[Juggalo_X]

Ok guys here it is. I received my package from Florida last Friday, well Thursday afternoon but because I was out of the office I was oblivious that I had it waiting for my on my desk at work until Friday morning. First off id like to say how impressed I was with the speed of shipping the order was made Tuesday and the Package was received Thursday afternoon wholly shit I’ve never received anything from over the boarder that fast in my life! With that aside lets get this show on the road shal we?


I was impressed with the packaging actually, I expected it to be in a brown box no spiffy labeling or graphics but I was wrong it actually is quite attractive packaging but what the hell am I talking about it’s a box so lets get to what’s inside.



Inside the Package I was sent by sniper tuning I received array of things.

1) Documentation. Such as the Manuel, Extended warranty offer card, and a tiny peace of paper telling you how to install the device drivers for the interfaces which coincidentally is found under the interface when you take it out of the box.
2) Interface. This is where the magic is stored, you create the tunes on your laptop or desktop pc and then transfer them to this interface for flashing.
3) OBD to DB9 Interface cable. This is the cable that plugs directly from you interface box our ride. Obviously the OBD end is plugged into your Diagnostics port on your car and the DB9 9 pin end is connected to the interface box. If your using a laptop yes the DB9 connector will fit in your serial port, No don’t do it, just because it fits don’t mean it will work in fact you will probably damage your computer.
4) USB A – B Cable. This is how you computer communicates with the Sniper Interface. It’s a basic run of the mill usb A-B cable you’ve probably got your printer hooked up with one. No biggie here but they did include it which is a bonus because usually when you buy a usb device you get the shaft and have to buy the cable or rob it from another device.
5) Software CD. This is the software obviously if u didn’t get that stop reading now because the rest is going to hurt your head. The software is completely locked down you will require the serial number they provided you on page 4 of the users manual. You will need to unlock the Multi Loader and the sniper Special Forces Tuning Software.
6) Super sweet Stickers. Yes that’s right stickers. Of course stickers. Everything good comes with stickers.


Ok so once you receive the package READ the manual, believe me its worth it other wise your going to get a little confused. First off Install the software this is a no brainier I’m not going to waste my time explaining this if you don’t know how to do this I strongly suggest you don’t attempt to modify your car. But I will explain the driver install. That said bang that cd in there get it installed, then click on the Special Forces desktop icon and enter your serial key to activate it and do the same with the Sniper Multiloader. After that your going to want to plug your Sniper Interface into a usb port on your Computer and remember the slim rectangular shaped one is the pc end obviously.
Once that’s installed your going to see a new hard ware wizard pop up, if your on windows xp like I am its going to want to search windows update and the web for a driver so click “No, Not at this time.” And click next.
On the next screen your going to want to tell it that your going to navigate to the driver so click “Install from a list or a specific location.” And then click next.
The next screen is going ot be where you point it to the driver so fist click on the “Search for the best driver in these locations” option then put a check mark in the box beside “Include this location in the search.” And then you want to navigate to or type in this location with out the quotation marks. “C:\Program Files\Sniper Performance\Drivers” and then click next.
Once you’ve clicked next your going to get a warning screen saying Microsoft has not digitally signed the driver disregard this and click “Continue Anyway”
once you’ve clicked that depending on the speed of your computer it may just flash and say “The wizard has completed installing software for Sniper Vehicle Interface” or it may take a few seconds before you see this.
Either way you should get that message if not your have an issue with your Interface box, the usb cable or your computers usb controller.




