I know much has been said about tuners over time. With a 04 6.0, I am obviously concerned about over doing it. My purpose is to get a little better performance passing vehicles on 2 lane roads.-not flooring after every stop sign. I don't tow anything. The engine is not bulletproofed and has 120K miles on it. Has no issues at present time. Suggestions?

 

I'm running an SCT Livewire TS+ with a GearHead SRL tune. I usually drive around like an old lady (no offense to old ladies) and run it every now and then to keep things flowing.

I'm really happy with both the SCT and the Gearhead tune. Can really feel the extra power when you want it and I haven't noticed any difference in temps with or without the tune.

My only complaint with the tune is that is comes out of overdrive too often. With a stock tune I can get it into OD at around 35mph and still give it a little to speed up without the tranny shifting. With the Gearhead tune, it won't lock in OD until about 45mph and shift at the slightest throttle movement. Is that a feature? Regardless, waaay better power delivery over stock and definitely better than SCT supplied tune

This may be personal preference, but with any tune I really wouldn't go over 5% on shift firmness. I tried 10% and it was just too jerky and erratic even after spending the time to retrain it.

Having said all that, if you run the truck like a bat out of hell every day, you'll blow it up. I'm currently looking into heads, studs, cooler and EGR delete because I just want the reliability and peace of mind - I plan on keeping the truck for many years.

 

Atlas 40 from ficmrepair.com. I have it and it gives a great little added boost with very little risk of blowing head gaskets.

 

I checked out their website. Am I correct in thinking you can only get the tune if you send in your FICM or is this something you can load yourself?

 

We can send you out a tuner to allow you to tune your own module in your driveway! For more information, see Gryphon Loaner FICM Tuner.

 

Watcher, you won't be disappointed. If you want to be conservative in your tuning and adding more power this is the way to go. The only "problem" is hp is addictive.

 

This would seem to be right down the alley of what I am looking for. I'll be moving in 1 to 2 months. When I am sure I know what my address is going to be I will pursue this. Thanks!

 

I have the iTSX by SCT and run their stock tunes. I like having one device (iPad) that can do many things. Plus visually from the outside a potential thief would think that my truck is just stock.
It can monitor various parameters and check/clear codes and tune the engine and trans.

 

Forgot to ask. I used Hypertech tunes on the two 6.8l I owned. (I know-ok but not the greatest) I was always told to unload the tune if it were going in for a diagnostic on Ford's reader as it would basically erase the tune in favor of re-establishing factory settings. With diesel tuners is it the same way?

 

Any tuner that flashes the PCM with another tune is the same way. Ford techs can really screw a vehicle owner over if the tech flashes the newest PCM calibration onto the PCM with the custom tune still on the PCM.

Some people will "lock" the connection port for the OBD II so the techs can't hook in their diagnostic scanner.

Stewart

 

The folks at Gearhead are aware that some people don't like how easily it unlocks the converter and downshifts. That's actually part of the butt kicking power and response. There is a revision of their tune you can ask for that holds the gear a little longer so it doesn't downshift easily. What you want is the NSEODDS 1 revision. If you're like me an have an Excursion VXDB1MZ, it's terribly lazy and sloppy even tuned. Have them roll you back to VXDB1M3, the shifting and power is much better.

Also don't adjust the shift pressures on the SCT if you're running Gearhead tunes. You can throw things off as they've already increased the shift pressures in the tune itself.

 

Thanks for the response - I learned this the hard way and set shift firmness back to 0% on the SCT tuner. The GH tune behaves really nice now and I think the problems I was having with early shifts was two things 1) reverting firmness to 0% and 2) not realizing that my revs/mile for tires was not set correctly for the 35's.

On the SCT, the tire revs/mile is not used to fix the speedo but it is used for correcting shift points. So I'm pretty happy with the way things re right now.