This post is exactly why I went with the SCT and custom tuning instead of LMS. I was on the fence because I thought I should just do a canned tune for my wife's explorer, but I modified the hell out of my Mustang and tuned it myself so it wasn't in my nature to fly blind without the ability to log and see exactly what is going on. LMS also had some really screwy responses to my questions. I really think the guy responding on the forums had no idea what the tunes were doing. He was obviously not one of their tuners. Now, my first choice didn't work out, but the good thing is that with the SCT, you have a lot of choices in custom tunes. I almost went with Torrie, but then I heard about this AJP guy on here. My *** tunes had audible knock and the stock tune showed a ton of KR, so we really thought something was wrong with my wife's Ex. *** stopped getting back to me and I didn't like how he made it feel like a strung out racecar, so I gave up on him. I just wanted more power when I went WOT and I wanted it to drive like stick at low throttle positions. I gave up for a while and then posted on here. AJP read my posts and he sounded like he was very knowledgeable. After some back and forth on the forum, I PM'd him and asked if he would be willing to try and tune it. He said yes, but no promises. Brad sent me tunes at no cost and said he didn't want me to send him any money until we made some progress. It didn't take long. I kept asking him how to send him money and he just kept sending me tunes. I think I was on rev 5 before he answered my question on how to pay him. He was very responsive and read all my emails and answered my detailed tune questions. We went over numerous datalogs together over email. I am extremely happy with his customer service. I hope that we aren't done yet but I haven't talked to him for months.
Got a little sidetracked here, but the moral of the story is that all vehicles are not the same and datalogging may be absolutely necessary for some. We figured out that I was getting a lot of false knock detected, even with the stock tune on premium 91 Octane fuel. AJP very slowly and safely turned it up and I did some things to help decrease the false knock at WOT. Just dressed the knock sensor wires as detailed in this forum.
I was originally thrown off and thought it was real knock because I had audible knock with the *** tune. My logs with that tune didn't tell the whole story because I was sent a 2bar tune eventhough I asked for a 3 bar. So, my boost was pegged which means I have no idea how much I was getting. The advance didn't seem out of line, but the boost must have been way up there, combined with WOT shifts with no retard. It would detonate on the boost spikes when it shifted to 3rd. It was fast, but not civilized. It would hop the tires and jerk the wheel on the 1-2 shift. Boost must have been really high. I didn't want to break it. I went back to stock until AJP saved the day. The cool thing with SCT is that for $150 or so you can get multiple tunes from multiple tuners. With LMS you only get theirs and if it doesn't work with your hardware, you are SOL and flying blind when trying to figure out what is wrong. I hope to get back in the game and try some more tunes at the track. I just need to steal the Ex Sport from my wife. The Stang is still laid up and I am going through withdrawals. The only speed I have felt lately is downhill on the mountain bike and that ended with a broken collar bone 6 weeks ago! I am going crazy in this sling and the plate and 10 screws don't feel so great. I hope to race the Ex again after I get out of the sling next week. Sorry for the long post!
After studying logs and talking with Brad a lot, I think that one of the main reasons I had audible knock with the *** tunes is because of the advance not retarding on the shifts. With the 2 bar, the tune did not pull timing as the boost spiked because it could not measure those spikes. Also, the *** tunes kept the advance up on the shifts. The stock tune timing retard on shifts was removed from the tune. This made it faster and felt pretty awesome on the shift, but this is my wife's daily and I didn't want to kill it. I also didn't like it spinning the front tires and causing torque steer on the shift. Brad's is still pretty damn fast and very smooth so I can go WOT onto the hwy without pissing off the wife. Also, if I didn't have the issues that made *** tunes unusable, I am sure AJP (Brad) could make it just as quick if I asked him to. He told me about what he was doing with the tune and another thing I saw in the datalogs were things that *** claimed only he knew how to do. I would say AJP is up there with the best and has GREAT customer service.
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