Disappointed after Bama and Hot Rod cams

Antmou

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Posts
32
Reaction score
11
Hello all fellows,
At first let me make you aware I am french but I live here in Alabama, so don’t pay attention to my mistakes….
3 years ago I bought a GT 2010 with 68k miles and directly installed on it Flowmaters’ outlaws and the CAI from K&N (Typhoon box for 2010 only).

Since a year or so I am thinking about selling it or not and go to a 2015 model.
Seeing the current price and the ‘’no-way I will pay this much for a stock car like a basic GT’’, we decided to keep and customize it until there is no other thing to add but a S/C, which could happen hopefully at the very end.
Before going into the story below let me tell you my engine was idling perfectly at 750 like a clockwork, and smooth as butter while reving or decelerating !

3 weeks ago, I bought a SCT x4 tuner from AM having in mind to buy the hot rod cams the week or so after..
After a couple of days, I was provided with 2 basic tunes mentioning to them I had just the CAI k&n typhoon. Just uploading their tune resulted in an unstable idle above 850, and honestly did’t feel any improvement at all, which I didnlt expect but I wanted everything to be perfectly matched with my CAI…. Well, shouldn’t have asked anything as just for the CAI which was running perfectly, now it doesn’t anymore with the tune.

So We left it like this as I was really willing to install my hot rod cams last Saturday. After installing, we loaded another new tune they sent me in between for the cams, and I thought that it would be better…
Engine’s start was easy, but even hot, it was shightly oscillating between 800 and 900 and one passionate person could tell there was something wrong ( not speaking about the lopey behaviour but more like unstability or irregularity in the cycles). Though it didn’t stall or bounce above 1000rpm.
While driving, it is bucking a lot between 1000 and 2500, even worse when cold. The driveability is not there at all. The gain in torque or hp is not evident neither, it feels even less…
The following day, I did try to put the computer back to stock. Surprinsingly I got my 750 idle back , the loopey sound, no bucking at all, and driveability was back to normal! (Noise was less powerful though) You could feel there was something to be adjusted but it was definitely better than the tune provided and optimized for these cams by Bama. The only thing that was not good was the idle dropping to 500 when coming to a stop but no stalling at all. I guess the tech probably used the 1st tune I received 2 weeks ago for my CAI and customized it to add the cams, but as mentioned above this 1st tune for the CAI was not working well.
I contacted them and they did ask me to datalog. I did it 4 days ago. I got a new tune, slightly better but same issues. I did ask them what they have changed and what they have seen that was not properly working in the datalogs…. The guy doesn’t andwer so I did another set of datalogs yesterday. Still no answer. I phoned them and they say I have to wait till next mid-week……I am on vacation and was willing to take this time to enjoy the car, work on it and put my Pypes LT headers with the high flaw cats + h-pipr. i am stuck now.
I think they should start from scratch, datalogging using my stock tune and not datalogging using their crappy tune that sure seems not to work. Basically we generated more issues with their tune and now we try to correct….
I contacted Lito yesterday and no answer.

I unfortunately spent money, surely start to regret all of this and think I should have just sold it. I love it so much , it is my first muscle car.
I am so disappointed to see you can buy parts but nobody is either serious, or professional or knowledgeable to tune them correctly. And I am not the guy satisfied if it is not like it is supposed to be…
What do you think my friends ?
Thank you
 
Last edited:

skwerl

tree hugger
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Posts
16,193
Reaction score
1,138
Location
central Florida
You bought the wrong tune. That is 100% of your problem. Your only fix is to get a proper tune. There are many options but your most economical is to contact Lito. He can work with what you have already purchased and installed, and make it work correctly. He specializes in 3v Ford Mustangs and will give you the best possible tune for your current setup.

Somebody help me out here and post the link to Lito's website. Thanks.
 

MrBhp

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Posts
1,250
Reaction score
1,032
Manuel will get back to you. He stays very busy, being an astronaut and all. It can be difficult waiting, but it's exactly what most of us go thru in building anything worth having. Patience is the best thing you can possess in this process. And when it's all done, you will be smiling. (I just laughed so hard I cried. These things are never finished)

By the way, I'm French as well. Born in Louisiana, raised in Texas, and I live in Connecticut. The people here can't understand me either.
 

Antmou

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Posts
32
Reaction score
11
Manuel will get back to you. He stays very busy, being an astronaut and all. It can be difficult waiting, but it's exactly what most of us go thru in building anything worth having. Patience is the best thing you can possess in this process. And when it's all done, you will be smiling. (I just laughed so hard I cried. These things are never finished)

By the way, I'm French as well. Born in Louisiana, raised in Texas, and I live in Connecticut. The people here can't understand me either.
Thank you,
Very frustrating when you have to repeat more than 3 times and people don’t get what ‘’y’all ‘’ say lol.
At least you don’t have the french accent that southerners think is rough. What a scam ! Lol
On the phone it is even worse. I’d like to move up north in the future.


