Had a good number of customers recently write up reviews of their 2011-2012 Ecoboost F150's newly tuned using one of my SCT tuners and figured minds well list some of the reviews for those considering tuning their Ecoboost with a SCT 3015 unit.

I want to hear YOUR review on what you thought of the SCT tuners! Any questions, feel free to let me know as I'm here to help!


Ecoboost review from Extech...

"Anyhow.... WOW , what a difference! Very smooth and very powerful! Everything from idle to part throttle to wide open is very much improved. Normal driving (if there is such a thing after installing a new toy) is night and day different. I do have the Solo 4" exhaust and the AFE stage 2 intake installed so the truck ran good before but this is the icing on the cake!

As far as gas mileage goes, to bee honest, I've been running the snot out of it! But I drove a 80 mile section of HWY that I drive often and already it looks like it's picked up about 1 mpg or so, but it'll take a little time to to know for sure!

For those of you on the fence, I do not think you will be disappointed at all. I'm looking at it this way, if the SCT unit is this good (and affordable) now what's is going to be like in 6 months to a year after everyone really starts to play with it? We are going to have our choice of any tune at any time to match any situation that we'll ever run across. "



Ecoboost review from member Sickqk

"Installed the 93 Octane tune today. Truck feels STRONG.

Shifts better than stock during normal driving, at WOT shifts are good and firm. 1-2 second feels like a power shift on a manual trans, chirps the tires. No more surging and the engine doesn't fall on its face at higher revs like the stock tune does. Smooooooth power! No weird noises, the engine sounds great. Mileage seems to be about the same....but I haven't done enough miles yet to know for sure and I was able to get some good seat time in with the 93 octane tune tonight after the sun went down. It's been up around 100 degrees here ever since I installed the tune...tonight it was about 78 when I went out, and I was able to drive with the AC off and window open.

WOW! The truck pulls so much harder than stock it's amazing! I'm going to guess it will cut close to a second off the trucks 1/4 mile time.

As soon as the weather gets a little better I be at the track to prove that....hopefully next Friday night which is street night at my local track. I'll post the results.

P.S. The truck even idles better, smooth as silk and quiet....all you can hear is the tick tick tick."<!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- / message -->
Ecoboost review from member DJT81185

"
Mine updated and worked on the first try.

Loaded up the 87 tune and took her for a spin. Spinning tires once the turbos spooled up with the 20s on my fx4. Only weird thing I noticed is it feels like the 1-2 shift was delayed (like it was overrevving) and initially it made a bang/thud noise on the upshift (from the tranny/rearend). After about 10 1-2 WOT shift runs the bang went away...but the 1-2 shift doesnt feel as crisp as the other gears. Im thinking its the adaptive transmission strategy doing its thing.

Does feel noticeably stronger and cant wait to try out the 93 tune. Overall I like it a lot "


Ecoboost review from member Bigfx

"Loving mine!!! Shifts smooth power delivery is nice and no joke about chirping the tires in second the trucks powerband feels more defined up top and the truck revs a lot easier. My intake and exhaust sound a little louder and I am happy I have them there to support the increased boost. Very happy with the tune so far and I'm on the 87 tune!!!! May try the 93 when I fill up again, overall very happy and that coming from a guy who has driven turbo charged cars for close to 15 years and tuned all of them myself this is a great canned tune, can't wait to get her custom tuned down the road but for now I'm very happy great job SCT and thank you for your great customer service Franchi , guys he has the best price hands down and unbelievable customer service. "


Ecoboost tune by member EcoBco

"wow the 87 tune pulls nice , Sorry man, but this 87 tune chirped tires on 2nd gear. Love it!"


Ecoboost tune by member Geno51

"Man I love this tuner! I cant keep my foot out of it today. It acts completely stock (better then stock). Drives so nice Then you hit the go pedal and it just takes off. I notice it mostly from a dig that is the best part hammer it from a dig she spools up starts losing traction just a bit around 4500 rpm to 6000 then scratch into second. This 1-2 shift is just right! Someone else said it right its not firm just more positive feeling. Feels like it happens faster and more certain. Enough to bark the tires but feels soft not a hard shift. Its hard to explain"<!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- / message -->

 

Everybody seems to be liking the SCT tunes pretty well so far. I sent my X3 custom tuner back to SCT to get it upgraded to a SF3 preloaded tuner last week....I'm looking forward to seeing how much better the tune can make it.


Has anyone gotten back to you with feedback on any fuel economy gains yet?

 

I had one customer who said he got about 1.5 mpg gains on a 400 mile road trip he took, going about 65-70 steady most of the way. But most folks haven't had time enough to really get an idea of any gains since so new. But in all honesty, most folks see worse gas mpg after a tune simply because they can't keep their foot out of it and a smile off their face everytime they plant it!

