Taemian
03-09-2009, 03:22 PM
Hi everyone,
So in our ongoing attempt to tune our cars and learn the how's and why's of it all, I came across the Sniper tuning software. After seeing a great review of it on ModularFords.com, I decided to do more research. Hey, not all of us live close to Lidio or other great tuners!:(
Let me begin by saying that 2DMax and I had identical mods (Trilogy/CAI/SW Headers/High Flow Cats), and then 2DMax (heretofore known as Dave) added a GT40 fuel pump and a full SW exhaust system.
We rented dynotime along with Freakstatus' n/a Marauder, and the three of us went in on a Saturday morning. This is one of the few shops that isn't "import only" and the only dynoshop around that has a Mustang dyno in this neck of the woods. After posting video of our pulls, some folks said the operator didn't even know how to do the pulls correctly!?!? Needless to say, this didn't inspire confidence in either Dave or me.
My a/f ratio was a scary high 13.7 @ 6000rpm with the BAP set to 20. Setting it to 40 brought it down to 13.3 @ 6000rpm but that was the limit.
Dave's car ran a bit safer, around 12.8 @ 6000rpm, but pulled significantly lower rwhp (20 or so) than mine at equal settings. This was a complete surprise, as his car should be equal to or greater than my rwhp since he had even better mods.
We got advice from all the Ford boards, and all the usual suspects. Things blamed were: too small injectors, too small pumps, bad dyno pulling, pegged MAFs and misc other things. Rather than just throwing money at it and not knowing what actually fixed things, Dave and I started looking into various tuning programs. Datalogging was a must, and user-friendly interface was super important. Neither Dave nor I are super bright when it comes to this stuff. (Actually, he can fly a helicopter so he's waaay smarter than me!)
I was leaning heavily to the Sniper software, and Dave purchased it shortly after. We set about installing it and familiarizing ourselves with it. That's where the confusion began....
The Sniper manual hasn't been update since 2007, and neither has the readme file. This is poor design in my opinion. The paper manual is uncomplicated, but assumes far too much. The install procedure was obviously written by someone who's done it a hundred times, and we found ourselves going back and forth needlessly. After everything was finally sorted and installed, we attempted to proceed.
After first saving Dave's stock MM program in the Interface box (hardware connecting to OBD connection), we tried to flash a modified file. Let me say creating a file was incredibly easy. You can read and view it all at http://www.modularfords.com/2008/04/10/sniper-tuning-review/
It was super easy! Unfortunately, the Interface Box froze mid flash. Dire warnings litter the entire manual about NEVER restarting mid flash. Since the box was frozen in write-mode for 35 minutes, we knew the suggested max time of 3 minute writing was long over. After calling Sniper's tech line, we found it is only open weekdays, and it was currently a Saturday. After much nail-biting and gnashing of teeth, we pulled the plug and expected the worst. As a precaution, I suggested Dave try to reflash his MM computer with his Xcal2 with the stock program before we tried to fire it up again. We loaded the XCal, and turned the key. Vrooom! All was well. PHEW!
We did some device driver reinstalling, and wrote up a modified program again...SUPER EASY! Any idiot can write a base modifed tune with this software, I'm living proof! Then we sucked up some courage and tried to flash Dave's car again. This time, it flashed as per instructions.
Turning the key gave life to the car, and we backed it out of the hanger and onto the runway. (It's sooo cool to be able to do that at a small airport!)
Now, I had no real preconceived notions on what to expect. I was just glad the car was running after all! Some of the mods the modified tune took into account were the supercharger/ CAI/ long tube headers/ GT40 pump/ #39 injectors/ rear 02 sensor delete/ cat back exhaust mods. All from step by step pull down menus, super easy. Now, Dave will be the first to tell you that his car had trouble off the line, as in it couldn't tear the skin off day-old pudding. As the pedal was floored, we watched the airport slowly pivot 45 degrees to the left...no wait, that was us moving sideways! Dang! Dave discovered that he had "holy ****" handles on the passenger side roofline when I tromped the pedal down again. What a beast!
It's completely obvious to me that his car woke up ALOT, and is definitely more powerful than mine with the current stock Lidio Trilogy tune. That is of course to be expected due to all the car's mods, and absolutely no disrespect to Lidio's awesome base Trilogy tune. The difference from before and after was just crazy, and now Dave understands why widened wheels should be his next mod. I cannot overstate the improvement. It was like a stock n/a MM going to the Lidio XCal2 tune, but even better.
We plan to reinstall Lidio's program and datalog (Sniper software and a laptop does that) to see what that tune was asking of the car, as in fuel pump and injector duty cycle, etc. Seems fuel isn't a problem for making power anymore, but we want to confirm that that was a bottleneck before. We also need to check the a/f or EGT to see what the mixture is like. If anyone has had good experience with a wideband O2 sensor, please let me know what kind it was. And yes, Dave is taking it easy until we do that. The car is currently snuggled up beside a Hughes MD500 in a dry warm place.
My car is awaiting a GT40 pump install, and a wideband sensor.
I'll update this thread as new details are available! The main purpose is to datalog and find out what the actual, not percieved, problems are when moding like this. I'd like to be able to give documented proof on what worked, and why. Thanks to everyone who has answered my calls for help and advice.
