So xmas is coming up and im thinkin about tryin to squeeze a tuner out of my parents. i have a 97 f150 ex cab 4x4 off road with the 4.6 and a 355 ls rear end. before i bought the truck the computer was reflashed with the program they use on police interceptors.

ok. now for the questions.

are tuners worth it? i know some are supposed to have an economy tune and a power tune. also i have heard they are supposed to be able to change the shift points. do these actually work?

if you use a tuner can you go back to the stock setting? i dont want to lose my current tune all together.

should i look for a tuner based on the police interceptor since that is the tune on the truck, or does that even matter?

and finally, if i get a tuner, is it possible to program a tune on one truck, and then unplug it, tune another truck, and they both be tuned? or does the tuner have to stay pluged in to use a tune? (there are three 4.6s in my family soon to be four)

thank you for the help. i apriciate any and all input. i just dont want to end up wasting 400 or so bucks getting the wrong thing or something that is useless.

 

A tuner for a 4.6? Lots of opinions on that. For $400 IMHO I'd say it's not worth it but others can chime in. Yes, they do change the shift points.


Your tune is VIN locked. If you remove the tune from the truck it will go back to it's orginal setting.


You drive a truck, not a PI. To get the most of it I would stay with one for your truck.

As stated above, the tune is VIN locked so it can't be flashed from one truck to another. Besides, the computers may be different anyway.

 

thanks for the reply. i get what your sayin. i occasonally pull heavy loads with my truck so would being able to chang my shift points be benificial for this aplication? and when you say the tune is vin locked and it will go back to stock, does that mean stock as in what it is right at this moment (pi) or stock as in when it came from the factory?

so basically it sounds like with the engine running the police interceptor program, i have as much power as i can really expect from this engine. well, that is without major modification.

 

It depends on what kind of a flash they did to your computer. I assume it as a factory flash of the PI program. If it is, then that is most likely the current stock program. A PI program is designed for full throttle applications, not pulling. The motor is making the power but the tranny is being told to do something else then what you need it for.

 

when you install atuner on your truck it will swap the stock program to the tuner program and its only good for one truck unless you change that truck back to stock. depends on what type of programer you get depends on what kinda performance you get. yes you can change shift points and other stuff- rev limiter, govener cutout and other stuff including the type of fuel you are gona use. they are really worth it also, got one for my 03 dodge 1500 with a hemi and shaved a full second off my quarter mile time, but its track truck running a 110 octane also.

 

well there is a sticker on the under side of my hood that has the code the computer was reflashed with and i think the dealer number. when pulling it does seem to be better suited than the other 4.6s that we have, but still it is not on par with the 5.4. but if the engine has the power, should i get the tuner even if its just for the tranny? would that help optimize the power that the engine has now?

 

The 4.6 is not going to be on par with a 5.4 unless you do some serious mods to it ($$$). If the truck is handling your loads and seems to be shifting ok I wouldn't drop the $$ for the programmer. The 4.6 is a great motor and does what it does very well but it will come down to you and what you want. I would drive the 97 as it is and go about your business. IMHO

 

thats honestly what i was planning on doing anyway, but i had heard some promising things about the tuners and thought what the hey.lol. but i dont think ill be getting one. thanks for the imput