Well, I finally bit the bullet and called Mike at 5 Star. I took advantage of their Memorial Day sale and purchased and X4 device with a couple of custom tunes. The new tuner should be here middle of next week and I can finally make the computer happy!
Write up to follow...
I have been stalling on this in hopes to write something positive.
6 months after the purchase and all I have to report is buying a SCT X4 tuner and a half assed custom tune.
Well, I should rephrase that. I got 5 tunes so far. Not one of them is "right". The first tune was so far out of whack I could only mange to drive about 20 miles with it. Second tune was better, but I couldn't handle sitting at a stop light idling at 3,000 rpm's. The third tune had an insanely lean idle condition that hyperheated my catalytic converter which melted the hydraulic clutch line which caught on fire. Yes, I said caught on fire!!! Luckily for me, I played dumb and Napa honored their warranty and replaced the master/slave assembly free of charge. I have been running tune #4 since late June. To offset the lean idle, he richened it up, too much. So the computer tries to counter that by leaning the idle which nets me an idle condition of about 1,800rpm at stop lights for anywhere from seconds to minutes. Then the fuel trims will reset to zero and I get a rough rich idle again. Tune #5 went way wonky. I tried it a couple of times without any luck.
The worst part, he won't answer emails! During the entire process I would give feedback via email and include datalogs. After tune #5 I sent an email explaining the symptoms and got nothing for like 3 months! After sending another email I basically got the "I can't help you without the vehicle". Yeah dood, I am going to drive from Oregon to South Carolina...
The last email I sent was over a week ago. No response. How hard could it be to write a program for a manual tranny?
At this point I would be hard pressed to recommend 5 Star to anyone. My next move is to get a custom tune elsewhere or swap out the ECU for one of of a Super Duty.