shifting

[captain]

I have an honest question to all you Racers.
How do you do it???
Really.
You have an automatic transmission with a computer chip...
It tells the car when to shift...
Sooo do you just put your Merc in "D" for drive and step on it???
Or are you manually moving the shift lever through the gears?

Based on the tune I am running..I can see no good reason to even have a first and second gear available. The car knows best

In my younger days when 2 cars of similar configuration lined up for sport...
the winner was usually the better driver. The guy who knew his car, knew the sound it made and what that meant, he would shift at the exact right moment and the race was over.
Seems to me... in this day of chips and tech and torque we really arent racing the man as much as we are racing his wealth. ie his willingness to out spend his opponent vs out perform.
Or maybe my car is sick.
Last night, Stop light, first gear, GREEN! punched it.. 0 to 50 quick as a wink, then stall out, no more MPH, no more RPM
Over the hill and done at 50?!! MPH that is. time to shift or quit?
I think I should dyno this fat hog and find out why she is so eager to quit. Could be the ....tune, the fuel pump, the dwell. the mix, the timing. could be a lot of things.
2003 Marauder, with sct xcal 2 from reinhart automotive. 92 octane and a new battery.

[FordNut]

It's in the tune. A good shift schedule is hard to get just right, I've had several tuners work on my car and finally got the SCT program so I could figure it out for myself. Now I'm pretty happy with it. I can get a tune from about anybody (with SCT software, not Diablo:() for engine operations and then import my shifting parameters into it.

[Blackened300a]

Most people will tell you that manually shifting the tranny is bad for these cars. I have manually shifted before and there is a delay before the trans will go into the next gear. If you throw the gear at 6K rpms you will bounce off the limiter til the trans decides its good and ready to shift.
Your trans tune should be set up so you will get the most out of your power band

[captain]

Dennis has locked me out of the tune. For reasons of his own. When he is done putting his tune into the flash device, 2 check boxes show up. 1 says...
LL3 the other.. user adjust... he will not click either. which makes my tune...HIS.
I can do only 2 things with it... Premium fuel Y/N or...return to stock. Cant read it cant open it, cant tell anything at all about it. Only solution drive it and take notes. then call Dennis for repair. Not sure if I can even open DCM file to see why the check engine light comes on. (hasn't)
SCT said I should try to persuade him to email the end user adjust file... at the very least... little hope of him allowing LL3 It would disclose all the science he created, and is proprietory in nature.
Option 2 is take it to someone else with the SCT MM package and start over.

[FordNut]

I know little about these file extensions or modifying techniques. I have an xcal2 but only use it to read and clear codes. I use a chip, burner, and pro racer's package.

It's not uncommon for tuners to lock out users, sometimes they will allow only some specific adjustments.

[captain]

today I am going to run a series of tests on the road. 1st gear to max, and log the data...amps, at cut out, rpms, and speed. I will do this in all 4 gears. then rerun the test with the stock tune. Something aint right here and I am determined to find it. the nearest tuner is 100 miles away. Hope the police are not working the back roads today.

[captain]

I check back soon, time for breakfast. thanks to both of you. Solid answers.

[CRUZTAKER]

Sooo do you just put your Merc in "D" for drive and step on it???

YES.
Overdrive off.
Mash it.

The days of manually shifting an automatic that is shifting correctly is over.
A complete waste of time.*
Literally.

Good luck with Dennis. :burnout:


EDIT*
Unless you are manually shifting in in public, casually driving, and want to add a gracefull 1-2 chirp just for sport and to turn heads. :coolman:

[cruzer]

Did I read his post wrong, or did he say that at 50 it died when locked in 1st gear----it happens every time I hit rev limiter locked in first at about 48 mph--seems normal to me--I'm not chipped

[ckadiddle]

I can comment on a couple things:

You have to do the "return to stock" with your xcal2 to put the stock tune back into the car and the custom Reinhart tune back into the xcal2 device. Then you can play with the settings that are available - you are actually making modification to the custom reinhart tune while it is in your xcal2. I know you can change shift pressure, tire revs per mile, neutral and drive idle RPMs and some other stuff I was afraid to touch. Then you save the changes you made and swap your now personally modified custom Reinhart tune back into the car's computer again.

I have been running DR tune for a couple years now with xcal2. From a stop the tires will spin a little (they are getting near replacement) and then chirp or spin when the car hits the 1-2 shift. Under WOT - It pulls strong in first gear to around 60 mph then shifts hard and takes offlike crazy again. Maybe about halfway through second it's like the car realizes that it is getting plenty air and it feels like the afterburner has cut in. I dunno what that is, but I LIKE it. :) If I stay at WOT it shifts into third at about 90 mph. Then I run outta road!!!

Keep in mind this is only my experience with my car. I love it and will cry if I ever have to give it up.

[rvaldez1]

As noted in other threads, the OD band is engaged during manual second gear mode. DO NOT go WOT with this band engaged, you are asking for trouble. Just ask Zack.

[KillJoy]

Why not just call DR and tell him your issues???

I am sure he would be happy to email you a new Tune file.

:dunno:

KillJoy