Just wondering if anyone is running their trucks on the highest settings of their tuner/chip all the time including long trips?

I've been pretty leary of running my '00 7.3L on the 100 hp Predator setting for any thing other than just tooling around town. Typically I run the truck on the 60hp tune for anything outside of the city limits.

Anyone know of what the long term effects could be for running on the highest setting for long trips?

Are gauges really enough to know what's going on under the hood when running the high Hp settings on our 7.3L's? Personally I'm not so sure that they are, I'm just looking for some feed back on this.

Anyone getting any better mpgs on the high settings vs the ones that are supposed to be for mpg?

I realize that there's no such thing as a free lunch, but is there really any reason to even worry about it?

 

My Father runs his 99 F-350 on the 1705 Superchip's max setting unless he is towing, then he goes to tow safe. 90K miles doing it like this. Basicly he runs tow safe in the summer while he tows alot, and extreme the rest of the year. BTW we just made a run from Pittsburgh PA to Owensboro KY last weekend in his truck with the Extreme profile loaded of coarse and averaged 18.3 MPG using 65 MPH with the cruise set. We drove straight in acrossed Ohio stopped for a few hours and ran straight back.

In my Excursion I run a Banks 100hp Big-Hoss chip and a 6-Gun tuner stacked on that even while I tow. Never have an EGT issue. 32K miles so far. I just did a complete home tranny flush (5 gal of Mercon thru it) and the tranny feels much better, convertor actually feels like its locking better as well. Much less slip than with the burnt red fluid that smelled like death. I killed my fluid while being stupid and doing repeated brake standing burnouts trying destroy my stock tires before I went to get my 285's. I would brake stand it to get em smokin than let the brakes go and smoke em down the driveway thru 1st and 2nd gear.....on about the 8th consecutive pass a funny thing happened....when it hit 2nd gear the tires stopped spinning but the RPM's stayed high....O.O As for the tuner in the high setting, no issues, as for being stupid...it hurts a bit :]

 

I never run in my extreme setting on the street, 2 reasons 1. waaaay to smokey 2. throttle is soo touchy that you end up sounding and looking like a moron bc the engine rpm is never constant and well it smokes more .

And no, guages wont tell you if you have good programming or not (high cylinder pressures). Some of the "off the shelf" extremes have been proven to produce very high cyl pressure which can rapidly shorten the life of your engine. With banks and superchips you will be ok they are pretty safe extremes. Extreme programs that use alot of timing advance are dangerous. I know alot of the 6.0 guys will not run the "Predator programmer" bc of its extreme timing(they keep popping head gaskets). I dont know if the predator has extreme timing in the 7.3 application as well. So yes i would be leary of running it on the max setting.


luke

 

I've never actually heard of anyone having problems with a Predator and a 7.3L or any cookie cutter tuner for that matter. I have heard and seen problems with custom burned programs.

I'd make the suggestion that higher cylinder pressures and higher EGTs would be directly correlated in that higher pressure + more fuel and air= higher EGTs.

With that said, I've never, ever had problems with high egt's on my Predator regardless of the load or what tune its on.

 

I have the SCMT with the 70,90,100hp programs. Ran my first motor on the 90hp program for 66,000 miles, and then a Rod let go out the side of the block, and i never work my truck hard at all. I have the PM Rods which have been known to let go on a rare occasion. After talking to LOTS of people everyone seems to agree that extreme timing advance is really hard on those PMR's. I have no clue as I am no expert, but a PMR breaking is the only reason we can come up with for my rod thru the block, not sure if the SCMT caused it or not but several engineers seem to think it could increase the chances for sure. The thought of a $10,000 engine assembly at my expense has kept me from any tuner or chip mods at the moment.
I have heard that IH dosent use PMR's in their remans,, Just cant find anyone to confirm this.

 

I believe that the '01 and newer trucks have the PMR's and that my '00 has the forged rods, but I simply don't know for sure. Can anyone confirm this?

If that's true, I may not have as much to worry about especially considering that my '00 has just rolled 66K mi.

 

The early production 01's had forged rods...like mine . All of the 2000's are forged.

 

I have run mine on the Predator 100hp since Mar of this year when the odometer was at 80000 mi. It was smoky at WOT. Too much fuel and not enough air. So I change to the BB turbo to get more air. No more smoke since. Now I can go to a higher hp chip, but scared since I got PMRs in my 2002. I know my limits! But again what happened to MrBass can happen if you got some weakness in those PMR. They are suppose to be strong but very brittle.
So far I have abused my engine and trans to the fullest on the 100hp setting. No problems so far. Got 95000 miles already. But I do have the Banks Transcommand which is keeping my trans alive. I've done so many WOT uphill to 95mph, and the flats to 100mph showing off my power to 6.0s, Dmax, Burbs, Tahoes whatever that wants to challange by tailgating me. So far everytime I put to pedal to the metal and they can't keep up which really frustrates them. Great testament to the Predator.

 

With the mods I have (check sig) my low setting is more than most have in the high setting. My extreme program is 140, plus injectors that are almost twice the size of stock. Without gauges it would be a bomb. I've sled pulled six times this year and still drive every day with an around town average of 15.5 mpg. Yes there are no free rides, anything can and will happen (MrBass). Once you get the power bug I don't think an exterminator can get rid of it. If you are timid it will bite. Gauges are a must. There are a lot of good people on here with a lot of good advice use it wisely.

 

there is an easy way to tel. there is a 3/8 in plug by your oil filter. you pull it out and then can look at your rods. i forget the difference but one has bolts and one has nuts for the bearing caps. i rember seeing a detailed instruction somewhere before showed the two different rods and how to identify em by looking through the hole. i believe i saw it over at tds. i am sure someone will come along who knows where to find it. maybe a search on the internet.

 

Find it here: http://dieselinnovations.com/gallery...ole/index.html
PMR= bolts
forged= nuts

 

thanks. just cant save everything i come across these days. but at least i remembered right?

 

i don't know which smokes more on the 100hp predator tune, the exhaust or the tires..! also.. i gotta agree that the pedal is sooooo touchy on that setting that it is IMPOSSIBLE to go 10 mph... just TOUCH the pedal and you are doing 30mph...!

 

I sure hope I haven't stirred up abunch of fears about tuners/chips with this thread.

I've got gauges and and other necessary mods.

I'm just trying to create a environment in which we can pool all of our knowledge and draw up some useful dos and don'ts.

I sure feel better in knowing that my '00 has the forged rods instead of the PMR's. But I still have one question, they are still both aluminum rods, regardless of PMR or forged, right?

I thought that I heard someone mention along time ago that the forged rods are iron instead of aluminum.

I think this weekend I'll load up the 85 hp program and see if there's a measurable difference between mpg's on my truck. I'll try to remember to keep track and post them.

Let's keep the feedback going!

 

No. I have a HPOP that behaves as though it were French. It just lays down when the going gets tough.