Last night I filled up with 87, and I had been running 87 with level two. Somebody posted that you were cool on level three with 87 as long as you set it to 89 or below. So that's what I did before going on my day off errands today. After I ran my errands including several stops and about 40 miles of mixed city/highway driving I was pulling up to the 4-way stop on my island called "The Center". It's Yankee season, so, of course, it was backed up 10-15 cars. When I stopped there was this terrible vibration. The engine was missing or something. I knew I had to kill the motor, change the tune, and quick, but I couldn't get off the road, so I tried to keep the revs up which reduced the vibration. I finally got through the stop sign, and immediately pulled into the little league ballfield lot, and set level 2 on 87. The vibration is gone.

Did I permanently damage my motor with only 2000 miles on the clock?

 

I don't think you hurt anything, I would'nt run level 3 below 91 fuel, but thats me... I know others have done it...

 

If the truck is running normal now, I would have to say no..
I'm getting my Edge soon and I would not even think of running level 3 without super unleaded.

 

Did it say "Engine Fail Safe Mode" on your info center screen? Mine has done the exact same thing each time I have reloaded my Level 3 program. All I did was shut the truck off and crank it back up and its been fine. In the codes it says something about limiting torque (or power) via the eletronic throttle control. I think in fail safe mode the computer kills spark to several of the cylinders and basicaly goes into limp home mode. As to what caused this...I have no idea, but its only done it the first time I drove it after a reload (custom tuning) and its done it both times after I have reloaded. I dont think its anything to worry about and I seriously doubt your engine is damaged.

 

I don't think you hurt the motor. I don't understand what caused the problem. It should have done that as soon as you put in the tune. Not later on unless it had to warm up first and get out of open loop. I have seen alot of damage done over the years because of too much timing. I really don't agree with level 3 on 87 octane. I think your pushing your luck. I won't do it. And of course it may not have been the calibration at all. You may have something else going bad. Fuel injector, coil, plug, etc.....

Did you do a scan for codes?

 

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That's a good piece of information for EDGE. Nice to know that it fixes itself, but shouldn't happen in the first place.

 

I've seen the engine failsafe mode before, but not this time. I saw the engine failsafe when I read here that you could switch tunes on the fly (WRONG). After I let it load the program I had initiated on the road it gave me that code. I set it to stock immediately (before cranking). Then I drove to the gas station, filled with 93, and set level 3 no problem.

Anyhow, thanks for the reassurance.

I'm thinking last night's 87 fillup was crappy gas. My indicated average mileage was down to 15.8 for the trip. I was up to 16.8 when I filled up and then reset the mileage.

 

Its done it both times as soon as I have pulled out of the drive way, but then again I got on it hard both times too. I read some where else that somebody else's did the same thing (with the same cure...switch it off and crank it back up) so I thought it wasn't a big deal.

 

DO NOT RUN LEVEL 3 ON 87!!!!! YOU GUYS ARE RETARDED FOR SATING ***** LIKE THAT. there is a reason they say it needs to be 91 or higher. they arnt stupid.

 

I agree, actually a couple weeks ago I sent Edge an email suggesting the octane setting be changed to a timing setting for this very reason. This is (from Edge) probably the only real setting that can get you in trouble.

With that said, I wonder about the knock sensors. I wonder if something (with alarm) on the Edge could be programmed to warn you when the timing is being adjusted do to detonation. I think this would be a great request for the Edge engineers.

 

This might sound funny, but did it sound like it was "farting"?

If so that was torque managment kicking in.

 

Ok, lets just say there are alot of components on how the management of the accel. pedal. What has more than likely happened is edge has gone overboard on the settings as it really cant be turned "off". There is an e-quizzer that monitors the pedal and torque applied. If the computer has changed the output values as it goes past the e-quizzer and fails... viola a problem.

 

The noise you heard was detonation, or pre-ignition as some call it. It will destroy your motor very quickly, shatter your pistions etc etc. not pretty stuff. They say 89+, 93+ for a reason. Just b/c one guy says he rean a level 3 on 87 doesnt mean it will work everytime or in a different truck. There are lot of varialbe that contribute to detonation, mainly heat, engin under load, weather conditons etc. If you hear it again shut down asap and dont rev the motor, it will not help anything

 

I have never heard of a engine detonating at idle. He didn't say he heard anything...he said he felt a vibration like the engine was about to cut off. If it was detonating that bad you would think it would have instantly cracked the pistons under a load. Seems to me like he had a computer problem that was causing the engine to miss fire.

 

Could be, hard to tell. A motor can detonate at any RPM range. The old school trick to set your timing was while the car idling, advance your distributor untill year hear it knocking, then back it off a few degress. The only thing that is certain about the whole thing is that running at level 3 91+ octane tune on 87 gas is just waiting for problems.