This is your interface Button A is closest to my hand

Ok we have got the software set up out of the way, so lets get this stock PCM file onto the interface so we can start making our own tunes. I’m going to walk you through how to read your stock PCM with the Interface as a stand alone unit I like this method better its less cluttered (less wires all over the place) and I just don’t feel like carting my laptop out to my car. First off I’m going to say NEVER EVER unplug the interface from your car if the 7th LED is RED. This means it has entered a read write mode and could possible damage your PCM if you just yoink the cable or turn the ignition off. Red = Bad, Green = Good. Ok let’s do this boys and girls, Plug the OBD interface cable into the Sniper Vehicle Interface and screw the thumb tabs in, I sat this just in case you happen to get your foot caught on the cable when its flashing it wont rip its self out of the interface and interrupt your flashing or read and screw your PCM up. Then your going to want to plug the OBD end into your cars diagnostic port. Usually located under the steering wheel. Make sure your plugging it in the correct way and if it don’t fit don’t force it check and make sure your plugging it straight in and the correct way. Once its plugged in your going to see all 7 LED lights go green this is good. So at this point your sitting in your ride with the Interface box in your hand with the sniper sticker facing up. Look at the front all LED 1-7 are lit and you have 2 momentary throw buttons one each said. The button on the left is referred to as button A and the button on the right is button B and this is how I will be referring to them as well. So with the key in the ignition but in the off position you want to press button B (right button) until ONLY Led’s 5,6 and & are lit up. Then press button A (left button) to activate the position. You have now successfully put the Interface into PCM read mode. Led’s 3&4 should now be flashing and the 7th should be RED. Its now time to turn your ignition to the run position (the position where the cluster lights up and all systems are on but the engine is not) once you’ve done this your going to see 2 things. The first thing is your going to notice your cluster is going ot look a little funny your mileage will not show and your theft light will be flashing rapidly if you happen to have a antitheft system. And a digital cluster. The second thing you will notice will the be interface box’s lights will now be moving in a single file across the box with the 7th lit up red this is to let you know that it is reading/writing and the progress. This may take 30sec to 3min to complete. Once it has completed LED’s 1-6 will flash and LED 7 will turn green its now safe to turn the ignition to the off position and unplug the Interface from the car.

Ok now get back inside to your computer and plug the interface box back into the usb cable and open you your Sniper Multiloader because we are going to back up your stock PCM to the PC for 2 reasons here reason one being YO DO NOT WANT TO LOSE THIS PCM! If you ever need to flash back for emission testing or warranty purposes you need this PCM! And reason 2 is the Special Forces software needs a baseline to write new PCM files with. So lets do this. Ok so you’ve got this thing plugged in ad you’ve opened the Multiloader now you need to select your file position in the drop down box to position 6, the 6th position is always used for stock PC files do not put a custom tune here in fact I believe it wont let you any how. Once you’ve selected position 6 click on the “Read Interface” button and it will pop up with a screen asking you to name the file I named mine “Stock 01 3.8l Mustang” and click save. Now your going to see a progress bar at the bottom, once its completed it will say “successfully transferred “filename” to pc. Don’t unplug it while its transferring though other wise your probably going to corrupt the PCM file or damage the interface and then your either screwed or back at square one. Great so your stock pcm is now on the PC. Lets try this tuning thing shal we.


This is your multi loader screen


The tuning is fun for me at least it was even with a stock car like me just seeing everything I will be able to do once I get more under my hood was inspiring and exciting for me. So open up that Special Forces software, lets get acquainted. But before I start I must say if u don’t know what it is don’t touch it ask on Modded Mustangs or email Sniper there Customer service is top notch by the way. And also its important not to trick your car with the tuning into thinking it has something it doesn’t it will give you no gains and either not run at all or run very poorly. That said lets do this.

Ok so you should have your sniper tuning software open by now, and the first screen you see should say “Select a starting point” with 2 buttons one saying “Load a saved tuning” and the other saying “create a new tuning file”
Your going to want to click on “create a new tuning file” because your just starting. Once you’ve clicked that your going to see the first screen its going to ask you for you PCM box code, your stock engine size, but if you have stroked you engine you want to put in the stroked size (e. 4.2) your compression ration and aspiration type as well as transmission type auto or Manuel. Its important to put in accurate information here. If you don’t know leave it stock. The pcm box code is the last 4 characters in the file name of your stock PCM it can be located here “:\Program Files\Sniper Performance\Original Files” For example my stock file is named RTAI1.TBX3.pcm and my box code is TBX3 got it?


