New '06 GT Project Questions - SCT Tuner Related

[The Fixer]

Hey all!

New guy here with handheld tuner questions, but figured I should give the backstory on the car first. My son recently picked up an '06 GT that needed a motor. It had some mods done to it by previous owners, including 5-speed swap, exhaust, IMRC delete, 93 octane tune, and a JLT intake. He swapped in a good-running used 4.6 at work (he's a young Ford tech) and I guess through force of habit, hooked it up to the Ford scan tool to reset the KAM and PCM, not realizing that might wipe whatever "tune" was in it.

Initially it ran like garbage with that big-mouth JLT intake - it would not start at times, wouldn't really hold an idle, and stumbled like crazy. He borrowed a K&N intake from a friend's car which uses a smaller diameter tube and filter than the JLT, and the car fired right up. It also idled much better and some of the driveability problems went away. So, I drove it home about 25 miles from his dealership, and as long as I kept it under 2500 RPMs it was great. The power falls off and it runs rich over about 2500-3K RPMs, but we think it's because of the IMRC delete and it's currently on a stock tune. Sound plausible?

Anyhow, we got the SCT X4 tuner from the previous owner, and when we hooked it up to the car, it says the X4 is married to another vehicle and we can't use it (I assume he wiped the tune and divorced the X4 when he reset KAM and the PCM). Through my search on the SCT site, it seems like we can unlock it by hooking up the device to a laptop, but we don't have that cable. And, on their website, it says we should be able to disable the IMRC valves, but that option is not supported on all vehicles. I've tried calling their Tech line several times over the last week and haven't been able to catch a human for the life of me to confirm what I can and can't do with this X4. So, I'm reaching out to the gurus here, and hopefully some of you know the answers!

Question 1 - What type of cable do I need to connect the X4 to my laptop?
Question 2- Can you definitely disable the IMRCs with the X4?
Question 3 - If we are able to reset the X4, where do the tunes come from? Will they populate in, or do we download them from somewhere else?

Thanks in advance, hopefully it wasn't too much info!

 

[playboycarti]

The SCT4 connects to a laptop using a standard micro usb cable. And it uses an HDMI to OBDII cable for the car

Once you have unlocked the SCT on your computer (it costs $200) it will come with a few standard tunes but for anything more you will have to buy / download them elsewhere and load them onto the SCT from your computer.

I’m not sure about question 2. Hope this helps

 

[The Fixer]

The SCT4 connects to a laptop using a standard micro usb cable. And it uses an HDMI to OBDII cable for the car

Once you have unlocked the SCT on your computer (it costs $200) it will come with a few standard tunes but for anything more you will have to buy / download them elsewhere and load them onto the SCT from your computer.

I’m not sure about question 2. Hope this helps

That is great, thanks! I was looking at the connector on top, thinking I needed to plug into the doghouse looking one. I didn't even notice the micro USB on the other end. Went out and looked, and sure enough it's there LOL. Pretty sure we have at least one of those cables hanging around the house. And fortunately we have the other cable that connects to the data port in the car.

Hopefully someone else can chime in about whether or not we can disable the IMRC valves with the X4. I tried calling their Tech line today and they were closed. The website is currently down as well.

 

[JC SSP]

Yes the SCT X4 #7015 has the ability to disable and enable the CMCV.

 

[86GT351]

Sounds like you might want to consider getting a professional tuner involved.

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

My son recently picked up an '06 GT that needed a motor. It had some mods done to it by previous owners, including 5-speed swap, exhaust, IMRC delete, 93 octane tune, and a JLT intake.

Since you already have an SCT X4 tuner with the required USB cable, here's what you need to do to get your car running like a raped ape:

1. Contact Brenspeed's tuning department and tell them that you need a 93 octane tune for a JLT 3 CAI & CMCV delete.

2. After you receive the e-mail tune from Brenspeed, upload it from your laptop to the SCT X4 tuner (keep a copy of the tune file on your laptop as a backup).

3. Install the JLT 3 CAI and while doing so, thoroughly clean the inside of the throttle body including the blades.

4. At this point, make sure your ECU has the stock tune. Upload the Brenspeed tune from the SCT tuner to your ECU. The tuner will store the stock tune and you can later save a copy of that on your laptop as a backup.

5. Start the engine, drive the car, and plaster a big grin on your face as you enjoy the sharper throttle response, stronger acceleration, and the induction roar.

