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SCT "Free Tunes for Life"

Just a short story I'd like to share.

I bought my SCT X3/XF3 tuner from a local shop near where I live. They will update my tuner for life. No problem there. A buddy of mine loved it and did the same thing, bought his from the same local shop.

The friend of mine then bought a cold air intake from American Muscle and they won't send him a tune for the CAI. He didn't buy the SCT tuner from them, so they won't send him the tune.

Now I can see American Muscle's point of nanner-nanner you didn't buy the SCT device from us, HOWEVER a CAI _was_ bought from them, and it requires a tune.

I expected the SCT people to stand behind the free tunes for life through their dealers that handle their products. Not _THE_ dealer you bought the product from. Nowhere on American Muscle's web site does it say free tunes for life but only if you buy the tuner here. No one's web site who sells the tuner says that.

He's PO'd and sending the CAI back to American Muscle. No tune, no CAI. He's buying from the local shop for only a few bucks more. Pretty much better for everyone anyway... Except American Muscle looses a sale.

I'm not trying to pick on American Muscle, I suppose all the SCT distributors will do the same thing. I just didn't expect this.

Sell a product that requires a tune, but refuse to supply the tune.

I didn't see anywhere on where you could order a tune based on: I bought device X for car A, and car A has the following mods...

Oh, well. Live and learn. He still gets a CAI and a free tune.

Reply to
twk
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I don't remember SCT ever offering "Free Tunes for Life". I do however remember American Muscle offering tunes for life.. Started right after they bought out/hired/whatever they did, with Doug at Bama.. perhaps you were mistaken on who was actually offering the tune for life?

Also, i think SCT only sells basic tunes for stock vehicles... ??? If you need a custom tune for your CAI, then I think you need to get it from a reseller... I think some CAI manufactures will bundle things together...

Reply to
john stachlewicz

hard to see why a tune "needs to know" if there is a cold air intake or not.

after all, the air temp sensor has that nailed, also the maf.

Reply to
biofilm

When I bought mine a year ago or so, many places were advertising free tunes for life. I didn't check every where but I was sure all the places I checked were. The still seem to be. But I was excited about this and possibly read into it what I wanted.

Oops, I should have said my buddy bought his from a similar local shop. Not the same local shop. He lives about 40 miles from me.

Reply to
twk

One thing I love about American Muscle, they have answers:

Crap, an incomplete example from AM. There is much more to it than that. Well, maybe someone can provide a link to the following. I hope I get this right:

First off, all the CAI's I've looked at reuse your stock mass air flow sensor.

With an aftermarket free flowing intake path, your stock mass air flow sensor can saturate, meaning more air will be flowing past it than it can sense. This can cause a lean burn situation, damaging your engine. A tune will "re-curve" the software controlling your MAF sensor and prevent this from happening.

Some aftermarket intakes are not much better than stock, but look good, sound great, and don't require a tune. Some people like the looks and new sound from those parts and that's fine for them. It's less expensive too.

But if you shop around you'll see some cold air intakes _require_ a tune because they _will_ damage your engine by causing a lean burn condition if you don't re-tune your car. You'll gain much more power from one of these tune-required intakes too.

Reply to
twk

Found a link from Ford Racing for the v6 intake. Others are similar.

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says, in BOLD type:Calibration is necessary to prevent engine damage! Calibration not included!

Still not the link I saw not long ago, but you get the idea I hope.

Reply to
twk

It's the MAF housing that's important... if you chance the size of the housing or flow characteristics you need to tune for it...

Reply to
john stachlewicz

Sounds right to me, airflow and MAF is fussy stuff, it may get fussy at low temp or high temp. stay away from lean !! more HP there but so is DET.

related: I remember some problems with how the air tube went to the MAF, if there was sharp bend near it, the cal would be thrown off, also some issue with the lenght of tube on both sides of the MAF, and inside the 1993

5.0 at least there is a screen that tends to strighten//smooth the airflow out before it hits the MAF sensor. Some take the screen out, for more airflow, but that makes the engine surge under some conditions.
Reply to
biofilm

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