Good evening all,

Let me start with what I got to deal with here before I get on into the subject....forgive my wall of text.

Its been a while since I was at these forums, so be easy on me... but I figure Ill be around for a while this time lol. So I just bough a project truck, 2006 F250 Super-cab XLT/FX4. It was a farm truck, so it was not in the best of conditions externally, tailgate missing and few beats and bangs and some fender damage, but unbelievably the interior is absolutely MINT with black leather and console. Im cant believe the inside looks like it does really...

Anyway, I have a few problems, based on temps (TorquePro) the oil cooler is plugged and about to go nuclear and according to my Autel #7 injector contribution is crap and the truck feels like its missing horribly when lugging it around. When I run all the injectors tests #7 isn't there. If i get her up passed 2k the jerkiness goes away but you can hear it - truck just sounds sick.

That said I ordered about $1000 worth of parts today from Amazon. Ford oil cooler, egr delete kit, MBRP exhaust (straight pipe turbo-back), new glow plugs, new plug harnesses, sinister diesel coolant filtration kit. Now Im not big on huge tunes and mods and all that, I just want a good truck to go from 164k that's on it now to at least 350k + that looks great, sounds wicked and runs as it should.

Im trying to avoid the huge cost associated with the head-studs and heads as things seem to be holding together in that arena fine for the moment, I put a new Degas cap on it and its dry as a bone around the heads and no spewing out the degas or anything. The shop Im dealing with suggests just getting the truck in good running order and wants to examine the truck and fix the known issues and see whats going on under there while they are fixing that. Im suppose to take it there on Tuesday and drop it off for 2 days worth of surgery (shop is Mechanic Masters in Paris, KY - 2.5 hours away)

That said, the shop asked me what I was going to do about the check engine light. Said I would need a tuner to get the CEL off. So this is the point of starting this thread really. They immediately recommended SCT, but Ill be honest I had no intentions of modifying the truck in this way. I don't want to blow the heads but they suggested it should be ok with an economy tune as long as Im not a lead foot which Im not. If my truck sees 3k rpm it wouldn't know what to do lol. That said I went to order one and it was 600 bucks, bout fell outta my chair! I found some Edge programmers for like half that money that molds into my dash. Forgive my ignorance here but is the SCT the only thing that can turn an engine light off? I mean why should I pay 600 for that when I can buy an evolution with dash kit for 390? Heck id be happy with pillar gauges and no tuner at all, so do I have to have one?

Next, injectors someone just tell me what to buy please...I've read this and I've read that and I've heard I should just buy the allied injectors, then ford only but Im not made of money and I have enough problems with the truck as it is. I just wrote the body shop a $2000 check to line things out externally.

Sorry folks, I usually try to take care of things myself and dont mean to flood you with text but thats the whole story at current.

Any help is sure appreciated.
Bryan

 

I've seen the SCT for $399 in multiple places.
I don't have one, but I don't think you have to load a tune to use it - you should be able to hide the CEL without changing the tune (adding HP). You could always install a BulletProof Diesel EGR cooler and skip the SCT. I think they're similar on price.
Folks here will say only install MotorCraft injectors. No experience here either.
If you haven't planned on oil rail work (fuel rail), plan on dummy plugs, standpipes, and the STC fitting off the HPOP. Plenty of threads on them and a good shop should have it high on their recommended list.

 

Sct for $399:
SCT 1999 - 2014 GM Cars & Trucks X4 POWERFLASH
Also a great place to get a trans-only tune, so you don't have to worry about adding power. Edge lacks the ability to run tunes from different writers, and there's a lot of variability even in the transmission and tow tuning space that doesn't involve adding much/any power. I had an Edge Insight CTS, which was the original version of their current CTS2 platform, and that $400 POS crapped out after a couple years. Plus I don't leave my tuner in the truck, it's a lot of money that can walk away, plus a lot more money to solve the tuning problem that comes if you lose your stock file. I use a DashBoss (basically the Apple version of Torque that you use) daily instead of a tuner, a lot cheaper and my phone goes with me and doesn't stay in the truck. I think it's very worth it.