The next Screen you will see after click next is the fuel system information screen this is where you change all your fuel related stuff except for A/F mixture and Timing. On this screen its going to ask you your fuel system type your injector size and your Fuel pump type (LPH) and Fuel Octane and returnless fuel pressure. Your fuel system type you can set for return style or stock. Your octane selection range is from 87 – 118. your injector size ranges from stock, 19 LB – 60 LB. your fuel pump can be set stock, 190LPHm, 255LPH, Single Focus, Twin Focus(RS), or Twin Cobra Fuel pump. Your returnless fuel pressure can be set from stock, +1-5, +10 and +15. Input the information that matches your car and click next.

On this screen you’ve got your intake options like your MAF brand, MAF calibration Intake MAF position. Your Options for MAF brand are Stock, Ford, Sniper and PRO-M. The options for your maf calibration are huge you’ve got settings for a Stock MAF calibration or, Sniper 3000, also calibrations for Injector sizes 19, 24, 30, 36, 42,50 and 62 LB. you’ve also got the Injector sizes with special calibrations for 96 Cobras and GT’s as well as a Cobra setting for 24, 30 and 36, LB and lastly the last MAF calibration options are for 80mm and 90mm Lighting MAF’s so you’ve really got a very nice and wide range of selection here. Last is the MAF location you options are Stock, Draw through, Blow through and stock with cold air intake. choose the options that match your car and click next.

This next screen is the Exhaust Detail, you need to select if you’ve got Long tube or short tube headers or stock ones, if you have a H or X pipe and if it has converters or not on it. You also can delete the rear o2 sensors here and if you have a cat back system installed you set that here as well. This is a very basic screen here so I shouldn’t have to explain anything here for you put in the options that match your car and click next.


This next screen is all to do with the transmission, if you have an automatic transmission you will see this screen. In here you can adjust you WOT (wide open throttle) shift timing relative to MPH or RPM its your choice. In \here you can also select you Shift Firmness from 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4 I have mine set to mild and on a stock rear end on a v6 I don’t recommend any higher the options are as follows, Stock, Mild, Firm and Racing. Ive used the Mild and firm the firm will spill your drink the mild puts u back in the seat and racing I’m pretty sure would blow my rear end out so I havn’t touched that. Like I said anything higher then Mild is pretty hard on the stock rear end and suspension so use at your own risk. After you’ve set your transmission up to your liking click next.

This next screen is the general settings. In here you will find you rev limiter and speed limiter adjustments its pretty straight forwards for these settings but be noted that you can damage your car and you do risk a blow out if your tires are not rated for your new found speed as well as the stock breaking components and suspension were not specked to be used about the factory set speed limiter. So use caution and common sense here guys. Also in here you will find options to adjust your idle rpm, tire height, gear ration from 2.73:1 - 5.14:1 which is nuts, you can turn off your passive anti theft this option is greatly useful if you’ve had to steal a pcm from a car in a scrap yard this will remove that flashing theft light and no start if you’ve got a non original PCM installed. No more going to ford to get the PCM unlocked guys! You can also set your high and low Rad fan turn on temps here as well as turning off your egr if you have it removed and turning off your Traction control permanently from this screen. If this is the first tune you’ve made this is the end of the line for you click finish name your tune file and save it. It should automatically save it under C:\Program Files\Sniper Performance\Tunes\PCM Files if it does not you may have to navigate there.


For those of you that had this next option its because you’ve loaded an already saved tune file you can load a previously made tune file by clicking “Load a saved tuning” and navigating to C:\Program Files\Sniper Performance\Tunes\TXT Files lo load your saved configuration text. This last screen here is ONLY accessible once you’ve made your initial tune and I recommend you make sure your car runs on your first tune before Modifying your timing ad A/F ration here. On this screen you will be able to modify the A/F ration through 3 rpm ranges or globally (all rpm ranges) the rpm ranges are as follows idle-2500 rpm is range one, 2500-4000rpm is range two and range three is 4000-redline. On this screen I’m going to stress very highly that you leave stock unless your 100% sure you can adjust stuff because this is where Detonation and Peregrination can happen if you screw up I’m also NOT going to explain this part but ask you read the manual because it explains this part far better then I ever could and you will be much more comfortable reading the whole run down on this in the Manuel. But my settings after much testing and talking to Sniper I have all my RMP ranges spark advanced by 1 degree and globally by 2 degrees. I am also tuned for and running 91 Octane so this allows me for the timing advancement. After you’ve set this up or havn’t touched it or decided to screw with everything and blow your ride up click finish and save the tuned PCM as I stated in the previous paragraph.