What do I risk to run it on stock tune ?
Can I install my headers and high flow cats or have to wait till this is all solved ?
 

Laga

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2019
Posts
991
Reaction score
518
Location
Chicago
Manuel will get back to you. He stays very busy, being an astronaut and all. It can be difficult waiting, but it's exactly what most of us go thru in building anything worth having. Patience is the best thing you can possess in this process. And when it's all done, you will be smiling. (I just laughed so hard I cried. These things are never finished)

By the way, I'm French as well. Born in Louisiana, raised in Texas, and I live in Connecticut. The people here can't understand me either.
Huh?
 

crjackson

Member
Joined
Nov 28, 2015
Posts
605
Reaction score
304
Location
Midgard
Say what? Yeah, we got us an astronaut tuner! Dats right, he’s a rocket man, burn’n out his fuse up there alone. ;-)
 
Last edited:

Juice

forum member
Joined
Aug 24, 2017
Posts
4,622
Reaction score
1,904
Yea, stop wasting time w/Bama. They are not tuners. They just apply value files to the stock calibration. If it works, great,, if not, they cant fix it.
If your CAI is "no tune required, run the stock tune. If it is tune reauired, but runs good, you may get a CEL for system lean.
 

Midlife Crises

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Posts
1,836
Reaction score
1,253
If I read correctly, you are installing parts and multiple tunes in steps, back to back. That’s crazy! Put the parts on and then go through the tuning process without changing components. BAMA does not have the best reputation but if you change parts between each tune update it will never be right. It can take several updates to work out all the issues and that can take weeks. If they can’t get it right it’s time to try a different tuner. That starts the proses all over again.
 

Antmou

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Posts
32
Reaction score
11
yeah Midlife crises, they told me to go step by step which didn’t make sense for me.
Lito replied to me, I will work with him.
He told me to install everything

Say what? Yeah, we got us an astronaut tuner! Dats right, he’s a rocket man, burn’n out his fuse up there alone. ;-)
You lost me a little with your redneck slang :D

Yea, stop wasting time w/Bama. They are not tuners. They just apply value files to the stock calibration. If it works, great,, if not, they cant fix it.
it is what I am thinking seeing how they work
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Antmou

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Posts
32
Reaction score
11
does it matter if I run 87 or 91 or… during the tuning phase ?
 

Midlife Crises

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Posts
1,836
Reaction score
1,253
It is important that your tuner knows what fuel you are running and that you don’t swap fuels back and forth during the process. 87 and 91 would be two different tunes.
 

madlad

Junior Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2021
Posts
1
Reaction score
0
yeah Midlife crises, they told me to go step by step which didn’t make sense for me.
Lito replied to me, I will work with him.
He told me to install everything

Antmou,
Do you Lito's contact info? I have had bad luck with Baba's tunes, reset my rev 4. back to to factor default and have been using the tunes that came with it, at least with those I can change some things. I had hear good thing ab Bama when I purchased mine, when I need a tune, they told me it would take 10 days, when I got it, started getting check engine lights. They sent me another one and my stock ran better. That when I reset it and pick from the choice, that I could and running good. I want to do some more mods, but want a real tuner. I this the have a tunes for the mods, but not the car that was mod was put on. Every car is different, what will work fine on a car with 40,000 will not be the same as a car with 95,000 miles. Welcome to the group I'm new here myself.

Tony
 

Pentalab

forum member
Joined
Mar 5, 2013
Posts
5,211
Reaction score
1,093
Install your LT's + catted H. Make sure ur plugs + injectors's are good. Clean air filter, clean fuel filter, clean off the mass airflow device with some brake clean etc. Stick with one grade of gasoline, or get Lito to provide for both a 87 and a 91 octane tune.

Then let Lito work his magic. It might take 1-3 tunes to nail it dead on.

Way too many unsatisfied BAMA customers on here. This must be total screwup #385.
 

Antmou

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Posts
32
Reaction score
11
Yes just get a Lito tune and be done with it.

where in Alabama are you? I’m in Huntsville now
I currently live in Mobile. I have heard about Huntsville ´s reputation . Nice place to live it seems….I have never been there
 
Last edited:

Antmou

Junior Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2021
Posts
32
Reaction score
11
To keep you updated guys, Lito came back to me on Friday. The day after I got his basic tune to replace the one provided by BAMA.
A dream come true. I got my idle back at 750, very few bucking and driveability close to stock. Even not going into datalogs yet. Amazing…
Thank you Lito ! you are very professional and quick to deal with….

The last couple of days I did put on my Pypes long tubes Headers and hi Flo cats along with the H-pipe. (nightmare to access screws and even more irritating putting them back on after freeing accessibility from underneath the car). It sounds amazing ! It was worth it, definitely !
Next step is to assemble my new Airaid MXP to replace my current K&N typhoon.
Once it is in place we will go through datalogs.
Thank you Lito and thank you all guys !
 

Latest posts

Support us!

Support Us - Become A Supporting Member Today!

Click Here For Details

Sponsor Links

Banner image
Back
Top