I just bought a 1999 Ford F550 crewcab dually custom by Eclipse. I am looking at adding the AFE Diesel Elite Pro DRY S Momentum HD Intake System; Ford Diesel Trucks 99.5-03 V8-7.3L (td) 51-73002-E cold air kit, upgrading to a 4 inch exhaust and adding the TS PERFORMANCE SWITCHABLE 6 POSITION CHIP. This chip has high idle, 50hp, 75hp, 100hp, 140hp and valet poistions. I am also adding a EGT gauge, transmission temp gauge and a boost gauge.

What do you folks this of these add-ons? I will not be using the 140hp position or most likely not even the 100hp position. 75hp is the one I will most likely run it on most of the time as I am towing a 18,000 + trailer. The engine is in awesome shape. Serviced meticulously by the previous owner who passed away. Anyway. Kick me back opinions good or bad if you have tried any or all of these items.

 

Forget the TS chip... Talk to Jody at DP Tuner. I have his F5 16 Position chip with an Inifity DX and I couldn't be happier. He works with you on your tunes if needed and will tailor them to your needs! The TS tunes are canned and aren't always the best... Or at least that's what's I've been told.

He just reflagged my chip from split shots to single shots for free!

I have an MPRB 4" turbo back exhaust which I also bought from Jody.I love it and seems to help with EGT's. Didn't have the pyrometers before I installed it.

I can't say much for the intake. Still running the stock one for myself!

 

Thanks I will call him tomorrow.

 

1. Intake: The AFE is a breathing intake to be sure, but it's a bit of overkill if you don't go for big fueling mods (injectors). With stock injectors, I recommend the Motorcraft AIS. It's a Ford part, so it looks proper in there - and it uses the same filter media as every Powerstroke from the first 6.0 to the newest 6.7L . It also happens to be the quietest intake (noises under the hood) out of all of them available. Whatever you decide, make sure the decision is to NOT keep the stock airbox - it's a train wreck.
2. Gauges: EGT is great (I have 2, one for each manifold), but I have an OBDII adapter and a tablet for all the other sensors built into the truck - like boost and transmission temperature. The one important sensor not installed in the truck is the fuel pressure gauge, so I have one of those to keep the EGT gauges from getting lonely.
3. Tunes: 65 HP is about max avaialble fueling in reserve in our HEUI injectors. Anything above that takes more injector than what we have - so all those big HP numbers for chips are hype. When towing, you don't want to add 65 hp on a split-shot HEUI injector - the truck will burn up if you try to use 100% of that injector on a big grade. If you doubt the accuracy of my numbers - think of it this way: Do you really believe the engineers would spec out such a huge injector that it would push 230-250 HP in stock form and leave 140 HP on the table?
4. The chip question is a land mine - people get very... shall we sat... emotional about them. The available chips took a huge leap about two years ago with the introduction of Hydra and Infinity, to join the DP F6 ranks. I would not even consider going less than a Hydra or an F6, because tunes can be emailed. I've actually had both platforms in "Stinky", and I stuck with the Hydra for one reason: I have options as to who tunes it. Think Apple with it's proprietary system, that's what DP had when I owned one. I hear they are more open now, but I haven't seen a host of tuners running to that platform. Hydra was open (like Android) from day one, and plenty of tuners have chosen to support this platform.
5. I mention this last, only because it wasn't asked - but it really is the very first suggestion: Make absolutely certain the truck is 100% before you chip. The gauges go a very long way to making sure you're 100% - particularly the OBDII gauges. For more on this, click the custom tunes link in my signature.
6. Whatever you do, don't snap into action on any one feedback on this forum. There is such a wealth of knowledge and experience here - but everybody needs the opportunity to get home from work, wake up, finish their coffee, get off the toilet, or what have you. Watch for a consensus or a chorus, then do some homework before grabbing for the Buck$Zooka.

 

Can you go into a little more detail on this please? I keep seeing this term "canned" kicked around and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it and why it's used in conjunction with some tuning but isn't said of some others out there.

 

Not all trucks run the same. Some trucks need custom tuning even on a stock setup. Whether it's something for the transmission or other. In essence it's a "one size fits all" type of thing. I'm still fairly new around here but that's what I've picked up myself. Jody sends you a custom tune that he has made and if it needs to be changed no problem. With a TS chip not so much.

 

What Otto mentions is right, the "canned" tunes are a generic tune that is written to cover every 7.3 out there to a certain level. The thing you will learn with these trucks is that they all have their own personalities or quirks. This becomes even more evident when you start adding mods.

Custom tunes can be tailored to your individual truck and its own set of quirks, they can also be adjusted as you alter or mod the truck along the way.

This is where DP and the Hydra come into their own. You change something on the truck, you get hold of your preferred programmer and let them know what you have changed, if a new tune or set of tunes is needed they can just email them to you, you upload to the chip and away you go. With the other platforms you have to remove the chip from the truck, mail it off, the programmer reflashes the chip and mails it back, then you have to reinstall.

