recently purchased a '13 SHO with tune and basic mods

[Bill Capeless]

Hi there. I just purchased a 2013 SHO from a dealer. According to the salesman who knows the previous owner, there is an unleashed tune, 3 bar, colder plugs, and colder t-stat. They were supposed to send me the tune info/files but never did. I ordered an SCt4 from unleashed so I can figure out what is going on and will work with them to get it to a proper tune.

It is a daily driver for me. I like having the power but winter time in Maine here and commute about 400-500 miles per week. We have 93 octane available. I think I paid between $2.80 and $2.90. 87 is about $.50 cheaper.

Is there such a thing as an 87 tune? If so, would I have to swap back in the 2 bar, warmer plugs, t-stat? Should I have unleashed send me a stock tune or go to the dealer and have them do it after returning to stock?

After the first couple days of playing around and flooring it every 5 seconds to feel the power, I got about 18.5 mpg. The last few days I have diving like a normal human being I am getting about 22-23.

Alternately, if I am not going to get better gas mileage running a stock tune, I can put in a 93 tune and just not drive like a fool (most of the time).

thoughts?

 

[SHOdded]

Welcome to SHOwnership, Bill, and congrats. How many miles on your SHO? Got a Ford extended warranty?

Yes there are as many variants of the tune as there are octane grades. You do not have to swap any of the hardware mentioned (MAP sensor, plugs, TStat) for a simple octane change. But you do have to swap the tune each time. People have gotten high 20s or better mpg when featherfooting it even at 70+ mph. So maybe some maintenance of trans and PTU/RDU fluids is needed. Maybe some carbon buildup on the intake valves. Anyway, winter fuel cuts mpg by up to 10%, so there's that. If all is well, your SHO may actually be on the stock tune, because otherwise the previous owner cannot reuse THEIR tuner for another vehicle.

As to how to get the stock tune, Unleashed/Torrie probably can get that for you. SCT certainly can. They will need the strategy code for the PCM, which you can read using the tuner when you receive it.

 

[6500rpm]

Congrats and enjoy, these really are a fun daily driver. I've got a 13 PP with no tune and at 22mpg your actually doing better than me at this point. Since it's gotten colder I've been hovering around 18-19mpg average, say 70/30 split highway to city and 70mph seems to be typical highway cruising speed. I was bouncing between 89 and 93 Mobil pump gas but recently switched to Shell 93 after reading positive reviews and I'm back up to 21mpg. the last few tanks. Sounds like your ahead of the game and going down the right path.

 

[SilverSH0]

If you ask, Torrie will give you a stock tune for a 3 bar MAP sensor. I have one of those for mine just in case I'm in an area where 93 octane isn't available (already happened twice in a year). This keeps you from having to tune and change out the MAP sensor when 93 isn't an option.

 

[ridered74]

If the 50 cents a gallon is an issue at all, don't bother tuning it. You might as well leave it completely stock if you are worried about 40 bucks a month in extra gas.

I was going to trade mine in last week on a newer model, so I returned mine to stock and have had it that way for about 100 miles now. I hate it. The power difference is ridiculous, and to get the maximum power out of it, it is certainly worth the extra 40 bucks in gas each month, to me at least. Mine also gets slightly better mileage when tuned. Certainly not even close to offsetting the extra cost of gas, but it seems to be about 5-10% better mileage when tuned.

Get a 3 bar map sensor too. It is soooooo worth it when tuned.

 

[Bill Capeless]

Thanks guys. It is at 60k for mileage. It is snowing today. Car did pretty good, but the tires suck. I sent my codes to Unleashed last night after the SCT X4 came in. I look forward to seeing what this car can do. I'll install the 93 tune and stick with the using 93 octane for now. Since I am driving it with an unknown tune, I want to see what the difference between stock and 93 tune. It seems pretty quick. I am hoping that it is a stock tune so it will really fly with a 3 bar 93 tune.

I did go with the extended 3/36 warranty. I will look into the PTU/RDU fluids. The only issue I have seen so far is the trunk gas shocks are weak.

 

[Bill Capeless]

I installed the 93oct 3 bar tune from Unleashed. It seems to run fine. Does anyone know how much boost this tune runs and what the approximate hp/tq figures are for cars with my similar setup?
93 oct
3bar
170 t-stat
1 step colder plugs
k&n drop in