Marauder Performance Chip from Alternative Auto

[Lidio]

This is a link to our web page announcing our performance chip for the Mercury Marauder's. We will be ready to ship on January 15th.



Alternative Auto's Marauder Chip release web page (http://www.alternativeauto.com/misc/marauder_chip.html)



Thanks

[jfclancy]

Hey Mr Iacobelli

That sounds good to me, BUT I remember reading that you were NOT going to be sending out chips. Does this mean that policy has changed? I hope so as I am in Watauga, Texas (just north of Fort Worth) but I would like to purchase this Mod from you.

Joe Clancy

[Lidio]

You are some what correct about us not mail ordering but I want to be clear about that. We do not get involved with full on mail order “costume tunes” with highly modified vehicles. On mostly stock cars with out serious extensive changes we do get into mail order.

In situations like when an enthusiast calls and says “I just installed big cams and ported heads on my 4.6L” or similar “and now it has a surging idle and hesitates” We see this very often and know the frustration of trying to tune changes of this nature. These are usually no problems when the vehicle visits our shop and we can simply hands-on tune it. But trying to do this with the car not present usually leads to very frustrating back and forth mail ordering that usually is difficult to resolve. And ultimately leads to a visit to a tuner in person any way. Trust me we see this almost twice a week during our summer peak season.

Now on the Marauder and other vehicles that are mostly stock and are all for the most part built the same you can successfully mail order performance chips that can make a difference…
Because for the most part the cars are all built the same they can all respond and repeat the same to a responsibly thought out chip, as long as the mods or bolt-ons are kept simple and minor like Pulley’s, gears, Air-filter and exhaust.

It’s the big changes like Cams, Heads, Mass-Air meters, Injectors, NOS, Blowers, etc. These are what lead to the mail order tuning frustrations. I simply call it “Mail-Order-Tuning”.
That we don’t get involved in. By staying away from the area that I know can get us trouble (mail order elaborate tuning) has kept my name and shop as a reputable tuning facility in tact.

We can get into minor re-tweaks once we send out a chip depending on the nature of it.

Thanks

[jfclancy]

Thanks for the prompt and informative answer,scary thing is, it makes sense to me. Looking forward to doing business with you in the near future.

Joe Clancy

[MikesMerc]

Lidio,

Will these chips apply to the 2004 MM? I've heard that the factory had done something a bit differently with the EEC for 2004.

[Lidio]

We've recently dumped a computer from an '04 MM. There are only a few changes in the EEC from what we can see at this time. We are supposed to try a test chip on an '04 mid next week.

I will post the news as soon as I can.

[dailydriver]

How will these chips work in California with our weak gas?

[Lidio]

For those of you who drive MM’s and are sensitive to the annoying torque converter lock-up feature employed in the MM trans, I want to emphasize that in our chip for the MM’s… we disable lock-up until its in 4th gear only and just over 62mph. This is where it really should lock for all purposes. We’ve done this to many other Ford’s with our custom programs for years and it’s caused no problems what so ever.

By not letting the converter lock-up at low and intermediate speeds, it makes the MM not feel like it’s in the wrong gear and always ether bogging down or forcing a down shift. Our customers rave about how we reprogram the converter lock-up or lack there of.

This feature is felt in the “seat-of –the-pants” it can not be shown on a dyno or put on paper in any way. It just makes MM’s feel better with out adding any HP in the low rpm range.

We've also learned over the years that this lack of “lock-up” makes the torque converter and its lock up clutches last longer. And the trans its self last longer because when the converter is locked normally (stock programming) it’s locked shortly after the 2nd gear shift and stays locked the rest of the time. When it’s locked in 2nd…… and the 3d and 4th upshifts occur..... the computer briefly unlocks it so the shifts aren’t overly harsh. This brief unlocking makes some times for an ocward feeling shift and I believe its also detrimental to the transmissions life. Especially if its engine is producing more power and has a looser then stock torque converter.

I believe this is one of the reasons many of my customers with our programs and Electric transmissions experience so few if no problems at all with their transmissions. No lock up is a very good thing from street light to street light. And at full throttle, through the shifts as well.

There’s more here: Marauder Chip (http://www.alternativeauto.com/misc/marauder_chip.html)

[MikesMerc]

I'll be in tomorrow morning (Sat) to drop off my 04 for you to take a crack at. I'm looking forward to getting the chip tune ironed out, then get the Trilogy package on when you return from Florida.