 

This is the reason why I want to go with the ecoboost...eventually I want to tune it and squeeze more power out of that twin turbo setup.

 

I just looked up the SCT tuner online quickly... So am I understanding correctly that for less than $400 someone could get the tuner and increase their torqu over 100 Ft lbs to over 500 ft/lbs? Is it that simple? I am lurking and asking questions in preparation for my next truck purchase. I like the sound of the 5.0 but if what I am reading above is correct it is hard to over look

 

Pretty much....one thing I will say is that I don't think anyone has dyno'd their Ecoboost out at 420 rear wheel torque yet....you will add a lot of hp and torque but more importantly with the tuners is how they change the drive by wire lag and the torque management. Even if they didn't add any hp or torque the difference in butt dyno would be huge. The tuner will give you more bang for your buck performance wise than any other add on in my opinion.


The other thing is that is with the SCT tunes...custom tuners will squeak even more power out of them using that same tuner with their custom tune.

 

See below which shows the before and after testings done by SCT on a bone stock 2012 EB. Looking at right around 436 torque on the 93 tune and 351 rwhp. So yes, for just a tune, you get quite the sizable gains! If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up!

2012 Ford F-150 Ecoboost Dyno Sheet
Stock: 300.96 RWHP / 327.77 RWTQ
SCT 87 Octane Tune: 335.51 RWHP / 393.94 RWTQ
SCT 93 Octane Tune: 351.64 RWHP / 436.02 RWTQ

93 Octane Tune Adds: +50.68RWHP / 108.25 RWTQ!

 

Moving to Vendor's forum.

There still doesn't seem to be any clearly defined literature as to how an aftermarket tune will not affect the warranty. Ford doesn't seem to have a very good sense of humor these days and is more than willing to deny warranty coverage, especially on the EB trucks.

 

Well to be honest, there isn't a yes or no answer to that as a lot really depends on your local dealership and how the deal with tuners and warranties. There was a law called Magnuson vs Moss where it specifies that unless a dealer or company can specifically prove that a aftermarket part directly caused a failure for which the vehicle is in for the warranty work.

Are all dealerships aware of this law? Not really. Some places are very lenient with aftermarket parts ( not just tuners but intakes, exhaust, ect ect ) and some are very hard nosed about it. I usually recommend if it's truly a concern, call them up and ask and be upfront about it and ask how they handle it.

In any case, you want to restore your OEM stock tune back to the truck or vehicle before taking it in for any warranty work as well simple because the SCT units save your OEM tune in the unit itself and if Ford releases a update to the OEM tune as a fix for a variety of issues, you want that updated OEM tune saved in your SCT unit and not the old one. Only takes 5 mins to reflash the truck back to OEM and retune it with a performance tune after. When you tune a vehicle with a tune, the SCT will automatically save the OEM tune in the truck so you can restore to stock should you need too, sell the truck, ect ect.

Trust that helps somewhat! Let me know any questions, thanks!

 

I'm in the odd club where I don't worry about the warranty. I've had two absolute crap trucks that I bought brand new and the warranty was more useless that the paper it was printed on....one was a 2004 F250 and the other was a 2005 Toyota Tacoma TRD....both trucks had major issues that never got resolved and I eventually got tired of returning to the dealer and traded them off. Neither truck had any mods what so ever but if the dealer can't easily diagnose the problem they won't fix it anyway. I buy a vehicle for my own use....a tuner adds a lot to the driving experience. My 2010 F250 was a dog until I purchased a tuner to clean up the drive by wire and trans shifting patterns......after the tuner it was great. The Ecoboost is pretty good already but I'm sure the tuner will add a lot to it as well.

 

I'd be interested to hear how you like it once you get it back from SCT!

Franchi

 

i am curious, these tuners your selling comes with preloaded tunes from sct or are u making custom tunes?

 

I'll let you know how I like it after it arrives. Unfortunately it takes a bit longer when you need to send a unit back in for an upgrade....2 week turnaround time.

 

Hello! These tuners come with the preloaded tunes from SCT. They do hold up to three custom tunes, however I do not make custom tunes to sell.

Franchi

 

The tuner worked great....initially I had troubles loading the tune...I got an ECU unsupported error and called SCT...they made a small file to load into a custom tune spot and I loaded that file....then I got a "stock upload failed" error and had to call them again....the second time they reformatted my tuner remotely and I ran the updater to get the new software in it. They also made another little custom file to have me load... That worked like a charm and I was able to load my tunes normally after that.


The power gain was significant....it pulls like crazy and I also like how the converter is staying locked rather than unlocking on inclines instead of shifting like the factory file....it holds gears longer at WOT and the pedal itself is far more responsive. It was well worth doing the tune.