Are people still "Anti-BAMA" (tunes)?

[mrgtx]

First, I just want to say that I've been thrilled with AM's customer service over the years. These guys have taken care of me a few times in ways that I consider to be above and beyond the call of duty. I have bought plenty of parts from other good vendors but AM stands out as being consistently great...I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them again. I have to say that even the men and women who answer the phones genuinely seem to care and want to help...it's a really rare experience these days.

A few years back, I picked up an SCT tuner and "Tunes for life" through American Muscle...which includes the handiwork of Bama Performance, of course.

So I back in the fall, I requested some new tunes (after running the stock tune for a few years after the #8 piston failures early on in the Coyote's life cycle). The Bama V2 tunes seemed to be getting positive reviews and I thought it was worth a shot.

Well, I tuned the car not too long before putting it away for the winter but all I can say is that so far, the 91 street tune made a noticeable difference, at least in throttle response. So far, so good...and the car hasn't blown up yet.

I know everyone has their loyalty to their tuner...but is there any worry about engine failures with the current Bama tunes? Is there any other specific reason to not run their tunes?

 

[cbass]

Before V2, there was some questionable stuff in the tune, at least there was in mine when I dissected it to see what it was doing. A tune is a really easy thing to fuck up hard, or get mildly right for everybody. I've heard the V2 tunes are much improved... but they can't be "the shit" if AM just started carrying VMP tunes.

 

[Boaisy]

Most of the #8 failures I saw seem to trace back to BAMA V1 tunes. I used to have a BAMA V1 tune in mine before I did a local dyno tune. Even the local tuner said the timings and other parameters were all fucked up. The BAMA V2 tunes are under a different tuner, who came from Steeda. Apparently he knows what he is doing, but people still prefer Lund, Lito, Mike Roush, etc.

I have a friend who just get a BAMA tune for his 3V. All I told him to do, before banging it around at the track, it to get quite a few revisions just to be safe.

 

[limetym]

the v2 tune in my car seems to be doing good so far. The race tune was running pig rich when I datalogged it on a road in Mexico but the revision I got from them cleared that up. My car also put down about 10 more horses during a dyno day than a car with similar equipment but also a boss intake on it with a local dyno tune. Overall I am pretty happy with the tune and the customer service. I also like the fact I am still getting 19-20 mpg town and 27-28 highway. The only problem i have with the tune is it is hard on the rear tires for some reason. Now hope I dont have my engine blow since I was talking good about a tune.

 

[obsrt86]

I cant speak for the coyote guys, but in my 3v its been working great. Been on Bama tune for almost 2 years now. Car has been running as strong as the day I tuned it. I ran my PB of 12.41 with Bama's 91 tune. And when ever I ran into issue their datalog sessions would come to the rescue and solve the problems.

I think if you want a tune to just download and go, Bama is the place to go. Now, if you are looking to go aggressive and trying to tune out the most hp/tq out of your car I'm sure there are other places are more capable of doing that. That's what I'm gonna be doing this race season. I'm trying to get into the 11s N/A w/full boltons and I'm still in the fence of going dyno tuned or Lito.

I have a couple buddies with coyotes and they are happy with their tunes as well.

 

[808muscle]

AM doesn't tune aftermarket superchargers anymore. Maybe that's why the brought in VMP blowers and tunes.

 

[JeremyH]

YES.

 

[braupe]

I just loaded up the V2 tune on my 3v after the header install, and I must say that the throttle inputs are much smoother, and for some reason it idles better. As far as power that's hard to compare since i went from just muffler deletes to full exhaust. I did run a V1 tune for about 3 years without any serious issues. It just felt less refined on the old tunes.

 

[Sky Render]

I don't think Bama ever had a real issue with the 3Vs, just with the Coyotes, which are a significantly more difficult motor to tune.

 

[lemkau77]

I never had an issue with any of the tunes that they supplied me. I ran an off-road h pipe with no CELs and had no issues with idle or throttle response.

