Lower it, make it lighter, and drive slower (or drive a car). There is no sense in throwing money at the truck if you won't see any returns.

 

Just my.02 but unless you have real worn injectors you can do all the mods you want to and your not going to see any more then 2-3 mpg's max.

Keep in mind that you are driving a 10k lb truck. Don't expect 22-24 mpg's.
I think if your are gettin 15-17 mpg's then you are doing great.

Spending cash on mods for mpg's just isn't worth it. It would take for every to pay its self off

 

The only stress these engines receive is that from the go pedal. Even then, they are built to provide large amounts of torque for extended periods of time. The best way to keep MPGs high is to keep RPMs down and drive like my grandmother. And have a truck thats 100% operational.

Some people report better economy with a tuner, but I haven't seen it, and know that most tuners never claim increased economy.

 

Thanks to latest posters. I'm learning.

 

My obs got the same mileage stock as it did chipped, stageII's and all the other supporting mods.

 

I won't post any mpg numbers for my truck until I get AE (hopefully for my birthday in May *hint *hint). I also need to do hutch and harpoon on this new rig, and I'm sure the injectors are tired, although without knowing what the PO did, and going off of Buzz and Continuity test along with visual inspection, all is well. Guess there is always the flow test option, but who wants to pull VCs just cause?

Also to the guy asking about MPGs, I've heard Mark K (the transmission engineer) say that mileage can be robbed by a cold trans. Might do some research on the derale thermostat to get the temps up to where they need to be. I have a stock cooler and rarely see over 120 on my way to work. The target should be 170* F. That should get the fluid to a higher viscosity (Or lower, Yes lower, that's it, just had to let that simmer a second while I sipped my coffee ) and get all of the parts to design temp.

But enough of that, this is a tuner thread lol.

 

Cody, did you by chance get a hold of a diablo to try out? IIRC that was about the only one you hadn't tried.

 

Yeah, it's on the way. I'll have to put some miles on it first before any data comes out. I'll be using it on three trucks; a manual 2000, an automatic 2002, and an automatic 1995.

I'm trying to decide on a way to put some visuals together for everyone to actually show that "x" brand isn't any different than "y" brand or "L", "m", "n", "o", or "p" brand. It's all in an effort to quell the lies and myths about "canned" vs. "canned" vs. uh....."canned" programming available for these trucks because I'm getting tired of the crap being spread about "of-the-shelf" and "one-size-fits-all".

I think the last one that I'd like to get my hands on would be a Hypertech E-Con just to see/feel if it's any different that the normal Hypertech stuff. I haven't run any SCT stuff, but that mainly revolves around the issue of having limit reflash quantities so I don't care about that. Otherwise, I'll be covered by tonight when the Diablosport Predator gets here.

 

Not to draw any data out of you prematurely, but what are you implying? It almost sounds like l,m,n,o, and p "canned" tunes are essentially all the same. And by "crap" being spread, you mean people saying that "canned" tunes are, well, crap?

I never ran "canned" tunes except for when I bought the last truck which had a superchips tow tune in it. I immediately (within a few weeks) reverted back to stock, sold the programmer, and installed the Pheonix from the other truck. I wouldn't say the superchip tune was crap, but the pedal was very touchy. Felt like a sticky throttle body on a gasser. Night and day between that and my current tunes.

 

No, I am not saying that they are all the same. Heck, far from it as one can tell after a bit of seat time with each. However, I get tired of the incessant bashing that companies such as Edge, Superchips, Banks, etc. have to succumb to just because once upon a time, somebody said that the tuning they used sucked and now it's "common knowledge" by the forum communities.....but is it REALLY knowledge? My goal here is to confirm and SHOW the masses of sheeple that the tuning practices used by these so-called inferior products are undertaken in a way similar to the popular "custom" tuners of the day.

Now, preliminary reads confirm to me at this moment in time that the Predator tuning is FAR from what I expected it to be. The first bit of information (pre-test drive) is that the Predator actually changes the base PCM calibration. The box code I have in the white truck is NVK4 (VNAA8U5). The Predator actually changes it to MNM1 (VNAAAS3). Normally this wouldn't be an issue except that if I had a PMT1/2/3 PCM and it was changed to MNM1, I'd be upset. In a nutshell, after programming, one would lose the wonderful torque converter clutch apply on deceleration once the brake pedal was depressed (since the PMTx boxes leave the torque converter clutch applied even with brake application and MNM1 does not). But since I started with NVK4 in this case (that is similar to MNM1 anyway), I'd never be the wiser if I was Joe Schmoe.

