2011 5.0L Performance Tune

Gain over 5 tenths in the ¼ mile from just our 93 octane tune in the new 5.0L cars with the 6-speed automatic. Our new 2011 5.0L 6-speed automatic equipped Mustang went from 13.23@108mph in 70 degree temperatures down to 12.68@111mph in 80+ degree temperatures. This was on heavier 20” wheels & tires too. Rear wheel HP is up 20+ from stock and torque is up over 25ft lbs of TQ in the low, & to mid RPM’s.

Alternative Auto Performance has already produced our own in-house custom tune for the new 2011 5.0L Mustangs. We will have many other options and bolt-ons to come, but for now we’ve got a very well figured out tune that offers a very noticeable gain in low and midrange TQ, and impressive gains in high RPM horsepower too. With no fake cool downs or any unrealistic cheating on the dyno, we gained 20+rwhp and over 20ft lbs of TQ. The biggest improvement we found was the TQ and feel of this new 32v motor while under 3300-3500rpms. We spent a lot of time here because as impressive as this new motor is, it still doesn’t pull that hard at WOT while under 3500 RPMs. Gearing, torque convertor and other things will improve & remedy this of course, but I felt that the stock tune was a little soft in this area.

85% of the time I spend developing tunes now days is on how these modern electronic controlled automatic transmissions shift and feel around town (if equipped with an auto-trans), and of course at WOT too as far as engine performance is concerned. When we do tunes for today’s performance cars – the automatic equipped customers really get the most bang for the buck out of this type of tuning. The reason for this is; it’s a well known fact that “short shifts” and early “Lock-up” produce the best MPG’s. But early/short shifts and premature lock-up in my opining (and other performance enthusiast’s agree) is undesirable when driving around town at what I’ve labeled as “intermediate speeds”. Where you’re not necessarily cruising at one constant speed, you always going from zero to 30, or 35 to 55, or from 30 to 60mph, etc, etc. Under these conditions, short shifts and early lock-up is a bummer, and usually make the car feel sometimes like it is in the wrong gear and bogging all over town. Once again, great for economy, but crappy for the seat of the pants feel.

I address as much of this as I can in a very big way. We delay when this new six speed goes into both 5th and 6th overdrive gears, and we also quickening up the time that it takes to downshift out of all the gears as you depress the gas pedal while cruising along, not just overdrive’s. We also delay lock-up quite a bit, in fact we set them up to not lock until 6th gear only – at speeds greater then 63-65mph. There is nothing wrong with this method of applying lock-up so late. We’ve done it for years, and my customers love it on all of the previous tunes we’ve offered on the older 4 and 5-speed automatics. Same stuff applies with the new 6-speed auto’s too. These modern automatic equipped cars have plenty of transmission cooling capacity, so there is no fear in running around with the stock TQ convertor un-locked around town all the time. Even with slightly looser/higher stall convertors this isn’t a problem.

Our trans portion of the tune does a great job of not feeling like its bogging and lagging while under 50 to 60mph. As soon as you start to push down on the gas pedal, it responds and depending on load and conditions, it will downshift much sooner and respond much better than the stock trans tune. One of the main things we also address is the WOT shifts from 2nd through 4th. We’ve made all of those shifts at WOT substantially firmer/quicker, and reduced the amount of TQ reduction during those shifts. Making it actually bark the tires during the 1-2 shifts. This combined with other factors in the new tune can greatly reduce it’s Zero – 60mph, and ET at the ¼ mile. Plus our tune adds better engine performance to which also contributes to better around town trans shifting and less gear hunting while moving around at intermediate speeds.

All of our in house custom tunes are available on our SCT Xcal-4.  Please contact us for pricing.