Hey, guys, Adam here with americanmuscle.com, and today we're taking a closer look at installing
and dyno testing the Lund nGauge Tuner with one custom tune available for the '15 to '17
Mustang GT.
Now, before we jump into all the details of the nGauge and the tune we got from Lund,
what do you say we head over to the dyno graph and take a look at the results?
We strapped our '15 GT performance pack down to the dyno.
It's got factory wheels on it, 93 octane in the tank, bone stock otherwise.
We established our baseline run, walking away with 382 horsepower, 364-pound feet of torque
at the rear wheels.
We then, of course, uploaded our Lund Racing 93 octane tune, ran it under the same conditions
in our fifth gear one-to-one.
We walked away with 402 horsepower, 378-pound feet of torque at the rear wheels.
That's good for peak gains of 20 horsepower and about 14 torque at the rear wheels.
Now, we're looking at curve gains of as much as 23 horsepower and 22-pound feet of torque
at the rear wheels, which is right on par with what we'd expect from our Lund Racing
tune on a pretty much bone stock '15 GT.
We're seeing really good low to mid-range gains, especially torque.
That's really gonna make a difference with drivability out there with our six-speed.
And if we were running an automatic, we would definitely expect firmer shifts and a much
more enjoyable ride altogether.
So, with that simple 93 tune, bone stock, really no power adders, I'm impressed.
Taking a closer look at the nGauge here.
This is gonna be a great option for the S550 owner out there looking for an extremely easy
to use, user-friendly device that's gonna fit right into your factory vent pod.
Now, this way, you don't have to use any A-pillar gauges or any aftermarket pillars like that,
or gauge pods.
This one fits conveniently right into that vent on your dash.
I'm gonna show you guys what that looks like in just a little bit.
We'll get to the installation, which is a very, very simple.
Loaded onto your nGauge is gonna be one custom tune from Lund Racing.
Now, Lund, I'm sure you've heard that name before, they are one of the most trusted names
in the tuning community, specifically the Mustang community as well because they just
produce really good results and have been doing so for years.
Now the option we have here is our 93 octane tune.
You'll have the option of choosing a pump gas tune, so 87 through 93 octane, but you
also have E85 and even forced induction tunes.
Now, the E85 and the forced induction or flex fuel tunes are gonna run a little bit more
money, right around 800 bucks, whereas the regular pump gas runs about 600 bucks.
So, it really is gonna depend on what you're looking to get out of the tune and maybe even
what fuel is available in your area, because E85 isn't available everywhere.
Now, if you're looking for the E85 and flex fuel, which is basically gonna let you swap
between E85 and pump gas or any combination of the two, is gonna produce more power obviously.
We're sticking to 93 octane.
It is the more common tune option, especially for daily drivers looking to maximize their
performance, and that's what you saw there at the dyno graph.
Now, the end gauge here is gonna have a number of other features for you to take advantage
of, including a DTC code reader, which is gonna be useful for when the check engine
light comes on.
You can read it right from the diagnostics menu, get the code, get a description, and
clear it right then and there.
Now, really the gauges and data log option is going to be the big money winner.
Now, that's something you're gonna be able to use to monitor live engine vitals on the
fly within arm's reach of the driver's seat because it is gonna fit so comfortably in
that vent mount.
And again, I'll show you that in a minute.
Now, the gauges are gonna show things like intake air temp, engine coolant temperature,
air-fuel ratio, a number of different fuel bank trims along with 02 sensors, a voltage
speedometer, RPM gauge.
You can customize that again to your personal preference.
And there are a number of different gauge layouts.
You can have the round gauge, you can have four or six gauges at a time, and a number
of other LED options as well to customize it to your liking.
Now, within that, you can also record a data log session, record your vehicle's performance,
and you can communicate that back to your tuner, in this case, Lund, for possible tune
revisions, which you'll be able to get for free for up to three months after getting
your tune originally.
So, there is a lot of room to provide additional support, especially when it comes to revising
to make more power.
Now, our '15 GT behind me has a six-speed manual.
We did our pulls in fifth gear for our one-to-one gear ratio.
Now, automatic transmission guys are also getting love from Lund as well.
They're gonna optimize that automatic to make sure that you're within the power band more
often to have a lot more low-end torque, and your shifts are gonna be a lot firmer as well,
really drastically changing the drivability of your auto.
