ST Tuning by Unleashed Tuning - Highly Recommend!!

[metroplex]

Good morning
Whose calibration did you use?
Want the transmission sift points to show on mine as well

Any tuner can do it, see my screenshot above.

 

[northvibe]

I am not going to tune my Explorer, however just to add info.

I used Torrie at unleashed tuning for both of my 2005 Escapes. He was great to work with 99% of the time and did respond and crazy hours. The SCT vin locks after 3? uses however you can pay to remove that if you move cars (like I did). I would recommend him again. Once you buy the tuner for your car he usually gives 3 tunes included and free support for those and changes later on.

I also have heard good things of livernois. But they use a different module.

HPT I used on my Chevy with great success, their payment of credits can be interesting and cheap for a single car. But to tune unless you get a tune from someone, you better know what you are doing if you custom it.

 

[metroplex]

HPTuner is pretty much the best solution for Fords right now. Most of the tuners are using HPTuners for Fords these days.

 

[northvibe]

HPTuner is pretty much the best solution for Fords right now. Most of the tuners are using HPTuners for Fords these days.

man they just started doing ford work right as I got out of using it on my ss years ago, glad to see they kept up with it.

 

[metroplex]

man they just started doing ford work right as I got out of using it on my ss years ago, glad to see they kept up with it.

Imagine my surprise about 5 years ago that they started to support Fords, including my 07 Mustang GT. I already had HPTuners for my 2009 Cobalt SS Turbo and found it was much faster/easier to use.

SCT had become a basket case of a company/software. I used SCT Advantage since 2002 and it became slow and cumbersome to use and the community really went away when they got sold.

HPTuners now requires the MPVI2 for 2019-up Fords, and they doubled the required credits (4 instead of 2) for each vehicle. I still use my MPVI1 since I don't have anything newer than the 2018 Explorer. And HPTuners can be slow to define parameters/unlock parameters, sometimes making it impossible to fully tune an EcoBoost Ford. SCT normally seemed to unlock everything at once.

But if you want to tune a 2020 Explorer ST today, HP Tuners is probably the easiest/best way to go about doing it. I could be wrong, and Cobb or SCT might have caught up / surpassing everything and I just don't realize it.

 

[northvibe]

Imagine my surprise about 5 years ago that they started to support Fords, including my 07 Mustang GT. I already had HPTuners for my 2009 Cobalt SS Turbo and found it was much faster/easier to use.

SCT had become a basket case of a company/software. I used SCT Advantage since 2002 and it became slow and cumbersome to use and the community really went away when they got sold.

HPTuners now requires the MPVI2 for 2019-up Fords, and they doubled the required credits (4 instead of 2) for each vehicle. I still use my MPVI1 since I don't have anything newer than the 2018 Explorer. And HPTuners can be slow to define parameters/unlock parameters, sometimes making it impossible to fully tune an EcoBoost Ford. SCT normally seemed to unlock everything at once.

But if you want to tune a 2020 Explorer ST today, HP Tuners is probably the easiest/best way to go about doing it. I could be wrong, and Cobb or SCT might have caught up / surpassing everything and I just don't realize it.

HA! I just sold my 2009 Cobalt SS Miss that car.

 

[AdrenalineJunky]

Is each gear displayed, ie 1 through 10, or is it just 2 or 1 like in blowinsmoke's pics?
Also, what happens if you get low octane fuel for whatever reason? Ty.

 

[blwnsmoke]

Each gear.

I would not go lower if you are turning with a 93. Carry a bottle of octane booster and drive easy if you can not put 93 in.

 

[metroplex]

Is each gear displayed, ie 1 through 10, or is it just 2 or 1 like in blowinsmoke's pics?
Also, what happens if you get low octane fuel for whatever reason? Ty.

Yes every single gear like in Sport mode but for Drive/Normal mode.

If you are tuned for 93 octane and run 87 octane, there would be more knock at WOT/higher loads that the knock sensors may be able to pick up and retard your timing. For normal street driving, it should be fine but it depends on what your tuner did. Normally they shouldn't add a huge amount of timing at lower loads and lower RPMs, like during normal driving. They typically add a lot of timing at higher loads and RPMs, basically when you are at WOT.

Easiest way is to just run 87 octane tunes unless you plan to go to a dragstrip. When we drove cross country, 87 octane was the highest in some regions, sometimes cheaper when it was E20 (which means more power for GTDI). If you want the most power out of your ST, you want an E30-E50 tune. 93 octane doesn't mean much with GTDI versus E30-E50.

 

[imanony]

Folks, I'm on the fence to go for tuning or not. The only thing I'm worried about is if Ford voids my warranty and I have purchased 9 years extended warranty as well. This is my first Ford so I don't have any friends at the dealership either who can help if mine dies. So can you guys share your thoughts on this? How did you decide to go for tuning given the potential of warranty getting void? Am I thinking too much?

