SCT Tuning Options

[PPPD1227]

Hey All, stumbled upon this forum and I just want to say what a great place for all sorts of Info. I am a proud new owner of a 2015 Sport. I got rid of my 2006 mustang which I used an SCT Livewire TS Tuner to load tunes with. I was wondering if there is any company I can send the Livewire tuner out to for programming to the Ecoboost 3.5. Thank you all in advance for the help and advice.

 

[Sgt1411]

Hey All, stumbled upon this forum and I just want to say what a great place for all sorts of Info. I am a proud new owner of a 2015 Sport. I got rid of my 2006 mustang which I used an SCT Livewire TS Tuner to load tunes with. I was wondering if there is any company I can send the Livewire tuner out to for programming to the Ecoboost 3.5. Thank you all in advance for the help and advice.

Why can't it just go back to SCT?

 

[PPPD1227]

The tuner was bought from Americanmuscle.com for my 2006 GT. It seems like they disabled the factory tunes and wrote their own tunes in it. I didn't know sending it back to Sct was an option. I will try and reach out to someone at SCT. Thank you guys!

 

[binaryman3]

I from what I found when ordering custom tunes for my SCT livewire is SCT does not have base tunes for the exp sport ecoboost but custom tunes are available and the Livewire will hold up to 10 custom tunes. I bought custom tunes for mine from 5 star tuning (843) 536-1244. They have 8 custom tunes for the sport. You should be able to use your current live wire tuner as long as its not linked to your mustang. You purchase them and they will email you the tunes and you load them on the tuner and then on your exp sport. Their website says they are coming soon but if you call them they can hook you up with their custom tunes. You should not have to send them the unit but ask them if there are any issues with a tuner that old. It might just need a firmware update that can be done on your own PC. I bought 6 tunes for different octane fuels for sport and economy and currently use the 91 octane sport tune in Colorado since we can only get 91 octane premium here. I used 5 star in the past for my F150 that had horrible shifting in the stock tune and their tunes were amazing. The sport tunes in my sport was a big improvement and I run the stock components and no mods. It shifts better and has more power and I am very happy with them. Plus the tunes by themselves cost from $105 for one tune to $375 for all 8 tunes. The more tunes you buy the cost per tune is lower. The owner of 5 star personally develops the tunes and road test and dynos all of them. Give them a call if you have questions.

 

[Boostking]

Hey All, stumbled upon this forum and I just want to say what a great place for all sorts of Info. I am a proud new owner of a 2015 Sport. I got rid of my 2006 mustang which I used an SCT Livewire TS Tuner to load tunes with. I was wondering if there is any company I can send the Livewire tuner out to for programming to the Ecoboost 3.5. Thank you all in advance for the help and advice.

When you got rid of the mustang that you used the LWTS on, did you return to stock with the LWTS? This would unmarry the device and allow you to use it on another vehicle. If you didnt return to stock the mustang, the device is still locked to the mustang. You can call SCT tech support and they will set up an RMA to unlock the device ($150). This resets it to new condition and they update it for you and send it back.

Then from there you would update the device using SCT Device Updater and then you could use it on the XSport.

Additionally, you can purchase custom tunes, which can be emailed to you (no need to ship the unit) and you would load those custom tunes onto the device using your computer and SCT Device Updater. Then you can use custom or preloaded tunes.

If your preloaded tunes are disabled, you can go to Settings, at the bottom click factory reset. This will delete the custom tunes that were on the device from the mustang, and restore the use of the preloaded tunes. When you get custom tunes from your next dealer, request that they do not disable the preloaded tunes, they have that option.

 

[Sgt1411]

Just an update for owners of the SCT X4 tuner that may have bought their tunes from Torrie at Unleashed Tuning.

I told Torrie about Livernois updating their tunes and he flipped me the latest version of his Explorer Sport EcoBoost 94 Tune. It's noticeably better than the previous tune I had.

Worth asking if you got your original tunes from Torrie.

 

[Mbbrewer]

I am not loyal to any company but I am very pleased with the 87 Octane Tune I have on my 2015 Sport from http://www.diablosport.com/

There are 2 tuners they offer..The Trinity and the Intune. I have the Intune tuner.
http://www.diablosport.com/product-search.html

93 Octane Performance - This tune is designed for use with premium fuel. The Performance Tune will unleash the maximum available Horsepower, Torque and Economy out of your stock vehicle with no other mods necessary! Vehicles will see a power across the entire RPM range with the greatest gains down low. Vehicle will also see improvements in drivability, throttle response, and economy.
+70 HP & 70 Torque

91 Octane Performance - This tune is very similar to the Performance tune for 93 Octane but optimized for the 91 Octane Premium Fuel found in some states. Vehicles will see a power across the entire RPM range with the greatest gains down low. Vehicle will also see improvements in drivability, throttle response, and economy.
+60 HP & 65 Torque