 

[Pentalab]

AM doesn't tune aftermarket superchargers anymore. Maybe that's why the brought in VMP blowers and tunes.

Local fellow used bama for his NA 2008. It was so fucked up, it was unbelievable. That was 3 yrs ago. On the local dyno, the graph actually looped back on itself, that I have never seen. He finally got it all tweaked correctly.

A few years ago, bama was NA only. Then they started tuning roush M90 blowers....which was a disaster (05-10 cars). Now they won't tune any blower car.

VMP nails it every time. Just tell em what mods you have done, like in my case, LT's + hi-flow cats, twin 62mm TB, and I wanted a 94 tune
(no ethanol) with a 5.8 psi M90....done. One very slight tweak after that. Idles perfect. Works fine below freezing too. Same throttle response as before. ( told him I don't want a light switch).

I see that bama has offered a 'cyl 8' guarantee for a long time now, for NA coyote engs.

There is probably nothing inherently wrong with bama...except it appears that folks have to go through several tune revisions before they are happy.

If it's a 3V (manual tranny), use Lito.

If you have an automatic, and a blower, you have to be real careful with the 3v eng + 5r55s. The shifts have to be firmer, and faster. VMP unlocks the X3/4, so you can fine tune the firmness and the shift points, on a shift by shift basis. Both Roush + Edelbrock had the auto tune screwed up when used with a blower. Roush had it wrong with the 3V and the M90 / TVS-2300 blowers they sold.....and Edelbrock left the auto part of the tune bone stock on the 3V 05-10 cars. The poor 5r55s won't last long if the auto part of the tune is not done correctly.

 

[Wraith]

[email protected]. Randy does great work


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[Unreal]

They may not be that bad anymore, bu there are so many better tuners why bother? They offer zero advantages as far as I can tell.

 

[Grabber]

Some swear by Bama. Most do not. They tune in mass quantities. Guys like AED, Rousch, Lito and Lund don't tune the masses. Quality over quantity which is something I don't see Bama being able to offer.

They can tune for basic boltons but not cammed or F/I setups as well as the guys above. There is a reason for that. Their tunes are cost effective and don't involve more one-on-one focus per customer.

 

[Boss281]

I went with a Bama tune last summer in my 2005 for the first time. Historically, the car was drag strip driven 95% of the time from 2006 until last year, so I went with a local private tuner that did some outstanding things with the car and helped me drive it into the 11s NA. When I put the car back in the street for fun and games last summer, the tune's dominance on the high end of the rpm range for the track was kind of a pain on the street, but the tuner's business has changed slightly and he no longer had a dyno to really tune this thing. Since my hand tuner was ancient, from 2006, I bought an up to date model from AM and for the heck of it tried their tunes. There was one misstep where the cam limiters were omitted from the tune, making me think there was a phaser problem, but I reached one guy at BAMA that really knew his shit and fixed the tune for good. Car runs strong as hell on their street tune and I haven't even tried the "race" tune yet.

Before I pass real judgement and put some travel miles on the car, I can say that with limited experience (about 500 miles highway and curvy back roads) the tune is fine with my full bolt on/cammed car and right now I'm not drawn to going back to a private tuner as I have nothing more I want to do on the track. For now...I'm sorta getting the itch for corner carving the open track...

 

[Sky Render]

Call up Bama and ask for a linear throttle map, then. They're known for having a "light switch" throttle response to make their tunes seem faster. And you need linear response for proper control when autocrossing or road racing.

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[Boss281]

Call up Bama and ask for a linear throttle map, then. They're known for having a "light switch" throttle response to make their tunes seem faster. And you need linear response for proper control when autocrossing or road racing.

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Good to know, thanks!

 

[Speedboosted]

[email protected]. Randy does great work


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Best answer so far. Randy is the man

 

[fdjizm]

Still running hard on my bama tune.

 

[Thereaper]

Bama was great when it was owned by Doug Studdard but has not been as good since he left. They should call it AM Tunes instead of Bama.