Hi guys, im new to the board but have been reading here for the last few months prior to purchasing my (Used) 2008 F450 King Ranch. I love the trucks interior design (not neccesarly talking about the ranch verison although I love it as well). I own a bulldozer business in east texas and have been driving a Dodge 3500 single cab that I bought new in 2001. I have no complaints from my dodge, it carried me 220K trouble free miles, I sold it to my son who is getting into the welding business, thought it would be a great starter truck for him. Now back to my new purchase.......

Here are the details on my f450. 20k miles in emmaculate condition. All dealer service records were kept by the previous owner. I also got the Ford Lincoln Mercury premium care warranty transferred to me for $40.00 after my purchase of the truck. When I went to my local ford dealer here to get it transfered into my name, the service manager said I got the best warranty that ford offers, he chuckled and said I got it for $40 bucks. Now to the rest of the story.

I immediatly put a CM flat bed on the truck because that is what I use in my line of work. really pleased with the fit and looks of it on the ford (I had one on my dodge truck as well).

After reading through the forums, I realized my needs in a vehicle are not what the DPF system allows. I idle sometimes for a couple of hours or more each day at different job sites of my mine. So I decided to remove the Cat and DPF and get a tuner. I found a SCT livewire Extreme (used) in SanAntonio on friday, he had the Cat/DPF pipe and tuner for $400. I pulled the Cat/DPF last night, and I installed the canned "performance tune" today after doing a few hours of reading because my tuner did not come with any directions. All he sold me was the tuner/pc cable/wire to obd2, no paper work or instructions. I was tenative because I had no written instructions and could not find any on the SCT site through a pdf file ect. The tuner worked flawlessly and I left my stock muffler on for the time being. My truck at idle sounds like a smooth (not loud at all) jet engine at the exhaust. It actually smells like its burning deisel now! When i smelled and heard it this afternoon after I cranked it up the first time, it reminded of my Caterpillar D9 .

Im not a hot-rod, this is not the reason I did the modifications, I wanted better fuel milage and the ability to idle for hours if needed. I rarely drive over 55 and have a very light foot around town. I carry way to many tools and other stuff on my flat bed to be hot-roding around, I would be slinging stuff all over texas.

Lastly,
1. I wanted to get some opinons on a K&N filter. I already ordered one and the dry cover for it as well, but I work in some very dusty conditions during the summer months and I am a bit concerned about the filtration abilities of a open air/oiled filter. Do any of you have any input on wether or not I should or should not install the K&N?

2. For those who are familiar with the SCT livewire, can I plug my tuner back up to the obd2 port again, and turn off door chimes or add my cold air intake when my K&N filter arrives or do any other changes WITHOUT HAVING TO RETURN TO STOCK and doing the entire procedure all over again?

Thanks guys, I enjoy the forum.

GODSDOZER

 

Congrats on the new truck. I would just stick with the stock filter for the dusty conditions your truck will be in. I have been running a SCT Livewire with RCD 450 tune for almost 2 years now and I still run the stock air filter and stock exhaust and it has worked great for me. The answer is yes to question number 2. You can also go to SCT's website and make sure your Firmware , Canned Tunes , Updater software are up to date for your livewire.

 

What kind of MPG are you getting out of that tune?

 

I get between 15 and 19 mpg depending on how I drive the truck. I have the 3.55 gears also.

 

I don't think there are any parameters u can change other than engine related. Most users here find that the stock aircleaner setup works great up to about 700hp.. unlikely you will be going there.. changing them on a stock engine actually causes problems.

the extreme also has support for an exhaust gas temp probe, which is optional.. did u get that?

I was trying to buy a used SCT myself this fall, but the seller just stopped answering email. I bought a used sensor kit, and don't need it.
I am up near austin. You have to drill a hole in the exhaust pipe to screw in the sensor.. (the Spartan setup uses the stock sensors)

as u don't have 25 posts you can't email or private message someone (FTE rules to prevent automated spam).. my direct email is my FTE username at gmail

see the posts by texas450 for his experience with the SCT in a 450, think he is getting around 13.5 with a flatbed load.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...ml#post9246098

Sam

 

Mine came with the probe but I just use the stock sensors with my Livewire . I didn't use the probe. I agree about the stock intake.

 

thanks for the responses guys. I have been a bit apprehensive about the K&N, I kinda bought on a whim late at night while browsing the internet . I would really like to keep my truck as stock as possible, so in the event that I have to take it in for warranty repairs I will not have to spend 2 days ect. returning it back to stock form.

As per the exhuast temp probe, I just used my regular probes as well. As I understand it, the sct uses the stock sensors.

Can yall give me some Ideas: Since all I have read about MPG increases, it is my understanding that the higher the tune used the better the fuel milage you will get provided that you stay off the throttle.

I was thinking about changing my canned tune from the "performance" canned tune to the "extreme" canned tune.

1. Do you know the horsepower difference between the performance tune, and the extreme tune?

2. Do you know if there are any engine stress problems associated with using the extreme tune. *** I will remind all agian, I drive like a grandmaw, so its not about Hot Roding.

Godsdozer

 

Im trying to figure out what gears I have. I have read that you can look at the sticker between the drivers door and the rear door. On the sticker where it says "axle" mine says 4L? lol what does that mean.

Godsdozer

 

LOL, that means you just did a lot of work and spent a lot of money but your MPG still won't be very good. That's a 4.30 rear axle. The next to lowest you can get in the 450. I was suprised to read the poster a ways back cause I think he said he had a 3.55 in his 450. If you're interested in fuel mileage and don't do a lot of heavy towing or carrying, that's the differential you want. I have the 4.30 in a F350 and I'm thinking hard about changing to a 3.73. And I tow a real heavy trailer. The rear axle ratio has a lot to do with MPG because the truck has to turn more RPMs to go the same speed. IE: at 60 mph I turn 2000 RPM.

 

stanley thanks for the response. I guess when you say I spent alot of money, you might consider the following:

1. "alot of money" is a relative term, to some it may be alot, to others it may not be.

2. You may have missed my orgional post............I said, I did it mainly because of my considerable amount of Idleing at my job sites. I do not need a DPF clogging up on me (causing downtime in the repair shop) or burning excesss fuel while in regen.

3. Since I removed the DPF, I had to get a tuner.

I keep my work trucks for 200k miles. It takes to much money and time to put new flat beds on them, and get all my equipment I haul on the flat bed off and transfer to a new truck every 50k or 100k miles. I carry about 4-5k lbs or more on my flat bed each and every day as a daily driver. If I only gain 2-3 mpg, in the long run it will certainly pay for the $400 total I have invested in the DPF/Cat delete pipe and Sct livewire tuner.

I had looked at the axle sticker a couple of weeks ago, I figured the 4L stood for 4.10, thanks for the clarification.



Godsdozer

 

here is the link to the axle decode chart.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/4...ml#post3792342

Sam

 

Mine is a 250 4x4 CCLB with 3.55's gears.

 

Oooops, my bad.

 

I hope you make it to 200K. So far I've only been able to find one 6.4L claiming to have made it. I'd love to know that the motor would do that. For sure I think most of the regulars on here would say your chanches are better with the delete and the tune. Good luck