Is there an aftermarket ECU for the Gen1 lightning and f-series 351w that you can tune without having to put a chip or a programmer on

 

There's some plug-n-play kits for Mustangs, but not the trucks. You're looking at well over $1000 for an aftermarket engine management system.

Just get a Moates QuarterHorse and TunerPro/Binary Editor if you want to play around.

 

There is a megasquirt kit or something isn't there? I think the big stumbling block is that a single PCM controls both engine and trans in these trucks so it's not really practical to swap in an aftermarket engine controller unless the vehicle has a manual or all mechanical auto trans.

 

What would you like to do to the engine?

 

well when i do this i know eventually when I have money in hand, fully built 351w, bored, cam, heads ect, and make 500hp all motor at least. MSD finally has a tranny controller and harness for the ED04 expensive yes, but not going to be held back by stock ecu.

when i turned 18, i did a maf swap for the cam, heads, elderbroke intake and longtube hookers. . . love my truck and now i want more

 

So you already have mass air??? What computer do you have now?

 

There's a few options to control your engine.
They almost all include using a separate transmission controller.
Holley's offerings seem to be popular now.

 

i found a wrecked donor 96 f-250 351w for $300, pulled the motor rebuilt with my aftermarket parts, pulled all the wiring. . .waited for springbreak and did the full swap in a week. . . fired right up, little rough at first, it mellowed out and it was amazing

and yes ive seen the holly but i didnt know if it would work "wiring harness wise"

And since MSD finally came out with the harness for the tranny controller stupid excited. never wanted to settle with "buhrman" to many ify stories

 

If you have or get an OEM Ford MAF pcm for either the 5.0/E40D or 5.8/E40D combo it won't hold you back, it will work with any size injectors and MAF meter on any displacement motor with one of the available tuners(Quarterhorse, Tweecer) plugged in.

 

You should ask this question over on nloc.net, you'll get many varied options, they've been there done that.

 

Well there's guys making 600,700, 800+ HP with Ford mass-air computers. There's no need to ditch it, when you can just tune it.

 

There's a few reasons why ditching the OE injection setup makes sense.

 

And those are?

 

The OE mass air being able to support big hp, isn't in question.
Take into account age of components vs new, service life, and tuning ability, accessory control, things become clearer.
In some cases, the cost of going aftermarket, isn't that great, especially when switching from factory SD. To some, the added features and piece of mind, of new, and in some cases ease of tuning, is worth the additional investment.

 

thats kind of what i was going for, of course Aftermarket is expensive yes, big when you keep changing things like i want to i dont really want to keep going back to the ecu "yes i know ill keep needing to tune not the point" but i want to do an all motor right now maybe later Nitrious, SCharger or turbos later in life. and dont want to go back to the cumputer

i can always build the motor i want, but tunings not my thing