[A7X1031]

I purchased a new predator tuner for my V6 05 stang. It will be coming in a few weeks and I have a few questions. First off, do I automatically get tunes when it comes out of the package? I heard that you have to buy the tunes after you buy the tuner. Don't they come with an 87, 91, and 93 automatically in the tuner itself? Also I heard that you only get gains of 15-20 HP from custom tunes only. I'm confused by this whole thing. I'm getting different answers and opinions from so many directions its driving me nuts! lol. I'm also told that I have to disconnect the battery or something when I am finished tuning to restart the computer. Can someone please help clear all this up, I'm very confused Thank you very much for any responses in advance.

[wally05]

I used the SCT tuner on my car with an intake. If you just get the tuner with tunes for the mustang, you should be fine. If it's a brand new tuner, it will be set to your car until you choose to reinstall the stock tune. Some tuners will have "boxed" tunes that come with them. They work, but a custom tune from a dyno guy would be the best. My intake and tune are good for up to 25hp or so, which is a pretty good gain with a simple plug-in bolt-on thing. You'll feel it, trust me. You don't have to pull fuses or unplug the battery (that is at least what I've heard and many ppl done) unless there is a serious risk of your battery dying, which you should be fine. I'm pretty sure Stlwagon has retuned his car like 90 times without doing anything other than plugging it in and hitting buttons. Oh, you were fine asking those questions on my thread, I was just joshing about the hijack. Also, yes, you have to pay for custom tunes. I bought mine off Brenspeed and they'll redo my tunes for free unless I add a supercharger or something. 3 custom tunes and an intake for $600 (I think it was less).

[zenflow]

notice he said you have to buy "custom" tunes...not the ones that come with the device itself. You CAN buy additional tunes, such as the 93 Torque tune that I bought from BamaChips. But when you buy a tuner they normally come with basic performance tunes for 87, 91, and 93 octane. Some places have 89 octane tunes available for purchase now too. Honestly, once you load the 93 you won't mess with the other lower octane tunes. Yes, 87 fuel is cheaper but just watch how crappy your gas mileage gets. You'll actually make out better price wise by loading the 93 and getting better gas mileage as well as better performance. Right now the only tunes I mess with are my 93 performance tune that came with my tuner and the 93 torque tune I bought separately. I usually load the performance tune for long trips (maybe 5% of the time) and the torque tune for city driving (95% of the time).

[A7X1031]

Originally Posted by zenflow

notice he said you have to buy "custom" tunes...not the ones that come with the device itself. You CAN buy additional tunes, such as the 93 Torque tune that I bought from BamaChips. But when you buy a tuner they normally come with basic performance tunes for 87, 91, and 93 octane. Some places have 89 octane tunes available for purchase now too. Honestly, once you load the 93 you won't mess with the other lower octane tunes. Yes, 87 fuel is cheaper but just watch how crappy your gas mileage gets. You'll actually make out better price wise by loading the 93 and getting better gas mileage as well as better performance. Right now the only tunes I mess with are my 93 performance tune that came with my tuner and the 93 torque tune I bought separately. I usually load the performance tune for long trips (maybe 5% of the time) and the torque tune for city driving (95% of the time).

No one has ever explained the difference besides the obvious octanes on what that feature actually does. Will I lose gas milage with the 87? I thought your suppose to gain at least 1 MPG with a tune. (not like I cae I want performance that was just a bonus) Does the 93 increase torque and HP more than the 87? I also heard that you only gain 5 HP if you don't use a custom tune, there any truth behind that? My main concern is getting rid of the torque limiter and the delay on when you hit the gas pedal from a roll when the computer needs to find the proper gear. That drives me nuts!

[MEH362]

The Predator does indeed come with a 87, 91 and 93 octane tune preloaded. You can create your own or purchase custom tunes and have them loaded.

You don't disconnect the battery at all. When you get the hand held device you simply plug it into the On Board Diagnostic (OBD) port directly beneath the steering column. The unit will then go through several menu's instructing you what you need to do (i.e. turn key, but don't start motor. Turn off key, Turn on again, etc..) It's amazingly simple.

The whole process takes just a couple of minutes. After it's loaded, it stores the original factory defaults on the device and it is now married to the car. Meaning it can't be used on another vehicle until you take the predator tune off your car and restore the factory defaults.

I've never measured the increase in performance, especially since I never had a starting point as a reference. But I would imagine that your estimate of 10-15hp is in the ballpark. It does remove some of the throttle lag, but not all.