Good luck at the races my friend :banana2:

[1 BAD 03 MM]

I am looking at purchasing your chip. I would like to get the 3.55's, and be able to switch to 4.30's. Is that possible. I read on your website, that it is programmed for 3.55's, and 4.10's. I have held off on this for a long time, and have sat back and watched, read, listened to others about their experiences. You have straight forward answers, and explainations of how and why you tune the way you do.

I have my Marauder going in for the illustrious tick (build date of 10/02), Lincoln Mercury Mazda of Olympia is replacing the driver side cylinder head on Wedensday. I was going to order the (Apten/Rienhart) cooling mod, and go with either Kook's ceramic coated full length headers, cats, etc.,or ceramic coated Cobra manifolds. I am trying to remove as much heat from the cylider heads as possible, since this seems to be an issue. I noticed you seem to think the cooling mod is not needed? It seems to make sense to me. Do these mods make sense, am I being paranoid because I've already had the "tick".

Looking at the low 12 second results, besides the fact it's S/Ced, shows me you know what you're talking about. I don't have alot of money to throw at my car, and I use it daily, so the best bang for the buck is what I'm after.

Thanks

[bigslim]

Hey 1 Bad, did you see his new time at the track, 11.96. Believe me, Lidio knows his stuff. He just put a chip and 410 in my car. I am very happy.

[Lidio]

Making a chip that will accommodate both the 3.55s and then switch to 4.30s is no problem.


For your other questions;
I’m a big believer in doing the simplest mods for the greatest gain. I’ve watched a lot of products/gimmicks come and go in the last couple of decades that do nothing more then meet sales quota for some people and only a phantom gain in HP. Some people tend to buy after market parts because they simply exists and to quench a need to buy anything after market with some kind of a promise. Don’t get me wrong though there are some easy to install + affordable products that really do net a gain, most don’t though.

I don’t talk much about the whole cooling system thing because I tend to tread lightly where I might start problems or controversy. All I know is what I see and hear with what I do and work on.

I’ve worked on a lot of 32V’s in the last several years. Most end up super charged because it’s just to much work to get 281 cubes to get today’s over-loaded/heavy vehicles really motivated.
This is why the ’03 Cobra ended up with a blower I believe too. And this is why I recommend leaving the little stuff alone on a MM and go right for a blower and be done with it (providing it fits the budget). Although a chip with or with out a 4.10 are truly a great first mod and very noticeable.

We tune safe and conservatively with every thing we do. No supercharged Marauder we’ve tuned has yet to have any piston or head gasket failure. None have had any cooling system mods done as well. Also we have a great track record of keeping pistons and head gaskets in tact in the 4V and 2V Mustangs as well. I have a lot of customers with 4.6L Mustangs that run as much as 15-20psi of boost with never opened up stock 4.6 motors that have yet to have a failure. Granted, these guys are running leaded race fuel but this is all part of the tune. And as I always say its all in the tune when it comes to how long an aggressive boosted combo will last.

[sailsmen]

Does the Cobra motor come with the passenger head side reverse flow cooling from the factory?

[Lidio]

As far as I know from the few we did clutch jobs on… no, there isn’t any thing different about the driver side rear of the cylinder head as far as cooling goes. Looks like standard 32V stuff.

[ADE 1000]

I'm interested, but I don't like the idea of a chip for a couple of reasons.

Do you plan on offering your program on a hand held tuner??

[hitchhiker]

As far as I know from the few we did clutch jobs on… no, there isn’t any thing different about the driver side rear of the cylinder head as far as cooling goes. Looks like standard 32V stuff.Hi Lidio,

I had a nice conversation with Mr. 'L' at the dealership in Santa Rosa, CA

I would like to order your chip with the 3.55/4.10 programming and the program for our 91 Octane California Gas.

Do you sell the pulley kits as well?

Should I get the 4.10 gears from the dealer?

Will that protect my warranty?

What exactly did they change on the new MM heads?

Am I right in that you do NOT recommend the lower STAT and Plugs mod?

My MM's build date is 03/05/2004.

Will your chip plug into late production 2004's?

Do you need any more specific information from me?

Please let me know your price and if you accept Pay Pal for payment.

Thanks and Best Regards, :up:

David

[Lidio]

At this time we are not offering our NA tune for the Marauder on a hand held flashing device. We will though very soon. My shop is currently using both the new Diablo CMR and Superchips SCT tuning software. Both are excellent.

