[310stanger]

i know this has probably been posted before but im lazy to search. my car has a trickflow hci, pro-m 80 mm maf/intake kit, 24 lb injectors and all supporting bolt ons, accufab 70mm tb. the car jus doesnt run right and doesnt pull like i feel it should. when the engine is cold is breaks up and wants to die out unless i hold it at 2k steadily, itll backfire a lil. then when it gets to operating temp it idles fine. when u goose it, it has nice torque but jus doesnt rip to 6k like its supposed to. 2nd gear is the only gear itll pull pretty hard. this car jus feels like its getting choked. oh yeah, i dont run my smog pump anymore, and i have the ports under the upper intake plugged off. whats the chances that my lack of emissions control could contribute to a lack of power? i know this is such a broad question. its jus very frustratiing to have a car with great parts on it and it feels like a turd. now the question i have as stated in the title of the thread is, do you guys prefer letting a dyno tuner sort these kinda things out or tune the car yourself with a pms or tweecer? those 2 options are very expensive but i like the idea of not having to be married to some shop and being able to change things urself whenever u want, and only having to cough up the bucks once. the best tuner in nj (laroccas) is not right around the corner for me and i dont like the idea of having a problem with the car on a long drive. anyone with experience on this and has the patience to help me out, id really appreciate it. i choose to post a question like this here because of the very technically proficient crowd at this site. sorry for the book.

[Beasly B]

If you feel pretty good about knowing where to add and subtract timing, and tune with a wideband which is a must, then do it yourself and save the money from going back and forth to a dyno. I can't say which is better but I have a pms and I like it, I've been tuning with it for about 6months now and it was alot of learning about timing,and the fuel tuning is almost impossible without a wideband. As far as the car running funny at warm up, souds like to me you should pull the codes, looking at your upgrades it should still idle fine but just be a little dead as far as power goes,(adding timing and fuel..ect..).It works well for me though somtimes it can get aggrevating.

[310stanger]

whats involved with getting a wideband, and do you need it to use a pms? is the wideband used all the time? or jus during tuning? sorry for what may seem like a dumb question. your help is very much appreciated beasley. also after using the pms did you notice a huge difference? i jus want clean crisp power, and good driveability. i really wonder if i possibly plugged up the cats. when you plug cats do you notice just a loss of power or would it jus completely choke the engine to the point of not running? i have cats for NJ emissions reasons but i got rid of the smog pump and equipment. i figured it wasnt gonna be a problem as nearly all new car these days dont use smog pumps anymore with todays cat technology. thanks in advance.

[Beasly B]

Well just getting the wideband and using it is really simple, the hardest thing about it is you have to weld in a bung in the exhaust or header, after that you just turn it on and read it. You can take it out of the car after you feel comfortable with your tune, but I just leave mine in to monitor beings my car is just a weekend toy, but you don't have to have it to use a pms, it just makes tuning it alot easier. After installing the pms even on my N/A setup I noticed a significant differance, after I installed my engine with everything in my sig minus the blower setup it was kinda sluggish and just wasn't as peppy as I wanted or thought it should be. After I dialed in the air fuel ratios and then I started playing with the timing, which is a whole lot safer with a N/A car then blower/nitrous setup. I did a whole lot of reading on Stang tuning.com and it takes lots of playing with to really get a handle on it. Just when you think you have it all down pat you find out something else that will help out some. As far as "plugging the cat's" not sure what you mean by that, If you mean installing them back on the car it will make some differance as far as power. Luckily where I"m at I can run an off road setup with no problems.

[DMAN302]

Dyno tunes are very effective but pricey...they are the easiest way to attain and make correct fast changes to get the most out of your parts..both performance wise and in terms of drivability. However you have to understand that once the tune is installed there can be no further component changes to the setup, or the result is the current tune no longer being optimal. I my situation and at this point of my mustang hobby, the parts selected are staying, no changes will be made so the dyno tune was a good choice. The tune provided me excellent returns in terms of power and incredible drivability, BUT if you still in the trial and error phase of the mustang hobby the portable software is IDEAL and incredibly effective as well. I WOULD NOT schedule a tune session for a chip if the car was throwing any codes or not running ideal...to make the most of your session you need to bring them the best running car so they can optimize it...they are not going to trouble shoot your issues, and you may be left wasting time and money.

[347blown]

Hey guy, yeah brought my car to larocco's to get it tuned, got the tweecer couldn't get it working, so had the chip burned, car runs better with the chip, but not fantastic, it sounds like with your combo, not sure what ecm u are running? u can pretty much dial it in with the stock ecm, u can also check out crazy horse they do dyno runs and with the sock ecm and tune it. If they can't they want to sell u a stand alone system. good luck. Oh yeah wide band o2 sensor is the way to go, just got an aem one, haven't hooked it up yet?