Hello Mike how have you been? Out of all of my upgrades to my truck, working with you was the most rewarding!! I enjoyed your product 10 times better than the competitors!!. Hyper Tech did not remove my speed limiter although they advertised that it would. The Super Chip that I ordered failed after a year or so and they had no replacement tuner available for my truck. Diablo customer service was unprofessional and short because they did not offer a tuner in my year. I am saying all that to say that I am extremely satisfied with your product and your customer service!!! The product has been wonderful!!!! Meeting you and talking to you a little while about cars was outstanding!!! You and your product was the absolute best upgrade that I have made to my truck!!! I would like to say Thank You for outstanding service and for being a wonderful person!! Your product did everything that you said it would and then some! I have tried many tuners that failed to meet my expectations but finding your web site was the absolute best thing for me and my 1998 Nascar Edition F-150!!!!!

Mr. Timothy B. Outing

Just downloaded the 91 performance tune for my 2010 Raptor 6.2L. First impression is, it rocks and I'm one that doesn't impress easily. No speed limiter , raised shift points , firmer shifts , better throttle response. I downloaded the tune which took about 10min. When i fired the engine first time i could tell the difference right away ,just in idle and it will now rev past 3000 rpm in park or neutral. Took it for first drive and could tell the throttle response was better right away and shifts were tighter,firmer. Took it down the road , until coolant temp was up then started some half throttle pulls up to 80mph and listened for detonation , there was none , then slowed to 20mph and did 3/4 throttle pulls to 80mph , no detonation , slowed down again and did full throttle pull , no hint of detonation. Then from a stop I hammered it full throttle and ran it up till 100MPH. No detonation, 1st gear shift to second -made my hand slip off the gear selector. Shifted nice and firm through every gear. Then went to a 5 mile stretch of road in the middle of the desert, no traffic . Did a walk around checked tire pressures all were at 45psi. I took off full throttle and ran it up past 120mph, 4th gear shifted a little past 100mph and in 5th gear i backed off to half throttle and it maintained 120mph, I then backed down and cruised at the speed limit. I will probably never do a speed run past 100 mph again but it is nice to know that i can. Mike was a very nice guy to talk to on the phone , he got it shipped out next day for only 20 dollars more. The package arrived with a nice presentation folder ,easy instructions, catalog, key chain ,sticker , sct soda can cooler and a nice 6.2L sticker. I researched on the web and could find nothing bad about him or his tuning, or his company, plus there were a ton of good testimonials. This isn't an all out race tune , but it is perfect for a daily driver , with my magnaflow and AFE , feels pretty good to me.
Shawn in Arizona

I just installed the 5-Star tune in our 2008 F53-based coach. Initial impressions after a 15 mile drive are excellent.

One of my objectives (along with more power) was to make the transmission upshift and stay in gear longer more like in tow-haul mode but still freewheel when decelerating, and it does exactly that. It definitely stays in the gear longer so I believe the annoying downshifts on those little grades where the interstate goes over railroads will be gone, will find out this afternoon.

When smoothly accelerating the coach now upshifts using all 5 gears plus 1 torque converter lock so it feels like I have a 6 speed transmission.

The only bad thing I found so far is fuel mileage suffered according to Scangauge, but that's because I was driving with commuter traffic (average 70MPH) instead of being a rolling roadblock.

We're taking a trip to Uwharrie National Forest (near Salisbury NC) this weekend and will have more impressions after that trip.

Mike has been great to work with, he spent lots of time with me explaining the various things he can do. He did mention this tune is a starting point, and we will be able to fine tune things after I get some mileage using it.

I highly recommend 5-Star!

Stewart


Update to my last post. Took a trip to Uwharrie National Forest and the results were great! Gas mileage is the same as before, I was able to keep the speed down to my normal rate on this trip.

No more annoying downshifts at the slightest grade, and the coach had much better gas pedal response (one of the things Mike fixes is the way the drive-by-wire pedal responds to your input).

Mike he set up the normal transmission programming to be like tow haul, except better (I had noticed that tow haul hangs in the gears longer, it now hangs in even longer than the old tow haul). Normal mode still does not do engine braking as I requested, tow haul still does.

There are a couple of minor points on shifting I'm going to talk to Mike about, but overall I'm very happy, and will be satisfied even if he cannot fix these niggles!

Stewart

Now that I have a few months and a few thousand miles on my 2009 E 350 van (v10) I want to tell you that your tune is the best aftermarket power upgrade I have ever done.

It is fantastic and runs the way it should from the factory. It's not just the power, but it fixes all the computer lag and weird things that the new cars do that we forget about because we all are so used to them.

The performance for towing is just plain GREAT and even though I requested maximum performance and didn't care about gas mileage, it actually gets BETTER gas mileage.

Feel free to use me as a reference if you like.

