Should the Predator give significant increases in partial throttle (average around-town) driving? It seems like most of the performance gains are in WOT.

I know firmer shifts help a little in daily drivability, but that doesn't really resolve my main issue. Factory WOT response is adequate for my driving needs, but the throttle has always seems excessively sluggish during daily driving around town.

For lack of a better explanation, I want a "lighter" gas pedal -- one that I don't have to mash down so hard just to get up to 35-40mph. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Eric

 

That's to be expected, isn't it? A throttle gives more power the more you push it down. Same goes with a Predator. It tunes at all throttle positions and gives an 8-12% increase over stock. At 10% throttle you're going to have less gain because 8-12% of 10% is a smaller number than 8-12% of 100%.

You'll see gains across all throttle positions, and not just with power. The throttle response is quicker, especially with the 2004 F-150, transmission response is quicker (shifts faster and firmer) and the torque reduction common at shifts is gone.

 

Ken,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll try it out for a few days and see how I like it.

I don't suppose raising the idle speed would have any impact on throttle sensitivity? That's really my main issue. Even with the stock tune the power is there, it's just hard to get to. Many other vehicles I've owned and driven (including similarly-appointed trucks) get quicker acceleration from a much lighter touch on the pedal. This truck (an '02 5.4 150 supercrew 4x4) is just the opposite. Is this just something I should learn to live with?

Thanks again,
Eric

 

No, raising idle won't do it. Ford actually has torque reductions from a standstill and at shifting, both which reduce throttle response. Both DiabloSport and Superchips get rid of these. The throttle will have a lighter touch, but not so much that its jumpy.

 

Part throttle performance is exactly what I'm looking for in a programmer!

I would like the transmission to hold 1st and 3rd a little longer and I want quicker/firmer shifts. I keep reading about chirping the tires at 1-2 WOT shifts but there isn't much said about part throttle shifts.

Ken, can you shed some light on this? Can the Predator or SCT take my transmission from economical granny mode to neck-snapping sporty mode during normal day to day driving? Would I be able to adjust the RPM vs load points?

Thanks.

 

The Predator allows you to choose shift points and firmness even at partial-throttle. I increased the PT shift firmness a little, and the difference is subtle but noticeable. I wouldn't call it neck-snapping, but it's much better than it was before.

 

ehay beat me to the answer. You can only do so much with an electronic tune and shifting. If you want neck-snapping like a hard shift kit can give then that's the best way to go.

 

Ok. Maybe I was exaggerating. Not neck-snapping shifts.

I was reading through dozens and dozens of threads in this forum (and other forums as well) and I think I read something about the shifting is smooth and almost stock when you are driving it easy but it is firm and quick when you drive a little hard, and really snappy at WOT. Is that what I could expect to get with the Predator?

Also, does the Predator come with a "custom tune" already? Would this tune have the improved shifting settings that I could tweak on my own?

 

The predator comes with a standard semi-custom tune, then allows you to go back and adjust certain parameters. One of these adjustments is partial-throttle shift firmness for each transition (1-2, 2-3, etc.). I increased my PT firmness about halfway -- less than WOT but more than stock PT -- and it helped a lot.

I could make PT shifts even firmer, but I'm not sure I would like it.

You can also adjust shift RPM points at WOT, but I don't remember if you can adjust them for PT.

I was a little bit disappointed with the Predator at first, but once I tweaked their default tune and drove it for a couple of days it got better. I'm pretty happy with it now.

 

I almost gave up on the Diablo Predator and purchased the SCT Xcalibrator but I still have a few questions unanswered. You touched on one of them.

The SCT dealers/tuners take pride in their tunes and that's the main thing that I see in favor of their latest flash tuner, the Xcalibrator. How good is the Diablo Predator's default tune? I guess in your case, it wasn't anything to brag about. But then you tweaked it and made it what you want. Can you tell me about this process? Did you work with a dealer on getting all the right settings? Did you read and learn on your own? Did you just experiment with it?

 

I didn't do any special research or consult with an expert. I'm a fairly low-end user. I just installed it, and tried it out. WOT performance was good, but partial-throttle response was less than I'd expected. I went back in and adjusted a few things using nothing more than the instruction manual as a guide. I'm very happy with the results. My truck is no rocket ship, but I certainly don't curse it's sluggishness anymore.

I'm not sure if this is just my imagination, but it actually seemed to get better after I'd driven it for a few days with the new tune.

One word of advice -- I had to download a software update for it to recognize my truck's computer. That means I had to go buy the necessary cables to connect it to my PC. If you order the predator, you might want to go ahead and order those cables.

 

I do both the SCT Xcalibrator and the Predator. Both have their markets. The Predator has more adjustability (for now) and the hardware is much better. The Xcalibrator has the advantage of allowing us to fine tune the tunes, and to do more than one (we can also load a custom tune into a Predator, but only one.)

 

More adjustability? As in more parameters can be changed? Or a larger range of values?

For now? What's coming in the near future?

I thought I was sold on the Xcalibrator due to its ability to hold three tunes. But as I look deeper into it, I'm not sure that's really worth anything to me.

 

The Predator lets you modify air/fuel, timing and shift points and pressure, plus read diagnostic codes and do live data logging, from the actual unit. The Xcalibrator is an extremely basic programmer. It doesn't have a screen, just a couple of lights that flash to let you know what the ignition key position should be during programming. It will let you make similar tweaks but you have to do it from a PC, then load the tunes into the XCalibrator, then into the car. Basically, more work, but you do have the option of having 3 tunes you or your tuner sets up for, and no code reader.

 

I think I've found the end of my over-analytical search.