BBK CAI (Tune or not to Tune?)

Be careful with tuners. They are often "locked" to the original tuning company. I could be wrong, but I don't think you can transfer tunes from one car to another. you have to get the tuner unlocked , and start with new tunes.

Also, a CAI without a tune will literally do nothing but look good.The stock air cleaner assembly flows pretty good as is.

good call. the tuner could be locked to a car, and possibly a company (Roush for example) but the tuner should be labeled as such. if the previous owner of the tuner did not put the stock tune back on their car and unlock it, the tuner then would still be married/locked to their car. however if it had been put back to stock then the tuner would be unmarried/unlocked and available to tune another Ford vehicle. sct tuners have 5 times that they can be married/locked to a vehicle, after that I believe the tuner needs sent back to sct to be unlocked again. that said, if there is even 1 unlock left on the tuner then you will be fine and you can use it to tune your car. if/when you get the tuner you can go to sctflash.com and download their software and updater. youll need a printer cable to update your tuner and download custom tunes in the future. there are preprogrammed parameters installed in the tuner that you can use (octane, CAI, headers, rev limiter, tire size....ect) and it can also read trouble codes and data log. it will be by far one of the best investments for your car that you will make as everything you do to your car more than likely needs tuned. good luck

Thanks guys!

I've won the SCT tuner for $200 USD and will end up costing me close to $300 CAD after import charges etc...Hopefully it doesn't disappoint and I don't have to ship it back to SCT to be re-flashed. I've read some blogs about guys going online and downloading new configs that will flash their PCMs on a continual basis so i'm not sure why this particular tuner would be locked for good after 5 flashes have been done...but I hope it works well.

Cheers!

congrats on winning your bid. once you get it, you'll be able to do a lot with it that will help. im not sure if im just reading wrong or by "flashes" your meaning locked to a car or just using it 5 times. you'll be able to use it as many times as you want on your vehicle. that's considered locked/married just once. that does count against the times the tuner can be locked/married to a vehicle down by one. update it when you get it thru the sct updater and youll be good to go. also, take your time when using it. make sure that you let the tuner tell you when its ready. don't get in a rush as it takes a few seconds for the selection to be recognized ie. key should be on and things like that. be patient. good luck

Thanks a lot bl817

That's good advice. Here is the response the seller sent to me this morning after I picked at him a bit:

"Hey it was on my 2007 f150, but I unmarried it and I'm not sure, I bought the truck recently and it came with it."

So if I understand it correctly, a typical tuner can be married/locked or unmarried/unlocked a total of FIVE times before it is "no good" (and then must be sent to a dealer to "wipe clean" I presume). So basically, if I were to lock it, then unlock it...that would count as TWO of the FIVE?? I was under the impression that I can download custom configurations from specific sites (for free)....I've never dealt with a tuner before so I'm quite overwhelmed....sorry.

I was of the impression that there weren't any tune adjustments to be made for a CAI. Same goes for axle back exhausts. I thought you need a bigger throttle body, bigger injectors, headers, cats or something along those lines before most tuners change parameters beyond their standard tunes for stock vehicles. I certainly could be wrong, but that's the way I understood it from other threads.

OutrunU said:

Thanks a lot bl817

That's good advice. Here is the response the seller sent to me this morning after I picked at him a bit:

"Hey it was on my 2007 f150, but I unmarried it and I'm not sure, I bought the truck recently and it came with it."

So if I understand it correctly, a typical tuner can be married/locked or unmarried/unlocked a total of FIVE times before it is "no good" (and then must be sent to a dealer to "wipe clean" I presume). So basically, if I were to lock it, then unlock it...that would count as TWO of the FIVE?? I was under the impression that I can download custom configurations from specific sites (for free)....I've never dealt with a tuner before so I'm quite overwhelmed....sorry.

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No.. As long as you are dealing with the same car, it would only count as married once. if you unmarry it from your car, and then tune someone else's car, it would up the marry count.

lawman834 said:

I was of the impression that there weren't any tune adjustments to be made for a CAI. Same goes for axle back exhausts. I thought you need a bigger throttle body, bigger injectors, headers, cats or something along those lines before most tuners change parameters beyond their standard tunes for stock vehicles. I certainly could be wrong, but that's the way I understood it from other threads.

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Most CAI's require a tune. The BBK he has does not require a tune. It all depends on the size of the MAF housing. If the housing is bigger on the CAI, it needs a tune; if it is the same size as stock, no tune needed. Some people have had problems with no tune CAI's tripping the CEL for one reason or another though.

