Sniper Tuning Review

April 10, 2008 | Reviews

Recently, ModularFords had the opportunity to visit the Sniper Tuning headquarters to get a look into their tuning products and learn a little history about the company.

Patrick Stajdel, one of the owners of Sniper, has a long history in EFI tuning. He got his start in the industry in the late 80s, setting records with his Buick Grand National. Over the years, Patrick has helped nearly every aftermarket tuning company in business today. Even though Sniper is a relatively new company, they have a firm grip on tuning Ford vehicles and others! Here is what we found out about their tuning products.

The Hardware

With Sniper, either a chip or flash programmer can be used. One nice feature that Sniper’s flasher has is the ability to only flash the changes made in the tune. When tuning a car, the amount of time saved (especially when renting a dyno) is of considerable importance. All other flash programmers currently on the market rewrite everything in the PCM, which takes much longer.

Another advantage of the Sniper Interface (programmer) is the ability to tune multiple cars with one device. No longer will you need to buy a programmer for each of your vehicles. With Sniper, you have to purchase a bullet for each car that your program. The programmer comes with 2 bullets, so if you only have two cars, your handled. If you need to program an additional car, the price for a bullet is less than $200.

The Software

Sniper has taken a different approach to tuning, making it much easier for the common enthusiast to pick up the software and generate a custom tune easily. Sniper has both end user and dealer software. We will cover both since they are very similiar. The end user software comes in two flavors; Special Forces and Commando.

Sniper Special Forces allows anyone with no tuning knowledge to easily make a custom tune for their vehicle, using drop down menus.

Sniper Commando is the full blown tuning software, for the end user. Commando can be used in conjuction with Special Forces as well; allowing the user to build a base file easily, then futher adjusting it in Commando.

Sniper Delta Force is the full dealer tuning software. The difference between Commando and Delta Force is the included templates. Every Ford vehicle has a specific PCM code, and a template is needed for each code. Delta Force includes all templates, whereas Commando only includes one.

Sniper Recon is the free datalogging software that works in conjuction with the Sniper Programming Interface. Currently it only supports EEC-V, however CAN support will be released shortly.

Read through as we create a basic tune with Special Forces, then take a look inside Commando.

 

Sniper Special Forces software greets you with a dialog box that allows you to create a new tune, or open an existing tune. For the article, I started by creating a new file. It just so happens that I have been working on a 1990 Mustang LX, with a Modular Conversion, using the engine, harness, and PCM out of a 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII.

Special Forces guides you easily through the tune creation. Each option that is changed makes specific changes to the calibration to ensure the resulting tune is close as possible. Since the particular car I am working on has few modifications, I am leaving most drop downs on “Stock”. Referring to the tear tag on the PCM itself, we know the PCM code is MLX0, so that is the first step in the tune creation. This Mark VIII engine is stock, so displacement is left alone. Our Modular Fox is using the factory automatic, the compression ratio is stock, and we have no blower installed. With those options entered, onto the next step.

The next screen displays options related to fuel system. The ModFox is using a return style system with a 255 LPH pump, along with the stock injectors. We will be running the car on 93 Octane. Next…

On the next screen are the Mass Air Options. Our car is using all of the stock stuff, so nothing here is changed, but if instead we had an aftermarket meter, we would have selected it. Next..

Shutting off the rear 02 sensors is as easy as selecting No. We have a catback installed so that option is selected. Next..

The Transmission section makes setting up the shift schedule as easy as possible. First, select how the WOT shifts should be commanded, either RPM, or MPH. From there select how hard the shifts should be. If you find the shifts do not happen when you want, you can raise or lower the shift RPM using the drop downs. Next..

The last step in generating a custom tune is setting up the Rev and Speed Limiters, Idle Speed, Tire Height, Gear Ratio, and Electric Fan settings. There is also an option to disable PATS, which I have done. This is necessary to get the car up and running.

Clicking End will prompt you to name the Tune, and then Save it to your hard drive.

In most cases, the generated tune will be very close. In our example, the generated file is perfect for what we are doing. For the individuals that like to get down and dirty in the actual tuning software, Sniper has made their Delta Force software available as well. It allows you to both create a tune from scratch, or open a saved Special Forces Tune.

Here you see the Delta Force / Commando software opened up. No tunes have been opened.

To start, I have opened the file we saved in Special Forces. You can see all the categories of tuning parameters collapsed.

With every modified tune opened, the Sniper software also opens a stock tune, so you can always compare. Here the Spark Borderline Table is displayed. Users that are used to SCT’s Advantage software or Diablo’s Chipmaster Revolution software will notice that the names of most items in Sniper have a different name. You may also notice the LOAD on the Y axis appears inverted from other software. That is because it is actually this way in the Ford HEX. Tuning this way takes some getting used to, but it is not at all hard. Blue color values are from the custom tune we generated in Special Forces, black values are the stock values.

This screenshot shows a list of scalars that can be changed. The left colum is stock, the right column is our modified tune. Notice the PATS disabled switch is set to 0 in our new tune. Each parameter in the Sniper software has an associated help window. When learning to tune, this is extremely helpful, until you understand all the parameters. Sniper has the most complete help of any tuning software currently available.

Another example of the extensive help throughout the software.

Another feature of the Sniper software is the graphing. Sniper offers 4 graph types. 2 2D Graphs, and 2 3D Graphs. This 2D Graph shows the Spark Borderline Table.

Here is another 2D Graph.

You can make changes to the tune by dragging various points on the 2D or 3D Graphs.

Yet another graph, a colorful 3D Graph.

Here we have both a graph, and the spark borderline table normalizers show.

The MAF Transfer function is shown in its true form, opposite of how most tuning software displays it.

The MAF Transfer Function can also be shown and edited in 2D.

The Sniper Multiloader Utility is the piece of software used to communicate with the Sniper Vehicle Interface. It is used to read and write files to the programmer.

The Sniper Bullit utility is used to add additional tuning credits, or Bullits as Sniper calls them, to your interface.

Here is the raw data coming from the Sniper Recon Datalogger.

Data can be displayed as a 3D Graph.

As well as 2D.

This is the main datalogging window, which is useful for looking at key sensors, like coolant and air temps, as well as fuel trims.

Final Thoughts

The Sniper Tuning Suite is great for both Tuning Shops and Racers. Its priced a bit cheaper than other tuning softwares, and gives you access to everything you need to properly tune a vehicle. The support is also top notch. Sniper has a support forum located at Sniper Tuning.