Crap Tune????

[secretservice]

So I picked up my new MM yesterday and drove over 500 miles home. Love the car, everything I expected it to be! Well taken care of, clean as a pin, and I'm in love.

The only issue that confuses me is in regards to the tune that is (was) on it. The seller gave me the hand held with the car, it's an SCT SF3 Powerflash tuner, part number SCT3015. On the way home I took some full throttle "test runs" on the highway, and the trans shifted nice and firm into second at the right time but on a full throttle upshift into third it would go into third, back down into second, and continue the cycle until I lifted a bit and it settled into third and then fourth. Always was occurring at about 90mph. In fear of causing trans damage, I cooled my jets and just drove it home and to work today. Came home, opened the tuner up and pulled the tune off the car. (Returned it to stock.) This of course turned the trans back into somewhat of a slush-o-matic, but I went back out on the highway and opened her up and it shifted into third just like Ford wanted it to. Slowed back down to 55, gunned it and same thing, perfect factory soft upshift. Got off the highway and headed back the other way and again, perfect. So it's in the tune/tuner/operator error. So does anyone have an idea what could have happened here? The previous owner bought the tuner at a speed shop near him and the guy that runs the shop did the tune, but I don't know if this guy did his own "tune" or just uploaded the preloaded tune. I'd love to have a tune on the car, even if it is a preloaded one, but not if the trans acts silly on it. Thanks in advance for any input!

[secretservice]

Guess I could have put this in the "tuning" forum... my bad.

[fastblackmerc]

Contact Martyo or Lidio for a "Good" tune.

[martyo]

Let me know if you are interested in one of our tunes.

[secretservice]

Sounds good. Any idea what they screwed up on my car?

And for good measure, a pic of the original owner shedding a tear after the deal was done.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/secretservicemusclecars/IMG_1857_zps8c23e856.jpg (http://s918.photobucket.com/user/secretservicemusclecars/media/IMG_1857_zps8c23e856.jpg.html)

[8UWITH6]

Or you have a transmission issue with the higher line pressures that your tune allows................

[secretservice]

Line pressure issues had crossed my mind. I will add that I did in fact check trans fluid level and condition before going into all of this. Nice red fluid at proper level hot, on level ground.

[martyo]

Sounds good. Any idea what they screwed up on my car?


It may or may not be in the tune and may be in the trans itself.

Swapping in a new tune will help narrow i down.

[secretservice]

I have a fluid pressure gauge setup at work, and Alldata to look up line pressure specs, may just do a road test with the gauge on the trans before anything else to make sure the trans is in good internal condition. Is it possible someone that may not have known what they were doing jacked around with shift points? I don't even know what you can mess with on this particular handheld. I read the company's product info, but it's more of a sales pitch than real info.

[lji372]

Sounds good. Any idea what they screwed up on my car?

And for good measure, a pic of the original owner shedding a tear after the deal was done.
http://i918.photobucket.com/albums/ad21/secretservicemusclecars/IMG_1857_zps8c23e856.jpg (http://s918.photobucket.com/user/secretservicemusclecars/media/IMG_1857_zps8c23e856.jpg.html)

Ah, that's how you make a grown man cry:lol:

Congrats on your new ride:beer:

[secretservice]

Thanks! He really hated to see it go, but kept saying how much he was glad it's going to someone who will appreciate it. Gave me the jacket too. And it fits.

[lji372]

Thanks! He really hated to see it go, but kept saying how much he was glad it's going to someone who will appreciate it. Gave me the jacket too. And it fits.

Nice, that's awesome stuff there. Wouldn't you agree curless?
Tom gave me the jacket as well when I bought his car :bows:

[8UWITH6]

I hope its just the tune. Just throwing out some things that it could be........... How many miles on the car?

[secretservice]

90k miles. Are the preloaded tunes kind of hokey on these things?

[MyBlackBeasts]

90k miles. Are the preloaded tunes kind of hokey on these things?

No, the canned tunes from Lidio or Marty are awesome improvements over OEM. Best $$ you can spend short of getting a custom tume on their dyno.

Go for it, you won't be disapointed. :burnout:

[secretservice]

Oh I wasn't meaning are those guys' tunes hokey, I mean are the ones straight out of the box on the SCT as delivered. This tuner has like 3 preloaded ones I think. What do the guys charge for their tunes? Something I should PM them about or is it common knowledge amongst the community?

