iceguyb14
Mustang Fanatic
First I want to say, yes this is kind of long. I type really fast and I'm sorry lol. Just wanted to give my experiences for both tuners to help out the mustang community.
I chose to go with Lund Racing to tune my 2013 Mustang GT for a few reasons. They were one of the only tuners with tuning available for the 2013s at the time and I also had heard good things about them on this forum. Before deciding to go with them, I had been planning on going with American Muscle and Bamachips for tuning - $150 for 3 tunes, free tunes for life, cyl 8 warranty - it all sounded pretty good, except a few people on here made it seem like American Muscle was the one with the cyl 8 failures to begin with. So that turned me against them. After contacting Lund Racing, they said the same thing basically - "only one tuner has been linked to that issue", "Just be suspect of tunes that are really cheap and come with lot of 'fluff' like warranties. Those companies need to sell based on those topics because their actual tuning may not be up to par." - making it really obvious who they are talking about... Lol.
So I pulled the plug on the Lund Racing tune. Got my tuner, installed the intake, and went to upload the tune, and it wouldn't upload on the car for some reason. Spent over an hour trying to get it to work at 11:30 at night and it wouldn't work. Had to put the stock tune back in. The next day Ken sent me a few revisions to test eventually worked our way back to the original tune and it worked so apparently there was an issue with the file. The car ran pretty good on the tune, had better than stock throttle response and felt like more power. When cold, it had some issues with bucking, but other than that no big deal, and it was only when the car was cold. Anyway I went to get the car dyno'd and the car made a whopping 378whp and 361wtq. I was not impressed at all. Ken also wasn't happy with the numbers, and sent me a new tune that he said he made a little more lean and added a little spark. I did a couple datalogs of the new tune and sent them to Ken to look over and in the meantime I went to the track to test out the new tune and got a good time, but the mph was a little off of what I was expecting - 12.47 @ 111.5mph. This was with a 1.92 60' and with a DA of 170' and staying in 4th gear through the traps. Well the datalogs were sent on 4/27/12 and that's the last I've heard from Ken. The support ticket on their website is still "being processed" and there has been no response to the datalogs.
Well the past couple weeks I've been working with Mike @ Bamachips to help get their tunes ready for the 2013 mustangs (since the 2011-2012s are slightly different). They have their shop 2013, but obviously testing on more than one vehicle to get the tunes dialed in is smart. He sent me an 87 octane tune to start with and after a couple datalogs, we had it dialed in. He then sent me a 92 octane tune, and after a couple datalogs we got that dialed in and everything looked great and he sent me the finalized tunes (87, 92 performance, 92 race - performance tune with more throttle response). The tunes felt great, had great power (couldn't really feel a difference between the 87 tune and the 92 tune power wise), good throttle response, were very smooth, and the bucking when cold was pretty much gone. They are also slightly richer than the last Lund tune Ken sent me (~11.6 vs ~12.0) and the 92 tunes also are running slightly less spark than the Lund tune (~26 vs ~28). I was thinking this would mean probably less power, but figured I'd test it out. I went to Capitol Raceway and was very pleasantly surprised. With a similar 60' (1.89 vs 1.92) and similar DA (150' vs 170') I dropped 0.08 and picked up over 3mph, even with a headwind. I ran a best of 12.39 @ 114.7mph and every run was solidly over 114mph, compared to the Lund Racing tunes every run being under 112mph. And no Capitol isn't just one of those "fast" tracks. When I ran the Lund Racing tunes, I ran at MIR which IS a "fast" track. MIR is actually where a lot of records are broken. Even so, I was going to test out the Lund tune, but when I went to upload it on the car, it wouldn't load in the car and I was sidelined for about an hour while I attempted to put the stock tune back in, (had to unhook the battery to get it to retake the stock tune) and then reupload the Bama tune. But anyway I was very pleased with this new time and trap speed and definitely owe it to Mike and Bamachips.
I'll be going to the dyno within a week or two to find out some new numbers, but I should be around 390-400 or so I'd expect. Anyone with a 5.0 contemplating tuners, I definitely recommend American Muscle and Bamachips. If you have a 2013, I believe they will be releasing tunes to the general public pretty soon, so keep an eye out. Lund Racing is good, don't get me wrong, but I've heard from a lot of people they are really safe but don't have the best performance. I do find it interesting though that according to the datalogs of the Bamachips tune, it has less spark and is running slightly richer than the Lund Racing tune, but has better performance at the track.
Also, I know Lund Racing is very well liked over here and in the mustang world, and I'm not trying to knock them or their tunes. The tune they provided me was pretty good, but just IMHO the Bama tunes are a better deal. Kind of find it hard to justify spending $200 on Lund over Bama which only cost $150, especially considering Bama offers free tunes for life and 3 tunes up front instead of just one and Bama has the cylinder 8 warranty. People knock Bama over here bc of the cylinder #8 issues, but the truth is almost all tuners had them in the past (except Lund who said they have had 0). I even had a few tuners admit to me directly when I contacted them about their failures in the past. Apparently the problems haven't been nearly as prominent recently as they were when people first started tuning the 5.0s though. But anyway, considering the volume of tunes Bama sends out, it only makes sense that they would have had slightly more failures. But anyway just wanted to give my opinions on both American Muscle/Bamachips and Lund Racing.
