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Figured I'd write a review of the tuner/tunes I recently got from 5 star. Before i pulled the trigger on anything I researched and read up on anything I could find and decided in the end to get a Bullydog BDX with 2 custom 5 star tunes. Hopefully this post will help someone also looking for a tuner in the future.
Truck is a 2015 Lariat 502A
3.55 gears
LT305/55/20 (33.2")
AFE CAI
MBRP 3" Catback exhaust
firat off i ordered the tuner/tunes on a Sunday night and received everything by Wednesday which was awesome.
Got 2 custom tunes from 5 star
93 perf/tow
93 perf only
once I had it i was like a kid on Christmas morning...went and sat in the truck with the instructions. Install is super easy, instructions are clear as day. Nice thing about the bullydog bdx is everything can be done over wifi, no computer necessary.
loaded up the 93 perf/tow first. Immediately felt the difference even at slow speeds. Throttle response was so much better. Low end torque was so much better. The trucks choice of what gear to be in was spot on at all speeds. Didnt try to get into 6th as quickly as possible no matter how slow I was going. I do a lot of highway driving to/from work and this is where I saw the most improvement. Cruising around 75-80, instead of the truck lagging when giving it a little throttle, it actually had significant boost kick in, staying in 6th gear. Nice that it didnt have to downshift into 4th to pass someone.
ran that tune for 2 days before even trying the 93 perf only...
put the 93 perf only tune in before leaving work today. Got scary for a minute...once i was on the highway I immediately went wide open and said uh oh...there was no boost whatsoever, I was driving a 3.5 L naturally aspirated F150. Scared the $h1t out of me. Pulled into arrest stop and called 5 star. Person i spoke to said this was an oddball case, had not heard of changing the tunes and only 1 of them having an issue like this. He told me to put the stock tune back in and do a factory reset of the tuner, then they'd resend me the custom tunes to load back in and try again. They believed it may have had something to do with the transfer over the cloud - tune might have been corrupted traveling through all the channels via the cloud (5 star, sct, my wifi etc). Withtin a few mins, the guys at 5 star resent me my tunes via the cloud AND emailed them as well just in case. Loaded up the 93 perf only tune and WOW. truck is a beast. Unreal
As i said before i did a lot of reading up before selecting a tuner/tunes. Everything I read was all about MPT/Livernois making more power and how 5 star made less power but the driveabaility/trans feel was great. Well, coming from someone with experience of powerful vehicles(used to have a 600hp evo), let me tell you, 5 stars 93 perf only tune is PLENTY of power for my pickup. The perf/tow tune is an incredible upgrade in overall driveabaility over stock and has noticeable power gains. The perf only is awesome and definitely has more power than I was expecting.
max boost I'm seeing in perf/tow is 16psi
max boost I'm seeing in perf only is ~18.5.
advancetrac light blinks a lot in perf only tune lol
huge shout out to Aaron and Chris at 5 star for helping resolve the little issue so quickly.
Very happy with my choice of the bullydog bdx and the 5 star custom tunes. Made the truck a lot more fun to drive and made the transmission so much smoother
I have 5 Star Tune as well, on my 2016 XLT. I just took it to the strip for fun a few weeks ago, on the very first pass she ran a 13.8 @ 97MPH with the damn camper shell. The Mustang behind me couldn't break a 15, a Mach 1 and the newer Boss couldn't break 14's. Both cars were manuals and the owners had a very hard time launching, I just skipped the burn out box and traction was pretty good.
2016 XLT Screw
3.55 Gears
K&N CAI
5 Star Custom tune
I guess my only question is, if they aren’t getting data logs and reviewing, making adjustments at least three times is it really a custom tune? It sounds like a off the shelf tune that they review once to make sure it’s safe.
To me there is definitly power being left on the table. I would like to get my truck tuned from someone that is gonna take the time to make all the adjustments specific to my truck and best in person on a dyno or road tune. I would also really enjoy e-85 but I haven’t looked into that much on the F-150....yet.
I guess my only question is, if they aren’t getting data logs and reviewing, making adjustments at least three times is it really a custom tune? It sounds like a off the shelf tune that they review once to make sure it’s safe.
To me there is definitly power being left on the table. I would like to get my truck tuned from someone that is gonna take the time to make all the adjustments specific to my truck and best in person on a dyno or road tune. I would also really enjoy e-85 but I haven’t looked into that much on the F-150....yet.
Good power and runs at the strip tho!
I've only had the tuner for 3 days now. All my driving in those 3 days has been highway driving. I've done a bunch of data logs in those 3 days but I also want to send them data logs of non-highway driving. But even so, getting a "custom" tune from anywhere is technically more "custom" then getting a canned tune. They took all the truck info before writing the tune - performance mods, tire size, axle code etc. Also, with the custom tune you are choosing the octane you want to run which, if running higher octane, allows the tune to be more aggressive than the canned tunes which allow for any octane.
I just got the SCT X4 with the 91 P/T and 91 Perf from 5 Star for my 2018 3.5l. Mine is a Lariat, 10 speed, 3.73, HDPP truck that I use for commuting and towing a 9000 lb toy hauler. I had 5 Start tunes on my 2011 Ecoboost too for almost 100k miles.
The Perf/Tow is a great tune for daily use. Responsive, smooth, fast. The 91 perf tune is almost too much - truck is seriously fast with very strong acceleration - maybe too much for a 6000 lb vehicle of this size. I have to be in 4A with it or it will spin the tires all the time.
I'll do some towing over the holiday break so will see how the P/T tune does. I will also do some logs and have 5 Star look them over.
I just got the SCT X4 with the 91 P/T and 91 Perf from 5 Star for my 2018 3.5l. Mine is a Lariat, 10 speed, 3.73, HDPP truck that I use for commuting and towing a 9000 lb toy hauler. I had 5 Start tunes on my 2011 Ecoboost too for almost 100k miles.
The Perf/Tow is a great tune for daily use. Responsive, smooth, fast. The 91 perf tune is almost too much - truck is seriously fast with very strong acceleration - maybe too much for a 6000 lb vehicle of this size. I have to be in 4A with it or it will spin the tires all the time.
I'll do some towing over the holiday break so will see how the P/T tune does. I will also do some logs and have 5 Star look them over.
M
ya man loving the perf/tow and the perf only is seriously crazy how much power it tries to put to the tires, lots of fun tho
12-14-2018, 08:18 PM
2015 3.5 EB 5 star tune review
