AM BAMA tunes

[MoKo_03SVT]

for those of you that dont know, (keeping a long story short) about a month ago, i came in contact with AmericanMuscle.com's Chris Rose. maybe we will get lucky, and he will chime in to our thread here. Anyhow, we were "chatting" about tunes (a link to THAT convo is here -http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/engine-tuning-214/771279-am-sct-bama-tunes.html ), and i brought up the fact that "all email tunes need to be verified on a dyno, to ensure there safety!" ie: make sure its not running lean, etc.. well, his response was basically - if a tuner knows their shit, and knows what to tune for, there is no need for them to have the car in front of them to do a "spot on" tune...and further more, he went on to say there is also no need to have the tune/afr checked on a dyno, b/c i can assure you it is spot on. at the time, i must admit i did have my doubts...but, let me tell you guys...AMChris DOES indeed know his shit.

well, i called him on it, and ended up getting one of his tunes for my cobra, to experiment with. i already had a tune i was running...just a canned diablo "pulley" tune (which i ALWAYS heard were/are WAY rich/safe), and i was happy with that...sure i knew i could get an even better tune, but figured i would just keep it "safe" with this "rich" tune (which was dumb). i figured i would compare his tune to my current tune, to see which one made more power, and had the safer air fuel ratio...AND i would get to see if AM/BAMAs tunes were as "spot on" as they said they are.

so fast forward to today...dyno day. it was a long and grueling process getting to this point too, i might add lol. anyway...first let me just point out, everyone at the dyno shop (including myself) thought that i was/am some sort of retard for having my car dynod in this oklahoma heat. we have been triple digit temps here for over a month with no rain. i knew this was going to have a HUGE effect on my numbers...and IT DID. but...please keep in mind...this thread is NOT all about the hp numbers. what IT IS about is to see which tune was safer, see if BAMAs tune was "spot on", and over-all which made more power. the numbers themselves are insignificant, its which made MORE, that we are looking at. with that said, dyno temps in the shop, and on the graph show it was 113 degrees in the shop where we were doing the pulls..i drove about 39miles there, in the triple digit heat, and the car only got to cool for about 20 min before hitting the dyno. our plan was to make 2 pulls back to back on the bama tune. then load the predator tune, and make 2 pulls. then use the better pull out of each to go with. i knew final numbers were going to be low, due to the heat...but we needed answers damnit!!

...and well...we FINALLY have them! :rockon:


the numbers are as fallows...

"run conditions" - temp 113.41 degrees, 28.79 in Hg, Humidity 4%, STD 1.08, STD Smoothing: 5 (conditions were basically the same during both tunes)

AM BAMA tune - 1.max power -( 400.53 ) 2.max torque ( 414.23 ) 3.boost ( 12.29 )
AFR - 11.3 - 11.8 and pretty strait all the way across (pretty much right where it needed to be! nice...and safe!)
and get this... since the temps were so HIGH the car was pulling timing like MAD, and when it hit its MAX hp, it was down to only 16 degrees of timing...from 20! my air intake temps exceeded 160!! lol so as you can see...the temps definitely hurt the numbers, as was expected. this (obviously) means numbers would/will be MUCH higher, once we get out of this ridiculous heat wave, and into some LOWER temps! also towards the end of the run the data-logs show my stock fuel system/pumps maxing out at 100%

now get this...time for the predator.

Predator 91octane pulley tune - 1. max power ( 398.70 ) 2. max tourque ( 413.54 ) 3. boost - ( 12.21 )
AFR - 12.0 - 12.7 (DANGEROUSLY LEAN!!) the dyno shop would only let me do 1 pull with that tune!! i couldnt believe it. here i have been running lean this whole time, and being told it was "safely rich". i know there are several members here running a canned predator pulley tune, and let me tell you guys....get that tune checked ASAP if you havent already!

so there it is guys...AM BAMA tunes held up to EVERYTHING they said. the tune was indeed safe, and pretty much spot on...and DID make more power. the car feels a lot better, smoother, and i would definitely do it all over again. im soooo glad i ended up getting this BAMA tune. i had been running lean with the other tune (that was said to be safely rich) for a LONG time. not good! and...in the end yes i feel safe knowing that i got their tune checked to make sure it was safe....but was it? well...it was just as BAMA told me it would be...pretty much "spot on". so did i NEED to get their tune checked? i guess not! and you know what else? i didnt HAVE TO send ANY datalogs, then have him make adjustments, then send the tune back, etc...like you have to do with MOST reputable tuners out there. it was spot on, right out of the box, so to speak.

if you guys have questions, feel free to ask!

sorry for the very long post, but i wanted to include everything! im sure i left something out and will be adding more, via the edit button, soon.

