Does a DYNO TUNE help a Stock Foxbody Mustang?

Matthew puts a Dyno Tune on the bone stock 93 Mustang project to see if it adds power and torque. Tests are performed before and after tuning and compared to the "10 minute tune up" as well. This video includes the dyno results and a discussion of them.

[@ICT_Anton]

So Ive got an 88 mustang GT. Stock short block GT40p heads, full exhaust, 70mm throttle body, converted to mass air, not sure on the cam, maybe a mild cam, Edelbrock upper and lower intake, and been converted to a C4 tranny with a 3000ish stall. I cannot get this thing running right. Ive only had the car a few months. Theres a dyno shop around the corner from my house, but I was told that you couldn't tweak the stock ECU on the OBD1 cars like you can the new cars. I was told I needed to buy one if the aftermarket engine managment systems to be able to tune it. Is that true or false? I would love to have it dyno tuned with the stock ECU if possible just due to being on sort of a budget. But Im wanting to put a small nitrous kit on it, and cant do that until its running right and doesnt fall on its face

[@tecmotiondyno]

@@ICT_Anton I tuned a stock ECU car with a 351W swap yesterday. It ran like garbage when it came in and it ran beautifully when it left. The chip systems that work with these cars are mostly discontinued and it is hard to get chips these days, but not impossible. As far as I know you can still buy the tweecer which is a plug in system that you can use to tune the car through a usb cable and datalog it as well. If you were somewhere near Calgary I would say bring it over and I will sort it out, and I still have a chip inventory for them.

[@jeffreyhawn1559]

I see further down in the comments you tell, sort of. that you are using a moates Qhorse to tune the stock EEC. Could have mentioned that upfront since the foxbody beginers generally dont know that stock EEC-IVs cant be tuned without hardware and software to make changes, but I guess thats the business youre selling.

[@tecmotiondyno]

No matter what your electronic engine management system is, it requires hardware and software to tune it, so I don’t expect that to be a surprise. The video is about an actual dyno tune which is clearly outside of the capability of a DIYer, but something that is commonly commercially available. In most cases the customer is not required to be aware of all of the tools that are used when dyno tuning the car.

[@albertespinoza5842]

Always glad to see you put up videos on foxbodies,have you ever ran into or heard of a foxbody that ran fine in cold weather,but surged and stalled in warm and hot weather, I've changed out the usual parts common to this problem to no avail,only thing left is fuel pump,also when driving it'll buck and feel like it wants to die

[@tecmotiondyno]

Lots of things are affected by heat. Electronics are one of them. If you suspect your fuel pump, try using a fuel pressure gauge to see if there is a warm pressure drop out. My approach to this would be to get a datalog of the car to look for bad sensors, and bad programming, as well as check fuel pressure with a gauge on the dyno.

[@notchit3542]

A T5 car would get another 20-30 hp out of it.......I think

[@tecmotiondyno]

Yes it would. I will say that I drove this car on the street today for the first time since fixing all this stuff and it finally feels like a Mustang. The last time I drove it to try to clear up the cooling system, it apparently had 20 psi of fuel pressure and was a real dog. The work so far has made a big difference.

[@bobby1602]

From your experience are these numbers a pretty normal result? 155hp seems really low to me even for a stock set up. i always thought these dynoed 180-190hp at the wheels.

[@tecmotiondyno]

This dyno has always read low, and this car is an automatic which always read lower. I have compared it to other stockers that I have tested on this dyno and these numbers are certainly in a believable range for a car like this. One question that I am looking at is whether the ‘93 Mustang, which was rated much lower than the ‘92, really IS lower. Certainly there are plenty of anecdotes from guys who say things like “my ‘88 was way quicker than my ‘93”. My analysis includes a percentage difference to normalize comparisons to other dynos which invariably read higher in terms of raw numbers.

[@thefoxlife3431]

Great info. I just installed a widedand in my ‘87 mass air converted mustang. It reads around 14.6-15.8 at idle. I haven’t got the car out of winter storage yet so no driving yet. When I stomp the gas, it will drop to Mid 12s and the. Jump to 20+ after I let off the gas. It takes a long time of idle to get back to normal. It likes to stay in the 18s unless I feather the gas a few times. I’m new to air/fuel monitoring so I don’t know if that’s normal.

[@tecmotiondyno]

The idle mixture is fine, but without a datalog there is no way to know how much fuel trim is applied to achieve it. The WOT mixture sounds a little rich, but not so bad that it should cause any real runnability problems. It is normal for the car to show super lean when you snap the throttle shut because it uses deceleration fuel cutoff to prevent backfiring, but it should recover fairly quickly. This could be a programming issue, or an issue with how the idle controls are physically adjusted, or something else. Without seeing the car in person it can be hard to be more specific than that.

[@shawnlibby675]

If he's using fuel from today should be different numbers the fuel used in testing in 93 is different than the fuel juice today with ethanol

[@Diondo26]

time to change to a Terminator X ...that Terminator works great .....

