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Review of (Doug904)BamaChips tuner

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Alrighty then... I got my tuner in the mail today woo hooo!!!!!

So fist comes my disclaimer. I seriously aggravated an old knee injury helping clients move today, so am suffering a bit of pain when I drive. Hence I have no intentions of driving a lot tonight or tomorrow. Come the weekend I will post back with a more extensive testing of the program under a variety of circumstances. City, Hi-way, and off-road, probably some snow too, but that's just for fun.

Secondly I want to list some of my concerns and observations with my Apten Tune.
1. Any time the program was in, I got a CEL. I tested extensively in a variety of engine configurations, and in the end, It was all about the Apten program.

2. The shift pattern was much improved, however it was inconsistant in that some shifts were nice and smoooth while a couple slammed your neck against the seat even under mild acceleration. This was a huge deficit a few times this summer when going up very slick and steep hills. In 4 low I would be crawling up just fine when all of the sudden the shift hit hard and broke the tires free. With open diffs, that's kinda time to slide back down and try again.

3 With the Apten Tune. I noticed performance wise was the shift points. It was definately a bit quicker on the rapping of RPM, and had some mild to moderate improvement overall. This seemed to be primarily focused on the top end and upper mid range.

4. With the Apten programming installed, my engine still ran well, but ended up being a bit rough on the idle in comparison with it's stock programming.

Customer Service:
Doug has been amazing to work with throughout this process. We have been in almost daily contact via phone and PM regarding what I wanted from the programming and also to better coordinate the details. I have spent a ton of money on this truck and a whole lot more on my old 5.0 Mustang. With the exception of my Body Man in Idaho, I have never had a customer service experience on par with that of Doug. Now I don't just say that because he made me a great deal, I truly have never had as positive an experience as I did with Doug!!!!!!! I wish he would have been around in this capacity when I was thinking about ordering from Apten. It sure would have saved some stress and headaches. Then again, Now that I have my tune, I think he should get 4.0 performance.com going again. That way I can get the same service when I can get some heads :D He did tell me where to go when the time came though, so I guess that will work out.

Seat of the pants driving in town (only about 45 minutes)

Damn Doug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously I have not had the opportunity to be able to really test this program out. However my first impressions are very positive!
My engine idled as smoothly as I would expect from the stock configuration.
When I stomped on it. My only thought was Holy S***. The truck instantly kicked down and launched into aerospace.
OK OK I exagerrate a little ;)
The tuning was very noticeable compared to my experience with the Apten Tune, having pulling power improvements across the RPM range with a particular focus on the mid range. The shifting was very smooth and actually not intrusive. Under hard exceleration it sits you back a little, but under normal driving conditions I hardly even notice that it shifts. Almost like one long gear. I used to sit there and cuss the truck. I have always owned a standard. And drag raced several. The automatic always make me cry, "shift now, come on" or, "no damnit that was to soon!!!" I timed these and they were damn near perfect. 2nd may come a touch late, but a 4500 truck likely needs that extra boost to get rolling. Only a short trial, but I am quite pleased presently!!! Even My 5 year old daughter who rides all over in this truck noticed the change under full throttle. She asked why my truck got faster :D :D :D :D :D :D
 






dreamr said:
Alrighty then... I got my tuner in the mail today woo hooo!!!!!

So fist comes my disclaimer. I seriously aggravated an old knee injury helping clients move today, so am suffering a bit of pain when I drive. Hence I have no intentions of driving a lot tonight or tomorrow. Come the weekend I will post back with a more extensive testing of the program under a variety of circumstances. City, Hi-way, and off-road, probably some snow too, but that's just for fun.

Secondly I want to list some of my concerns and observations with my Apten Tune.
1. Any time the program was in, I got a CEL. I tested extensively in a variety of engine configurations, and in the end, It was all about the Apten program.