 

[testorossa1989]

well i know what im buying!

 

[MoKo_03SVT]

i dont blame you!

and please...i dont want anyone reading this to get the wrong impression here...this is NOT any kind of a sales ad. im just the type of person, that if i call someone out, and I AM THE ONE that ends up being wrong...well then i will shout from the highest mountain, and give respect/credit, where respect/credit is due. i was a non believer, that was converted to a believer. i know where i will be going for my tunes, from now on.

 

[01Jes]

Wow never been a Fan of Diablo. 16* of timing is real low must have been real HOT, lol! What size pulley do have the car Moko? Can you post up all the mods if you have time?

Edit: Those guys are real safe when it comes to AF. Zack from the Bama team has sent me several cause some of the tunes have been in the 10.7-11.0 range. However better a lil fat than real lean!

 

[MoKo_03SVT]

yes, my bad, those should have def been posted 1st!!

mods are very minimal and basic - 2.8 upper, JLT RAI, steeda cat-back, and BAMA (91 octane) tune

 

[KINGCOBRA86]

Nice... Have you sent bama some logs to see if they can adj it alittle more? Not bad for 91 octane and stock cats
Whats your next mod?

 

[MoKo_03SVT]

i DID send them datalogs just so they could check out diff things in the tune (ie: fuel duty cycle, timing, intake temps, etc). but i sent the logs AFTER i had already left the dyno place. sure the tune COULD be tweaked just a tad through the logs...but at this point, there have been ZERO adjustments to the tune that was sent to me. it was pretty much spot on right out of the box.

i was thinking maybe posi port in the future...but still dont know if i want to go that far, since the car is my DD.

 

[AMChrisRose]

So after all this, I do want to say that I do think that it's worth going to get your tunes checked by a dyno. Do I think that you NEED to? Not as long as you go with a reputable company and make sure that you fill out all of your information accurately, use good quality fuel at all time and keep the car mechanically sound. At least the last two things on that list will STILL have to be done, even if you had your car dyno tuned. Do I think that it's not a bad idea? Sure, it's not a bad idea.

So when Chad (Moko) called us out, we offered to send him a free tune and pay to have him experiment the results at his local dyno. In the mean time, we realized that Chad is a really cool guy, and we're glad that he did this for us. We ended up not only uncovering a slight lean condition in his existing tune, but proving the worth of Bama tunes to him, and hopefully a few others will take notice.

So the run conditions on the dyno were 113 degrees! The intake air temps were 160, and engine coolant temp saw a peak of 208. It was a hot day, and the car pulled about 4 degrees of timing. With 91 octane on a 2.81 upper pulley and JLT, the Bama 91 tune commands 20 degrees, and we only saw 16 degrees of timing. The air/fuel ratio on our mail order tune starts off at 11.8-12.0, drops down to 11.3-11.4, and comes back up to 11.7-11.8 again. I'm pretty happy with that, considering we've never touched Chad's car before, and it was our mail-order tune from literally half way across the country. This is what I wanted to prove about our tunes. Here's the graph!

After that, he loaded the other tune in the car and let the car cool down, used some ice, and made another pull. The other tune went down to the 12.0 range, but came back up to 12.5-12.6 for a 1500-2000rpm window and went back down to 12.0 at the top of the run. It was a little weird, and while it's definitely something I would correct, I can see that it wasn't insanely far off enough to where the car was in danger of blowing up. While it's definitely not correct, I guess I've just seen much worse from other places. Either way, I feel our tune was a little more accurate. And obviously, there's pulled a buttload of timing too, as we saw almost identical horsepower/torque.