IMO get a Motorcraft injector, about $200 after core from multiple sources, which is similar to what I see Alliant for.

 

Thanks for the quick response fellas! Im not sure how the heck I missed that thing for 399. I guess I was looking for the LCD touch versions and had just glazed over this. I will order this one now.

Yes sir I agree. I didn't order those parts because Im told its possible those could have been upgraded already, so I thought I better let them get in there and tell me before I start wasting money. The shop said the dealership works with them in keeping plenty 6.0 parts and he can have most anything we need in 3 hours or less. He also said I could have it shipped to their shop overnight if I could get it cheaper.

Wow, fantastic...I never even considered it. I could also change rear end gears for a little more push now that you mentioned that (any advice?) That would make alot of sense for me at this point. I literally was just going to put a gauge pod in for the pure heck of it (im silly but it i think it looks pretty dang cool). I have a 7 inch tablet mounted on my dash with a GPS holder that has more gauges on the display than I care to look at. Torque Pro just allows me to create gauges at will and position them how I like. So I setup several in varying array covering every thing from EOT to HPOP and it does a good job but I have to restart the program every time i shut off the truck, so Im not sure what thats about. Honestly, Im not sure how folks get by on these trucks without a cab full of gauges, just to many pain point to have to watch.

I just found this through some other forums. Looks like its about 30 bucks higher but it comes with tunes and apparently they can create custom tunes? That legit? SCT Tunes

I appreciate it, Ill put some pics up if you would like to see how this plays out, nothings been done yet.

 

Just like many others I went with the SCT tuner with custom tunes. It's easy to use and just as easy to load with custom tunes. Like Texastech_diesel suggested, you could go with an economy tunes or trans only tunes to fit your needs & concerns. I run the economy & tow tunes most of the time from Tony Wildman at Total Diesel Performance since our 6.0L is mainly used for towing. You could also get additional custom tunes at any time down the road since they are e-mailed then uploaded to the tuner from your computer.

but before even getting to the tunes make sure you get her running 100% again and all the sensors are in good working order. Flush the heck out of the cooling system, you can find the instructions in the Tech folder. Add ELC Coolant and a coolant filter to protect that new oil cooler.

Sounds like you already might know this, but keep a close eye on the FICM voltages and vehicle voltage. A weak or going bad charging system can take the FICM out.

 

Do you mean the setting on the tuner? That won't matter, there's a sensor on the rear axle and on the output shaft of the transmission, so changing gears in the tuner is more likely to mess something up than add anything. That's if it does anything, because the PCM gets speed info from the VSS sensor in the rear diff over the CAN from the ABS module (say that 3 times fast). You'd have to physically change both gear sets in the axles to make any impact, but I wouldn't spent that much money just to go from 3.73s to 4.10s, and 4.30s would be a bit drastic on a SRW unless you've significantly increased tire size or are towing basically full time.

Don't watch them all the time, that's neurotic. I use mine about once a week, sometimes I don't even "watch" at all, I'll just boot up DashBoss when I'm getting off the highway at work and take a screenshot the data. I'm not going to watch all that crap and try to drive unless I'm trying to check a specific something.

People get so spun up trying to watch so much information, but most of the time driving many of the points are useless. What are you going to get by watching ICP, ICP_V, and IPR% moving through traffic? ECT/EOT split, FICM and alt voltage, stuff like that doesn't doesn't change significantly day over day. FSS/DC is interesting but not vital unless ECT is pegged and you're overheating. It's worse to bury your focus is a ton of specific data points than to pay attention to how the truck drives.

That's the same tuner box I linked too, Mike is just selling you three tunes for $30 apparently. You can buy that from him and get his 50Hp/65Hp tow tunes and his eco tune, then still order a trans-only from Quick Tricks, or an Unlimited Tow from Gearhead, etc etc, whatever you want to try down the road; like he said ^^^ the tune files themselves are interchangable on the SCT 7015 box, and you can buy them from multiple vendors. 5 Star is very popular with the gassers, I've never used a diesel tune from him.