I used to use the old Chipmaster/AutoLogic on every thing exclusively up until very recently, including all MM stuff.
(ChipMaster and Diablo joined forces recently and now offer CMR – “ChipMaster Revolutions”)
As a result and because of all the hard work and database I’ve established on especially the Marauders with and with out the Trilogy blower, I’m going to use the CMR stuff for now on MM’s because all my old 1-bank data base can be converted to work with the new CMR 4-bank stuff and pick up where I left off with many mew features and adjustments plus the hand held tuner device called the “predator”. I will be able to eventually put multiple programs on this hand held and allow the end user a little bit of adjustability.




I do sell a March pulley kit for the MM’s….. $149.00

The chips are going up in price because of the new software but I’m going to try to hold them at $325.00 for a little while longer.

I do sell FRT gears for $199.00

Its not that I don’t recommend the stat and plugs…. But once you turn the fan on a little earlier like about 194 degrees, instead of 210-degrees which is stock… that’s about all the cooling system can keep it at any way on extremely hot days. Putting a cooler stat and turning the fan on much earlier really doesn’t seem to help from what I’ve seen. Same with colder plugs too, the detonation thresh-hold with ignition timing seems to be about the same with the stock plugs.

Our chips as far as I know plugs into all ’04 MM’s

I didn’t know that the ’04 MM head was any different then the ‘03s if so I would imagine its minor.

The warranty doesn’t seem to be bothered by chips and gears but that can vary from dealer to dealer.

Yes I do except Pay-Pal


Thanks

[ADE 1000]

At this time we are not offering our NA tune for the Marauder on a hand held flashing device. We will though very soon. My shop is currently using both the new Diablo CMR and Superchips SCT tuning software. Both are excellent.



Lidio,

What is the approximate timeframe in which you plan to offer this? I am trying to plan my summer mod schedule.

Thanks,

[junehhan]

I would be interested in knowing when a tuner will become available, since I too am also trying to plan my summer modding schedule :) I want to have a dyno-tune done, but would like a tuner so I wouldn't have to "violate" the ECM service port on the box.

[Lidio]

I have hand-held flashers at my shop and just need to spend a little bit of time with them and make sure every thing is right. I think in less then three weeks I’ll have them ready to go.



Thanks

[REpson]

So did you noticed & feel a performance difference when driving on the street and the express-way? For this reason, Lidio is doing the same thing to my 04 MM this weekend.

I just wanted to know how you felt when you got your car back.

:banana:



Hey 1 Bad, did you see his new time at the track, 11.96. Believe me, Lidio knows his stuff. He just put a chip and 410 in my car. I am very happy.

[MikesMerc]

So did you noticed & feel a performance difference when driving on the street and the express-way? For this reason, Lidio is doing the same thing to my 04 MM this weekend.

I just wanted to know how you felt when you got your car back.



I know you didn't ask me, but I also had the chip done and it made a big difference! My 04 was otherwise stock (no gear change). Yes, you will feel the difference. More important than the power gains (which you will get) is the trans tuning. Trust me...you'll love it.

[bigslim]

Robert, it made a world of difference. Get the 410's to go along with the chip. My car takes off like a jet compared to it stock. It really hits second good now. You will love the difference.

[MikesMerc]

Oh yeah....Second gear baby! It's perfect with the trans tune ! A nice punch in the back!

[junehhan]

Out of curiosity, how does it shift under light to moderate throttle? What about a WOT forced downshift?

[bigslim]

It shifts pretty much normal when driving as a "normal" person would. you would never know it was there.

[junehhan]

How hard does it downshift when you floor it to force a 1 or 2 gear downshift?

[bigslim]

Second really comes on strong. You really feel it move out in second gear. Too bad you are not here so you could take it for a drive.

[junehhan]

Second really comes on strong. You really feel it move out in second gear. Too bad you are not here so you could take it for a drive.


I know, but at least I only live a little over 4 hours from where you are, and Lidio's shop. Right now, i'm planning my summer mod schedule, and a trip to Lidio is definately in order sometime this summer. Since my funds are limited for my 2004 Modding Year(thank you IRS), I won't be able to do anything drastic which is going to force me to make choices. I was hoping to do a dyno tune, chip/tuner, and gears with driveshaft upgrade, or as an alternative do the kooks long tube headers with x-pipe and dyno tuned chip/tuner. It's gonna be one or the other, but the Kooks setup looks absolutely beautiful as I was drooling over the pictures Logan has in his photo album of his exhaust setup.

[bigslim]

When you come up look me up for a ride and a lunch.