If only we lived closer to Lidio!:eek:
Ian
So in our ongoing attempt to tune our cars and learn the how's and why's of it all, I came across the Sniper tuning software. After seeing a great review of it on ModularFords.com, I decided to do more research. Hey, not all of us live close to Lidio or other great tuners!:(
Let me begin by saying that 2DMax and I had identical mods (Trilogy/CAI/SW Headers/High Flow Cats), and then 2DMax (heretofore known as Dave) added a GT40 fuel pump and a full SW exhaust system.
We rented dynotime along with Freakstatus' n/a Marauder, and the three of us went in on a Saturday morning. This is one of the few shops that isn't "import only" and the only dynoshop around that has a Mustang dyno in this neck of the woods. After posting video of our pulls, some folks said the operator didn't even know how to do the pulls correctly!?!? Needless to say, this didn't inspire confidence in either Dave or me.
My a/f ratio was a scary high 13.7 @ 6000rpm with the BAP set to 20. Setting it to 40 brought it down to 13.3 @ 6000rpm but that was the limit.
Dave's car ran a bit safer, around 12.8 @ 6000rpm, but pulled significantly lower rwhp (20 or so) than mine at equal settings. This was a complete surprise, as his car should be equal to or greater than my rwhp since he had even better mods.
We got advice from all the Ford boards, and all the usual suspects. Things blamed were: too small injectors, too small pumps, bad dyno pulling, pegged MAFs and misc other things. Rather than just throwing money at it and not knowing what actually fixed things, Dave and I started looking into various tuning programs. Datalogging was a must, and user-friendly interface was super important. Neither Dave nor I are super bright when it comes to this stuff. (Actually, he can fly a helicopter so he's waaay smarter than me!)
I was leaning heavily to the Sniper software, and Dave purchased it shortly after. We set about installing it and familiarizing ourselves with it. That's where the confusion began....
The Sniper manual hasn't been update since 2007, and neither has the readme file. This is poor design in my opinion. The paper manual is uncomplicated, but assumes far too much. The install procedure was obviously written by someone who's done it a hundred times, and we found ourselves going back and forth needlessly. After everything was finally sorted and installed, we attempted to proceed.
After first saving Dave's stock MM program in the Interface box (hardware connecting to OBD connection), we tried to flash a modified file. Let me say creating a file was incredibly easy. You can read and view it all at http://www.modularfords.com/2008/04/10/sniper-tuning-review/
It was super easy! Unfortunately, the Interface Box froze mid flash. Dire warnings litter the entire manual about NEVER restarting mid flash. Since the box was frozen in write-mode for 35 minutes, we knew the suggested max time of 3 minute writing was long over. After calling Sniper's tech line, we found it is only open weekdays, and it was currently a Saturday. After much nail-biting and gnashing of teeth, we pulled the plug and expected the worst. As a precaution, I suggested Dave try to reflash his MM computer with his Xcal2 with the stock program before we tried to fire it up again. We loaded the XCal, and turned the key. Vrooom! All was well. PHEW!
We did some device driver reinstalling, and wrote up a modified program again...SUPER EASY! Any idiot can write a base modifed tune with this software, I'm living proof! Then we sucked up some courage and tried to flash Dave's car again. This time, it flashed as per instructions.
Turning the key gave life to the car, and we backed it out of the hanger and onto the runway. (It's sooo cool to be able to do that at a small airport!)
Now, I had no real preconceived notions on what to expect. I was just glad the car was running after all! Some of the mods the modified tune took into account were the supercharger/ CAI/ long tube headers/ GT40 pump/ #39 injectors/ rear 02 sensor delete/ cat back exhaust mods. All from step by step pull down menus, super easy. Now, Dave will be the first to tell you that his car had trouble off the line, as in it couldn't tear the skin off day-old pudding. As the pedal was floored, we watched the airport slowly pivot 45 degrees to the left...no wait, that was us moving sideways! Dang! Dave discovered that he had "holy ****" handles on the passenger side roofline when I tromped the pedal down again. What a beast!
It's completely obvious to me that his car woke up ALOT, and is definitely more powerful than mine with the current stock Lidio Trilogy tune. That is of course to be expected due to all the car's mods, and absolutely no disrespect to Lidio's awesome base Trilogy tune. The difference from before and after was just crazy, and now Dave understands why widened wheels should be his next mod. I cannot overstate the improvement. It was like a stock n/a MM going to the Lidio XCal2 tune, but even better.
We plan to reinstall Lidio's program and datalog (Sniper software and a laptop does that) to see what that tune was asking of the car, as in fuel pump and injector duty cycle, etc. Seems fuel isn't a problem for making power anymore, but we want to confirm that that was a bottleneck before. We also need to check the a/f or EGT to see what the mixture is like. If anyone has had good experience with a wideband O2 sensor, please let me know what kind it was. And yes, Dave is taking it easy until we do that. The car is currently snuggled up beside a Hughes MD500 in a dry warm place.
My car is awaiting a GT40 pump install, and a wideband sensor.
I'll update this thread as new details are available! The main purpose is to datalog and find out what the actual, not percieved, problems are when moding like this. I'd like to be able to give documented proof on what worked, and why. Thanks to everyone who has answered my calls for help and advice.
If only we lived closer to Lidio!:eek:
Ian