Awesome we have gout our tune so we need to get it from the computer to the car so lets do this. Plug your Sniper Vehicle interface into the computer and open your Sniper Multiloader. Your going to want to choose position one from the drop down menu if its not already selected. Once you’ve chose the position your going to flash your tune to (remember position 6 is for stock PCM only do not write your tune here) click “write Interface” once you’ve done that it will pop up a box where you have to chose the PCM file you wish to flash navigate to “C:\Program Files\Sniper Performance\Tunes\PCM Files” and chose the tune you’ve save remember it will be the file name you save it as when you made it. So “filename.pcm” and click open. Next your going ot see a status bar wit the progras wof the tune being written from the PC to the Interface. Once this is done it will say successful transferred “filename.pcm” to Interface at which point you can close the Multiloader unplug the interface from the device plug in your OBD cable and run like a mad man to your car with excitement.

Once in your car plug the Interface in like you did be fore simple eh? And you will all 7 LED’s light up. Click button B (right button) until the single lit LED is in the position that you saved your custom PCM to, example if you saved your custom tune to position one click the B button until LED number one is lit. once you’ve selected your tune position press the A button (left button) on the interface this will put it into read write mode. LED 7 will turn red and LED’s 3&4 will flash this means the car is ready for you to turn the key to the run position. DO NOT START THE CAR. Once the key is in the run position you will hear your rad fan spin up and stay on your theft light will flash rapidly and the interface LED’s will scroll from one side ot the next showing the progress of the flash. Again Waite 30seconds to 3 minutes until all LED’s are lit green and flashing. Once this happens your PCM flash is don’t turn the key off unplug the Interface and then fire up your ride.

Congratulations you’ve successfully Read your PCM, Created a custom tune and flashed it to your ride give your self a pat on the back and have a beer.

Lastly I’m going to talk about the last 2 parts of the program package. The Sniper Chip and the Sniper Bullet utility. The Sniper Chip you can disregard its used if you own a plug in sniper chips which this package does not include so don’t worry about it. The Sniper Bullet utility is the program used to unlock more VIN numbers on your interface so you can program more then 2 Cars you have to purchase the bullets separately from sniper and you input the unlocking code here that they provide you with your purchase.

In conclusion I think this product rocks and judging by my seat of my pants it makes a pretty good difference just on a stock ride, the firmer shifts, and it just pulls that little bit extra and takes off smoother. I’ve also notices my intermittent chugging idle has been completely cured but the custom tune I have done and my fuel mileage has increased significantly for my self but of course results may vary. Also the fact that you can tune and hold tunes for 2 vehicles at a time is great even more if you purchase more bullets. My 1996 Ford Escort is also saving more fuel and running smother as well in fact I think it’s the smoothest I’ve ever had that stupid escort running. It gets two thumbs up from me and if I had a third had it would get three. You can’t beat being able to tinker with your own stuff write your own tunes and when you put a new mod on your car its nice to get the tune and get results that same day! I highly recommend this package its superior to most on the market. You won’t be disappointed!!

Now here is the kicker after talking to Christ at Sniper tuning he is a sales rep I have graciously arranged to get a 15% discount off buying a Sniper Special Forces package directly from Sniper Tuning for all Modded Mustangs members! All you have to do is email Chris at sales@snipertuning.com and tell him that you’re interested in a purchase of this package, say you’ve read Juggalo_X’s review on www.moddedmustangs.com and tell him your Modded Mustangs Screen name so he can check and verify you’re a member of the web forums. Don’t miss out you’ll regret it!

