who I was told is one of the best in the business with the 94-95s. Ran fine with it except the idle wasn't steady. No amount of messing with the timing, tps, sensors, etc would help the issue. Sometimes it would idle by itself, but if left unattended it would eventually start surging and die. Pushing in the clutch to start slowing the car down it would die if the throttle wasnt blipped a couple times. Would not idle cold.

You will hear good and bad things about all the tuning solutions for the 94-95 cars. You will hear success stories and nightmares about them all. People have gotten good results with SCT 4 bank chips, Tweecers, Anderson PMS, ect. Personally, OBD 1 sucks big fat nasty donkey dick and I will never buy or work on another car with it again unless the intention is to rip that junk out. Unless you feel like ripping it out of your car for a proper EFI system or carburetor, the only advice I have for you is to go to the Stangnet forums in the 94-95 tuning section and read, read, read till you're sick of it. Then read some more. Then maybe ask some of the knowledgeable folk over there some questions.

My car is under the knife because I couldn't handle my car running like shit anymore and I was not about to drop another penny on that damned OBD 1 system. Every last bit of factory wiring has been removed and I will be rewiring the whole car front to back MY way. It will probably end up with a carburetor because that's what I cut my teeth on and after the headaches of the factory setup I'm ready for a nice simple setup. I'm not against EFI though. I'm against OBD 1.
 

01yellercobra

AKA slo984now
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Sounds like the tuner didn't know what he was doing. Part throttle and idle are more of a PITA then WOT. At least to me they are. I don't have any personal experience with the PMS, but I know of two guys that use them. One of them is in a Mercury XR4Ti. They both like the set up and don't have any complaints. If you're willing to learn that might be the way to go.
 

mavisky

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I bought an SCT chip fro Kurgan with an e-mail tune by just providing him with the details of my setup. He's done enough bolt on 5.0's that he can get in the ball park without even seeing the car. Helped a lot on mine after the H/C/I swap. Now that he's only 30 minutes away vs. 10 hours I'm planning on having him finalize the tune at some point.
 

MalcolmV8

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Sounds familiar. I had a 95 GT many years ago with an E303. I hated that cam, didn't idle for shit. I eventually installed an air bleed block between the IAC and the TB. I forget what they call them but it has an allen head screw you can adjust out and let air bleed around the IAC all the time. It stops the car from dying when you push in the clutch and it would idle somewhat decently. If I just let it sit there and idle for an extended period it would still occasionally die but it was worlds better than before.
I eventually switched to a 93 ECC (A9L & tried A9P too, the auto version) and had mixed results. Had a local shop try and tune it a few times. Eventually put the car back to stock and sold it. I agree with the comments above ODB1 blows.
 

quick26

Carolina Cracker
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they guy writing the tune does not know what he is doing. the ecu in the 94-95 does suck and i had the same issues with a local tuner and another local tuner would not touch it. when i was working in GA, i took it to eric brooks at brookspeed. he use to work for SCT and i think he owns the modular ford web site. i watched him retune mine and when it came to the ide there was a trick to the timing that he did. basically the car would surge and the ecu was telling it to add or subtact timing and as it would do it the idle would get worse as the timing would jump more. he changed the paramater on how much the timing would fluctuate and it smoothed right out. no more surge, no more play with the gas when you push the clutch in just a nice smooth idle like it should be.
 

327blwn

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I have had mine tuned by Mike Murillo, Bob Kurgan & Travis Franklin over the years and all were able to get a good idle, even with a large cam. I believe you have to have a good tuberculosis AND a car in good condition with no vaccum leaks that make tuning almost impossible.

I make well over 600 rwhp with the 95 ECM and an SCT chip and mass air meter. The idle is rock solid.
 

03svtcobracoupe

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like a previous person said get a fox cpu with an a9l and go from there. wiring the fan to turn on with either a switch or a temp sensor is simple thats how my fox is ran. the a9l came in most automatic lx v8 cars from what i've seen.
 

04cobradude

Mack Daddy
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I have had mine tuned by Mike Murillo, Bob Kurgan & Travis Franklin over the years and all were able to get a good idle, even with a large cam. I believe you have to have a good tuberculosis AND a car in good condition with no vaccum leaks that make tuning almost impossible.

I make well over 600 rwhp with the 95 ECM and an SCT chip and mass air meter. The idle is rock solid.

yup, AND i did your's via mail order too without even seeing the car!!

bob kurgan
 

2DXTRM

Pushrod 5.0
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Swap over a fox ECM and run a fan controller for your E-fan, the 94-95 ECM suck.

like a previous person said get a fox cpu with an a9l and go from there. wiring the fan to turn on with either a switch or a temp sensor is simple thats how my fox is ran. the a9l came in most automatic lx v8 cars from what i've seen.

Thats for idiots who dont know what they **** they are doing.

I had a well known/highly regarded local mustang shop tell my buddy that he needed to swap to an A9L computer on his turbo 94 Mustang, because "the SCT doesnt work well with 94-95 computers". What a crock of shiat! I lost ALL respect for that shop. Had someone else tune the car with an SCT and no issues what so ever! Made a hair short of 700 rwhp without breaking a sweat (built R block 332 etc, HP Turbo stage 3 kit @ 14 psi).

tuning a 94/95 is not difficult...just need the right guy

What this guy said! Someone who knows how to tune these 94-95 computers is KEY!

My 95 Cobra has a tune from a reputable tuner in Virginia, using a moates chip. Even though its an "email" tune, car runs like factory with a load of engine upgrades (306, with aluminum heads, cam (1087 wolverine) and intake (ported/extrude honed GT40/Cobra) <---this engine was in my old Fobra that I transplanted into this Cobra. Fans come on when they need to, no herky jerky street driving, rock steady idle, good MPGs, cant ask for much. Check out their website: www.dirtydirtyracing.com
 
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2002BLGT

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Moates Quarterhorse , good wideband , nothing hard about it at all , I have done a ton of them , they never give me trouble as long as the car does not have issues itself , like wiring , or vacuum leaks etc.
 

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