I have had the SCT on my V10 and loved it. Like you said I think it was totally safe, ran it for years and pulled in truck pull about 20 times, never once did a single thing to hurt anything.

The main reason I bought the SCT was the ability to program the power AND MOST IMPORTANTLY shift points & shift pressure.

I WILL buy a tuner when my truck is a few thousand miles from running out of warranty and the day it runs out, tuner is installed. I can't believe even after all the programming they have done that the transmission shift point and pressure is sooo TERRIBLE. I find myself using the button to shift out when first warming up because it holds way too long. I also use the button when I'm trying to fight through a busy section of town, this way when I jump on it the engine doesn't wrap up to 4000 RPM's. I think that is just too much to twist an engine when it can shift out at 2500 rpms and still pin you in the seat.

I'm not drag racing but I live in Atlanta suburbs and traffic can really stink.

I think there's a lot of power I just think by changing shift patterns that driveability in all cases can be improved some 50% or more.

Towing my 5er, weighing 11,000 lbs I don't use tow mode unless in the mountians. I wonder Cowlick, do you use it pulling 18K? I know this truck will pull it, can't wait to see how it does at max weight limit.

 

I definitely use Tow Haul whenever the trailer is attached. The shift patterns are much better for a heavy load. It holds the lower gears longer so I can get moving and it's a big help when braking. Since I've learned to use the brake better, the down shift and the exhaust brake are useful even in town. You don't need to be on the highway to appreciate the tow haul braking strategies.

I was completely serious about accelerating up hills with the heavy load. This truck is a monster.

 

Couldn't agree more! These trucks are amazing. Just got my tuck and trailer all shined up ready to go! Where? Not sure just yet but were ready!

I put my 20" KR Tires/Wheels (Michelin AT/2's) and put them in storage and brought out the 18" Wheels and Michelin MS2's) for towing season. Much better tread life (less aggressive) and we will see how they put up with 4000 HP, 800 ft. lbs and 15,850 of Newmar Cypress. The 19.5" H-Rated tires and 8K axles make this thing tow like nobody's business .

 

You can quote the Magnuson_Moss law about tuners not voiding your warranty till the cows come home but how deep are your pockets? My guess is nowhere near as deep as Ford's. Will the tuner manufacturer guarantee, in writing that there tuner will not void the warranty. Will the tuner company pay for any non-warranty engine/transmission repairs after Ford voids the warranty? Ford will know if you do a tuner and will flag your warranty. This is why the tuner folks are not hitting the market in any numbers.

I am not anti tuner, I had an SCT running on my 2004 6.0. I was happy with it...but I am much happier having a warranty on my 2011.

Regards

 

Currently in Beta testing, our 200HP Race file is making a little over 500RWHP with an AFE intake and emissions-delete exhaust.

As for fuel economy, we don't quote exact numbers due to the off-road nature of the DPF/SCR/DEF delete calibrations, but the gains are quite significant. DPF-On tuning with all emissions systems intact will yield a couple of extra MPG's likewise, but obviously not as significant

I do see a lot of misnomers flying around concerning issues with tuners being detectable, undetectable, punishable by lethal injection, ect

A huge portion of our development time for release of the 6.7L Phalanx console has went into this issue specifically- probably close to, if not as much, as the development of the tune files themselves.

Ford uses a significant amount of variations in the different factory "tune files", varying by vehicle type (pickup or cab and chassis), rear end gearing, and other factors-there are currently over 50 variations in factory filesets in MY2011 alone for the 6.7L. This is important because one of the most crucial aspects of making a tuner hard, or impossible to detect after removal, is to ensure that the EXACT same calibration/file set that was in the vehicle before tuning, is what ends up downloaded after being removed.

Reading/saving of the factory 6.7L ECM and TCM files is notoriously difficult and time-consuming for any tuner to do, since the modules were really designed as write-only. Two of the tuners currently on market handle the task of return-to-stock downloads with the magnificent atrocity of returning ALL trucks back to one specific set of stock files (if it is deserving of the name). Not only does this mean that there is a high chance that the truck ends up with a tune file that wasn't originally in the truck, but a reasonable chance that it is a file set not even configured correctly for that vehicle.

The real risk by handling the stock download this way, is that it is BLATANTLY obvious to any Ford employee (be it a dealer tech or Field Service Engineer) that the file is incorrect for the vehicle. Even the Ford IDS (Integrated Diagnostic System) will immediately throw red flags. You'll likely be screwed in short order, unless your tech happens to be very mod-friendly.