[JASonic]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. The idea of a tuner frieks me out a bit because I cant afford to take a risk and blow something out. This kind of answers some of the questions I had about that. It takes some of the "risky" stuff out of the equation for me. Thanks for the education!!

Do you think it has increased your 0-60 times enough to justify the cost and time you've spent????

[Juggalo_X]

bumpin this

[Juggalo_X]

Originally Posted by ja002gl Thanks for taking the time to post this. The idea of a tuner frieks me out a bit because I cant afford to take a risk and blow something out. This kind of answers some of the questions I had about that. It takes some of the "risky" stuff out of the equation for me. Thanks for the education!! Do you think it has increased your 0-60 times enough to justify the cost and time you've spent????

what it will do is help you get even more out of your mods by mapping the PCM correctly for it so if your modded or even stock and are going sot mod this is 100% a great purchase. it also will give you that extra pop on a stock engine and save you gas ofcourse

[BWAL09]

im just curious, if you can improve the performance of a stock car, why didn't ford do that to begin with

[Juggalo_X]

Originally Posted by BWAL09 im just curious, if you can improve the performance of a stock car, why didn't ford do that to begin with

because they have to meet government regulations and with a performance tune there is to much "knock" and it would make the emissions machine go wacky. or so my mechanic says.

[BWAL09]

oh that makes sense.. nice write up BTW

[Juggalo_X]

Originally Posted by BWAL09 oh that makes sense.. nice write up BTW

yah basicaly my mechanic said that they tune it down to meet gov smog stadards but in order to meet the standards ir cuts back o nthe fuel efficient and the power of the engine. it wont pass an emissions test with a tune thats almost 100% sure and thanks dude

[silver stang]

Hmmm... that sounds really cool can you test or give an estimate of you 0-60mph time decrease ?

[Juggalo_X]

Originally Posted by silver stang Hmmm... that sounds really cool can you test or give an estimate of you 0-60mph time decrease ?

i have no clue but it accelerates smoother harder and better im im guess maybe it has shaved a bit off. even the exhaust note on my stock exhaust has changed to a deeper growl. thats probably to do with my timing advancements.

[TurboLX]

hey how much did that set you back?? it looks much easier to use then mega squirt, i just mite upgrade to that

[Juggalo_X]

Originally Posted by TurboLX hey how much did that set you back?? it looks much easier to use then mega squirt, i just mite upgrade to that

around 400 bux but like i said I have graciously arranged to get a 15% discount off buying a Sniper Special Forces package directly from Sniper Tuning for all Modded Mustangs members! All you have to do is email Chris at sales@snipertuning.com and tell him that you’re interested in a purchase of this package, say you’ve read Juggalo_X’s review on www.moddedmustangs.com and tell him your Modded Mustangs Screen name so he can check and verify you’re a member of the web forums. Don’t miss out you’ll regret it!

[silver stang]

Is this the same thing xcal2 does ?

and are you affiliated with this company? either you are really happy about your purchase or you are trying to sell..

[Juggalo_X]

Originally Posted by silver stang Is this the same thing xcal2 does ?

it does all the xcal2 does and more and you can write your own tuning files instead of waiting for some one els to do it and pay them for it.

[TurboLX]

thanks i might just do that!

[tomzac]

Do a couple of dyno pulls - before and after and post the results. It's the only way to accuately show gains. Have your Snipper folks spring for it.

[Juggalo_X]

Originally Posted by tomzac Do a couple of dyno pulls - before and after and post the results. It's the only way to accuately show gains. Have your Snipper folks spring for it.

i live no where near florda to go on the sniper dyno otherwise im sure they would

[Juggalo_X]

Originally Posted by TurboLX thanks i might just do that!

i havnt tinkered with the turbo and supercharger options but you can adjust boot settings they say on the box.

[TurboLX]

well im looking for something a little less complicated then mega squirt, so it should work with my setup, ill email him and see what they have for my application

[Juggalo_X]