Now the manual guys, as you just saw, we're making really good power at the low-end, low
to mid-range.
You're seeing really good gains, and all around you get a better performing vehicle.
Now, when it comes to loading your tune, I'm gonna show you guys that entire process in
the vehicle.
It'll be one out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter, 30 minutes from start to
finish at the absolute most.
To load your tune onto the device, there's an SD card provided for you in the kit that
inserts into the gauge, or you can plug it right into your laptop using the USB cable
included in the kit as well.
Now, I'm gonna show you every single detail of how to load the tune into your vehicle,
and then I'll walk you through the features.
Know that it's gonna get one out of three wrenches on our difficulty meter.
It'll take 30 minutes from start to finish.
What do you say we get started?
All right.
First things first.
We're gonna start with the installation of the nGauge into our factory vent.
I'm gonna start from our passenger side because we need to do a couple of things in the glovebox
area, and I find this to be a little bit more comfortable.
So, the first thing we're gonna do is drop our glovebox down and then a little bit further
after that, and I'll show you guys how to do that.
Then our right side trim panels coming off and then the top where our vents are.
All right, so from here, we're going to drop our glovebox.
Now, this can go a little bit further, but what we're gonna need to do is take this little
sliding bar, pop it up and disconnect it just like that.
So, now it's loose.
So, this can go up and down freely.
Now, from the sides, inside, we're gonna pinch and pull straight down, and the glovebox will
drop even farther.
You can see these two knobs on the sides.
That's what's basically retaining it, so we're just pinching and pulling.
So, now that that's down, we have a little bit better access to pull this trim panel
off, which, again, you don't really need hand tools for.
You can just pull your fingers under there, pop and pop.
There's these plastic clips that are holding it in place, and now I can set this aside.
I'm gonna put it in the back seat.
Now, next, we're gonna tackle this entire top piece, which is all one section.
It goes from the right side above your glovebox, all the way across to your center dash in
front of the steering wheel.
Now, this guy here is going to surround those factory vents.
Now, we are in a '15 GT performance pack, which means we have two gauges right here.
If you guys are not in a performance pack, you'll have one of the vents in the middle
as well.
So, that's just something to keep in mind that looks slightly different, but it doesn't
change too much of this.
So, with our glovebox fully down, we have a little bit better access to the bottom of
this panel.
And again, we're just pulling straight back.
As you can see, I just disconnected the clips here.
Now, we've had this off a couple of times, so the guys on the left here are a little
bit looser, but yours may be a little bit tighter than that.
Now, once you have this off, because we have two gauges, we do have a plug on the back,
which I'm just gonna pinch and disconnect.
So, that is literally just a quick connect harness that snaps to the back here.
But again, non-performance pack guys will just see another one of these vents.
All right, so the next portion, what I'm gonna do is disconnect our factory vent.
Now, you have options here.
You can use whichever vent you would like to replace with this nGauge.
Now, non-performance pack guys, again, you'll have one in the middle.
I personally would recommend doing that.
I think it makes it look a little bit more symmetrical, but it's all personal preference.
Because we don't have a vent in the middle, I'm gonna go to the one closest to the driver's
side, so our left option, but you can use the right if you'd like.
It's the same process.
So, from the back, you'll see that there are these chrome plastic clips all around the
perimeter of the factory vent.
You're basically just gonna push down and push toward the outside to disconnect this
gauge.
And you may have to do this to a couple of them, but once you snap, it just disconnects
just like that.
All right.
So, next, we're gonna take our nGauge and the bracket that comes with it, and this just
snaps right into the back here.
You'll line up these two tabs, and they just click right in.
Now, when you're installing the nGauge to the back of your trim panel, it'll go straight
through the front to the back.
Now, it doesn't actually click into position, so it does freely rotate, and it can be pushed
out.
Now, once you have this completely installed and the harness is connected to the back here,
it's not gonna be going anywhere.
But just to add a little bit of stability to it, I like to take a little bit of 3M tape,
and what I do with this is I just add a layer of thickness to the end ring here.
That way, when it sits into this spot, it doesn't move around.
Now, this is obviously personal preference, and how you do this is up to you, but I find
this to be easier just to take the roll of tape and peel off the top and go straight
around just like this.
Now, you can just put a piece up top and a piece on the bottom, but I think if you go
all the way around the perimeter, it adds just that little bit extra stability to it.
