I have a new '05 F350. I am looking at the HP #'s of these "tuners" Pred, SCMT, and even the Banks 6 gun, and the edge. I had a 2000 with the SCMT, and I ditched it for the not allowed here until they pay back the webmaster for all the money their defective products cost him <!-- TS performance 4 pos. The TS was way better. --> I am new to the 6.0. I see the new SCMT power #'s are 85/120/150 at the rear. Will the SCMT give the biggest #'s over the Pred, and banks. I like the ones were you can switch on the fly, but I like the ability to check codes. Any pro's or con's on these from people who have used them? Thanks.

 

Is the HP numbers all you are concerned with?
If so why?

 

I agree....
Number are just numbers.
Where is the power?
How long is the power band?
What kind of power is there under load (trailer)?
How is the shifting?
How does it shift and drive and part throttle? Full throttle?
Customer service?
What is best for overall performance and drivability?

HP numbers are just numbers. Every dyno is different, there are different HP calculations on different dynos. There are loaded/unloaded runs, different trucks, different tires, different gears, different calibrations and these all affect power output.
The HP number is a very small piece of the picture.

 

I've just never quite bought into the need for switch on the fly fueling boxes.

I have the SCMT and run it in the HP tune mode around town when unloaded. It is very drivable and my EGTs are fine. I can put to the grocery store and back like a little old lady or get up and go in a hurry.

The mileage is as good or perhaps even a tad better than stock if I don't have my foot in it all the time so I don't see the need to run the tuner in a lower power setting. Thus there's no need to turn it up to 11 at a light if the guy in the lane next to me is feeling frisky - it's already there. Since it is quite drivable, there's no need to turn it down. OK, that was easy, no switchable power settings needed for unloaded operation.

How about loaded/towing? I can tow/haul up to 4000 with the HP tune installed. That's more than I'm going to be throwing in the bed or hooking to the hitch in a spur of the moment trip down to Home Depot - so I'm safe there.

I haul a 10,000 lb toy hauler out to camp and play now and again. OK for that I do have to load the Tow Safe tune. It takes less than 10 minutes to reflash the truck before I go hitch up the trailer and another 5 or 10 minutes to set it back to HP mode when I'm done. Towing that beast is never a spur of the moment thing and the hitch up and trailer loading process takes several hours. Reflashing the truck is a drop in the bucket and not a problem for me.

I keep the tuner in the truck behind the back seat so if for some reason I did have to reflash on the spot I could.

Given the issues with tranny program and the fact that a tune just works smarter than a fueling box I'm really happy with my decision to go with the SCMT.

 

You're in Colorado ?
Pretty country !
PLEASE, give me an excuse to drive over there and you can test drive mine

Be sure to compare the real world numbers against the marketing claims ....
I will try to be as politically correct as I can here....
I've heard it from a lot of sources that any increase of over 100hp from anything (tuner,fueling module/etc..) may be too much for your tranny's torque convertor to handle for very long... it's not the hp measure, but the torque...
and, after all, there is a direct relationship between hp and torque... more hp = more torque...

I have a dyno curve in my gallery from MY daily driver truck on a local speed shops dyno.... and from all indications at the diesel dyno day...
many that were more knowledgeable than me said the dyno was calibrated very well... so they felt good about their numbers...

I can tell you you will be thrilled by any of them... they makes SUCH a difference in your trucks characteristics...
so get something soon... even if it's the "wrong" one....

 

I was wondering about this myself. When switching from one tune to another, won't the transmission learning need to be performed before taking the trailer out? I don't know how many miles or what type of driving will satisfy this, or is the learned transmission info saved as part of the process, so it only has to happen once for a given tune type, and gets reloaded as part of the tune??

 

The ONLY issue you will have with your tranny is if you change tune then rag on it - asking for full throttle shifts, etc....

If you drive "normal" you will be fine, even with a trailer...

at least mine has been

 

I've never worried about the tranny relearning.

Even when running my truck at the 1/4 mile drag strip I changed from stock to HP and back and never had a problem. Reflashed the tune and let fly.

For me, the shifts seemed a tad softer when you first reflash the truck and then will firm up a little after it's had a chance to learn your driving pattern. Not all that much of a change and certainly nothing I've ever worried about.

 

Daryl, or anyone else for that matter, I have a few questions:

• Does the mileage vary much between the HP and ECON settings?
• Can you feel the difference between the two modes when empty -->is the HP much stronger and is it true that the ECON mode actually has a bit more grunt down low?
• Have you towed much in the ECON setting and how does the power/mileage/EGT's compare?

 

The cool thing about the SCMT, is that it learns very fast....in a WOT run or two (or a few minutes of driving).

 

I haven't done enough unloaded highway driving to tell any difference in mileage between stock, econo, or HP mode.

I can definitely feel a difference between the economy mode and the HP mode when dancing with stoplights - the HP mode pulls stronger and longer.

Since my trailer is 10,000 lb or so I've mostly towed in the tow safe mode. Because I do have gauges I did give the economy mode a try once just to see how it did. It was OK but I think that it towed fine in tow safe mode and with less hiss when I'd get out of the throttle compared to the economy mode. I didn't have a problem with EGTs on economy mode even though I was pulling up some 8%+ grades.

I hadn't pull that same route before with the stock tune so I can't comment on any mileage improvement for the economy tune over stock but the tow safe definitely did better for me than stock.

Daryl

 

Does the SCMT upload the transmission settings to the TCM? The TCM is what does the learning. Unless you drive around with the SCMT connected it isn't going to learn squat. Or are you spreading a little marketing bovine excretement?

 

I can't speak to the SCMT's response, but in general...

I'll try to give u my impressions in MY situation...
MPG DOES vary - in my case
about 2 mpg or more...
the higher hp tune dumps a LOT of fuel at full throttle to ensure the FUEL supply is not the limiting factor - so it does smoke if you don't have enough air, etc... to burn it... and smoke is unburnt fuel so obviously the mpg goes down

because of that I run around in the econ mode 99% of the time... it not only gets better mpg than the HP tune, but better than stock... and the response in that mode is suffecient for MOST stop light encounters

Towing for me is always in the econ range... because I never tow over 8K lbs...

good luck... and get ONE of them - you'll have a ball !

 

I do pull a 6000lb camper trailer with 2 quads in bed of truck for another 900lbs. We here in colorado springs are sitting at 6000ft-67000 elevation and have 7% hills at a dead stop to 40mph. My 2000 7.3 with the scmt on the lowest setting would smoke a house down right before it downshifted, then I am going too fast (for insurance $) and it shifted back in and start smoking. The new trans in this truck shouldn't do that. I am not looking solely at #. I just thought the advertisers were tricking the consumer. I had both (old and new) SCMT's for the 7.3 and was NOT impressed. Another chips performance impressed me. I had the 4 way stock/75/100/140. I drove around town on the 75H and on the 100H on the highway. I am looking for the good programs or chips for altitude/ firm shifts (saves tranny)/ mpg/ and I don't want to black out intersection when I hit the GO pedal. I do not want to waste my money on a product just to have to sell it for a different brand. Read sig on the 2000. I did it all

 

No, the SCMT really doesn't require a learn time. It does NOT act like the Predator needing cold starts, after going down the road 5-10 miles the learning is complete to the point where there aren't any "feelable" changes from there on.