has anyone tried running a bama 4-bank mustang tuner on the 87-96 f-series? In theory it should work right? I mean I have a 347S, full length headers, intake mods, fuel, and engine mods but it just doesn't run quite right and stalls often if pushed a little hard.

 

It will plug into your computer, but it will not do anything unless whoever does the tuning has the proper strategy (think of a strategy as a map, showing the tuner where all the various settings in the computer are) for your speed-density truck, which is highly unlikely.

In general, if you want to tune these trucks, you have 3 options:

1. If you want to keep speed density and have an E4OD: Convert to the lightning computer. One of the very few truck speed-density computers that is supported by tuners.

2. If you have a manual transmission, or an AOD, and want to convert to mass-air: Install a Mustang A9L or A9P and have it tuned.

3. If you have an E4OD and want to convert to mass air: Install a 94-95 California F-150 5.0 E4OD computer and have it tuned.

 

truck already has mass-air from factory

 

the truck is very weird in setup as it came with mass-air, up-stream/down stream oxy sensor which never worked right always throwing codes, but came with an AOD. it has sense been converted to 5-speed

 

What year is your truck?

 

1993 XLT 4x4

 

Your truck was not mass-air from the factory, and certainly didn't come with a down-stream O2 sensor either.

'94 was the first year for the mass-air trucks. They only got mass-air in California-emissions areas, and they either had a 4R70W or an E4OD. They did not receive the downstream O2 sensor until the OBD-2/EEC-V trucks made their debut in 1996.

First step will be to determine exactly what hardware you have in your truck. I recommend removing the PCM and inspecting the sticker on the PCM connector. It will have a "catch code" in large letters printed on it, usually either 3 or 4 characters. You may be able to see the sticker on the PCM connector in truck with a mirror.

 

I see A9L? or is this not what I need

 

maybe this has been converted already and I just didn't know it with the A9L in it

 

It's not a "maybe this has been converted already", it IS converted. There were no '93 mass-air F-150s, and the A9L is a Mustang GT 5.0 5spd computer. There is also no upstream/downstream O2 sensors with the A9L, one is bank 1 upstream, the other is bank 2 upstream.

If the truck was configured with one upstream of the cat, and one downstream, that would cause significant issues in terms of fueling.

 

well the first at the top of the ds y pipe and the other was in the usual. now they are both at the end of the collectors. idle is very rough and off beat and CE will go off sometimes but normally stays on... other times will go off while driving but come back on after releasing the gas pedal

 

egr is disconnected but would like to delete it fully

 

You will need to get headers with oxygen sensor holes for each bank separately. You'll also have to verify which O2 sensor goes to which bank, and you'll also have to check how they wired the injectors, since the truck 5.0 and Mustang 5.0 have different firing orders.

 

wire harness for injectors is untouched. and I have 1 o2 bung on the end of each header

 

You need to figure out how they wired this thing. Did they swap an entire mustang harness into the engine, or did hack together the stock engine harness?

The issue comes down to the fact that the Mustang HO 5.0 firing order is different to that of the regular truck 5.0 firing order. There are three ways people can handle this without modifying the engine during the MAF conversion:

1. They hook the injector wires up to the correct corresponding injectors/cylinders
- This will cause some injectors to fire against a closed intake valve, since the firing order is different. It may cause a slightly rough idle, but O2 sensor closed-loop fuel control will function properly

2. They hook the injector wires up to the "wrong" cylinders, so the injection order is correct
- This causes problems, because now you have some injectors from bank 1 on bank 2 and vice-versa. This throws off the closed-loop fuel control and can lead to all sorts of weird problems.

3. They hooked the injector wires up to the correct corresponding injectors/cylinders, and had their tuner change the injector firing order in software to the correct one. If you don't see a chip sticking out of the back of the ECU, it's not tuned.

What I'd do is get out your multimeter, un-hook the PCM connector, and start doing continuity tests:

Ford Fuel Injection
http://www.fiveohinfo.com/docs/foxbodyfiringorder.gif

You'll want to check if the Cylinder 1 injector wire matches up to the Injector 1 wire on the PCM connector, if the Cylinder 2 wire matches up, etc.. Using that diagram, you should also be able to figure out if you have your oxygen sensors in the correct bank. Bank 1 has cylinder 1 in it.