Modified Stock - This will allow you to keep the vehicle at the stock horsepower and torque levels, but the user can still change all the available adjustable parameters for the application, like the speed limiter, speedometer calibration, etc. Modified Stock also allows you to "marry" the tool to the vehicle and make a copy of the stock tune when requested by a CMR Dealer (custom tuner).
+ NA HP & NA Torque

87 Octane Tune - This tune is designed for use with 87 octane gasoline. It will increase HP, TQ and Fuel Economy without the need to run premium fuel in the vehicle. While HP Gains are not as great as in the 93 octane Diablotune, this tune wakes up your vehicle's throttle response, power, and improves overall driveability.
+ 60 HP & 65 Torque

Mileage Booster - The Mileage Booster tune utilizes the vehicle's DOD system to optimize efficiency for daily use. Horsepower gains will be minimal, but mileage will improve by up to 3 MPG in some applications! Compatible with fuel that is 87 octane or greater, and only available to vehicles that have the DOD system from the factory.

Also, MikeL's customer service is mind blowing.

Is this tune compatible on a 2016 Explorer Sport?

 

[Livernois]

Is this tune compatible on a 2016 Explorer Sport?

SCT has NO support for any of the 2016 Explorer configurations. We have tuning for the 3.5L Naturally Aspirated as well as the 3.5L EcoBoost that is found in the Platinum, Limited and Sports!

 

[Sgt1411]

Anyone know what the recent rather large SCT X4 update was?

Any new functionality?

 

[Vic2186]

The 2016 sport is supported the SCT now ..custom tunes only and torrie is providing them for the 16 sport now

 

[need-a-cage]

I hope to be tuning my wife's soon. I want to go with SCT so I can datalog. I am still waiting to baseline it stock at the drag strip. Hopefully that will happen on Wednesday!

 

[LakersCentral]

Recently moved from CA to TX, and was happy that 93 octane is standard out here. Changed from the 91 tune (i had been using for about a year) to the 93 tune.

However, I'm experiencing major issues with stumbling, loss of power, etc with this tune. I'm wondering if its an issue w/ the tune, or if its merely exposing an underlying problem with my Ex. I've always felt like something was wrong, but I've never owned a turbocharged vehicle before, so I just put it down to user error. I now know there is undoubtedly something wrong here.

I have the SCT iTSX 4015, loaded with tune files: CSX1export93.cef. I'm wondering if anyone else has the same setup, and could comment / help. Thanks.

 

[need-a-cage]

There was another guy on here that used a more aggressive Tune from Livernois and started to get stumbling issues. Unlike him, you can datalog. Log it and see what is going on. The other guy was flying blind with no datalogs so he changed a bunch of stuff and never fixed it. I am guessing that the tune for the extra octane is bumping the boost up to a level that your fuel system can not support. At least that is what I think the other guy's issue was. Maybe his pump was on the edge... Did you gap your plugs tighter? I am not sure what point this needs to be done, but guys with the aggressive tunes have to gap their plugs tighter to avoid spark blowout.

 

[Livernois]

I am not sure what we have to do with a discussion about SCT tuning solutions. However, since you mentioned us, there was a mechanical issue that was exacerbated by the more powerful tuning that was introduced in the vehicle you mentioned. Since then, the issue was fixed and the client has moved on from that vehicle and purchased a Taurus SHO that is currently sporting our tuning and mods!

As for logging, we have already addressed your misconception in prior threads. ​​Anyone taking the native values and recalculating them into something else that gives a chance for things to be miscalculated. This is the biggest issues we see with data logging or tune monitoring.If someone looks at AFR on a monitoring device, that value is already calculated. But the issue is what conversion are they using? 14.64? 14.08? something else? Now, what about what is in your tank. If they are assuming e10, and you have something more like e6, that instantly makes the applied conversion incorrect. Then, what if they aren't grabbing the right data point from the ECM to log it? What if they are grabbing one with an offset already added in? or a delay? or a commanded VS actual average?

You can see where one simple item like "AFR" is all of a sudden riddled with chances of incorrect data being displayed and/or gathered.​ ​Now, we haven't even started talking about boost, or any other myriad of items that could be logged. You see, the Data points that almost all dataloggers use are SAE. Now, SAE standards are nice, BUT they are not designed for someone to do calibration from. They are for repair shops to help diagnose issues with vehicles. So, the level of precision, and refresh rate is not what's needed to do proper calibration development. If you are using a data point with a 200ms refresh rate, but the actual value in the ECM refreshes every 8ms, then the ECM is updating 50x more frequently then what you are watching. Again, you start to see where the issues happen and it's easier to understand why we do not treat the EcoBoost like any other engine before it. Can someone get lucky and eventually end up with a tune that works by looking at the wrong data? Absolutely. Can they repeat those results over and over again without starting from scratch each time? Usually not. And it all stems from having the right knowledge, and data in the first place.
​
​N​o where does the computer spit out A/F data. Yet the data logger you're using is providing your tuner with this inaccurate A/F data. This is why we data log our own vehicles in house, to ensure it's the correct format and information required. What good does inaccurate data do anyone? That is how people end up with engine failures. Making tune adjustments from this incorrect data. When there is an option that allows remote, accurate, seamless data logging available, we wouldn't reject this, and is something we are working on developing, but again, it's not needed at all due to our procedures we have in place today.​​

To make it a little easier to picture for most people. If Ford, GM, Chrysler, or any auto manufacturer could spend $30-50 on hardware to datalog and do calibration, why don't they? The answer is simple, you can't, it takes 10's of Thousands of dollars to have the right hardware just for the process to begin.​

 

[need-a-cage]

You have not cleared up anything in previous posts. So log Lambda and go by that instead of AFR. You can still see if you have a lean condition or not.