[REpson]

Mike,

Thanks for the information! Indeed I can't wait to get my car done this weekend!

:beer:



I know you didn't ask me, but I also had the chip done and it made a big difference! My 04 was otherwise stock (no gear change). Yes, you will feel the difference. More important than the power gains (which you will get) is the trans tuning. Trust me...you'll love it.

[mrjones]

[QUOTE=Lidio]This is a link to our web page announcing our performance chip for the Mercury Marauder's. We will be ready to ship on January 15th.

I have a question for you. One of the things that I would like to see a chip do is correct what I think is a TERRIBLE flaw in the factory program, and that's the startup strategy. It seems that all the new modular engines rev WAY up when cold starting, and that drives me nuts. I can hear the engine rattling for that first second or so until the oil pressure comes up. I'm assuming the factory does that for emissions testing/EPA purposes. My 89 Mustang does a great job of starting with the engine running at idle. Would your chip be able to change the MM's starting procedure so that it doesn't immediately rev up to 2000 rpm's on a cold start?

[ADE 1000]

I have hand-held flashers at my shop and just need to spend a little bit of time with them and make sure every thing is right. I think in less then three weeks I’ll have them ready to go.



Thanks

Lidio,

Any update on the status of the hand held tuners??

[Lidio]

I’m just waiting on a few hand held tuners to get to me from SCT. I’ve played with a couple of them now including on my own MM and they’re good to go.

The only thing is I’m not sure of is what type of three programs to offer preinstalled on the units.
For sure one will be my totally finished and refined program that works with 92 or 93 octane and all the other little things that I do, like firm up shifts a little at part throttle and a ton at full throttle, remove lock-up until 4th gear at 60+ mph, Advance spark, turn fan on earlier, disable alternator and A/C at WOT, move up rpm limiters and turn off speed limiters, etc… I’m thinking the second program will simply add another 2 degrees of spark incase the customer has access to Sunoco 94 and the 3rd program will retard spark about 2-3 from the first program incase the customer gets real bad gas or cant get better then 91 like in most of California.

Call me soon and I’ll give more info and I will post prices very soon.


As far as the high start up idle… I might be able to adjust that a little but some times it’s the only way these things can stay running when started in sub 25 degree weather.


Thanks

[Zack]

Lidio, why dont you just load the value file available from the SCT website and sell it?
It has been proven on hundreds of Marauders with no complaints.
Just wondering?

[Lidio]

Sorry Zack

I got into the SCT stuff to use it as a greater and better tuning tool, with a greater data base of cars and more parameters to adjust, not just to copy their files.

With all due respect...I have many opinions, methods, personal experiences and preferences that do not agree/differ with many other tuners in this country regardless of their experience or knowledge. What I do with the MM’s and many other Fords with custom tunes with regards to just the Electric transmissions and their pre-mature lockup alone has proven to be very popular with my customers over the years and most recently with the MM guys. Generic tunes are possible and repeatable for the most part… but I like to create my own generic tunes for specific models.

Also to say that theirs been no complaints is some thing we probably shouldn’t get into!!


Thanks

[merc]

I was wonderding if you were going to add settings for NOS
:cool:

[Zack]

Sorry Zack

I got into the SCT stuff to use it as a greater and better tuning tool, with a greater data base of cars and more parameters to adjust, not just to copy their files.

With all due respect...I have many opinions, methods, personal experiences and preferences that do not agree/differ with many other tuners in this country regardless of their experience or knowledge. What I do with the MM’s and many other Fords with custom tunes with regards to just the Electric transmissions and their pre-mature lockup alone has proven to be very popular with my customers over the years and most recently with the MM guys. Generic tunes are possible and repeatable for the most part… but I like to create my own generic tunes for specific models.

Also to say that theirs been no complaints is some thing we probably shouldn’t get into!!


Thanks

Fair enough lidio.
If only I had a stock Marauder to compare the two.......

[hitchhiker]

Lidio, why dont you just load the value file available from the SCT website and sell it?
It has been proven on hundreds of Marauders with no complaints.
Just wondering?
Zack, Would you please post the link to the SCT website.