[RubberCtyRauder]

Just as added info..You shouldn't do WOT runs with trans in OD. take it out of OD when doing WOT fun runs. The OD bands are a weaker link for WOT.

I would recommend getting a new tune since you already have the SCT unit. from Martyo at Mo's or Lidio at Alternative Auto. They both have created a tune for the Marauder from a Marauder, and can tweak it into you liking and email it to you and you download it to your sct. They can provide tunes for different grades of gas or axle ratios etc. And they both will stand by their tunes. I had a MartyO tune and it was great, then drove down to their shop to install a vortech S/C i bought from a member here. Alot of people here are happy with both vendors here..

The canned tunes from SCT are not worhth for a Marauder..Give the others a go, you'll be tons happier..Tunes only are in the less than $200 range, but prolly more than a $100

[secretservice]

Thank you all kindly for the info. Still have yet to put the car in the air and really go through it. So much to do! Only day two of ownership.

[RF Overlord]

Also consider that looks are not a good way to judge ATF. Just because it isn't contaminated or burnt, the additive pack can still be depleted. Unless you know for sure it has been changed in the last 30,000 miles, I highly recommend doing at least a pan drop, or a complete fluid exchange if the fluid's never been changed.

[secretservice]

Good info. The receipt is in the glove box for a drain and fill at the dealership at 35k, but it does have 90k on it now. I'll pick up some Mercon very soon.

[boatmangc]

Good info. The receipt is in the glove box for a drain and fill at the dealership at 35k, but it does have 90k on it now. I'll pick up some AMSOIL very soon.

Fixed it for you!

[secretservice]

Fixed it for you!

Something to think about. Especially since the wife's Challenger takes 7.2 quarts of oil and her preference is Mobil 1...

[boatmangc]

I have used Amsoil ATF in all of my vehicles for 20+ years. NEVER lost a tranny. Numerous early to mid 90s F150s with 180-280 thousand miles. 4eod trannies. Amazing stuff.
I had a 92 f150 that I carried a lot of weight in all the time plus did a substantial amount of towing, it would cook ATF in 16-20000 miles. At 40000 miles I swapped out for Amsoil. Never burned fluid again. I replaced it at 100k, bottom of pan was clean.

Almost too good to be true.

I don't sell it, I just use it.

[secretservice]

Update. Tune pulled off, trans acted completely normal. Still dropped the pan the other day and stuck a filter in plus some Valvoline Merc V. One slight problem... Tried connecting the SCT device to the wife's laptop, and the laptop won't find the device. This seems to be a common problem with SCT devices and Windows 7, and is starting to feel like more trouble than it's worth. The SCT is just a strategy tuner anyway, and doesn't do much more that firm up the shifts with line pressure and allow you to advance and retard spark timing, but still don't know if it's worth all the hassle. If it doesn't work with Windows 7 or Mac, fixin to say screw it and unload the thing. Just slightly frustrating that the stupid thing won't work with our computer OS, and to top it all of we've emailed SCT a couple of times and no response, which may be the most frustrating thing of all.

[secretservice]

And now updating the firmware the device has a file system error message. Won't connect to the car or the pc. Wow. Just wow. SCT 3015 for sale. 4 unlocks left. Soon as SCT fixes the device pretty sure it's going down the road.

[boatmangc]

Send the SCT to Jeff at Mo's.

[martyo]

Send the SCT to Jeff at Mo's.

We would be happy to try to help.

[boatmangc]

I have a Win 7 PC and couldn't get anywhere with it, Jeff did a software upgrade on the SCT and after that it would communicate with my PC.

[lji372]

We would be happy to try to help.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^nuff said :D

[secretservice]

Thanks folks, but already listed it on EvilBay. I don't mind the car being stock for now, still on the high of everyone complimenting me on the car just how it is. I did have a typo however, we are on Windows 8, not Windows 7 as previously stated. My wife is very good with software and computers in general and she even had the forethought to back up the stock parameters just in case, and when she (not me) was on the phone with SCT they complimented her on thinking to back up the stock parameters. They were able to recover it very easily. This has really been a headache, and if I were to use a tuner it will be one of the more modern ones, Diablo Trinity or SCT Livewire or something of the sort. Not a big fan of this particular device, the more I know the less I like it. But again, thanks to all for help and offers to help with this, I really appreciate it.