I took my truck in today for the latest reflash to date, & the truck sure seems to be running fine( I had the DAXO- DPO-232A). I just finished placing an order on the MotorHaven web site through the link above for a 1704. I expect I will have about another 1,000 miles on this new flash prior to my new Superchip arrives, and I "hope" I can get a run on the Dyno in stock form prior to the install to get a baseline figure. I will then attempt to do another set of pulls to get a reading for what the Superchip will do to a bone stock truck.
All I have to do is talk my friends at Keith Craft out of their Dyno, and then just hope they are not so booked I have to wait which would be an extreme patience tester.
Vic, I do appreciate all your forthright information you take time to post here, and your readiness to address any malfunction immediately and tailor the chip to the vehicle. That is what made the decision easy for me!
John Russell

 

Boy,
What a difference 2 days make! My plans that I outlined above on Tuesday changed completely this afternoon, when my Superchip that I ordered Tuesday from MotorHaven arrived today. Now, I am sure all of you would have done just what I outlined above that I had planned to do....NOT!!
My son (15) & I read the directions, went out to my truck, and within 10 minutes we were good to go with the High performance program. I told my wife I was going to take him to the High School for tonight's Speed Camp (athlete training) and she decided to come with us. As we turned in the opposite direction heading for the access road for Central Expressway she asked where we were going & what exactly had I bought for the truck. When I turned right onto a 3 lane open and clear access road heading North we all found out!
The turbo spooled up quickly & the tires started spinning up to the shift and broke loose again while I looked back at a mixture of white tire smoke and black exhaust smoke! OH BOY, WAS THAT FUN!
I will be taking it for a 650-750 mile trip to Louisiana, leaving tomorrow ans returning Saturday night.
I will post mileage then to see what a change it makes, if any. My truck is bone stock other than the Superchip.....for now!
Thanks Vick for all the work, and with the new flash I got on Tuesday it installed without a hitch.
John Russell
ps, I did not exceed 55, because Mary was telling me to stop!

 

ROFL!


great story john. cannot wait till i can post my own.... wife does not want 37's, nor does she want a 1704


she has no heart!

 

Hey John Russell.......when you come to La., watch out for a '03 tan/black FX4 with a gold buck in the back window.He drives like Clark Kent,just don't try to pass!!

 

Double-stacking them will get you alot of extra fuel, and alot of low-end response, however your EGT's will go through the roof. To really utilize the extra fuel, you will need alot of extra air, via either twin turbo (extra boost) or nitrous oxide. Most of the guys running nitrous use a tuner for main power and a flip chip to turn on when they hit the nitrous. You will REALLY want o-rings on the heads before you try that one.

I stuck my SCMT on a bud's truck with a Bullydog Adjustable Power Hound module. Seemed to buy it maybe an extra 30 or so horsepower, and AWESOME low end, however it did next to nothing in the higher rpm ranges and it blew smoke like I have never seen in my life.

 

We got home last night, and here's the results. The trip was 595 miles total, with 492 on the highway, 4 people & luggage. I drove between 78 & 85 most of the way, dependent on traffic flow and the Valentine Radar Detector. I used 33.171 gallons of fuel, which works out to 17.937 mpg. I was not just running on cruise, and the passing on the highway is awesome!! This about 1.3 mpg better than I got on this same trip on July 3 without the tuner.
I would imagine if I set it on cruise at 70 with the economy tune in it would be better, but this was hardly the case, and it is tough not to play with the new toy all the time.
Now, with a gauge set and exhaust to come in the near future, I figure I will be pretty well set.........at least for a while.
Vic F., you can certainly count me in the "happy camper" category.
Jon Russell

 

Each engine file has it's own transmission file. It feels REALLY weird to have a hard shift while pulling a trailer. If you notice, its still a "quick" shift....just not as firm as ECON or PERF. The power band is also different with each engine file, so we have three trans files to match the 3 engine files.

 

Thanks Vic,

I just got back last night from towing the trailer up to Big Bear using the Tow Safe mode and it worked great.

The mileage up there was 7.77 MPG hand calculated. This was mostly up hill from 450 ft AMSL in Carlsbad to 8000 ft AMSL into Big Bear with a lot of turns on the way where you can't carry any speed and have to build it all over again up each hill. Also, I sat for over an hour in LA traffic on the way to BB. The stop and go and idling didn't do the mileage any good, that's for sure.

Haven't filled up the tank yet and will report back with the mileage for the return trip. But the over head Lie-o-meter is reporting 11.3 MPG. There are some pretty good pulls up and out of Big Bear before you head back down into the valley. Temps were 106 deg F as I was pulling through the valley.

One one steep grade the highest pyro temp I saw on the way up was 1171 deg F. On the return trip the max I saw was 1233 deg F when pulling back out from a turnout to let traffic by and then mashing the throttle to the floor to get back up to speed. I backed out of the throttle a bit and it dropped right back down. Once I was in third gear I was able to mash it to the floor and the temp held just under 1150 deg F.

Most of the time the pyro temps were maxing in the 1050 deg F range.

The tranny and boost maxes were 204 deg F and 30.7 lbs respectively. The worst case tranny temp was in the slow stop and go traffic, not pulling up the grades.

Daryl

 

I've filled up now after the return trip from Big Bear and found that my return fuel mileage was 11.448. The fuel mileage up was 7.772 so the total for the trip up and back was 9.597 MPG.

This is better than the 8.692 MPG that I had for an earlier trip towing the trailer with a stock tune (no SCMT) from CA to NE and back. During that trip I had a high MPG of 12.960 and a min MPG of 6.147.

But it's only a sample size of one versus the 4100 miles and 25 fill-ups for that earlier trip. If the mileage on the Tow Safe tune holds up as an average, that's a 10% improvement.

Daryl

 

I assume you have a fairly heavy trailer.

WIth lighter loads and the ECON program, the mileage gains are often better than that.

10% is already big!
The fleet guys love this thing because it can them big on annual fuel costs.

 

****All 6.0L owners residing in Florida read this****

If anyone in Florida (and only Florida, preferably somewhere within easy travel of the Orlando area) has these vehicles in particular, please let me know (in PM message only):

Please read closely because the criteria is specific:

Early production (for this purpose today) is considered before 9-29-03
Late production is preferably after November 03.
If you are in between these production dates, I will have to determine what strategy your truck is by plugging in.

Here is the list:

-Early production Excursion 6.0L (2003 model, like Tim Lamkins truck)
-Early production 2003 6.0L F250/350 MANUAL trans
-Late production 2004 6.0L F250/350 MANUAL trans
-2003-2004 6.0L F450-550 (any trans)
-2003-2004 6.0L powerstroke Vans (Econoline)

Thanks again Ken, for creating this thread!

 

The trailer spec is 6400 lbs dry but loaded it is typically in the 10000 lbs range. Combined truck and trailer weight the one time I weighed it was 18000 lbs.

 

I have the OCT flash, nothing else. Will I be able to use the SC 1704 Tuner
with just this flash?

 

Vic, will I need a Pyro and new air filter with this tuner?
I haul a dump trailer (5K empty) with fire wood and the Kubota once and a while. Not to mountainous in WI.

04 350 6.0 auto, truck was built in 05-04

 

This question has been answered in this thread.

You do not need a pyro, but I personally think no diesel truck (stock or modified) should be without a pyro gauge. Ford should use their brain and start equipping stock trucks with pyro gauges.

Air filter and exhaust are not required, but will help you make even more power.

You can tow as much as you want with the tow file, 8,000 LBS with the econ file and 6,000 LBS with the Performance file.