Larry Kleinschmidt

Mike, GREAT JOB !!! Your tune loaded perfectly, no DTC's, no MIL's... Took the Expedition to run some errands and it performs like a champ with stronger acceleration, tighter shifting and over my 40 mile run-around, the highway MPG increased from the usual 19.4 to 20.2 ! May not seem like much, but to get better performance like that you usually give-up gas mileage. I was surprised to see the increase... Now if you only did 440hp Mercedes AMG race engines with MOTEC computers, I'd have you do my racecar too !!!

Thanks again, we'll be in touch...

Update:

Mike,

I've been busy at work and haven't had a chance to thank you for tuning my '08 Expedition 4X4 and fixing the problems that the other company created with their "alleged" performance tunes. Not only were you prompt and professional, but you took a keen interest in exploiting my performance modifications to goose every bit of HP, Torque out of the engine. And I don't know how you did it, but you increased my highway mileage from 19.4 MPG to a pretty incredible 21.8 ! But the best part is the Mustang Dyno results, as you know I originally recorded a high 266 HP at 4600 rpm and now after your tune the Expedition recorded 283 HP at the same rpm.

I just want to let you know as I continue to add more aftermarket bits and pieces to the truck, I'll definitely be giving you a call to help me get the most bang for my bucks...

Derek

Mike has been fantastic, he has helped me a ton in my V10 F150 project truck! He is always there and answers emails very promptly. I am very happy I bought the SCT and tunes from him, I was looking elsewhere and found him in the Ford-Truck forums, Thank goodness.

Bryan

Five Star Tuning,
The difference in my 2000 Mercury Sable's performance since adding the SCT performance tune has been night and day. My gas mileage is better and the over all performance is much improved. No more dead bands, smoother and firmer shifting, an obvious increase in horsepower, much better acceleration and throttle response!

Wonderful work!

Highest regards,
Paul Phillips

Hey guys,

Just wanted to share the excellent experience I’ve had with 5 Star Tuning especially since it was at you all’s suggestion I give Mike a call.

I originally was having problems with a non-adjustable tuner from another vendor. Although the tune was set up for 87 octane my truck would ping under moderate to hard acceleration while running 87 of two different brands (Chevron & Shell). After multiple calls to the vendor and suggestions that didn’t work it came down to me having to run something higher than 87 to get around the ping. Although I really liked the tune I didn’t want to HAVE to run 89 octane. That’s where Mike came in. He said 5 Star would create a tune around the problem if it really was a problem with my truck. Sounded good so I went ahead and returned the tuner I had and took the plunge.

First off I received an SCT X3 to retrieve the PCM code. After finding it I sent it off to Mike and within a few hours my tunes were ready. I got them downloaded to the device but was unable to upload them to the truck the next day. I spoke with Mike that afternoon and he said no sweat he’d have me a new X3 by noon the next day (Saturday)! Sure enough, by 10am there it was. This time there were no problems with the uploads. I asked for an 87 Octane Economy, 87 Performance, and an 89 Performance. After driving both of the 87s I could happily report that acceleration was improved and that there was NO ping. Not even a trace of ping. I then asked Mike if any timing was removed from those tunes and he said yes it had been in the range I reported it in with the other device (1500-2000 rpm). He then said I could add a few degrees in with the X3 or he could send me updated tunes. Before I had a chance to think about it there were the new tunes in an email. Sure enough, I loaded the Performance 87 back up and I could feel a little more responsiveness in that range climbing a hill with the AC on and again, NO PING. Since then I’ve asked Mike MANY questions about possible adjustments I could make with the X3 and what effect they would have. Each time I have received a response that same day and a lot of times there were tunes attached with just those changes. I can’t say enough about 5 Star’s customer service. I told Mike they provide the best customer service I have ever received on anything I have ever bought in the last 30 years.

For anyone considering a tuner or thinking it might be interesting to tweak tunes definitely consider 5 Star. I told Mike, it’s like having 4 different trucks because the tunes really do change the character.

Like others have mentioned I don’t represent 5 Star and no one paid me to say this. I just wanted you guys to know what a killer experience I have had with them. It’s a gas to tweak a tune and see what changes.

Scott Smith
2001 F250 6.8 V10

I spoke with Mike from 5 Star Tuning on Monday around 11am with some vehicle specific questions about the SCT X3 Tuner. I have an 01 F250 Supercab with a K&N air filter, Stan's Y-pipe, 35's, 4:30's, and a Factory Tech valve body. I decided to purchase one and was going to fill out the form on the website later that day, I never got around to doing that. Mike called me three hours later asking for a shipping address. I received it that Friday in AZ. That's what I call service.

So far I have only tried the 87 Octane, and Towing tune, but I really like the way the Towing tune feels. I need to put some miles down to see which one I will run.

Thanks again Mike!

Been a few months since we talked, was wanting to give you a heads up.

Still running the 87 tune, haven’t been working the truck very hard (moving a few cows around is about it). Anyway finally got to try the truck out last week, went to one of the state parks for a few days with the travel trailer. Well, I can say it definatly made a difference. I found myself backing out of the throttle quite a few times (instead of pressing down). The week before, I had it inspected (with your tune installed), passed with no probs. All bull$hit aside, I had my concerns if this mod was going to be worth it. But after that trip and the way the 6.8 ran. Thank You!!