 

[blwnsmoke]

Folks, I'm on the fence to go for tuning or not. The only thing I'm worried about is if Ford voids my warranty and I have purchased 9 years extended warranty as well. This is my first Ford so I don't have any friends at the dealership either who can help if mine dies. So can you guys share your thoughts on this? How did you decide to go for tuning given the potential of warranty getting void? Am I thinking too much?

Was the Explorer new or certified used?

I don't drag my car or beat the snot out of it so a tune was not anything I was worried about. Much better throttle response and highway merging which is all I cared about.

 

[imanony]

Was the Explorer new or certified used?

I don't drag my car or beat the snot out of it so a tune was not anything I was worried about. Much better throttle response and highway merging which is all I cared about.

It was brand new. I'm just interested in more power and better mpg. Yeah no drag racing or anything like that.

 

[blwnsmoke]

It was brand new. I'm just interested in more power and better mpg. Yeah no drag racing or anything like that.

Just making sure you are aware that 9 year warranty is a 3rd party and not a Ford ESP.

 

[imanony]

Just making sure you are aware that 9 year warranty is a 3rd party and not a Ford ESP.

I purchased it from the Ford Dealership from Joel. Is that 3rd party and not Ford ESP?
And its 8 years not 9. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[peterk9]

If you bought it from Joel it should be a Ford ESP.

Peter

 

[themishmosh]

If you are running a tune, you are wasting money on an extended warranty because anything drive train related will likely get denied if they find signs of an aftermarket tune.

 

[imanony]

If you are running a tune, you are wasting money on an extended warranty because anything drive train related will likely get denied if they find signs of an aftermarket tune.

I'm not running any tune yet. I'm on the fence to tune it or not, precisely for the reason you mentioned. But I see lot of folks here have tuned their ST and have taken extended warranty. So was checking to see how did they make that decision and if they share their reasoning.

 

[blwnsmoke]

I purchased it from the Ford Dealership from Joel. Is that 3rd party and not Ford ESP?
And its 8 years not 9. Sorry for the confusion.

Good to go then. There is no 9 year so thats why I brought it up. Many dealers sneak in 3rd parties and misrepresent them.

 

[blwnsmoke]

If you are running a tune, you are wasting money on an extended warranty because anything drive train related will likely get denied if they find signs of an aftermarket tune.

Not true at all. Yes you do take a risk but Ford will not investigate unless it deals with a huge catastrophic failure. There are so many engine and drivetrain related items that could go wrong that you wouldn't have an issue with warranty covering it.

Throw a rod, punch a hole in the engine.. sure.

And just to add a little more personal perspective, I buy an ESP because of everything else, not the engine. Way too many electronics, sensors, cameras etc to not get one if you plan on keeping this for 6-8 years.

I have had almost every one of my Ford's tuned and have never had a problem. But I also understand that I can't throw a tantrum if something gets denied because of it.

 

[2TonB]

is anyone in California tuning their cars? I saw on one of the guys website saying not for cars in Ca.

Hi Everyone
I was interested in tuning my ST and did some reading on other Ford forums. Considered Livernois, 5Star, Palm Beach Dyno and contacted some others that offer tunes for my Raptor like ORA, MPT. JDM, Cobb, etc but most of those don't offer tunes for the 2020 ST yet. I ultimately chose Unleashed Tuning/Torrie. He tunes via HP Tuners. Purchase process was painless after my initial email to him. He answered a few questions via email back and forth within minutes, on a Sunday evening.

Paid $599 for the HPT MPVI2 module and necessary HPT credits. I pulled a copy of my stock tune file and emailed it to Torrie. In less than an hour I had a tune file back. I had spent some time emailing with Torrie before purchase letting him know my goals with tuning (better driveability, less lag, better mpg, power down low, larger/flatter torque curve, etc. vs just a higher peak HP). Once I loaded the first tune from him, it was immediately noticable it had more power, transmission behavior was better. He had me send him back a log of the tune using the HPT VCM Scanner program which I did and within an hour, had a revision based on the log that was even better. Rinse and repeat a few times with more revisions and he kept finding ways to refine how it felt. I havent had a chance to get to a dyno yet or try any DIY 0-60 runs but by the butt dyno feeling, its much quicker. Transmission behavior is spot on, and my city mpgs are up about 2-3, highway mpgs are up about 3-4. Working with him on some revisions over the weekend to see if more power can be tuned safely so will have a few more revisions to try out and will update the thread periodically.

I am not affiliated with Torrie or Unleashed Tuning except as a paying customer and receive nothing for the review, nor was I asked to post anything, just sharing my satisfaction with the tune and Torrie's customer service. Anyone thinking of tuning and wanting something more personalized than an off the shelf tune from some of the others mentioned above, I would recommend Unleashed Tuning for sure!! Cant wait to get to a dyno and see what amount of gain he was able to tune!