The official "I like Mike" thread - Mike at 5-star
 

Post up here if you like Mike - Mike at 5-star that is :-X22

I figured it's better to have them all in one place, with a poll that can count the number of people who have gotten the "virus".

And even if you have a problem, feel free to post in the poll. There are enough options for everyone.

IMPORTANT - the poll is multiple choice, so you can pick GREAT and "had a problem but it was fixed" or any other combination.

POLL IS PUBLIC, so we can see who voted for what.

Like I said in my other post, good service and a good product. I had a glich with the tuner not powering up when I plugged it in and gave mike a call, he nailed it and said the fuse for the 12v power to the OBD port was likely blown. not a problem with the tuner but with my own truck and he still came through!

By far and away the transmission stratagy is great, soft under low throttle, crsip under heavy throttle and best of all the TC stays locked when it should! ford should have made it this way from the factory! The bonus is there is definately more power from tip in all the way through the power band. All of this with the 87 octane performance tune!

At this point there realy is nothing I don't like about the tune he provided with my SCT programmer. I cann't wait to hook up to the fifther and boat with the 91 octane towing tune installed.

you forgot the "havent pulled the trigger on a 5-star yet option"..

Dang! I knew there was something I forgot :)

This tuner is awesome Mike does a great job with the tunes.. One thing I have noticed is with the 87 performance tune if I run 87 octane I get a little pinging(poor gas around here) So I run 93 octane with the 87 tune and it runs great with an increase of about 2mpg+ over stock tune..

I've been running on my hopped up version of Mikes 89 econo tune till I got around to fixing my broken exh studs and installing my Thorley headers. I fired it up with the old tune and the headers... Sounded like crap and shook... I put in Mikes 89 towing Y-Pipe tune and it smoothed right out... Runs great too. But since I dont hardly ever tow I just emailed Mike for a Performance tune... Hes got a good thing going...:D

Plus he answers the phone and questions too. Thanks Steve Pitts

I have bought 4 or 5 now. And so far happy with all. The best customer service I've delt with in a LONG time!!! Great power and great performance.

I do have one issue with one of my customers 6.4L Livewires, but I've talked with Mike and I should have the cust truck in next week, and we will get it figured out!!!! Out this point I cant say if it's the tuner or the truck, but even if it's the tuner, I dont think its Mikes tunes!! Im sure they were preloaded from SCT.

Thanks Mike!!!


Shane

Got one for the V10 last fall - the improvement in the drive by wire and tranny is flat out phenomenal. It made an already great truck even more enjoyable. Got the camper out a couple of weeks ago and WOW what a difference! Pulls hard and holds gear on the highway - no more searching. I'm thoroughly impressed with the difference it has made - and that's in just the 87 Tow tune. I can't wait to see what 93 Tow will be like. Thanks Mike! You and 5-Star ROCK!

I'll be leaving town with the fifthwheel and boat in tow this afternoon. Looking forward to seeing what the difference is. 91 Tow Tune loaded! I'll report back next week but after initial 87 performance tune and the improvement in the trans I cann't imagine it wont't be considerably better.

One thing I'd like to mention, now that I have some real data over about a year of doing it.

Using stock, or even Mike's 87 octane performance tune (at least, the one I have), I get around 5-5.5 MPGs in stop-and-go around-town driving. Usually right around 5. SOMEtimes 5.5. Yes, 5.5. But I don't baby it and usually my rear tires show significant wear (50% of the tread gone) in just a year, even though I don't put a lot of miles on it. (The nitto's I got last year are still above 80% tread left, but that's another story for another time (and forum)).

Anyway, for the past year, I have been switching between the 87 octane and 93 octane tunes, running at least 3 tanks of gas through it each time, and keeping careful (mental) note of the MPGs I get.

87 octane, 5-5.5. 93 octane, 6.5. That's an 18% improvement in MPGs. Since 93 octane around here costs (on average) 10% more than 87, I'm SAVING MONEY running the 93 octane tune.

I recently opened up the mix at WOT on 93, and whew! Power has definitely increased, and I still got 6.5 the last two tanks even though I was testing that WOT a lot.

I guess I'm gonna be a 93 octane junky now :-X14

I have no idea at this time if my economy has changed since I've only ran a couple of tanks through but what I can say is after installing the 91 octane towing tune I have no intention of going back to either of the lower octane tunes I have unless I run accross a station that doesn't have 91! I might as well paint "91 Octane Only" on the fuel cap! 40 minute and counting untill I hook up and head for the lake!

As far as mileage goes, I wasn't expecting any improvement. As a matter of fact, I was expecting mileage to decrease a bit. Running the 87 octane tunes around town, over the last 4 months, I can honestly say that I picked up about 1mpg. Where I previously averaged about 9.5 around town consistently, I now consistently get about 10.5mpg.

Now with camping season here, I'll be running several tanks and see how the towing mileage stacks up VS pre-tuner.

I have been with Mike since my 05-6.0L days. Now a 06-V-10. I ran stock for about 3 days then loaded the 87 Econo Tune. Way better on shift points. Mileage was down from 12 to 11.5. LieO meter matches the ScanGauge and hand calc.

Loaded the 87 tow, hooked up the trailer. Ran strong fine shift points. Pulling total weight 17500. Mileage - well lucky to be about 9 :) No highway time. About a 1.5 hr trip local roads.

I installed the 87 econo SCT canned tune as test. Runs OK shift points different. Only had it out one time for a short run. Mileage is about 11.8. Just a test run, going back to 87 econo when not towing.
Not sure I really need to go with a stronger tune at 91 octane.

I should be OK with the 87 Tow Tune. After I get a few more trips I will get a a better feel for how it runs.

Mike was a great teacher. Worked with the diesel surge problems I had and never resolved.. well I did, I bought the V-10. He sent me about 4 different tunes to try and resolve the problem.

We both gave up :)

Great to work with.
RR