So, I'm just gonna go around, peel that guy off and flatten her out.
Now, you don't even need to take the backing off of this.
I mean, you definitely can, but now if we push this in and rotate it upward, it's just
a lot more stable, and it's not gonna rotate around.
You can't see the 3M, but it just adds that layer of thickness to it.
So, again, personal preference, but a little bit of a life hack, I think, goes a long way.
So, next, we're gonna have to feed our cable in before we actually re-install the entire
trim piece there with the vent and your new nGauge.
So, what I like to do is actually start from the bottom, plug the OBD2 in, and then we're
gonna feed this ethernet portion up through the steering column, then behind this gauge
here, and it'll just peek through to the back of the nGauge.
Now, because the OBD2 block is so much bigger than the ethernet, I find it easier to go
upward than try to feed this big block downward.
So, I'm gonna swap over to the driver's side and get to work on that.
All right.
So, with our cable, I'm gonna drop that OBD2 portion onto the floor.
The ethernet guy, I'm just gonna start feeding up from the bottom here.
You do have to go a little bit further back, and what I'm basically gonna do is just try
to push the ethernet toward either down here or up on the right where the vent is and just
see where this guy comes out.
It might be a little bit of a trial and error process, but you just want to make sure you're
feeding it up enough.
All right.
So, next, we have this here.
We want to get this behind this panel and coming up to about where this vent is.
Now, I'm just gonna put my finger in this little open hole and pull straight back just
to disconnect that panel a little bit, so now we can get this behind a little bit neater.
All right.
So, now with that out of the way, let's try to feed this guy up and see where she comes
out.
All right.
So, now we have it back here.
So, now that we have this wire up here and everything is back into position, let's grab
our trim panel, plug in our nGauge once we have that in position, and then reinstall
the panel itself.
All right.
So, from here, I'm gonna take my nGauge, which is now positioned into that vent, and what
we're gonna do is make sure it's aligned where we want it to be.
Take the ethernet cord that we just fed up and plug it into the back of the unit.
Now, it's tough to see because the cord is not that long, so we have that plugged into
the back.
And then for performance pack guys, just remember to plug in the center gauges as well.
Perfect.
From there, just tuck in any excess wire.
Set your trim panel back into place and push it in to get it to clip again.
Now you'll have multiple clips right around these vents that you want to make sure connect.
All right.
Back in the passenger seat, grab that trim panel.
We're gonna pop that guy back into place.
Again, doing the same thing.
Just line it up and push.
Now, for our glovebox, the first thing you're gonna do is bring it up, pinch the sides,
push it back up to reconnect, and then grab that sliding bar, pop it in and push it down.
All right.
First things first to walk through the tuning process.
You're obviously gonna plug it into the OBD2 port using that cable that we fed down our
steering column under the dash, and it'll boot right up.
So, what we want to do is put our engine in start mode, but we're not actually gonna start
the engine, if that makes sense.
So, we have it started up here.
Go straight to the main menu on the nGauge.
All right.
Now, gauges and diagnostics are more of the device features, but we want to jump right
into tuning.
So, I'm gonna hit Tuning in the middle.
Now, there is arrow keys on the right with an X.
The X will go back to the main menu.
Arrow keys, pretty straightforward.
You can go up and down.
Now, we're not gonna focus on loading stock or anything like that.
What we want to do is go up to the top and select Load Tune.
All right.
So, from here, you'll have the tunes available, whatever you have loaded to the device.
We're gonna go right on with the Lund 93 tune.
That's what we want to focus on.
And we're gonna hit check.
"Flash this tune?"
Again, check.
So, yours may be listed differently there depending on how it was written or what the
name of the file was written as from Lund, so you just want to select the one that you
want to go with, and this will take approximately eight minutes.
So, you want to hit check to continue.
All right.
So, here is letting us know to turn key on.
We already had it in the on position, so it should automatically move forward, but if
you haven't already, you want to hit the on position without starting your engine, of
course, or foot off the clutch or off the brake.
At this point, it's saving the stock file, so you're factory tuned to the device.
So, if you ever want to revert back to the factory tune, you can always do so following
these same steps.
Only Return to Stock will be one of the options there.
So, you don't want to unplug the tuner from the OBD2, and you don't want to hit the on
or off button on the vehicle unless directed to.
So, you see a loading bar starting on the left.
It'll go all the way to the right, and then
it will move forward.
