Bought an SCT X3 Programmer and is a great tuner, however, I had problems during a race at WOT. I started the program off with doing one thing at a time to make sure it was going to tune correctly without problems. Tuning it to 93 octane from the default of 91 was the first order of business and presented no problems in drivability. It wasn't until I advanced the timing by two degrees through both RPM bands (2k-4k and 4k+) that I started to have problems.

In 3rd gear at WOT around say maybe 4k RPM's, the tach felt like it was being redlined because it kept bouncing off the 4.5k mark and coming back to 4k. It was like a really nasty see-saw motion and wasn't resolved until I took the timing back out. For these cars it shouldn't be such a big deal to add 2 extra degrees of timing, especially with 93 octane.

The car has just short of 100k miles and I'm really thinking that it has never been tuned up before. If that's the case, would my spark plugs be the cause of this problem while tuning the car? Maybe spark plug blowout at advanced timing?

I bought some NGK Iridium IX's and 8.5" MSD plug wires for a tune-up, I just haven't had the time to install them yet.

Do you think after the tune-up things will be good to go? Thanks for any insight here.

 

Is there anyone here who can help? Anyone?????????

I did the tune-up with new plugs and wires and still having the same issues when I try to tune ANYTHING on the programmer. I try to firm the shifts, it hesitates and bucks around 4k rpms in 3rd gear. Try to bump up the timing, same thing. Try to bump the timing and add extra fuel, I get slower and STILL hesitation and bucking. After all that I turned the tune back to stock and disconnected the tuner and it ran fine. WTF? Is there something wrong with my tuner?

 

Can you go to the "device info" screen, and post the firmware and tune revision of the device?

Also, can you post the OS part number of the vehicle?

Thanks,

Ryan

 

If I'm not mistaken, the 93 OCT tune from SCT already advances timing, so adding 2 degrees to that tune is adding 2 degrees to a stock timing table, rather adding 2 degrees to a table that already has timing advanced. Atleast that's how their Ford Tunes are.

 

Well I totally forgot about this thread cuz I ended up selling the programmer. I never got it to work right. No matter what I changed, timing, tranny stuff, only putting it on 93 octane, whatever, it didn't matter. The car would reach a speed or rpm and act like it was redlining. I had all the software up to date and made sure the tuner was functional. I have never had so many problems as I did with that tuner from hell. What a waste of money. I'm going to get it dynotuned.