Our solution to that problem is a bit complex and took much development time, but we are actually using full sets of factory Ford VBF files (same files as used by the Ford IDS during a reflash) to re-install the identical files that were recorded by the tuner before installing a tune.

There are also other measures employed by the tuner to eliminate other tell-tale signs, such as permanently-stored DTC's and freeze frame data, from being detected as out of place or out of range for the vehicle.

I won't sit here and try to pretend that it is completely and entirely undetectable. If the modules were removed from the truck, send to Ford engineering for a full memory dump, subtle signs of changes would still be evident. But we've made it damn hard to detect- long out of the reach of any dealer technican or Ford FSE. With that said, the chances of having problems with warranty from the tuner itself is very, very slim.

 

Matt, thanks a lot for stopping by and enlightening us on the details of tuning the 6.7L engine. I do have one question...

So you're saying that your "race" tunes that are producing 200 HP over stock are that unlikely to break anything?

 

So far, we've had no issues. The 6.7L long block is extremely robust, and the 6R140 trans has never flinched.

That's not to say that you can load a 200RWHP tune and flog the truck to death every day for 125,000 miles and not expect issues. If you mis-treat it constantly, something WILL break. But a responsible driver behind the wheel of any properly calibrated tune, who still has fun with the truck on occasion, will not have problems immediately or down the road.

Two of our test trucks have been through significant hell at this point. My personal truck has about 26,000 miles on it- tuned since 379 miles. It has been through many hours on the dyno, and through the tortures of many unsuccessful (and mechanically, probably quite brutal) tuning attempts during the early development stages of our 6.7 tuning. As a matter of fact, I've driven it so hard that the front rotors are already warped and shuddering pretty badly- and overdue for replacement- at 26,000 miles. Likewise, the second set of tires are due for replacement too.

The turbochargers are really the only sensitive part on the engine, and we have clearly defined what they will and will not handle at this point. The safe boost pressure and airflow limits have been established in the tuning, and it won't exceed them. The said limitations of the turbo are the only thing holding power from exceeding ~200RWHP gains at the moment.

 

Interesting, so the 6.4L engine and it's 41 PSI of available boost can make more power than the new 6.7L trucks?

I figured this might be the case due to the lower boost pressures, but you guys know far more about this than I do.

 

Currently, yes, the 6.4L is still making a bit more power. Tuning with exhaust and intake puts the 6.4L in the 560-570RWHP range. The 6.7L is out of air around 515-520RWHP. Safe boost pressures for the 6.4L can easily exceed 45PSI; whereas the 6.7L shouldn't see over about 35PSI during hard acceleration, or 32-33PSI for extended periods of load such as heavy towing.

Torque numbers, however, are similar, and the 6.7L builds torque much earlier and peaks earlier. Power takes a pretty hard nose-dive after 3100-3200RPM, therefore we shift the truck a good bit earlier than a 6.4L.

The 6.7L will lumber along at 1000 or 1100 RPM, torque converter locked in 6th gear, and still accelerate without a forced pedal downshift if you are easy with the throttle. This kind of torque band is great for daily driving, towing, and fuel economy- and currently no other generation of Powerstroke has been able to do that.

 

As a lay person I do not understand the complexities of the new technologies like this. Holley carbs MSD ignitions I handle in my sleep no problem. Will your tuner fix what Ford cant with respect to the many drive-ability issues some of us have?

 

Shepardsonp,

Nice truck and nice camper. We have been back and forth on the 5th wheel thing. Have a 31" TT now. Anyway enjoy the season.....

 

Matt,
With the stock firmware and emissions delete, how much better is the mileage and how much weight is removed from the truck?
Not that I'm planning to do anything, I'm just curious.
Thanks,
-Gavin

 

Thanks Matt, as for the tune, I just want a small tune to get me a few MPG with no other mods. Is that possible. 20 MPG would make me a happy camper.
BTW the guy with the green truck-nice set-up. I wanted Green and grey but ended up with Blue and grey. Very happy with it.

 

Thanks for stopping by here Matt. So if we were sitting around drinking beer one night (I'm holding up my end of the deal) and got into some political discussion about government regs and what not, what kind of ballpark would you tell me that the emissions equipment would "probably" rob from a well tuned 6.7?

Obviously driving style affects mileage, but you're saying a couple of MPG's with DPF ON tunes. Are we theoretically talking more improvement than what some have talked about with the DPF delete on the 6.4?

 

A "responsible driver" doesn't need a 200 HP boost - IMHO. But maybe at 45, I am starting to sound like my dad -