[@DB509Stang]

Definitely would love to see a Terminator X install from this Master Foxbody mechanic.

[@tecmotiondyno]

I have a short up of a terminator X car that I recently went to get started for the customer. That car has the pro dash too. With a little luck we will get that car on the dyno and get a profile if it when the weather gets better.

[@frankocasio8202]

excellent video...what program or chip did you use to tune this car..thank u

[@tecmotiondyno]

It was done with a Moates chip. Sadly, they shut their doors last November, and I am still looking for a replacement system that works.

[@NGG1983]

Question for you. I have a stock 94GT that i'm planning a heads cam intake swap with GT40P heads soon. What would you recommend for tuning on this? There's so many options like Megasquirt2 plug and play, Pro-M, Tweecer, Holly ect. here's the parts list to go in if that helps GT40P heads unported with alex's parts springs 1.6 RR Steeda #19 cam 94-95 Cobra gt40 intake 24lb injectors and 155LPH walbro in tank pump 75MM Pro-M mass air for 24lb injectors 70MM throttle body BBK fender cold air I'm in Vancouver, wish i was closer to you guys in Alberta. might be worth the road trip with an untuned car? lol

[@Diondo26]

I can recommend the Terminator X ...from original to megasquirt 2 and then to Terminator ... best Money spent..

[@tecmotiondyno]

That kind of combination will work fine with a stock computer and chip tune on the dyno, though the chips are in short supply right now. A megasquirt2 pnp is also a good choice, or a Holley Terminator X. Either of those will benefit from having a dyno tune, but the terminator X does an OK job of self tuning especially with a mild combo like yours.

[@vtecbanger3180]

Awesome thanks

[@tecmotiondyno]

Thanks for watching

[@Funky5.0]

thanks for the response...Goodluck

[@frederickhairston3823]

Good afternoon replaced pinion flange now vibrating @ rear end.

[@tecmotiondyno]

I don’t know what procedure you used, but if you back off the pinion nut, which you have to do to replace the flange, you should disassemble the whole thing, set up a new crush collar and use a new pinion nut and set the correct pinion preload. If you do this wrong, a noisy rear end would be a common outcome. Most of the time when you are doing this, you might as well replace all the bearings and races too, or at least check them to be sure it is right. A vibration problem could be some other issue too that is a coincidence or just noticed because of the other work.

[@frederickhairston3823]

Good morning had to replace rear driveshaft u joint thanks have a nice weekend.

[@tecmotiondyno]

Glad you caught it. It’s a real mess if the u-joint fails!

[@jpp9846]

Love your channel

[@tecmotiondyno]

Thanks! And thanks for watching!

[@MongrelsGarage]

Very nice improvement and great video!

[@tecmotiondyno]

I'm always skeptical of tunes on stock cars because the OEM spent hundreds of millions on developing the controls and you figure they got it basically right for a stocker, but you always make a difference, and in terms of dollars per horsepower, the dyno tune is often one of the least costly things you do, though I always recommend parts first, then dyno.

[@MongrelsGarage]

@@tecmotiondyno I agree, but also maintain the OEM doesn’t tune for the same thing the customer might want. Rather they tune it for general performance and reliability. What I’m trying to say is they like to build in the fudge factor and rather then tune for specific functions such as fuel economy or optimum performance they tune for the general comprise between multiple conditions, thus leaving a lot on the table for specific areas of improvement.

[@tecmotiondyno]

On late model cars there is a bigger emphasis on fuel economy and emissions than on some of these earlier cars, so if you retune it with an emphasis on power, there are bigger gains to be had than there were on these older OBDI setups. Nevertheless, I made some real "no parts" gains here and didn't even bump up to premium fuel for this dyno sequence. In a subsequent video I will show you how far you get when you put the parts changes and software changes together.

[@89Whitehorse]

Great video, can I purchase that tune through mail on a chip? I have a all stock 88 thanks.

[@tecmotiondyno]

The normal answer is yes, but since Moates went out of business there are currently no more chips, so I am reserving my current inventory for in-shop dyno tunes, at least until we can figure out another source for the chips.

[@89Whitehorse]

Thanks for the reply, I would really like you to tune my car but I am in Ontario that’s why I asked. I am very interested if something changes my car has 61,000 km all original if I tune it I would like tecmotion to help me out.

[@tecmotiondyno]

I am actively working on a chip replacement solution, and I am sure other guys are too, so hopefully we will get back to more business as usual for mail order chip tunes sometime here.

[@89Whitehorse]

@@tecmotiondyno Great. Thank you for your awesome channel and yrs of Knowledge. I will look forward to when we have a chip solution until then I will wait. Would love the car have a tune done by you and history that’s behind you. My car is super clean be an honour to support tecmotion. Thank you for you time.

[@kevinarce6120]

@@tecmotiondynowould this tune work on a 2.3 dual ignition