ok I gotta 96 7.3, lifted on 35s with a built auto tranny, intake, billet turbo wheel, evp deleted, down pipe to straight. And my TS chip. I live in the mountains and pull my horses with my truck and daily commute to the Ford dealership. And I was looking into this TW guy with good reviews. I’m wondering if it’s worth the money on a stock ish truck over my ts tune. I’d really like to see lower egts while pulling so I can run my truck harder pulling long hills and better shifting. Because I feel no shifting difference with ts.

 

I don't think you'll be disappointed with TW tunes. The biggest complaint that peopel make towards Tony's tunes are that they're smoky. That will be less the case with stock injectors. I have not personally run them, but I know folks who have and have been very happy with them (aside from the smoke). There are some others I would recommend as well, but TW tunes are not going to disappoint. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the difference over the canned TS tunes. I rand the TS tunes for a couple years and have recently tried a couple others and I have been greatly impressed at the difference. Here's the thread where I post some of the results I am seeing.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...ts-thread.html

 

Alrighty I’ll check that out. Even with the ts my truck is pretty smoky but I’m also burning old ATF in my tank. . Screw jerry brown and his gas tax I know I could use a intercooler but if I can get a tune that’ll offer them power or maybe more with lower egts I’ll be happy. Cus they only get too hot while pulling a long steep hill

 

Been there, done that, and had the coked up injectors to prove it. Injector nozzle coking may be part of the issue, not allowing the fuel to be properly atomized. Just my experience though, so YMMV. To each his own, but I can buy a lot of fuel for the price of a set of injectors...

 

I’m running it at 4:1 with tranny fluid that only has 30-60k miles with a cleaner and I filter the crap out of it. It actually helps my truck run better with atf. Our old diesel guru at my shop runs is richer than I do on a 6.0 with no issue for 40k miles now

 

So for me atleast it’s been working out well for me and I keep up on my fuel filters

 

I've had TW tunes for ten years. There is one positive about them, they are powerful! If I want the very fasted tune I switch to that one. The negatives are:


Impossible to get ahold of.
You get the tunes when he feels like getting them to you.
They are very, very smoky.
Very high on EGT's.
Shift points are horrible. If I wanted to shift I would get a manual trans.
There are probably a few more that I can't think of now.

 

Hmm ok Cus yeah if it’s a more smoky tune then it’s going to be on the rich side and not being burned What are some other suggestions? My coworker has the php hydra and the software but he wants $300

 

I just bought the Hydra and I'm very pleased with it. Keep in mind that the price includes their tunes as well. I have been running their tunes for a few days now and I'm very impressed at how well they can make a stock truck run.

Buy the Hydra, sell your TS chip, run the PHP tunes. I think you'll be money ahead of buying tunes for your TS chip, you'll have a newer chip platform (that you can add tunes to without sending the chip back) and a great set of tunes from PHP to run for probably $150-200. I think it's a win-win.

Then later when you decide to mod the truck with a different turbo, bigger injectors, or whatever you have the flexibility of having your tuner email you the tunes without losing a week to snail mail.

 

I have like the TS on mine - I also have to pull horse trailer and big loads of hay - but I think having a manual probably makes it work better in my application.

 

Yeah and that’s really cool. But I read a lot about there shifting being really soft. And I have a shift kit in my truck but I still could use quicker shifts. And I actually went from a manual to my automatic to make towing easier. When I take off I don’t have any torque loss and going threw the gears is a lot smoother for the horses even under hard acceleration. And I can drive a manual perfect but not as well as a computer controlled shift in a auto tranny.

 

Not a great idea...and ATF does NOTHING for any part of your fuel system except harm. Injectors for these are pretty expensive as Nate said, but do what you want to. The old wives tale that mechanics adhere to is unfounded in the 7.3...plenty of threads and info on this.

 

Let’s just stay on the subject of tunes. There’s cleaners and serton ways of filtering it that makes it work great for me and I keep it at a safe ratio and run straight diesel threw the system every 200 miles. I’m not just pouring in straight aft that’s hella old.

 

Getting back to tunes, besides the TW I have on my Hydra I have Gearhead, PHP, Powerstruck, Dyno Proven and Andrew. With all these choices I like the performance tune of Gearhead. The top part of the throttle is mild and good for city driving. When you get into it farther the shift points go up accordingly and the power comes on. Perfect for towing. Kind hearted Aaron got me the Andrew tunes and I have to be honest, I haven't given them much of a chance. Thanks Aaron! As I mentioned before when I want all out power I switch to TW. One afternoon for some reason that I still haven't figured out I lost my map control. I switched to TW and it by its self brought back a lot of power to pull my 5er to the next campsite. I messed with the map hose, shortened it up and all was good after that??? I also like the PHP 100 hp tune for a lot of power and the EGT's aren't to bad.

 

I've run the PHP 80T tune for a few days on my truck and (I doubt you'll believe me, but) I can push 25 psi out of the stock charger with a billet wheel. I never in my life thought this truck would run this good with stock injectors. I also have some tunes from Andrew (Arthur) but the tunes he made for me are for the stage 1 injectors I'm about to install so I haven't really been able to try them yet.