I'll see what a couple other PCM codes get changed (E99 to 2002 autos AND manuals) but since it's a 99-03 only flash programmer, my poor 1995 truck doesn't get a chance to run it.

Yes, I have already "seen" what the tuning changes are for a 99-01 50-state automatic from this programmer (I didn't waste any time )but I'm not ready to divulge any comparisons to others yet.

 

I'd like to see what you come with.

The only "canned tunes" that I have run were superchips 1705 and TS performance tunes. With TS tunes the only thing that I noticed was a real touchy go pedal and high egt's. the shift points and shifts stayed the same as stock. As far as the powering couldn't really say cause 50% of the pedal was WOT

I liked the superchip 1705. Egt's were under control, power was great(for a stock truck at the time) and at about 75% pedal was WOT. The only thing I didn't like was in the high performance tune the 1-2 shift was really hard too hard.

My PHP tunes were great all around but they could never get my smoke level down.

The last year I had BTS tuned and after the 3rd burn I was very happy with it.

 

For some odd reason, I think I recall your PHP order was for 160/0% or 150/146 injectors but recently read about you having 80% nozzles......which will smoke like a mad chief with stock nozzles. If I'm off my rocker, I apologize and I'm sorry that PHP couldn't make your truck happy. If you don't object, PM me your name and I'll see what the order was for and what was actually put on the chip. I do recall that I only did one set (which means that Bill took care of any reburns that would have taken place after the fact).

But then again I do so much tuning that I don't remember for sure who gets what but I do remember the FTE forum discussion that took place after you got your calibrations......

 

That's why I asked, I was thinking that but reading something else.

 

I figure now is a good time to give a little bit more of an insight to what's actually going on and I think that I'll do these in frequent, small steps just to keep the massive novels to a minimum.

First thing this morning when I got to work, I "programmed-up" the service truck (17,500+ lb.F550) that I use on a daily basis as my rolling tool box. I loaded in the 85 HP calibration (there are reasons for that calibration instead of the "tow" calibration that I won't get into just yet) and drove the truck all morning. Sure as the wind around here, the Predator changed the base calibration (not that it matters on a manual too much) from the VOAA8Q4 (VXY4) that the PCM contains to VKAE4Q7 (BAW1). My thoughts for the reason behind Diablo doing it this way stem from ease of programming and less "intrusion" into the base calibration that the PCM already contains (as is the case with others). Instead of reading the stock program and inserting modified binary based on addressing, Diablo just replaces the whole binary with something else already written (and I haven't dinked with the "custom" settings to see if they actually change anything or not) based on the PCM family.

Initial impressions for today:

Smoke abounds and it's not due to a lack of [what's commonly referred to as] timing. I know why it's this way based on the changes in the tuning and it's also why I'm not going to even attempt to use the "tow" or 110 HP settings in this truck. The accelerator pedal feel is actually pretty nice considering the aggressiveness of the programming. It's sensitive below 1/2 APP but it's not jerky or on/off. Comparing this to Superchips' 1705 Tow Performance setting (off of an older 2-program device) yields a world of difference. The Superchips was less sensitive in regard to APP and was much more controllable in the just-off-idle pedal positions. There is a reason for this in the tuning styles. Smoke was substantially lower as well, however, even though it should be fairly close to equal in the power department as the DSP calibration I am using. Again, the reasons for this are evident in the tuning. Believe it or not, the Superchips leaves more stuff closer to stock than anything I've driven....which for me is good because I personally tend to not deviate from stock too much if I can help it in most regards. Ford did a pretty good job as it stands.

Tomorrow will be the 2002 automatic since I have to take it into town (90 mile round trip on the highway) to pick up parts.
Another story will commence tomorrow night after work. Today's mid-day report just happens to be at lunch.

 

Great info, I'm looking forward to hearing how it does in the automatic.