Yoda? Solomon?
ROFL...

I don't much believe its anywhere near that extent....

dmg, you are not an idiot, and I am most certainly not YODA

I simply hope that my post will dispel some myths, and reinforce some facts in this thread...

 

PSD you did a good job. The problem is too many people worry about things. If you're going to play be prepared to pay. If your truck receives damage because of something you personally have done and Ford denies the claim, Get your wallet out.

 

So anyone who has not followed these procedures since the time they first programmed is pretty much hung out to dry. If it is true new users may be OK, but I doubt it.

As an engineer for Caterpillar Earthmovers we build and incorporate diesels on our equipment with monitoring devices even in the small motors (just like International). This is done because the software has already been developed and is inplace because it is an inexpensive form of insurance. When there is an engine failure we pull the history to see what exactly went wrong. In our case this is usually done for product research, development and improvement.

We all know now that in International/Ford's case they have had to enable their software to detect other things going on with their motors.
Just because the OBDII has been cleared or is reading blank, there are dozens of other systems that can be monitored to tell if a system has been altered, i.e; performing outside of the ranges programmed by the designing engineers.

For instance, we can tell the second coolant, oil levels or tranny fluid drop below the designed operating level. When I say second I mean month, day, hour, minute, second. It records it all. We can monitor if aftermarket air filters are being used by simply monitoring air intake volume and velocity. We can tell if a motor has been operating with decreased back pressure, i.e; muffler, cat swap/removal.

Ford and International have engineer's monitoring the same things for them. Specifically, advanced timing curves, increased fuel pump output, increased boost, EGT, engine temp, etc. All of these leave their own unique marks on a motor, as well as the system computers. Fuel pumps for example will use more amps and as a result run much hotter when they are pumping volumes more than they are designed to do. So there ARE secondary systems Ford can look at if they were so inclined.

As a result a modified motor will not perform as reliably as a stock one, this is exactly what makes techs and service writers suspicious. Air intakes, gauges, and exhaust systems stick out like a sore thumb people. It is frustrating as an engineer to design something to perform for hundreds of thousands of miles and thousands of hours just to have people manipulate the product, screw it up, and then bitch about the service and their warranty!

This being said in 6 years or 97,546 miles I will lift my superduty to the sky and reprogram the computer.

 

PSD,
Thanks for all the great info. It's info like this that keeps me coming back to this fantastic sight.All that being said, I think I'll stay on the safe side for a while (6 yrs./75000 mi.).

May the Fordce stay with us , Adrian.

 

Couldn't have said it any better!

 

No, this does not mean you are screwed...it simply means the truck needs to be reprogrammed twice consequtively without a restart to *delete* Ford's attempt at retaining information.

 

Okay,thanks for the info.
I have been thinking about a tuner for some time now.
If i decide to go with lets say the Banks 6gun for example and i wish to put it back to stock for a dealer visit, how do i make it stock again computerwise besides just removing the unit.
IE, is the method you describe only good for tuners that reinstall a "pretuned" program?
I don't think the banks does that but i could be wrong.
From what i have read it seems like the Diablo Predator and Suprchips are the only ones that do that.(reinstall a stock program)

Arghhhh,i'm confusing myself!

Are certain tuners more desirable with regards to FULLY erasing the tuning activity?

 

The newer boxes leave no trace at all...especially the Banks unit.

 

Wait.
Are you saying that this whole thread is only about tracing older tuners.
Like the 1st generation-1st year 6.0 tuners?

What have i been waiting for then?

 

This thread was about tuners in general...

The Banks Six-Gun, despite its name, is a fuel box, not a full blown tuner unit. Any signal-intercept box, such as the Six Gun, Edge Juice, TS Instigator, or BullyDog Powerhound is hidden from the computer by being "downstream" of the memory.

 

b/c i'm an idiot, let me get this straight...

i load the predator tuner.....drive, all good. time to go back to stock..

i load back stock, then once it has loaded, load it AGAIN right away (without ever starting the truck).

this wil cause any memory of a tuner be deleted?

 

Me too MD....
that's the final - final word I got out of it...

course, I may be wrong too

 

Return to stock, reload it, return to stock the second time. All w/o restarting the truck.

 

Not to be facetious, but I am wondering exactly how you found this out and know it to be true? I am new to this board and I am wondering if you are a Field Rep or an Engineer at FMC. From what I understand there is an area of the memory that no dealer can access only Ford can so I was wondering how you accessed it to see that it had been cleared or is this just theory? Before I get any flames, I do not mean any disrespect or to cast doubt on anyones verasity I just wonder where the info I rely on comes from, or if it just conjecture.

 

I don't know if an honest answer to that is a risk to be posted here on the forum, so I'm gonna be a little stringent here on details...

But I will say this- When I toasted my first engine (see gallery) LOTS of Field engineers just *happened* to appear, 4 to be exact....1 of them we knew personally, and I recieved that information from him. I will say no more, as it Ford's presence here is well known.

I was also told that Ford's private code in the computer stores *other* miscellaneous information; however my source would say nothing else about it....(I'm not sure I would really want to know).

To summarize- Yes, that information came from a Field engineer, but not me I'm still in high school

Let us all hope they do not develop a memory system in the near future that will be more difficult to erase.....

But, no matter what, we always have the ol' 120 volt trick I bet they won't be shielded from that for a while.

kw has you covered on the steps