06 T-RED S/C GT
forum member
Doug from Bama was da man when I had a 5.0 Explorer almost 20 years ago.
I have the Brenspeed tunes on my car. Only engine "mods" are mufflers (for tone) and a K&N panel filter inside an opened-up stock airbox. Car had 30K miles on it at the install, 55K on it now. With Brenspeed's tune, it has always pinged on the spec'd fuel... 87, 89, 91, so have to run the grade above the spec (currently running 91 with the 89 tune). Followed up with Brenspeed, and they said there must be something wrong with my car. Ah, no.
I'll be getting a Lito tune. Shouldn't be necessary on what it essentially a stock engine, but...
For the engine mods you have, there shouldn't be any pinging issues at all even on an 89 octane tune. IMO, if it's not an octane related issue then it's most definitely spark/timing related. As for Brenspeed, I totally agree concerning their lack of customer support. When Brenspeed first started out, it was Brent himself who provided customer support and ran the tuning dept as a one-man operation just as Doug had with Bamachips by communicating directly with his customers via e-mail and also by phone and did so by always treating them as valued customers with both class and respect.
Unfortunately ever since Brenspeed became a household name, they've turned away from what made it all possible in order to become the household name in which they're known for today by putting their customers first. Since then it's been all about profit first along with enjoying their status as media celebrities. As a result, you end up getting somebody in their marketing/sales dept who could honestly give 2 shits about providing actual customer service as though you're just an inconvenience to them lol. Anyhow getting back to what Brenspeed said about your pinging issues, as I mentioned earlier, it's either an octane related issue with the 89 oct fuel itself in which you were using or most definitely tune related concerning spark/timing. Therefore if Brenspeed refuses to acknowledge that by offering a tune revision for you? I don't blame you one bit for switching over to Lito and then saying "fuck you" to Brenspeed. At any rate, I continue to use their 91 octane tune only because there hasn't been any tune related issues nor do I have the ability to datalog due to not owning a laptop, otherwise, I would've made the switch to Lito, VMP or Lund years ago. As for "Doug" formally of Bamachips, no question about it. He was definitely indeed da man
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