American Muscle/Bamachips has always earned my business from when I had my 2010 til now. The tunes for my 2010 were excellent and the car made great power and ran very well for the modifications. They have excellent customer service and are always available to talk and try their best to help their customers out. Lund Racing had good customer service as well, until the point where I first ran the 1/8 mile and told him I wasn't happy with the mph (88.4). He told me he would send me a "hotter" file that would be more risky and also informed me that this extra tuning and support isn't normally included and he's doing it because he's nice and because I have a 2013. He said he'd send that to me on 4/21 and he sent it on 4/27... I thanked him and sent him 2 datalogs that day to look over, and no response since.
Anyway anyone looking to get a tune for their 5.0, be sure to take everything into consideration and do your research. Don't just listen to what a few people say. Looking back, I kind of feel like I wasted $200 on the Lund tune since I won't be using it (especially since it doesn't like to load on my car lol), but oh well. Lesson learned for me. Just wish I had listened to my gut and not let myself be convinced by a few people to not go with American Muscle/Bama.
And no I'm not getting paid by American Muscle or Bama to write this. They don't even know I am writing this. It's just my honest opinion and the facts basically speak for themselves. Just trying to help other Mustang enthusiasts make informed decisions.
UPDATE: Made 393whp 368wtq with the Bama tune. Pretty happy with those numbers. Check the video for the run and graphs.
BOTTOM LINE
Power - Lund 378whp 363wtq Bama 393whp 368wtq - advantage Bama
Track Times - Lund 12.47 @ 111.5 Bama 12.39 @ 114.7 - advantage Bama
Overall Customer Service - too much to type, but clear advantage Bama
Price - Lund $200 for ONE tune Bama $150 for THREE tunes - advantage Bama
Safety - Both are reputable, both have had cylinder #8 problems, Bama has done more tunes so probably more failures as a result, but Bama has the cyl #8 warranty. Plus the Bama tune runs slightly richer than the Lund tune and according to datalogs has slightly less spark - advantage Bama
Driveability - Lund good overall, some bucking when cold Bama same with a little more throttle response and less bucking - advantage Bama
Support - Lund Datalogging and fine tuning support is not generally included with the $200 tune but Bama welcomes datalogs and fine tuning - advantage Bama
I chose to go with Lund Racing to tune my 2013 Mustang GT for a few reasons. They were one of the only tuners with tuning available for the 2013s at the time and I also had heard good things about them on this forum. Before deciding to go with them, I had been planning on going with American Muscle and Bamachips for tuning - $150 for 3 tunes, free tunes for life, cyl 8 warranty - it all sounded pretty good, except a few people on here made it seem like American Muscle was the one with the cyl 8 failures to begin with. So that turned me against them. After contacting Lund Racing, they said the same thing basically - "only one tuner has been linked to that issue", "Just be suspect of tunes that are really cheap and come with lot of 'fluff' like warranties. Those companies need to sell based on those topics because their actual tuning may not be up to par." - making it really obvious who they are talking about... Lol.
So I pulled the plug on the Lund Racing tune. Got my tuner, installed the intake, and went to upload the tune, and it wouldn't upload on the car for some reason. Spent over an hour trying to get it to work at 11:30 at night and it wouldn't work. Had to put the stock tune back in. The next day Ken sent me a few revisions to test eventually worked our way back to the original tune and it worked so apparently there was an issue with the file. The car ran pretty good on the tune, had better than stock throttle response and felt like more power. When cold, it had some issues with bucking, but other than that no big deal, and it was only when the car was cold. Anyway I went to get the car dyno'd and the car made a whopping 378whp and 361wtq. I was not impressed at all. Ken also wasn't happy with the numbers, and sent me a new tune that he said he made a little more lean and added a little spark. I did a couple datalogs of the new tune and sent them to Ken to look over and in the meantime I went to the track to test out the new tune and got a good time, but the mph was a little off of what I was expecting - 12.47 @ 111.5mph. This was with a 1.92 60' and with a DA of 170' and staying in 4th gear through the traps. Well the datalogs were sent on 4/27/12 and that's the last I've heard from Ken. The support ticket on their website is still "being processed" and there has been no response to the datalogs.