Also, make sure to put your battery on a charger/battery tender when you flash the tune.

Depending on the tuner you bought, there may not be any SCT pre-loaded tunes on it. I know when I bought a tuner from Steeda, there were no SCT pre-loaded tunes on it; only a custom tune. I have also bought a tuner from AED and I don't think there are any SCT pre-loaded tunes on that one either, I could be wrong about that though. It all depends on where the original owner got the tuner from. There may be a part number difference between the ones with pre-loaded tunes and without pre-loaded tunes, but I'm not sure. I wouldn't use the SCT pre-loaded tunes anyway.

Which tuner did you buy? X3 or X4?

Thnx for the replies Daustin

The tuner I bought is the SCT SF3 (part number 3015)...I have NO CLUE yet what I first need to do when I receive the tuner. You are correct though...The CAI I bought from BBK DOES advertise as NO tune required and advertises horsepower gains on a dyno in their video with NO TUNE...However, many people that installed this part say they were getting a error code (running lean) so most people tune it.

I even found videos on youtube by the TV show Motorz where they had the BBK CAI and tune combo with pretty significant power gains....Here is the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBxD-kK5Nrw

Still though, even if a CAI does NOT require a tune...I'm guessing it's not an issue to tune my car to run on 91 octane right?

Thanks again for your help!

The first thing you need to do is download the SCT updater on your laptop. That way once the tuner comes in, you can update it. Just open the updater then plug your tuner into the computer. Once it recognizes the tuner, click on the automatically check for updates button, or whatever the top button says. That way your tuner will be up to date. The X3's that I've used in he past all had problems with the computer recognizing they were plugged in. If the computer doesn't recognize it, unplug the tuner and plug it back in again. That always worked for me.

There won't be any issues loading a 91 tune with the BBK, but if it's just a canned tune for the stock airbox, it still could throw a check engine light, just as it might on the stock tune. I would really get a tune written specifically for your car. Don't mess with the SCT canned tunes.

Thanks a lot for the reply.

By canned tune...I'm guessing that means something that's been pre-programmed instead of something customized to your own ride?

So basically, when my tuner comes in I should:

1) Download an update if one exists (will have to be on my pc)
2) Check to see if there are any pre-loaded/canned configurations that will work "so-so" with my ride (not sure how I will now what's loaded on my tuner)
3) If nothing good on tuner, go some place to get a tune written...Any clue how much something like that would cost? And do people "write" their own??

I'd be reluctant to get a custom config written now because there is still a lot of other mods I wanna get done,

thoughts??

OutrunU said:

Thanks a lot for the reply.

By canned tune...I'm guessing that means something that's been pre-programmed instead of something customized to your own ride?

So basically, when my tuner comes in I should:

1) Download an update if one exists (will have to be on my pc)
2) Check to see if there are any pre-loaded/canned configurations that will work "so-so" with my ride (not sure how I will now what's loaded on my tuner)
3) If nothing good on tuner, go some place to get a tune written...Any clue how much something like that would cost? And do people "write" their own??

I'd be reluctant to get a custom config written now because there is still a lot of other mods I wanna get done,

thoughts??

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If the part number for your tuner is 3000, there will be no pre-loaded tunes on it. If it's a 3015, there will be pre-loaded tunes on it. But again, I wouldn't use the SCT Tunes. That's just me though.

Custom tunes are not very expensive. It all depends on who you want to go with. Steeda/Bama are like $150 for tunes for life. Zeroaviation on here also does tunes and I believe they're fairly inexpensive. He knows these PCM's very well and I have seen nothing but good reviews on his tunes.

Currently I have tunes for Life from Bama/American Muscle and I have no complaints. Bama has updated my tunes at least 4 to 5 times so far because of various modifications I have done. CAI, off-road X pipe, then headers with cats. And pretty soon I will be requesting updated tunes when I remove the cats for off-road use and install the Borla Over axle pipes. With Bama and probably every other reputable tuner you can order via online 89, 91, 93 octane tunes with street, performance, or race tune designations. I have not done it yet, but you can log data with your tuner and Bama can make adjustments. I believe the bama tunes are probably considered somewhat of a canned tune and I am sure that they have safety factors built in to their tunes for liability reasons. Thus if you really want to wake up your pony, then you will want to get a custom dyno tune.