I'm all for questions!

 

[black 10th vert]

Wow, thanks for posting the results. I was following that other thread to see how things turned out.

 

[01Jes]

Damn my hats off to you Chris and Moko. I spoke with you through e-mail and Have more than helped with any of my tune ?'s BAMA for the win!

 

[MoKo_03SVT]

Thank you Chris, for posting up the graphs!

And thanks again, for the awesome (spot on) tune! The car FEELS sooo much better/smoother! And I FEEL much better too, knowing that I'm no longer running that janky/lean predator tune!

BAMA FTMFW!

 

[AznStanger3v]

I read that entire thread a couple weeks ago and was anxiously awaiting this. I called them the other day to get a single tune but thanks to the people who like to always try and get shit for free, they only do the $150 tunes for life program now :nonono:

Definitely great to see AM stand by their shit to the end, and come out correct. Awesome group of guys. Thanks to both Moko and AM

 

[MoKo_03SVT]

I read that entire thread a couple weeks ago and was anxiously awaiting this. I called them the other day to get a single tune but thanks to the people who like to always try and get shit for free, they only do the $150 tunes for life program now :nonono:

Definitely great to see AM stand by their shit to the end, and come out correct. Awesome group of guys. Thanks to both Moko and AM

you are welcome! it was a great, interesting, and fun experience. i would definitely do it all over again. =]

hopefully the - "thanks to people who like to always try to get shit for free" was not directed towards me. im sure as you have seen, from reading the other thread, that i never asked (or even so much as hinted) for ANYTHING...and especially for free. it was however offered to me, so that AM/BAMA could prove their tunes to be everything they say they are....and of course, i accepted the offer.

 

[Fordman9870]

WOW, This is cool.
It makes me feel so much better seeing this. I too was following the other thread.
I purchased a new CAI Ram air and the SCT bama tunes from them during this whole thing and I noticed a difference from my previous tune immediately, I have posted in another thread. (Waited to see this one before I posted my observations of the 3 tunes I got from them)

 

[MoKo_03SVT]

WOW, This is cool.
It makes me feel so much better seeing this. I too was following the other thread.
I purchased a new CAI Ram air and the SCT bama tunes from them during this whole thing and I noticed a difference from my previous tune immediately, I have posted in another thread. (Waited to see this one before I posted my observations of the 3 tunes I got from them)

i hear you, its definitely nice to know that the tune you are running is safe... and that you can feel free to hammer away on the throttle, and not worry about blowing up your engine from being too lean, etc.

 

[MoKo_03SVT]

i talked with Andre yesterday evening. he is the owner of abelracing, here in OKC (where i got my car dynod). He agreed to give me a discounted rate, if i wanted to come back to the dyno in a few months (some time in october), once the weather cools down. we'd like to see what kind of power my car SHOULD HAVE made (if it wasnt for the damned heat), with BAMAs tune.

Of course, once i DO go, i will add the results/updates to this thread!

 

[KINGCOBRA86]

Sweet

 

[Root1022]

Very good info! I was pretty sold on Amazon tunes, but this for sure opened my eyes a bit.

 

[MoKo_03SVT]

^ agreed! it most definitely opened my eyes, as well!

:rockon:

 

[AmazonTuning]

with all due respect...we dont tell our customers to verify because we dont know what we are doing..we do it to make sure the tune is functioning in the vehicle the way it was programmed to function..many times mechanical issues are present that prevent the tune from functioning properly and the only way to know that is to datalog and verify..

in most cases an e tune from a reputable tuner will not need to be verified but we would rather know for sure than assume and see issues down the road..especially on a vehicle that is older or one that is both older and deviated from stock

getting an e tune that is built on datalogs for your location and driving style is the defiinition of a true custom e tune

thank you for your deligence to prove that e tuning is a viable option and not to be feared when using a reputable tuner.. dyno tuning is not an option for some people as they dont have a dyno tuner in thier location that they trust... eventhough there seems to be a tuner on every corner these days not all dyno expereinces are equal