I just loaded Mike's 91 performance street tune into my '13 F150 5.0 and whoa is it awesome! This one is so impressive I don't foresee going with anything else. It seems right up my alley of what my expectations were for a daily driver, family, performance truck. Below I'd like to share some notes and experiences with MPT and the SCT device itself.

As my username suggest I had a Mustang and I ran a Diablosport on it for nearly 12 years. No custom tunes, just advanced adjustments made in the driveway and butt dyno tested. I never had an issue with it. So with the new truck I was immediately looking for a good device and tuner to wake up the factory truck. MPT's price on the SF3 and 3 custom tunes was an awesome deal and the device arrived in I believe 2 days. Crazy fast.

While waiting for the custom tunes to be made I thought I'd try the canned 87 octane tune. I drove on that for a little over a week. Let me say that if you ordered custom tunes don't even bother with the canned tune. Waste of time. Seriously. Wait until you can load your custom tunes. The canned tune did liven up the gas pedal a hair, firm up the shift points and gave it a more aggressive downshift scheme but it is peanuts compared to the custom tune that will arrive. The major difference being the gas pedal and engine performance.

Let me pause here to share an issue I had with the device itself. So I loaded the canned tune last week then today went to return the vehicle to stock before checking for updates on the device (even though I checked for updates right when I got the device per directions, no update needed then or today) and downloading the new custom tunes. I thought that was the safest way to go about things. Well the device said Incorrect Vehicle. It would not put the stock tune back in the truck. I emailed MPT the issue and within minutes they emailed me back specific instructions on calling SCT to address the issue. They even told me to be near an online Windows based computer, tuner in hand, and also ready to pull info off the truck. I was on the phone for 14 minutes with SCT following their directions to connect to the truck for info and also to the computer so he can download my files. The man seemed confident and quick to get the info he needed to pass to the tech for resolving. He said I will hear back in less than an hour on what to do. I heard back in about an hour. Impressive. In just a couple minutes I was told to connect my device to the computer to receive the resolved update. (even thought it still said no update needed. weird but whatever.) Then I quickly downloaded the MPT tunes to the device. I then was able to return the vehicle to stock. I gave it a quick test drive to ensure it was stock then I loaded the 91 performance street tune in and away I was! Whatever the issue was, either me doing the original canned install or the device itself, it was resolved very quickly and professionally.

Now having just test drove the 91 octane performance street tune I am very happy. It drives great, gas pedal feels much more positive, has waaaay more oomf and shifts wonderfully. 91 is all we have where I live which is fine. It's plenty for my commuting and enjoyment needs.

Bottom line, the canned tunes feel marginal in increased performance. To be fair I stuck with 87 octane on the canned then went 91 on the custom load today. Still, other factors feel different, not just power increase. Don't bother with messing with canned loads if you ordered custom tunes. IMO a waste of time. MPT did a great job and so did SCT. Great results and great customer service.

A side note for K&N CAI kit users, the awful noise and vibration gets better. When I installed the CAI kit it took about two hundred miles for the vehicle to learn the change and adjust for itself. The awful noise and vibe was much reduced. It went away even more when I put the 87 octane canned tune in. So much so it was almost none of the awful part of the noise and vibe. The engine still growled on hard acceleration but it was more like a CAI growl, not the loud vibe noise people are reporting on first install of them. Now with the 91 custom tune it is still gone. Just the deep engine and intake growl that most of us are familiar with. Maybe it took a two tanks of gas to learn the new intake or the canned and custom tunes helped, but now it's not doing that awful noise and vibration. I was ready to return the CAI but decided to ride it out for a couple weeks to see if things changed naturally or with the tunes. Now I'll be keeping it on.

Now for the S-type kit to arrive to seal the deal.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share all that with us!

Sent from my iPhone using IB AutoGroup

 

nice review! thanks

 

Nice review....

Sounds like yer attempt at another update bricked/locked up the programmer....thank goodness sct knew what to do...

for the life of me I don't know why you guys always get update happy....

 

It should also be noted, as others have said, don't do a tune load on a Friday night. Also do it in your driveway and prepare for the worst if the car decides not to start or something. I planned to have hours of available time in the comfort of my home. It helped keep me calm and patient. I could still drive with the canned tune, just couldn't go back to stock so it really wasn't anything to fret anyways.

The device was up to date when I got it and said it was still up to date when I checked it again today. It even still said up to date when I connected to receive an update to fix my stock tune file. Maybe the stock tune downloaded in the background or something. I dunno but it worked.

 

Also the canned tunes still make the fans spin 100% of the time. Annoying. SCT still hasn't fix that. The custom tunes are the way to go.

 

Mustangmandan,

Did that vibration go away?

2013 FX4 5.0 3.73
Borla Atak Cat Back
285/65R20 BFG KO2
Just tunned with custom Tune on SCT X4 87 Performance
Truck came alive!!!!
Immediately installed a S & B Cold Air Intake

Even more power, but now at about 2800 I get a wicked vibration that sounds like its coming from my front dome lights!

Any input?

Chris

 

You got custom tunes and THEN installed an intake? That's backwards - now you need to retune for the intake.

 

You are correct.
I tuned for the intake, but the tuner arrived a about 2 hours before my intake so I had time to tune and take it for a spin before installing the intake.

The truck is tuned for the intake.