2. The shift pattern was much improved, however it was inconsistant in that some shifts were nice and smoooth while a couple slammed your neck against the seat even under mild acceleration. This was a huge deficit a few times this summer when going up very slick and steep hills. In 4 low I would be crawling up just fine when all of the sudden the shift hit hard and broke the tires free. With open diffs, that's kinda time to slide back down and try again.

3 With the Apten Tune. I noticed performance wise was the shift points. It was definately a bit quicker on the rapping of RPM, and had some mild to moderate improvement overall. This seemed to be primarily focused on the top end and upper mid range.

4. With the Apten programming installed, my engine still ran well, but ended up being a bit rough on the idle in comparison with it's stock programming.

Customer Service:
Doug has been amazing to work with throughout this process. We have been in almost daily contact via phone and PM regarding what I wanted from the programming and also to better coordinate the details. I have spent a ton of money on this truck and a whole lot more on my old 5.0 Mustang. With the exception of my Body Man in Idaho, I have never had a customer service experience on par with that of Doug. Now I don't just say that because he made me a great deal, I truly have never had as positive an experience as I did with Doug!!!!!!! I wish he would have been around in this capacity when I was thinking about ordering from Apten. It sure would have saved some stress and headaches. Then again, Now that I have my tune, I think he should get 4.0 performance.com going again. That way I can get the same service when I can get some heads :D He did tell me where to go when the time came though, so I guess that will work out.

Seat of the pants driving in town (only about 45 minutes)

Damn Doug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obviously I have not had the opportunity to be able to really test this program out. However my first impressions are very positive!
My engine idled as smoothly as I would expect from the stock configuration.
When I stomped on it. My only thought was Holy S***. The truck instantly kicked down and launched into aerospace.
OK OK I exagerrate a little ;)
The tuning was very noticeable compared to my experience with the Apten Tune, having pulling power improvements across the RPM range with a particular focus on the mid range. The shifting was very smooth and actually not intrusive. Under hard exceleration it sits you back a little, but under normal driving conditions I hardly even notice that it shifts. Almost like one long gear. I used to sit there and cuss the truck. I have always owned a standard. And drag raced several. The automatic always make me cry, "shift now, come on" or, "no damnit that was to soon!!!" I timed these and they were damn near perfect. 2nd may come a touch late, but a 4500 truck likely needs that extra boost to get rolling. Only a short trial, but I am quite pleased presently!!! Even My 5 year old daughter who rides all over in this truck noticed the change under full throttle. She asked why my truck got faster :D :D :D :D :D :D
this post is useless without posted Dyno numbers, my 5 year old grandson was impressed when I oiled the bearings on his Razor scooter.
Doug, The new download program sounds great, the change for tire size is a no brainer, all the other perameters that can be adjusted, A/F ratio, shift points etc, can they be done in your driveway? or perhaps they need being done on a Dyno?
 






spindlecone said:
this post is useless without posted Dyno numbers, my 5 year old grandson was impressed when I oiled the bearings on his Razor scooter.
Doug, The new download program sounds great, the change for tire size is a no brainer, all the other perameters that can be adjusted, A/F ratio, shift points etc, can they be done in your driveway? or perhaps they need being done on a Dyno?

Well, that's true but he's not focusing on dyno numbers, he wants seat of the pants improvements and he got them. You want dyno results? I got some new dyno results from a Ranger owner this weekend with a SOHC with only Airaid intake and my programmer. He made 194rwhp and 218rwtq and started out rated at 3 less HP then the Explorer's. His base numbers were 178rwhp and 203 rwtq. He would have made alot more torque but his air intake was causing a lean condition at the end of the run, not bad but it went from 13.1 to 14.0-14.5. That's where he lost torque, when I richen it up I'm betting he'll be over 230rwtq. But like it's been said already every dyno's different and every truck. Here's his graph's...

2001 Ranger SOHC


You wanna send me your programmer and I'll send you a tune for you to take to the dyno? If not then please calm down, he's posting his responces same as you have and others about Wayne's. Give everyone a fair chance to say what they feel.



Later Doug.
 












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