Well the past couple weeks I've been working with Mike @ Bamachips to help get their tunes ready for the 2013 mustangs (since the 2011-2012s are slightly different). They have their shop 2013, but obviously testing on more than one vehicle to get the tunes dialed in is smart. He sent me an 87 octane tune to start with and after a couple datalogs, we had it dialed in. He then sent me a 92 octane tune, and after a couple datalogs we got that dialed in and everything looked great and he sent me the finalized tunes (87, 92 performance, 92 race - performance tune with more throttle response). The tunes felt great, had great power (couldn't really feel a difference between the 87 tune and the 92 tune power wise), good throttle response, were very smooth, and the bucking when cold was pretty much gone. They are also slightly richer than the last Lund tune Ken sent me (~11.6 vs ~12.0) and the 92 tunes also are running slightly less spark than the Lund tune (~26 vs ~28). I was thinking this would mean probably less power, but figured I'd test it out. I went to Capitol Raceway and was very pleasantly surprised. With a similar 60' (1.89 vs 1.92) and similar DA (150' vs 170') I dropped 0.08 and picked up over 3mph, even with a headwind. I ran a best of 12.39 @ 114.7mph and every run was solidly over 114mph, compared to the Lund Racing tunes every run being under 112mph. And no Capitol isn't just one of those "fast" tracks. When I ran the Lund Racing tunes, I ran at MIR which IS a "fast" track. MIR is actually where a lot of records are broken. Even so, I was going to test out the Lund tune, but when I went to upload it on the car, it wouldn't load in the car and I was sidelined for about an hour while I attempted to put the stock tune back in, (had to unhook the battery to get it to retake the stock tune) and then reupload the Bama tune. But anyway I was very pleased with this new time and trap speed and definitely owe it to Mike and Bamachips.
I'll be going to the dyno within a week or two to find out some new numbers, but I should be around 390-400 or so I'd expect. Anyone with a 5.0 contemplating tuners, I definitely recommend American Muscle and Bamachips. If you have a 2013, I believe they will be releasing tunes to the general public pretty soon, so keep an eye out. Lund Racing is good, don't get me wrong, but I've heard from a lot of people they are really safe but don't have the best performance. I do find it interesting though that according to the datalogs of the Bamachips tune, it has less spark and is running slightly richer than the Lund Racing tune, but has better performance at the track.
Also, I know Lund Racing is very well liked over here and in the mustang world, and I'm not trying to knock them or their tunes. The tune they provided me was pretty good, but just IMHO the Bama tunes are a better deal. Kind of find it hard to justify spending $200 on Lund over Bama which only cost $150, especially considering Bama offers free tunes for life and 3 tunes up front instead of just one and Bama has the cylinder 8 warranty. People knock Bama over here bc of the cylinder #8 issues, but the truth is almost all tuners had them in the past (except Lund who said they have had 0). I even had a few tuners admit to me directly when I contacted them about their failures in the past. Apparently the problems haven't been nearly as prominent recently as they were when people first started tuning the 5.0s though. But anyway, considering the volume of tunes Bama sends out, it only makes sense that they would have had slightly more failures. But anyway just wanted to give my opinions on both American Muscle/Bamachips and Lund Racing.
American Muscle/Bamachips has always earned my business from when I had my 2010 til now. The tunes for my 2010 were excellent and the car made great power and ran very well for the modifications. They have excellent customer service and are always available to talk and try their best to help their customers out. Lund Racing had good customer service as well, until the point where I first ran the 1/8 mile and told him I wasn't happy with the mph (88.4). He told me he would send me a "hotter" file that would be more risky and also informed me that this extra tuning and support isn't normally included and he's doing it because he's nice and because I have a 2013. He said he'd send that to me on 4/21 and he sent it on 4/27... I thanked him and sent him 2 datalogs that day to look over, and no response since.
Anyway anyone looking to get a tune for their 5.0, be sure to take everything into consideration and do your research. Don't just listen to what a few people say. Looking back, I kind of feel like I wasted $200 on the Lund tune since I won't be using it (especially since it doesn't like to load on my car lol), but oh well. Lesson learned for me. Just wish I had listened to my gut and not let myself be convinced by a few people to not go with American Muscle/Bama.
And no I'm not getting paid by American Muscle or Bama to write this. They don't even know I am writing this. It's just my honest opinion and the facts basically speak for themselves. Just trying to help other Mustang enthusiasts make informed decisions.
UPDATE: Made 393whp 368wtq with the Bama tune. Pretty happy with those numbers. Check the video for the run and graphs.
BOTTOM LINE
Power - Lund 378whp 363wtq Bama 393whp 368wtq - advantage Bama
Track Times - Lund 12.47 @ 111.5 Bama 12.39 @ 114.7 - advantage Bama
Overall Customer Service - too much to type, but clear advantage Bama
Price - Lund $200 for ONE tune Bama $150 for THREE tunes - advantage Bama
Safety - Both are reputable, both have had cylinder #8 problems, Bama has done more tunes so probably more failures as a result, but Bama has the cyl #8 warranty. Plus the Bama tune runs slightly richer than the Lund tune and according to datalogs has slightly less spark - advantage Bama
Driveability - Lund good overall, some bucking when cold Bama same with a little more throttle response and less bucking - advantage Bama
Support - Lund Datalogging and fine tuning support is not generally included with the $200 tune but Bama welcomes datalogs and fine tuning - advantage Bama
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