 

[The Fixer]

Since you already have an SCT X4 tuner with the required USB cable, here's what you need to do to get your car running like a raped ape:

1. Contact Brenspeed's tuning department and tell them that you need a 93 octane tune for a JLT 3 CAI & CMCV delete.

2. After you receive the e-mail tune from Brenspeed, upload it from your laptop to the SCT X4 tuner (keep a copy of the tune file on your laptop as a backup).

3. Install the JLT 3 CAI and while doing so, thoroughly clean the inside of the throttle body including the blades.

4. At this point, make sure your ECU has the stock tune. Upload the Brenspeed tune from the SCT tuner to your ECU. The tuner will store the stock tune and you can later save a copy of that on your laptop as a backup.

5. Start the engine, drive the car, and plaster a big grin on your face as you enjoy the sharper throttle response, stronger acceleration, and the induction roar.

Sounds like a great plan! The SCT website is back up so I'm going to look into unlocking the X4 this weekend and then see about the tune.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

[The Fixer]

OK, wanted to update this thread. After I found my USB cable we downloaded the SCT Updater program and got the X4 unlocked.

After we plugged it in to the car and went to tune it, we had this notification in the device.

Anyone know why the preloaded support would be disabled? I thought the "Unlock" was supposed to revert the unit back to original?

Anyhow, I don't know anything about what the two tunes are, who made them, or what changes were made compared to original. We tried both tune files and the car would either barely run, or not run at all. We tried feathering the throttle to keep it alive but it was so rich it was smoking and burning our eyes. We reverted the program back to stock and it fired right up and idled smoothly again. It currently has a stock intake on it because it wouldn't run on the factory tune with the JLT. He left the JLT at work, or we would have tried swapping that on and using one of these tune files to see if it'll actually run.

Will keep you guys posted.

 

[The Fixer]

Latest update - 1 week since my last post.

My son swapped the JLT intake in on the weekend and loaded up the LITTO1 tune. It started right up and idled great, but rich. It still had some surging and bucking in 1st gear as well, so he tried TUNE 2-1. I'm guessing it's a revised version of the other tune. It runs much better, but still has some occasional surging in 1st gear. The dead spots around 2200-3000 rpms seem to be much better and it pulls through that RPM range now without bucking. It's also not throwing the code for the CMCV anymore since the P/O must have told the tuner the car has delete plates installed.

My son got a bit more info from the previous owner, and it sounds like the car was tuned maybe 2 years ago, and then he did a 5-speed swap last year. Does anyone know if there's a major difference in tuning between stick and auto? Could that cause the surging in 1st gear?

 

[The Fixer]

Most recent updates - it's been a while so here it is if anyone is interested. The car was sitting at the dealership where my son works for a bit while he was busy with some other projects. The car had been setting a CEL, so when he scanned it they came back as O2 sensor codes. After plugging the IDS in, he and his buddy noticed one bank would run very lean, while the other bank would run very rich. After a little bit, the rich/lean condition would swap sides. So, I searched through the forum here and saw a few threads with members that had similar issues, and they had inadvertently swapped the left and right upstream O2 sensors.

Yesterday morning my son swapped the O2 wiring around and I took it for a drive. Wow, now the car really runs great! It pulls all the way to 5K+ without any bucking, stumbling, or hesitation. Part throttle cruise is much improved as well. I think it's still a bit rich as it will pop/backfire on shifts, but it's still got an exhaust leak so he thinks that might be causing the issue. He's going to loosen and reset the collector/H-pipe connections to see if it quiets down and fixes the problem.

 

[Juice]

Dont you just love fixing other ppl's crap? lol

On the disabled preloaded tunes, sct can do "canned tunes" or custom tunes. Never both. When loading custom tunes, preloaded ones have to be disabled.

 

[The Fixer]

Dont you just love fixing other ppl's crap? lol

On the disabled preloaded tunes, sct can do "canned tunes" or custom tunes. Never both. When loading custom tunes, preloaded ones have to be disabled.

Ah, that makes sense!

And yeah, he's had a helluva time fixing the P/O's mistakes. The guy mangled the manifold to H-pipe flanges so they didn't really seat properly. My son got under there over the weekend, dropped the H-pipe, and tweaked the flanges back to straight. Once he put it back up in the car, he fired it up and two things happened.

1. It doesn't sound like a dump truck anymore.

2. The backfiring and loading up with fuel is now completely fixed! I drove it today and was amazed. The low-speed surging and bucking is now FINALLY gone. We live in a really congested area and I had to drive the car during rush-hour traffic today, so most of my trip was crawling along in 1st and 2nd gear. Not once did it hesitate, backfire, surge, or stumble. Turns out, having an exhaust leak before the O2 sensor really messes with the computer.