Thanks,

David

[Bradley G]

Fair enough lidio.
If only I had a stock Marauder to compare the two....... HEY ZACK USE MINE!! JUST PROMISE TO "ZACKZIMIZE" IT AFTERWARD:lol: BONE STOCK 3K "PURRRFEKT"

[junehhan]

Lidio, that is great news as I can't wait to order a tuner. I just like the ability where I can save the stock program and reload it if I needed to before I take it in for warranty work. I just wish the summer would hurry up so I can make a trip and start with a few mods. Once all the details are released on the tuner, at least I can use that to hold me till summer arrives. Fortunately, I have access to Sunoco ultra 94 in my area :)

As far as the torque converter lockup goes, I would be more interested in having it lockup at 50mph instead of 60 if that's possible when I order your tuner. I do way too much rush hour highway driving in which i'm doing under 60mph..............

[Lidio]

If you guys are trying to drag me through some mud here it won’t work. As usual Zack’s short comments do nothing but start this kind of thing with me. I’m a very experienced tuner that’s been doing this for a long time. It’s no longer a hobby, but a great full time job with tons of satisfied customers since 1990 and many many Ford EFI experiences before the MM came along.

I get along great with every body at SCT and my comments were not targeted at any one there. Only to make it clear that we all have different tuning opinions.
Every body has access to what I have if they become a SCT dealer. We can all change and manipulate what ever we want in the software. We’re free to make what ever changes we want and pass them along to our various customers in hopes of them accepting our changes and opinions of what the car should or could run like, as opposed to the factory tunes that can be some what of a compromise over all.

The people at SCT recognize that I’ve been doing this a long time… with a great history of very few burn downs and broken pistons with today’s weak pistons in the 4.6L’s. None to date with the MM’s.

As I’ve said before here, My Marauder N/A chip may not make the highest peak numbers on the dyno. But it does pick up in the mid range and it does make the transmissions shifting and above all the torque-converter’s overly active boggyness, lock-up go away and feel much better at intermediate speeds in town.


And yes I can set them up to lock sooner if preferred but still not till 4th is engaged.

At this time I’ve not sprayed a MM so I haven’t developed a dry NOS program for a MM, Hope to soon.



Thanks

[mtnh]

Lidio,

I'm very interested in a tune that does the normal enhancements, plus a setup that allows the use of 235-60/16 snow tires, which spin at around 770 revs per mile, as opposed to the stock tires, which spin at around 724 revs per mile. Would this be a possible tume to engineer and include in your programming? Chip or tuner is cool. Probably the tuner would work better for me, with the ability to reflash to stock pcm programming, when visiting the service department.

I have a 2003, all stock, running tear tag code BMD0.

Thanks,

Mike

[MI2QWK4U]

If you guys are trying to drag me through some mud here it won’t work. As usual Zack’s short comments do nothing but start this kind of thing with me. I’m a very experienced tuner that’s been doing this for a long time. It’s no longer a hobby, but a great full time job with tons of satisfied customers since 1990 and many many Ford EFI experiences before the MM came along.

I get along great with every body at SCT and my comments were not targeted at any one there. Only to make it clear that we all have different tuning opinions.
Every body has access to what I have if they become a SCT dealer. We can all change and manipulate what ever we want in the software. We’re free to make what ever changes we want and pass them along to our various customers in hopes of them accepting our changes and opinions of what the car should or could run like, as opposed to the factory tunes that can be some what of a compromise over all.

The people at SCT recognize that I’ve been doing this a long time… with a great history of very few burn downs and broken pistons with today’s weak pistons in the 4.6L’s. None to date with the MM’s.

As I’ve said before here, My Marauder N/A chip may not make the highest peak numbers on the dyno. But it does pick up in the mid range and it does make the transmissions shifting and above all the torque-converter’s overly active boggyness, lock-up go away and feel much better at intermediate speeds in town.


And yes I can set them up to lock sooner if preferred but still not till 4th is engaged.

At this time I’ve not sprayed a MM so I haven’t developed a dry NOS program for a MM, Hope to soon.



Thanks



Take my word for it...believe every word Lidio says. He is one of the best tuners in the country, and has more experience at it than just about anyone else on this forum (personally I dont think anyone on this forum has more experience, but cant say that for a fact.). I cant tell you how much time he has spent with many differently configured Marauders when he is doing his tuning. You name it...2003, 2004, stock, stock w/various gear sizes (3:55, 3:73, 4:10, 4:30), supercharged only, supercharged w/4:10s, supercharged w/3:55s, supercharged w/3:73s, supercharged w/4:30s, supercharged w/various gears and the Pro-M, then within the supercharged cars, account for pullie sizes, 4 that I know of including the stock Trilogy pully, account for the apton porting on the blower, adding nitrous.....Lidio has tuned cars with every possible combination listed above. Each time he sets the baseline for that car's tune, he feels better about providing that tune than a generic one for a generic Marauder. I know what I am getting from Lidio, and I think a number of people out there are beginning to understand that now. I havent heard from any other tuners on this forum with his experience and knowledge, have you? Lidio takes too much pride in his work to copy a generic program and pass it off for his own. If you dont mind generic off the rack stuff, go for it, if you want the best possible for your Marauder, give him a chance. I have known the guy for 15 years, its just the kind of work he does. I for one cant wait to see some of these various set ups with mods, blowers, and tuning line up with each other, I think some will be suprised at the results. Just the trans shift and torque converter lock up areas that he has fine tuned to perfection are worth it. The SCT is another good tool he can use to get his idea of a good tune become a reality.

