Until I bought my FICM from ficm.com (last week) I was not aware that the ficm was tunable. Ed @ ficm was suggesting that it be tuned with Atlas 40. One of the reasons was that the lastest oem tune that he would but on my ficm was something like 50hp detune and the atlas 40 would put me back to near where the truck originally was. I had a seat of the pants feeling that one of the earlier dealer flashes did that a good number of years ago. I went with the ford tune on my new ficm. A number of members seem to have the atlas 40 and it appears to be popular. However, my concern with it is that people have said that while towing egt can get up there and some throttle control is needed to keep that in a comfortable range. I don't have egt and would just as soon not bother with that.

All that said, I would like an overview on pcm tune vs ficm tune. Does the altas just tune the ficm? Does a ficm tune alter the injector timing, pluse width ect, I had previously assumed that it was just a dumb sort of “amplifer” that provided high voltage and all the brain work was in the pcm. How does the ficm tune work on a stock pcm, does it actuate the injector in a manner that the pcm is not expecting, like juicing up the injector more that the pcm tune is expecting, thereby tuning the truck.

 

I'm running the Atlas 40 tune and yes, it appears that EGT can get up there when towing. It is strictly a FICM tune, doesn't do anything to or with the PCM and since I don't know exactly how it works in conjunction with the PCM, I just assume it's magic. I'm sure Ed will chime in here and give us all a very good explanation on how it all works, but I will vouch for the fact that it works. My truck is as responsive as a gas engine truck on take off if I need or want it to.

On the EGT issue, it only became a problem on long drawn out hills while towing the 5er down to Florida. You've got the option of dropping down a gear to keep RPMs up or slowing down to keep the temps down. But I don't think I'd be running the tune without some way of monitoring EGT - from what I saw on one long uphill stretch south of Birmingham, it'd easy to run the temps up over 1250 and it wouldn't take long to get there.

 

My understanding is the FICM has a power board and a logic board. A FICM tune alters the pulse width and timing of the injector squirt. This is done by altering the values directly in the FICM software and affects only the injectors. A PCM tune can be done a couple different ways, but the most common is to spoof or lie about input values to cause it to react how you want it to. This spoofing can result in unintended changes to related systems the tune writer may not be monitoring or be concerned about, like the transmission. Logically, pulling harder, spraying more fuel, will make higher combustion temps (on a gasser, less fuel will increase temps) so it’s wise to monitor EGT’s if you work your truck hard no matter how it’s tuned but adding fuel does make it more possible to get too hot quicker. There is of course a lot more to it than that.

I had Ed load the Atlas40 on mine a while back and recently installed a gauge. I haven’t pulled much since the gauge install but I’m not seeing any issues with normal driving. The tune did wake the truck up some and I have been happy with it and it’s a comfort to know if things are getting too hot but I agree that if you don’t want to fool with the gauge, stock FICM tuning wold be the safest choice.

 

Why not call Ed and ask the man that knows!

 

I run Atlas 40 along with a pcm rollback to VXAM7N2 and the egt runs 8-900 loaded cruising flat ground and 1150 on steep grades.

Bill @ Power Hungry Performance wrote the ficm tune and can tell you anything you want to know about it. https://gopowerhungry.com/ He did my rollback and ficm tune years ago but now they only sell through authorized dealers.

 

how was the rollback done, plugging into the diagnostics port? I always heard the dealer flashes could not be rolled back. Is VXAM7N2 using EBP or infered? You got me interested!

 

FICM is rather dumb to be blunt - while it has a "microprocessor" and some flash memory it really just does little other than take PCM inputs and drive the injectors via four distinct outputs............those four outputs are nothing complicated if you watch on an o-scope................people muck with the FICM's flash memory where the injector control strategy resides and "tune" both the PCM and the FICM (actually via a PCM "download") but a lot of this pushes coils, drivers etc past design specs and only serves to reduce long term reliability................

The "Tune" community better enjoy the fun while it lasts --- there is a better than 95% likelihood the regulators will force Ford and other manufacturers to build their systems to prevent future "tuning".............quite a bit of this so-called "tuning" does nothing more than spew pollution into the environment................Ford, in particular, is dealing with several state and federal lawsuits in this very area............

 

Both the FICM and rollback were done with a rental gryphon programmer from KT Performance while on the phone with Bill from PHP, it took over an hour. The programmer plugs into the OBD-II port like any other tuner. The idea back then, this was 2012, they would tune the ECM without the owner having to buy a tuner. I had also heard that the early strategy made a better base for tuning. The VXAM7N2 uses the EBP sensor. I was also told that they no longer do the rollback because they can accomplish the same with a custom tune and SCT now.

 

All FICM tuning, with the exception of the Eco tune, raises exhaust gas temperatures through their operation. The rise is caused by an extension of the amount of time that the injectors letting fuel into the cylinders. No FICM tune changes things by mucking with timing, as the timing and any advances to it are controlled by the ECM. The Atlas 40 tune, for example, commonly raises temps about 200°F on hard pulls. If someone tows less than 8,000 pounds, no additional monitoring is needed. If they are pulling north of that 8,000, then either monitoring the EGT's is advised or simply choosing the Eco tune.

Anyone who wishes to try out the various FICM tunes can rent the tuner from us. Under that model, they can get it for 14 days and just keep the one that they like the best. More information on these topics can be seen at:
Gryphon Loaner FICM Tuner
FICM Tuning

Unlike the Ford dealerships, we can rollback someone's ECM for them. Note that us doing so requires us to have physical possession of the ECM.

Hope this helps! If there are more questions, please don't hesitate. We're all in this together!

 

That's good that you can do both, I can see some people wanting the split-shot timing.