Need advice new owner here

[Justin Z]

i just bought my first SHO and I'm looking for some advice. So I'm going to be tuning my car this weekend and I didn't do all this right. So the first thing I did was the VAT bov. I've ordered the sp534 plugs, 170 t stat, 3 bar, and sct x4 from 5 star. In one of the treads I saw that 5 star doesn't accommodate the 3 bar in there tunes. Is this true? And if it is since I have 3 tunes from them, can I buy a couple tunes from unleashed and put them in the same tuner. So instead of 3 custom tunes I'll have 5? Or should I wait to tune until I have the CAI so I can tune all at once? I just don't know if I can accommodate for that later down the road all with the exhaust and down pipes I'm doing this winter. With never tuning a car before there a lot more I should no before just jumping in. Any advise would be great!!

 

[SHOdded]

Moderators, please move thread to appropriate forum ...

Welcome, Justin. You should confirm directly with 5Star whether the tunes you received are meant for a car with the 3 bar MAP installed. If not, can they email the updated tunes to you. If they are not willing to update the tunes, not sure what your recourse would be with them as far as return/refund. Do not attempt to install a non-3bar tune if you have the 3 bar MAP installed. Nothing ugly will actually happen, but a lot of bells & alarms will go off.

I believe you can get tunes from Unleashed and add them to the tunes you are storing on the X4. There might be a limit to the number of tunes an X4 can hold at one time, the X3 I have seems to top out at 10 (PLENTY lol).

CAI will generally not make a big enough difference to need a tune on its own. Downpipes you don't need a tune update, but you won't get full value if you don't get a tune update. Exhaust makes a bigger impact than the CAI, but generally not nearly as much as downpipes. All of these together, definitely need a tune update.

 

[Justin Z]

So I have a sct x4 tuner for my car and how do you know if the custom tunes loaded on the device. I got 3 tunes from 5 star and 2 tunes from Torrie at unleashed. I'm super excited to use the Unleased tunes, I heard there the best. But I'm sitting here after loading them and how do I check on the device if there loaded on there

 

[krewat]

Being that they are a sponsor of one of my forums over at ford-trucks.com, I've spoken to 5-star a few times about tuning my SHO - and they can definitely do a 3-bar tune. They (Mike Butler) did suggest, however, before going that route to see if the boost even got close to needing the 3-bar before going that far, but they can definitely do it.

(Not suggesting to anyone here that 5-star is better than any other tunes - just relating my personal experience)

 

[Justin Z]

Thanks, yeah I talked to them and I got 3 tunes from them I also got 2 from Torrie at Unleased. His 93 is beast!! Completely different car. Honestly I haven't even tried the 5 star tunes yet. I just put it in yesterday and I had so much fun with it I haven't changed it yet. If anyone knows which one is better it would be great to hear opinions between 5 star and Unleased.

 

[Lostneye]

Being that they are a sponsor of one of my forums over at ford-trucks.com, I've spoken to 5-star a few times about tuning my SHO - and they can definitely do a 3-bar tune. They (Mike Butler) did suggest, however, before going that route to see if the boost even got close to needing the 3-bar before going that far, but they can definitely do it.

(Not suggesting to anyone here that 5-star is better than any other tunes - just relating my personal experience)

Nothing against 5 Star, they are very good at some platforms but hearing that doesn't inspire confidence they know the SHO well enough. Personally I would stick to a tuner with known experience with this platform, which Unleashed is.

 

[SHOdded]

Many up and coming tuners, some very very good, but unleashed and Livernois are the stalwarts in the SHO/MKS/transverse 3.5EB engined crowd.

I think you will find that inspecting your car closely, getting maintenance uptodate will be more important than tuning it, in the order of things.