[REpson]

Dave,

Excellent reply! Lidio is the MAN! He tuned my 04 MM (Chip,4.10 Gears, & Trans) three weeks ago and I'm still "Jumping Up and Down" from excitement! :banana2:

As a matter of fact, I just faxed him another MOD request yesterday that I'm interested in.

If you ask me who's the BEST, I would say hands down Alternative Auto Performanc / Lidio.

I'm waiting in LINE to give him my money. That's how good he is in my opinion.

:beer:



Take my word for it...believe every word Lidio says. He is one of the best tuners in the country, and has more experience at it than just about anyone else on this forum (personally I dont think anyone on this forum has more experience, but cant say that for a fact.). I cant tell you how much time he has spent with many differently configured Marauders when he is doing his tuning. You name it...2003, 2004, stock, stock w/various gear sizes (3:55, 3:73, 4:10, 4:30), supercharged only, supercharged w/4:10s, supercharged w/3:55s, supercharged w/3:73s, supercharged w/4:30s, supercharged w/various gears and the Pro-M, then within the supercharged cars, account for pullie sizes, 4 that I know of including the stock Trilogy pully, account for the apton porting on the blower, adding nitrous.....Lidio has tuned cars with every possible combination listed above. Each time he sets the baseline for that car's tune, he feels better about providing that tune than a generic one for a generic Marauder. I know what I am getting from Lidio, and I think a number of people out there are beginning to understand that now. I havent heard from any other tuners on this forum with his experience and knowledge, have you? Lidio takes too much pride in his work to copy a generic program and pass it off for his own. If you dont mind generic off the rack stuff, go for it, if you want the best possible for your Marauder, give him a chance. I have known the guy for 15 years, its just the kind of work he does. I for one cant wait to see some of these various set ups with mods, blowers, and tuning line up with each other, I think some will be suprised at the results. Just the trans shift and torque converter lock up areas that he has fine tuned to perfection are worth it. The SCT is another good tool he can use to get his idea of a good tune become a reality.

[bossman]

I’m just waiting on a few hand held tuners to get to me from SCT. I’ve played with a couple of them now including on my own MM and they’re good to go.

The only thing is I’m not sure of is what type of three programs to offer preinstalled on the units.
For sure one will be my totally finished and refined program that works with 92 or 93 octane and all the other little things that I do, like firm up shifts a little at part throttle and a ton at full throttle, remove lock-up until 4th gear at 60+ mph, Advance spark, turn fan on earlier, disable alternator and A/C at WOT, move up rpm limiters and turn off speed limiters, etc… I’m thinking the second program will simply add another 2 degrees of spark incase the customer has access to Sunoco 94 and the 3rd program will retard spark about 2-3 from the first program incase the customer gets real bad gas or cant get better then 91 like in most of California.

Call me soon and I’ll give more info and I will post prices very soon.


As far as the high start up idle… I might be able to adjust that a little but some times it’s the only way these things can stay running when started in sub 25 degree weather.


Thanks
Talked to Lido today and will Hopefully have one of the 1st SCT Scanners available, Waited & Listened a long time before going with Lido, there are lots of options out there but I really like the way the Man "THINKS" ..
I campained one of Sox & Martin's Hemi Cuda's for many years & did quite well Racing and can understand where Lidio's coming from. I Can Hardly wait to get the Scanner, will keep you posted..

[MI2QWK4U]

Dave,

Excellent reply! Lidio is the MAN! He tuned my 04 MM (Chip,4.10 Gears, & Trans) three weeks ago and I'm still "Jumping Up and Down" from excitement! :banana2:

As a matter of fact, I just faxed him another MOD request yesterday that I'm interested in.

If you ask me who's the BEST, I would say hands down Alternative Auto Performanc / Lidio.