I am not wasting any more time going back and forth with you on this. All of your "information" is in the previous posts. An uneducated user may not know what to log or how to interpret them, but the tuner using the logs knows what to log and how to use the information.

Okay, so what was the mechanical issue? Would it have been found sooner with datalogging before this guy spent $1000's of dollars swapping out the wrong parts?

 

[Livernois]

The goal is not to fight with you, but if you are going to attempt to drag us through the mud I cannot let that go without adding in the factual data that you do not possess.

There were issues within his fueling system from the factory, hence the Taurus. We did not tell him to swap out any parts. That was done against our recommendations, and of his own volition.

We were not even mentioned in the post that you decided to reply to. Nor is the vehicle that you referenced, neither is your vehicle modified. What is the purpose of you posting?

 

[need-a-cage]

Why did I post? To help out LakersCentral. His issue may be the same as 16 Sport. What exactly was the problem with the fuel system? Pump, some sensor,...? The first thing I told him to do was put a wideband on it. That would have told him if it leaned out or went rich, regardless of how the ecoboost determines its fueling. I didn't "drag you through the mud." I did not blame the tune for his problem. I did not say that you told him to swap parts. (However, 16 Sport did in his posts.) What does it matter if my wife's Sport is modified or not?
16 Sport said he loaded a more aggressive tune when his issue occurred. LakersCentral went from a 91 to 93 tune. I am assuming that tune increased boost, which will require more fuel. If there is a problem with his fuel system, the extra boost could have brought it to light. The same as 16 Sport. So, why don't you help us all out and tell us exactly what fixed the other Sport so we will know to check that if we have similar problems in the future. Mine has done it once stock. I just can't remember if I had TC off or not. I thoght I did, which makes me worry that it will have issues with boost turned up.
Thanks

 

[Livernois]

The information basis of your posts are inaccurate, because the EcoBoost, unlike most vehicles, already comes with a wideband O2 sensor from the factory. The fueling trims are monitored and controlled by the factory MAP/wideband combo.

Yes, you can log Lambda. BUT, if you are logging at 200ms and the ECM's information relay is 6ms what are you logging? Your log is riddled with inaccurate data, because the interval at which you are logging is almost 2.5 times slower than the what is occurring. You combat factual posts with conjecture and assumptions. You have to realize that when you say things like,"There was another guy on here that used a more aggressive Tune from Livernois and started to get stumbling issues. Unlike him, you can datalog. Log it and see what is going on. The other guy was flying blind with no datalogs so he changed a bunch of stuff and never fixed it." Your posts are portrayed as attempts to discredit our products, services and/or postings.

 

[need-a-cage]

Sorry. By the way, I PM'd 16 Sport last night and he said that he never fixed the Sport. So, all we know is that it would not run correctly with an aggressive tune but it runs fine stock. I am pretty sure that it was missing for longer than the 200ms you are talking about, so surely something would show up in a log. Yes, I know that the Ex runs off of a wideband, which is why I said check the log. However, if the onboard wideband had an issue that could be why it isn't running correctly. It might say that the fueling is good when it isn't, which is why I said to use an external wideband. The commanded Lambda was obviously not being applied, but it had to think it was during closed loop operation. If not, a log would show you this.

This post is about SCT tuning options, so let's get back on that topic.

There is custom tuning support, so you have a few options of custom tuners. The tuner DOES NOT come with any canned tune loaded for the 2016 Explorer, so you have to add in the expense of the custom tune.

My previous point is that I like the fact that you can datalog with SCT.
However, Livernoise feels this is unnecessary because all customer vehicles no matter where they are in the world on a track or on the street will tune exactly like the one that they tested on their dyno with their logging.
Livernoise also feels that datalogging is unnecessary because none of their customers know anything about tuning a car and would not know what to log or how to use the information.

 

[Livernois]

I think you have yet again misread my post. I never said that it was fixed, "...hence, the Taurus SHO...."

The 200ms refers not to a miss, but to the refresh rate at which your logging tool is capable of reading.

Livernois feels that it is unnecessary to log as you are unable to do so accurately. You are logging a conversion at a rate that is incongruent with what is actually happening.

We do not attempt to cater to everyone, and if you would prefer another vendor to us that is totally fine. We hope that you get everything that you are in search of. If someone were to want to tune, add parts to or set a record with a vehicle that no other vendor can work with we will welcome them with open arms.`