This can cause its own set of problems. For example, one brother has just recently installed single shot injectors (as opposed to the split shots these trucks run stock) and is in the process of waiting for his chip to come back in the mail. It looks like his truck is his daily driver and so he has been having to run his truck without the correct tuning until his chip arrives back, and has in turn started him asking questions as to whether he has other issues with his install it truck.

I have been researching different chips here of late and have decided the Hydra platform suits me the best, and from my research I will be getting custom tunes from gear head / Matt; who, incidentally, offers free updates as you change your truck. Believe me this is a plus, as if you're like most, you WILL be modding your truck to some degree at least.

 

Boy oh boy - you guys walked right into that one. Anytime cleatus12r (Cody) asks that question, he's gearing up to dispel misconceptions.

Tunes from manufacturer A frequently use the exact same procedure as from a "custom" tuner. The tunes are all "canned", no matter who you get them from. The only time they are not canned is when you call to have a a tweak done to compensate for some nuance in the tune that you don't like. Then... it's a "tweaked canned".

I have "custom tuning", and it is not the same as ordering it on-line.

 

I wasn't quite awake when I replied to this and now I realize what Tugly said Maybe I've been thinking about this all wrong?
From what Tugly said I myself use a canned tune from Jody.

I retract my previous statement

 

You have and Cody will be along shortly to educate you. Don't worry, he does it to everyone he see's make those type of comments. You are only eager to help and when you think you know something, you want to share it. The issue is, you may THINK you know something, but in actuality, you only know what someone else has said. That is how misconceptions, misinformation, and falsehoods are perpetuated across the internet.

 

Do some more research on the tuning/chip. If you get the hydra you can get tunes from just about any vendor except DP. Plus you'll have access to PHP's tune library. That way you can run/test a whole bunch of tunes and then decide which ones You like the best.

 

Yep, I realized who asked the initial question AFTER I answered, face palm moment!

To clarify, and in addition to my previous answer, a true custom tune is when you have someone live tune your personal truck (ie: they sit in there and hook up their laptop and modify the tune on the fly, in real time, in response to what information the truck is telling them.

The others are all canned tunes with each programmers personal tweaks and settings in relation to whatever mods or alterations have been done to the truck. If you have issues with the individual programmers canned tunes (trans shifts too hard for example) they can then tweak this tune in order to make the truck behave a little better. Some canned tunes seem to be better than others just as some seem to be more detailed / specific than others.

Does that sound better?

 

Congrats on your new truck. Looks like you already have a great set up. Here's a little more background about chips.

There are new chips out that can suit anyone's needs to get their truck set up with whoever you choose as a tuner, ours included. When the need to redesign the F6 came up due to out stock parts we decided to make the new F6 v2 open source. Only issue some run into is they need to have the right format and the unique serial number of the F6 chip and then use that to compile the tunes they have before putting other tunes on the F6. This may be why its easier to just say our chips are proprietary.

Why we have a different chip file format-

Our manufacture for the F5 and F6, Moatesware, has used the same file format they use for their other chips since they started manufacturing chips in 1999. It's what they gave us, too. Moatesware is a hardware developer for us and many other tuning companies in other tuning markets. They have also manufactured other products for us to sell other than chips. We've use them for 10 years to make chips for us to use.

To anyone wanting to know how to use other tuners tunes on the F6, this is how:

You will need to know how to change the file size of your tunes. Any software/firmware writer can write file formats for aftermarket j3 chips and another person change them to their hearts content. As long as, the firmware of the chip allows for open source tuning and you have the right tools to do it. TS, Hydra, F6 v2 are all open source. Some tuners should already know how to convert file formats if they have the software or knowledge how to do it manually. The firmware on the chip needs to be set up to be open source to be able to complete this process. That's all. Converting manually is time consuming and may be why it is just easier to say our chips aren't open source.

Just FYI- No file format is proprietary except Ford's. The software to use for the burning process may be to the person who designed it, but we're talking different parts of the burning process. The F6 device utility to be able to load tunes on it is not proprietary to us. It's written for us to use with the F6, but doesn't make the chip proprietary to us.

The TS chip you have is already open source. It has it own chip flashing software, just like the F6, Hydra, Sniper, Old SCT chips. You would just need to buy a TS burner and the Flash and Burn software from someone who sells it.You really don't need new hardware unless you just want something new. Give us a call if you want newer tunes for your TS chip or just want a new style chip with more features. We'll be glad to help you.

 

That will help the OP to sort it all out - this stuff matters to those gearing up to plunk down. After all - that's the goal of you contributions.

 

You could also consider keeping the TS chip and have it reburned with different tunes if you don't mind mailing it back and forth. I still have the TS style chip in my F-250. If you tow often there are some different options for tow tunes out there.