Now if I could just get a tune to help the brakes! LOL!!!

Thanks again

Gilbert Bouska
Texas

I bought my 2007 Ford Five Hundred in December of 2006, and was extremely disappointed with the performance of the car. There was absolutely no power off the line! It was really frustrating, because I really liked the car otherwise. Anyone who knows this car is aware of the obvious shortcomings of the 3.0L V6 in a car this size!

As much as I liked the rest of the cars' qualities, I was looking into trading it for something with a little more power when I came across the 5 Star Tuning website. I emailed them and Mike responded quickly that he could help. I purchased an SCT X3 which Mike had programmed specifically for this car. The results were amazing! It feels like a
brand-new car, responsive not only off the line, but all the way through the rev range! I enthusiastically recommend 5 Star Tuning, and their software. The only thing I regret is not finding them sooner!

Scott Halloran - MA

I recently purchased a XCAL3 with custom tunes from 5 Star Tuning. I was not happy with the way my truck ran stock, but since I added the X3 I am extremely pleased with the performance of my 2007 5.4L Ford F-150. Now the takeoff power is a lot better and when on the highway when I pull out to pass there is no more hesitation, the power is there when I press on the throttle. I have a 18ft dovetail trailer that I pull and now I barely know its back there loaded down with four wheelers and dirt bikes. Mike at 5 Star has been very helpful with telling me things I need to know about the x3. He's very knowledgeable about the tuner and about ford trucks in general. Anyone looking for a excellent tuner I suggest the x3 from 5 star. Thanks Mike I appreciate all the help you've provided.

Brent Harris

Hi Mike -
Loaded 80 daily program in the truck- WORKS. CEL out. I only took it for a short run. Was not warmed up good so I did not ask it for much, but it is very responsive and really powers up fast. Post Turbo Temp was not over 350 on the flat. Really impressed how well it ran.

Will let you know how the tow tune works next week we are going to a ride for a few days. I will try the 50hp tow tune first.

Thanks again for great customer service and support.

Roger

You earned my business! You customer service was outstanding! I really appreciate your patience.

Thanks again!



Allen

I recently purchased a Xcal3 from Mike with custom tunes and couldn't be happier with the results Mike was able to achieve with my truck!!! I have a 2007 F-150 5.4 V-8, the stock performance was lacking to say the least.
After installing the custom tune, throttle response and takeoff power was greatly improved. I don't have the hesitation when accelerating anymore or at passing. Mike also provided great service, he answered all my questions and was very quick in shipping the tuner. Thanks again Mike for everything!!!

Andy M

Thanks Mike for dealing with my emails to you. I have this all figured out now I think. I just needed to make sure I was not missing something.
VERY GREAT support.
A real service!

I started looking at what's available online to tune my 02' Ford F-150. I spent a lot of time in different forums asking the same questions. I was in Ford Truck Enthusiasts and was inquiring about a Livewire tuner and I had found out what I wanted to know. I contacted 3 local tuner/speed shops and didn't seem to get any where other than 'I'll get back to you'. They didn't and I'm glad. I got a post from one of the forum members to contact Mike Butler at 5 Star Tuning. I could tell I called the right person. He treated me like I treated my customers when I had a business. I got prompt service with answers to my every question. I initially had an issue with one option but that was taken care of in a prompt and professional manner. I've gotten more interested in tuning my truck as I could tune the carbed engines of yesterday. 15 years of calibrating carbs while working at Holley carb and many years of drag and circle track racing and engine building to apply this knowledge has helped. I'm going to purchase the Pro Racer Package shortly to further enhance the tuning as I am greatly impressed with what the tunes that came with the tuner has done. The tuner covers all that one might encounter during modifications. If it wasn't for Mike Butler giving me his undivided attention for any questions (there's been a lot of emails sent and answered) I wouldn't be this happy with my tuner. Here's a pic of my baby for all to enjoy.

Ron B.

I purchased an SCT XCalibrator 2 tuner from 5 Star Tuning and am very impressed with the new found performance of my V-10. It was great before but now I just love the whole truck. The difference is very notable in both performance as well as economy. Prior to installation of the tuner I measured the stock performance by noting the speed achieved from a stop to a specific driveway. The stock tune allowed me to achieve 110 KM/HR which I did over and over with little to no change on different days. With the new tune that Mike provided me, the truck accelerates to 125 KM/HR over the exact same test area. The truck shifts way better in that from the factory there was a very notable and annoying lag during shifting. I mentioned this to Mike during our dealing and Mike said that he could take care of that as well. I am now very happy with the shifting, they are firm with no lag at all. Above all of this is Mike's commitment to his customer's satisfaction. He is a true pleasure to do business with and a man of his word. I would not hesitate to do further business with him and recommend him to all others interested in a custom tune for their vehicle.

Kurt Anderson
Quesnel B.C.
Canada