New Mustang owner looking for tuning insight

[Todd400]

I lucked up on a 99 GT last weekend and made a stright up trade for a suv I had and a friend referred me to this site for alot of great info, I have been a diesel mechanic for 10 years and my last car was 70 351 4V Torino GT So i am new to the flash/tuner aspect, My car has dynomax long tube headers, no cats, bbk fender mount cold air intake bbk 75mm throttle body, Trick flow upper intake, ford racing lower intake, march underdrive kit with balancer, and a 4:10 gear, There are some other bolt ons like king cobra clutch and 31 spline axles etc. But nothing else tuning related, The gentleman gave me the SCT xcalibrator2 with the car and the handheld says it has 1 custom tune and 1 stock tune, Other than him telling me I can change some of the parameters like idle, rev limiter and axle ratio I dont know where to start with the tuner, SCT's website isnt to clear and Im afraid to open the custom tune to readjust the parameters just yet, Right now I am looking at sending VMP my list of mods and flipping for the $59 for them to send me a custom tune for my car until I can get my car to a actual dyno for a dyno tuning session, long story short just wanted some opinions on tunes and and where else i can buy a tune to download, the cars runs pretty good just a tad rich maybe, I just want to play with my new toy

 

[BurningRubber]

Well, first off... welcome to StangNet.

Second of all, sounds like you have a nice GT on your hands.

As far as tuning, with products like SCT X-CAL and Diablosport Predator you can only adjust certain parameters of your tune. You can't actually "custom tune" the car without the correct software (which a shop that does custom tunes using SCT software would), but you can adjust smaller things like idle, gear ratio, cooling fan on/off temps, shift firmess (automatics), rev limiter, speed limiter, adjust for tire size, wide open throttle adding or removing fuel, and wide open throttle spark advance or retardation.

It is helpful but it does not allow you to go in a custom tune the fine points.

I'm sure being a mechanic you know how to read spark plugs and what detonation sounds like. I gained 7 rwhp and 13 lb ft by adjusting my fuel and spark curves with my Diablosport.

Hope that helps you out.

 

[Todd400]

Thanks, I was just a little nervous when the handheld said enter programming, I will adjust a few things and work on getting a dynotune in the near future

 

[BurningRubber]

Not a problem. Sounds like a plan.