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Thinking about an aftermarket tune for my MKZ 3.0.


jcartwright99

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I know that 90-95% of MKZ drivers won't but I am wondering if anyone has or is going to put an aftermarket tune? I know Livernois puts out some great aftermarket ecoboost tunes. They were popular with the SHO/MKS/Flex crowd because they really seemed to know what they were doing in extracting more power.

 

I am on the fence about it. I have a CPO MKZ so I could potentially blow that extra warranty for an extra 60hp or so. My main concern is reliability followed by gas mileage. If it gets terrible MPG then I don't think I want to. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

 

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LOL....I highly recommend a Livernois tune. I had one on my MKS for over 40,000 miles and 50-60 quarter mile passes. If you can keep your foot out of it, you will see BETTER fuel economy with the tune due to optimized ignition timing and A/F ratio. If you do not abuse the car, I would not expect a huge difference in reliability although anytime you add power, there is more risk. The 3.5 ecoboost and 6F55 have proven to be quite robust. No one has much experience with the Nano engine family yet but I have heard of no issues with tuned F150s, Fusions, MKZs or Edges.

 

As for warranty, if you go to the dealer with a rod hanging out of the block or some other catastrophic engine failure, they would have every right to investigate whether the car was ever tuned and ultimately deny your claim. If you go in for a faulty power window or some other issue totally unrelated to the tune, they would not likely even consider whether the car was ever tuned. I would never lie to a dealer but I do subscribe to the "if they don't ask, I don't tell" philosophy. I do know that the salesman who sold me the MKS saw some of my YouTube drag racing videos and he thought they were awesome. That might have presented a little problem if he ever shared those with the Service Department and I had needed any warranty work but the MKS never needed warranty work. :)

 

Check this out for more info: http://lincolnmkzforum.com/topic/2122-tuning-for-the-lincoln-30-twin-turbo/

 

There are no tunes available yet for my 3.0 Continental and I am getting very impatient! Running my car stock is about as exciting as kissing my own sister.

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LOL....I highly recommend a Livernois tune. I had one on my MKS for over 40,000 miles and 50-60 quarter mile passes. If you can keep your foot out of it, you will see BETTER fuel economy with the tune due to optimized ignition timing and A/F ratio. If you do not abuse the car, I would not expect a huge difference in reliability although anytime you add power, there is more risk. The 3.5 ecoboost and 6F55 have proven to be quite robust. No one has much experience with the Nano engine family yet but I have heard of no issues with tuned F150s, Fusions, MKZs or Edges.

 

As for warranty, if you go to the dealer with a rod hanging out of the block or some other catastrophic engine failure, they would have every right to investigate whether the car was ever tuned and ultimately deny your claim. If you go in for a faulty power window or some other issue totally unrelated to the tune, they would not likely even consider whether the car was ever tuned. I would never lie to a dealer but I do subscribe to the "if they don't ask, I don't tell" philosophy. I do know that the salesman who sold me the MKS saw some of my YouTube drag racing videos and he thought they were awesome. That might have presented a little problem if he ever shared those with the Service Department and I had needed any warranty work but the MKS never needed warranty work. :)

 

Check this out for more info: http://lincolnmkzforum.com/topic/2122-tuning-for-the-lincoln-30-twin-turbo/

 

There are no tunes available yet for my 3.0 Continental and I am getting very impatient! Running my car stock is about as exciting as kissing my own sister.

 

Thanks! That thread was very informative. I actually checked out your youtube videos at the dragstrip. Pretty awesome stuff! Zalvern seems to have all the bases covered. I think I am going to try a mild phased approach to this. I think first I really want to tint the windows, get summer tires, and ensure I have better oil and fluids that exceed the requirements. Then I am hoping there is an aftermarket exhaust and intake by that time. Then I think I will put the tune on. I do want to take it to a test and tune before I do any mods though, just to get a baseline.

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  • 1 year later...

Well I'm torn on teh tune thing. I'm not necessarily wanting more power out of the car yet to void the BLack Label warranty I will have but the Transmission shifts really need work. I get it's a Lincoln and it's supposed to be smooth. But in Sport mode when you hammer on it. THe transmission should really snap. It's got 400HP for goodness sakes. I'm going to email livernois and see if I can get a 91, 93 octane with the goodies and a 91 octane tune that doesn't add any power but modifies just the transmission so it shifts smooth when cruising but will shift quickly when getting on it. That way I don't have to worry about Ford seeing any overboosts or anything.

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I had no issues with gas mileage in my SHO with my Livernous tune-I drive a mostly local route with no highway and I get about 16-18 MPG (depending on the time of the year) with my car. I got 25 MPG once on the highway (from where I lived at in MD to Carlise, PA-about 2 1/2 drive) in the middle of the summer. I have a drive to Ohio from Jersey next week-so I'll have more long distance highway driving results then.

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Well I'm torn on teh tune thing. I'm not necessarily wanting more power out of the car yet to void the BLack Label warranty I will have but the Transmission shifts really need work. I get it's a Lincoln and it's supposed to be smooth. But in Sport mode when you hammer on it. THe transmission should really snap. It's got 400HP for goodness sakes. I'm going to email livernois and see if I can get a 91, 93 octane with the goodies and a 91 octane tune that doesn't add any power but modifies just the transmission so it shifts smooth when cruising but will shift quickly when getting on it. That way I don't have to worry about Ford seeing any overboosts or anything.

 

They built in a ridiculous amount of torque management on MKZs and Continentals with the 400 HP engine. That was my major gripe with mine when stock. It felt like someone shut off the engine between shifts. I wouldn't be concerned about their full power tunes but Livernois does offer just a transmission-only tune for the Continental. I am not sure if they do for the MKZ or not. I have their transmission tune and it helped but it is not nearly as good as the performance tunes that include engine re-calibrations.

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well I'm more concerned if something goes wrong then Ford doesn't warranty it because they see the Overboost and what not. I would really hate to void my black label warranty by throwing all that boost at it and something bad happens. I would however love to have the transmission tuned. That's why I am going to ask if they can do the performance tunes for 91 and 93 octane as well as just the transmission section of those tunes. Get the benefits of the better transmission shifts and no loss of power while shifting just no upped boost or timing.

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well I'm more concerned if something goes wrong then Ford doesn't warranty it because they see the Overboost and what not. I would really hate to void my black label warranty by throwing all that boost at it and something bad happens. I would however love to have the transmission tuned. That's why I am going to ask if they can do the performance tunes for 91 and 93 octane as well as just the transmission section of those tunes. Get the benefits of the better transmission shifts and no loss of power while shifting just no upped boost or timing.

 

Three points: Livernois adds VERY little additional boost. They do more with timing, fuel and making the boost consistent throughout the rev range. Unless you go to the dealer with a major engine or drivetrain failure that appears suspicious, there would be no reason for them to investigate whether or not the car was ever tuned. If you obtain a transmission-only tune, it would still show up as a reflash of your car's PCM so your warranty could be in just as much jeopardy as an all-out performance tune (assuming a major engine or driveline failure prompts them to investigate).

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And let’s be clear - you can’t “void the warranty”. If your radio breaks it’s still covered. The worst that would happen is if you had a drivetrain failure that looked like it might have been caused by a tune then they can deny warranty coverage for that part only.

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I have never heard of a Livernois tune causing a failure of any kind. Some of us with tunes take their cars to the drag strip. I had 50-60 quarter mile passes on my MKS with no issues. I know of others who have 100s of passes and no issues. Engines and transmissions are pretty robust these days. PTUs fail occasionally but no more often with a tune than when left stock.

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