Just installed BAMA tune. 3.7L V6 2014

[jordanair45]

Hey guys, new to the forum.

I have a 2014 3.7 V6.

Should have got the V8, but didn't. "Family" convertible.

So, my car has an Airaid MIT, AFE filter.

Just installed the BAMA tune.

Sock 0-60 times:

87 OCT - 6.8s
91 OCT - 6.4s
91R Tune - 6.1s

I've seen people get into the 5s with this car. What am I doing wrong?

And, who else has a V6 on this forum where my V6 peeps at ?!

 

[nate714]

Won't find too many v6'ers in this forum, even though the newer ones are pretty capable cars. I had a 98 v6 in college, not so capable lol.

Tires/suspension make a big difference in 60ft times, which in turn = faster 0-60mph.

If you're on stock suspension and tires, there's a good place to start.... also, convertible probably won't be as capable as the regular coupe, that's just physics. More weight and less rigid.

Welcome to the forum man, what area of CA are you in?

 

[jordanair45]

Won't find too many v6'ers in this forum, even though the newer ones are pretty capable cars. I had a 98 v6 in college, not so capable lol.

Tires/suspension make a big difference in 60ft times, which in turn = faster 0-60mph.

If you're on stock suspension and tires, there's a good place to start.... also, convertible probably won't be as capable as the regular coupe, that's just physics. More weight and less rigid.

Welcome to the forum man, what area of CA are you in?

For real, I don't think the new V6 is that bad. Plenty for me, and I can always super charge if I want to. But not bad for a daily driver. Sitting in traffic most of the time!

Yes, stock everything. I'm probably going to do 4.10 gears, lower control arms, aluminum drive shaft, new wheels and tires also.

Thanks man, appreciate it.

I'm in the Bay Area. San Jose to be exact.

 

[nate714]

cool man I went to college in the bay area. Actually in Vallejo. Shitty area glad my car didn't draw attention there.

Lower control arms and tires made a huge difference on my car trying to get traction from a stop. If your car didn't already have it, I'd grab the strut tower brace too, probably the best $100 ish you can spend on these cars if you didn't have one from the factory.

 

[rdplain]

My sister has a '13 V6, Auto, Vert.
Just a couple of weekends ago, she did a gear swap from the stock 2.73 to 3.55. The swap really woke it up!
Best time with the new gears & K&N filter has been a 6.1 0-60. It was left in D and had a rather lazy shift into 2nd. Since then, she did the Airaid MIT and updated to a 93P tune from Bama that really firmed up the 1-2 shift. Hasn't run it with the updates yet, but I bet it'll crack the 5 second mark.

 

[jordanair45]

cool man I went to college in the bay area. Actually in Vallejo. Shitty area glad my car didn't draw attention there.

Lower control arms and tires made a huge difference on my car trying to get traction from a stop. If your car didn't already have it, I'd grab the strut tower brace too, probably the best $100 ish you can spend on these cars if you didn't have one from the factory.

LOL. Are you still in/near the bay area?

My sister has a '13 V6, Auto, Vert.
Just a couple of weekends ago, she did a gear swap from the stock 2.73 to 3.55. The swap really woke it up!
Best time with the new gears & K&N filter has been a 6.1 0-60. It was left in D and had a rather lazy shift into 2nd. Since then, she did the Airaid MIT and updated to a 93P tune from Bama that really firmed up the 1-2 shift. Hasn't run it with the updates yet, but I bet it'll crack the 5 second mark.

Damn, that's a bad-ass sister!

Ya, gear swap and lower control arms are def. my next upgrades. I also did the Airaid MIT w/ inverted filter, and that was a pretty good improvement for about $170.

Would be very curious as to what the 0-60 time is now. That is awesome!

Not a bad little car...

 

[nate714]

Nah I'm near Long Beach now. In my line of work I need to be near a major port, and as bad as LA/OC traffic is, Oakland traffic was a nightmare. I'm curious what mods you find make the biggest differences on your v6 though, I've got a few friends here with v6 mustangs and I get the impression all of their automotive knowledge comes straight out of American Muscle product pages. I know 3 guys who are all about those cosmetic mods and if they dip their feet into the performance kiddy pool they buy SR / BAMA stuff.

I went to a local drift event last week and there was a guy learning to drift in his v6 mustang nearly bone stock. Only mods were a muffler delete, lowering springs, panhard, lca, and lca relocation brackets. He got a couple good looking drifts in, made me want to run my 5.0 but I'm not sure how well the A6 select-shift would handle drifting. Like you said, that v6 is not a bad little car. It may be 100+ HP/TQ down from a GT but if this guy was able to get in a couple good drifts on stock gears, stock intake, stock tune, it definitely has potential.

