That's off the table for this year, his wife is expecting.

 

Just a thought - Have you looked at the throttle body? Your symptoms sound suspiciously like a dirty throttle body to me. Tunes seem to aggravate the effect of a dirty throttle body, since they remove the "slop" provided by the factory tune.

- Jack

 

Most of the Xcal 2's I'm finding (used) are running around 200 bucks, and the one Xcal 3 I found the guy wants 250 bucks. Do these prices seem right/fair? I have read of people getting them for as little as 150 (mostly Xcal2's).

I'm thinking X3 so that when I get a 2010-2011 with the 6.2L I can also get custom tunes for it

 

depends on how many unlocks are left. i beleive they come with 5 unlocks. which means it can be used on 5 vehicles. i bought mine used last year for $250 with 4 unlocks left. try searching some mustang forums (PM me for the links) there are guys unloading these things all the time on those sites.

i'd say my deal was pretty fair, ask the guy how many unlocks are left and go from there. if ti only has 1 or 2 left i wouldn't give him any more than $200 if that. you should also check and make sure he has the usb cable that comes with it.

 

check the sctflash site i think the xcal2 has canned tunes wher the xcal3 dosent so will require cutom tunes

I had teh edge evo and went to VMP's 87 tunes verey pleased with the customer service i had to much fuel so was loading up and a mater of a hour justin emailed me a new tune..

 

and yes the insight will work with it.

 

did you go Xcal2 or Xcal3?

Since most used Xcal3's are going for 200-250 and custom tunes are 60 a peice (180 for all 3 total) Its just the same, if not cheaper, if I just buy the brand new Xcal3 with custom tunes straight from justin for $399..

 

Diff between XCal 2 and Xcal 3 isn't canned/custom. The Xcal 2 is no longer an active product. It and the Xcal 3 had varieties that came blank and required custom tunes, and units with canned tunes that could also hold custom tunes. The difference is a larger screen and more memory on the 3, and different data logging capabilities. Its overall look was more thought out, professional and polished. For some things I still prefer the XCal 2 when data logging.

 

I have VMP tunes 87performance, 93performance, 93towing

I have noticed better power and shifting but it doesn't blow me away... it also messed up my speedometer, it reads out 3-5mph faster than what I am going of course the faster I go the worst it gets. On stock tune, the speedo is fine. Downloading the tunes into my SCT was also not easy through e-mail.

On a scale of 1-10, I give them a 6.

 

You need to adjust the tire size. I don't know how you do it in an X3, but the owner's manual should tell you. Right now, your PCM thinks your tire size is about 5% larger than it really is (a guess, based on the numbers you stated) and you need to decrease it. (Or, increase the number of revs/mile by the same amount if that's what your device uses).

This will also have a small effect on your shifting performance (should improve it slightly).

- Jack

 

I thought custom tunes took that stuff into account when writing the tunes. Stuff like tire size, tire squish, new gears, etc.. ?

 

I think the general answer is "yes, they do". But, if Justin didn't have that information, or, if he just "overlooked" it (we're all human), it would not be correct in the tune.

Regardless, I'd check and adjust, if necessary, the Tire Size and Gear Ratio that is set up in the tunes. That's really the only reason I can think of that would cause the speedo to be incorrect.

I also see that I got the direction to change the tire size "backwards", since the speedo "thinks" the truck is going faster than it really is. This means the PCM thinks the tires are larger than they really are, not smaller.

I'll go back and edit things so that I don't confuse too many people.

Edit: I also think the error might be closer to 5%.

- Jack

 

From what I understand the tire size data with the PCM program is set at a given rev per mile and gear ratio with that switch turned off. In order for tire size and gear ratio options to work, that switch must be turned on within the calibration, so you may still have to set your tire size.

That parameter is 683 revs per mile in the stock calibration file (about a 30" O.D.) for my truck, but my truck's OEM tires are actually 660 revs per mile. There is another data base, the vehicle ID block, within the PCM that has the correct data for tire size and gear ratio. Once the PCM switch is turned on, it will read the data from the PCM and not the vehicle ID block. I would bet 683 revs per mile is the standard input for that range.

 

Got my VMP e-mailed to me last week. It's just as good as my old Troyer tune, just one fifth the price. Although maybe the $250 price I got quoted was because I still had an original Xcal and they were harder to program? Who knows.. Either way VMP is sweet for the price.. and Xcal 3 data logging rocks!

 

It's a matter of knowing what you're communicating to the tuner. If I tell the tuner I have a 34" tire, then he can back into a rev per mile data based on that directive.

However, The true distance from the center of the hub to the pavement, doubled, would be closer to the revolution per mile data for that tire. A 34" advertised O.D. could easily measure 16.25" (32.5" doubled) from pavement to the center of the hub and the speedometer would read 4.5% higher than it should.

If I'm a tuner, I'm not going to second guess the info that I've been provided and the reason why I give you options to change your tire size. If I was given a tire size, say a 275/55-20, I could probably find rev per mile data for tires in that range because they're usually fairly close.