I'm waiting in LINE to give him my money. That's how good he is in my opinion.

:beer:

Thanks Robert, Its nice to hear a friendly and positive response for a change. I met you at the Autorama, and out of the blue, when you asked about my car and its performance, I told you who not only installed it, but mad it WORK well. I gave you my assurance that Lid knows his stuff, and you would have to look a lot farther than right here in Michigan to get some quality work done. Didnt I give you his card too? Robert, tell the nice people what I told you about Lidio at the show. So folks, like many other members on this forum, Robert didnt know Lidio when they trusted their cars to him. I watched Lid work on TUNING Roberts car to perfection, quick spin around the block, back re-tune it, spin around the block. After watching the man do things with the marauder for a year and a half, up close and hands on, I am beginning to see how he does things. So if you want a canned tune, great, get one and be happy. When I get my tuner eventually in place of my multi progam chip, it will have programs that are tried and true and work better than anything else out there. The bottom line is that I highly doubt that any other Marauder modded like mine with a "canned" tune will be able to compete with mine with its more personalized tune.

[MI2QWK4U]

Talked to Lido today and will Hopefully have one of the 1st SCT Scanners available, Waited & Listened a long time before going with Lido, there are lots of options out there but I really like the way the Man "THINKS" ..
I campained one of Sox & Martin's Hemi Cuda's for many years & did quite well Racing and can understand where Lidio's coming from. I Can Hardly wait to get the Scanner, will keep you posted..


You will be more than happy....He is working hard on the Scanners. Just talked to him today about them. Keep us up to date, I think I will get one also eventually....

[bigslim]

I am gonna jump in here too. Lidio put a chip and 410 in my car and I could not be happier. Made a world of difference. I did not know Lidio until last year at the Trilogy Open House. I did however work with guys that had been to Lidio's for tuning on their cars. Nothing but good replies from them on the service they received. I will be seeing Lidio for all of my performance needs. He is first class and a real people person. THANK YOU LIDIO!!!

[Lidio]

I will be posting the final price on the SCT hand held tuner with our program for the MM’s in about two days when I see what I finally pay for them after shipping charges have been included. Although it’s looking like right around $500-525 for the final product.
They will include our base performance program and the other two programs will most likely be for 94 octane and one for 91 octane. Of course we will make minor custom changes for the individual customers as well.

One thing we’ve run into some problems with already with our MM tunes in the last year or so is the ability to accommodate people who have installed harsh shift kits in their stock/mild MM. Once this is done its difficult over mail order to refine the shifts and/or soften them to feel better at part throttle. Our MM tunes are designed for MM’s that have very little done to them like pullies, exhaust, simple bolt-ons and a gear like a 4.10. We can get the trans to shift hard enough through programming with out dropping the pan on a stock/mild MM. They can be harshended more with a shift kit at WOT but then it becomes difficult to soften them at light load with programming because of the different level of shift kits that are out there. If the car is local and I can tune it real time we can for sure achieve mild shifts at part throttle, but mail ordering this for us has proven to be a tough one. So I’d like to recommend not shift kitting a stock MM trans if it’s young and in good shape still. Our program does a great job of firming up the shifts all around but not to hard at light loads and part throttle.


Thanks

[MikesMerc]

Lidio takes too much pride in his work to copy a generic program and pass it off for his own. If you dont mind generic off the rack stuff, go for it, if you want the best possible for your Marauder, give him a chance. I have known the guy for 15 years, its just the kind of work he does.

Well said. Lidio has tuned multiple cars for me over the years. He's been tuning Ford motors long before the Marauder was even a concept. (Does everyone even know that he was a Driveability Specialist at Ford before he opened his shop?). If you want the safest and most satisfying tune, Lidio is has the knowledge.

It just shocks me sometimes at what kind of goading comments some folks on this forum feel they need to make. Folks like that are just better of staying of the thread when they don't know what their talking about, because its apparent they do not. Asking Lidio about selling "off the shelf" tunes means that you don't have a clue what this man is about. No flames intended, just a statement of the obvious for those of us who understand Lidio's capabilities.

[Zack]

If anyone who has replied in this thread thinks for a second that Im doubting Lidio's knowledge, decision making abilities or anything else that he has done to build his stellar reputation, fine.
If you go back and read my question, it was worded to summon a detailed response, which was not only given, but factual, believable and the good answer Ive come to expect from Lidio.
If I didnt have the software myself, Id take my car to Lidio to be tuned.
Ya happy?