 

[MKMotorsport]

What's wrong with a V8 family 'vert?

Mine was perfectly streetable up until door bars and harnesses went in this winter, it still drives very, very stock like.

4.10's will be overkill for something that doesn't see ALOT or mostly track time. Even with them without the intake tract (entire, not just CAI), converter, and quite a bit of tuning to re-map shifts (probably beyond Bama's scope), you will take away a lot, without adding much. Not a "family car" mod, imho...


Have fun with it though. My Thunderbird (in my sig) came with a 3.8 V6. As soon as I could afford to I junked it (still perfectly good, only 55k miles at the time), and plopped in a carb'd 302. (That was back in the early-mid 90's)

 

[jordanair45]

Nah I'm near Long Beach now. In my line of work I need to be near a major port, and as bad as LA/OC traffic is, Oakland traffic was a nightmare. I'm curious what mods you find make the biggest differences on your v6 though, I've got a few friends here with v6 mustangs and I get the impression all of their automotive knowledge comes straight out of American Muscle product pages. I know 3 guys who are all about those cosmetic mods and if they dip their feet into the performance kiddy pool they buy SR / BAMA stuff.

I went to a local drift event last week and there was a guy learning to drift in his v6 mustang nearly bone stock. Only mods were a muffler delete, lowering springs, panhard, lca, and lca relocation brackets. He got a couple good looking drifts in, made me want to run my 5.0 but I'm not sure how well the A6 select-shift would handle drifting. Like you said, that v6 is not a bad little car. It may be 100+ HP/TQ down from a GT but if this guy was able to get in a couple good drifts on stock gears, stock intake, stock tune, it definitely has potential.

The best mod I've done would be a tune. I was honestly into appearance first, those are the first mods I did, because I didn't really care about going faster...V6 engine doesn't have that much potential to justify the $ IMO. Supercharger or nothing, because this engine was designed for FI, after all.

My plan was, go with exhaust, tune, and make it look good. And if by all means, I can't stand the car, throw a super charger on it. If I go supercharger route, that's $20k for 400hp. Not a bad deal. Still way cheaper than a GT vert.

305HP is no joke IMO. The HP is the east part, getting it to the ground is another.

Only thing I can't stand is the sound of the car. I have Pypes muffler delete on it, and it's too "raspy". I don't know what else I could do, maybe upgrade headers, but I doubt it, not worth $500.

What's wrong with a V8 family 'vert?

Mine was perfectly streetable up until door bars and harnesses went in this winter, it still drives very, very stock like.

4.10's will be overkill for something that doesn't see ALOT or mostly track time. Even with them without the intake tract (entire, not just CAI), converter, and quite a bit of tuning to re-map shifts (probably beyond Bama's scope), you will take away a lot, without adding much. Not a "family car" mod, imho...


Have fun with it though. My Thunderbird (in my sig) came with a 3.8 V6. As soon as I could afford to I junked it (still perfectly good, only 55k miles at the time), and plopped in a carb'd 302. (That was back in the early-mid 90's)

I wanted the V8, but I got the V6 premium for $14.9k because the new 2015's came out. Too good of a deal to pass up. It was a weighted decision because of a joint bank account . I "didn't" need the V8...

Really thinking hard about giving my wife this car and getting a V8 coupe, but that will take some convincing. I don't like to throw money into cars anymore. For the price/performance, I'm not sure if it's worth it.

All I wanted was a convertible that can seat 4. For the price/performance, seemed like the best deal.

Thunderbird's are sick!



Just went to the store and ran a 5.9s 0-60s

 

[nate714]

I thought muffler delete sounded pretty good on the v6 I saw drifting. Wasn't a kit or anything he just pulled the muffler off. I also wasn't inside or next to the car though, and since most of the drift cars didn't have v8 maybe I got used to the rasp that evening. I've seen lots of v6 on the street with budget mufflers and they sounded like raspy fart cans on the freeway.

 

[jordanair45]

I thought muffler delete sounded pretty good on the v6 I saw drifting. Wasn't a kit or anything he just pulled the muffler off. I also wasn't inside or next to the car though, and since most of the drift cars didn't have v8 maybe I got used to the rasp that evening. I've seen lots of v6 on the street with budget mufflers and they sounded like raspy fart cans on the freeway.

Eh, it doesn't sound too bad. It just gets a little raspy in certain ranges, but then mellows out.

I got it because it was the cheapest option. Pretty much $200 straight pipes. Knowing what I know now, would have left on the stock mufflers and went x pipe/headers. Who knows, still might do that, think it might be a little too much though.