Ain't got no FICM.

 

Are you just joking or seriously unhappy with your purchase? Send it back and get a junk yard 6.7 starter if you aren’t satisfied I guess. I’m not going to be the guy you blame for your truck not starting like it should. I’m telling you mine made a significant difference in starting speed over the stock one. I don’t like throwing my hard earned money out the window either but I’ve got $15k in my truck initially and at least $18k since I bought it but all good upgrades and some necessary repairs and replacements and the $399 MG starter wasn’t an issue with me.
I’ll take a video when I get home this weekend, I’m in Florida fishing.

 

What I'm saying is that MG's advertising is misleading and so is exaggerated info coming from guys who have to justify in their own minds the money they spend on their trucks. Nothing personal, I sometimes catch myself doing it too.

I'm not trying to blame anyone. Do you think I spent $400 on the word of one guy I know nothing about and his butt dyno? This thread is about information, and the suggestion of "milliseconds" is a gross exaggeration. Not that I ever believed it but I thought I would set the record straight.

 

These was no intent with my participation for this to be confrontational. But I agree with Chris about exaggerated claims by manufacturers, which vendors just pasted on, and some enthusiasm. I always expect the enthusiasm after someone’s spends money, and defense of the purchase.

Sorry there is controversy here, and you’re in it Chris. My interest was seeing what the starter actually did. I would have been ticked opening the box up.

 

I’ll get some video of it starting this weekend. It’s much faster and stronger sounding than what came out.

 

Mine is much faster and stronger than what came out too, but that bar was set pretty low, IMO

 

Quick start video with Mean Green 6.4 starter on my 6.0 Excursion

 

I ended up returning the MG starter. I couldn't get over the misleading information from the manufacturer. After looking at the side by side pics I am convinced they are rebranding the Denso units. I could be wrong but it doesn't matter as I've lost faith in the company. Ed@Ficmrepair has agreed to credit me for the return shipping as a courtesy for posting inaccurate product information on his website, even though all other distributors I looked at have the exact same product description and pic of a totally different starter. He also made some changes to his product page including a picture of the actual starter. So kudos to Ed for that!

So I've been back to the OE Visteon starter for two days, and I can honestly say I don't miss the faster spinning 6.4. I had been randomly seeing battery voltage drops upon starting in the 9volt range as shown on my Edge Evolution. The day before I pulled the MG I saw the battery voltage drop to 8.9. This is very disconcerting as the only times I've seen battery voltage hit mid 9s, let alone high 8s, it was time for batteries. So I'm sure my FICM will be much less stressed, and so will I, especially when I have a random long crank that even the 6.4 starter didn't address very well.

 

Hey Chris, if you wouldn't mind after a while post what your voltage drop now is with the OE starter.

Glad you got taken care of.

 

So far I haven't seen anything lower than 10.5v but mostly in the 11s. Again this is on the Edge Evolution so I don't think actual voltages are dropping that low, but it is best to compare apples to apples as I'm sure you would agree.

 

As long as its the same measurement, that's perfect. You can always get whacked out and hook up your voltmeter off the battery, standing off an open hood, and get a differential to calibrate.

I know you know this .....11 to 9 volts shows the impact of the higher current draw, surge/in-rush as well as constant running.

Ford's service light warning with the newer programming kicks on at 4 seconds of 9.0 volts, but the literature seems to indicate the FICM works to 8 volts. We just don't know for how long down below 9.0.

 

Just for clarification, the MG didn't typically draw down the batteries to 9 volts, that was the exception, maybe 15 percent of the time. It was mostly in the low to mid 10s.

 

Got it. Only on extended sit time??

 

Nope. All different times of the day. No rhyme or reason. Maybe its the edge that's having trouble, I don't know, but it's obvious there is a downward trend with the faster starter.

 

Yeah, that’s weird. You could try reading volts off one of the power ports to see if the variation is also there. There was a variation between mine, so I used the one closest to the batteries.

Edit - unless you’ve got short runs without good recharge.