[bossman]

I will be posting the final price on the SCT hand held tuner with our program for the MM’s in about two days when I see what I finally pay for them after shipping charges have been included. Although it’s looking like right around $500-525 for the final product.
They will include our base performance program and the other two programs will most likely be for 94 octane and one for 91 octane. Of course we will make minor custom changes for the individual customers as well.

One thing we’ve run into some problems with already with our MM tunes in the last year or so is the ability to accommodate people who have installed harsh shift kits in their stock/mild MM. Once this is done its difficult over mail order to refine the shifts and/or soften them to feel better at part throttle. Our MM tunes are designed for MM’s that have very little done to them like pullies, exhaust, simple bolt-ons and a gear like a 4.10. We can get the trans to shift hard enough through programming with out dropping the pan on a stock/mild MM. They can be harshended more with a shift kit at WOT but then it becomes difficult to soften them at light load with programming because of the different level of shift kits that are out there. If the car is local and I can tune it real time we can for sure achieve mild shifts at part throttle, but mail ordering this for us has proven to be a tough one. So I’d like to recommend not shift kitting a stock MM trans if it’s young and in good shape still. Our program does a great job of firming up the shifts all around but not to hard at light loads and part throttle.


Thanks
Got my SCT Tuner Late Tue, read the directions {A NO BRAINER} Loaded #1 Program, {a little soft for my taste} loaded #2, Much Better, Now it shifts the way I would have Programed it myself, I now have a "Third Gear".
Didn't load #3 because I don't have 94 octane, will go to the track and get some Good Juice & try it ..
Lidio I would still like to have the shifts somewhat firmer especially in the 3-4 shift, not sure it possible with out internal mods ??? but thats just me .

GREAT PROGRAM !!!! I HIGHLY Recommend it to anyone running the Stock Program, Night & Day Difference, this is the way it should have some from the Factory... Thanks Lido.

[Lidio]

I’m glad the hand held is working out for you. All of it especially the trans and torque converter stuff is real well thought out and I’ve tried to meet the expectations of what every one really wants to see in the trans and converter lock-up more then any thing.

I like to firm up the shifts only about 5% at very light load and throttle and a little more firm at ½ to 2/3 throttle and then really firm at WOT. This has proven to work very well on MM’s with nothing major done to them. I can make the shifts firm up even more if you’d like but the base program is a good all around start that locally has worked great.

Bossman… I can make the 3-4 shift very firm with programming still. In fact on a MM trans that’s in good shape, it only requires a shift kit to get the 1-2 shift super hard when its had a power adder installed. One thing you need to know though is that because of how a 4R70W shifts into 4th … you cant make it shift to hard into that gear because your risking a slight “tie-up” or “bind”. So I can only firm it up a little more before a problem can result.


The final price were now going to commit to on our SCT handheld tuners is $525.00 and they’re ready to go with a base program and what ever you want me to try for the other two programs with in reason. Plus for now I wont be charging for minor reprograms other then shipping.


Thanks

[MarauderMike]

Lidio,
What are your hours over there? Also, would you be able to install 4.10's on our Dyno day on the 22nd?

[Lidio]

On the dyno day we cant do major installs like a gear. Only dynoing and a few custom tunes on MM's with only bolt ons and gears already installed.

Remember… ON a typical dyno day for most shops and mine, you only get about 2-3 pulls for your $50.00 and that’s usually it because of the volume of cars that usually tend to show up. No full-on custom tunes on lets say a car that shows up with a blower or NOS. My tunes are thorough and individual per car. It’s tough to give a guy a quick tune if it’s had a few things done to it. As long as it only has no more then a gear change and some other little stuff we will do chips and hand held micro tunes on the dyno day. Other then that it requires another visit with our normal custom tune costs and services.

Thanks

[TripleTransAm]

One thing you need to know though is that because of how a 4R70W shifts into 4th … you cant make it shift to hard into that gear because your risking a slight “tie-up” or “bind”. So I can only firm it up a little more before a problem can result.


Could "over-firming" the 3-4 upshift be a direct cause for prematurely popping that little C-clip that seems to be creating such an increase in tranny failures?

[Lidio]

No... I'd have to say that making the 3-4 shift firmer Does not bother the C-clip. It causes a slight tie up between 3rd and 4th which could eventually lead to a OD band failure because its the weakest of the two devices that actually can bind up, the other being the forward clutch pack which is defiantly tougher then the OD band.


Thanks