All right.
So, with that, it says, "Tune installed successfully."
So, basically, it just downloaded the stock tune, uploaded your aftermarket tune here
from Lund, and now it's saying we can turn the key off for 10 seconds and then start
the vehicle if we'd like.
So I'm gonna hit the off button, check, and we're back to the tune menu.
And then you can hit X again, and it takes you back to the main menu.
All right.
So, from there, I'm actually gonna hit Start one more time, foot off the clutch and brake.
I want to take you guys through some of the device features here, and we're gonna need
that on.
So, let's jump into gauges first and foremost.
So, you have three options.
Connect, Back to the Main Menu, Re-scan the Vehicle.
So, if you've just connected this to a new vehicle, you can hit Re-scan.
It'll load configurations for this vehicle.
But we've already taken care of that.
So, we just want to hit Connect.
All right.
So, it found our OBD2.
Hit check, and it goes right into your gauge screen.
Now, default here, it looks like we have RPM, top left, speed, top right, math, bottom left,
and intake air temp, bottom right.
So, let's tap on Intake Air Temp, for example.
So, from here, you can change a different gauge layout.
So, we can change to a six-pack screen to have three on the left, three on the right.
We can change to a quad screen again to go...All right.
So, here you can see that round gauge display.
We can change it back to an LED display.
There are a number of different ways to go with this.
So, I'm gonna keep it up here on the quad display.
It's a little bit easier to read here.
So, say we want to change one of these parameters.
You can customize them to display whatever you would like.
So, if we wanted to change, say math, we hit that, Display.
We can change this from a number of different parameters.
You can actually change the actual name of that unit.
There are different decimal warnings you can change.
You can change the color.
You can also go back and change the signal.
From here, we can scroll past this RPM.
At the end there, speed, math, intake air temp, engine coolant temperature, ambient
air temperature, control module voltage.
There's a number of ignition timings and fuel trim banks, calculated load value, so many
different parameters that you can check.
The list goes on and on.
So, say we want to track...I'm just going to put fuel level up here just to select one.
Select the check button, and it'll replace that gauge with the actual display.
Now, that is super convenient for anyone who wants to customize the way that the gauge
layout is displayed, and you can do that for each one.
Here's the six gauge, the round gauge there.
We can also change the signal from load, say we want to come all the way back, and change
it to engine coolant temperature.
Hit that check button, and it'll update.
So, super easy to read.
From here, you can date a log.
You can record your vehicle's performance and communicate that back to your tuner for
possible tune revisions if you want to, you know, record your vehicle's performance and
capability.
So, that's something you can do.
And as you just saw, it started to turn itself off.
It has that sort of screensaver display, so you can just tap it, and it comes right back
on here if the vehicle is not on.
So, here we have the gauges.
So I'm gonna hit Exit Gauge, and it'll take us right back to the main menu.
From here, we can go into Diagnostics.
Now, you'll have settings, data logging, USB, SD card, and then there's Read Code and Clear
Code.
So, if the check engine light comes on, you can click Read Code, get the code and the
description, and you can clear it right then and there to turn that light off.
So, those are really your main functions here in the diagnostics menu.
But you also have Vehicle Info, which will display your VIN number and your ECU strategy
code, important for requesting new tunes.
Crank Relearn most people won't need to touch, but it is there.
Going back up to the top, you have your SD card, which is that micro SD underneath here
that's inserted where it holds your actual tune file on your stock file.
Your data logging files are there, and then finally, your settings.
Device Info will give you your device serial number, firmware, software version, married
status, sleep/wake.
You can change the sleep/wake functions brightness.
You can also enter a pin number there as well.
You can update the device software from the SD card if you have that loaded on there.
You can calibrate your touch.
And there's a few other inputs.
Startup Mode I think is very useful for people who want this to automatically start up in
the gauges function.
Since it's already installed in your vent gauge, if that's what you're using most, this
is a really, really useful settings menu option.
That way, you don't have to navigate to the gauges every single time.
It will automatically go there, which I definitely suggest using if you see yourself using this
more often than not.
So, hit the X, takes your right back to the main menu, and there you have it.
That's your nGauge.
That's gonna wrap up my review, install, and dyno test for the Lund Racing nGauge with
one custom tune available for the '15 to '17 GT.
If you want to pick one up, you can do so right here at americanmuscle.com.