How accurate can this programming be accomplished through the mail? Meaning, if I added a Supercharger like a Magnacharger and I need custom tuning, is this something I will need to keep sending back a few times to get it perfect?


Does anyone have experience with this?

 

Hi, KeithG. I am in a similar situation. I am putting a magna charger on a 97 5.4l. I have researched the forums and talked to superchips. They will require a dyno run with Air Fuel ratios and a list of mods. From what I have read, they can get things dailed in pretty much on the first go around. I thnk they offer on free reburn to tweak things out.

 

I am wondering if this is possible:

Say I installed a Magnacharger using the FMU that comes with it out of the box to tune.

Can I purchase the Superchips hand-held programmer simply to adjust shifts points, firmness and rev limiter only? Or will the hand-held unit automatically download a program? Can I be selective on what is downloaded to the trucks PCM (or whatever it is called on our trucks)?

 

Hi Keith,

Yes, we can nail the tuning, all we need are the A/F ratio graphs from the A/F testing, basically.

There's no difference between doing that thru the mail or doing it at a complete dyno faciity, as there will virtually always be adjustments that will be needed, don't expect A/F's to be spot-on first time out of the box, as that rarely happens. Anyone that knows anything about tuning knows that the A/F's may need several adjustments, it all depends on the quality of the data supplied & how good whoever doing the tuning is, how many times they have tuned that particular combination, etc.

We've provided the tuning for literally hundreds upon hundreds of supercharged F-150's, so most people come to us for their custom tuning, which is very easily done "thru the mail," as you put it.

Give us a call to go over the details, etc. if you like.

 

Is the dyno the only place to get the proper A/F information? Could something like Autotap provide enough information to do a custom tune? I'm thinking about some upgrades.

 

Hi Tom,

Well, it's not an issue of the dyno being the *only* place you get get A/F's, but it *is* the only practical way to get a proper graph of A/F's to engine rpms, thus this is why it's usually done at a chassis dyno facility.

It is possible to connect a wide-band O2 to the vehicle and run it down the road & get the A/F's, but you're looking at a real time readout of A/F's & glancing at the tach as best you can.

See, with Autotap, the new version of the Autotap software (2.03, which came out last summer) does have an A/F ratio gauge you can add, but it's taking it's input from the factory narrow-band O2 sensors, so it's not as good as measuring the A/F's with a wide-band unit.

Sounds like it's time to give us a call so we can go over what you're thinking about there, Tom, so we can properly advise you.

Bottom line, you can use the Autotap for a quick look at A/F's, and you can do log files to log that data during a run, for example, it's just not going to give you quite as neat or accurate a plot as what you'd get with a wideband unit on a dyno. Again, we should probably talk about this a bit when you get a chance so I can give you a definitive answer for whatever it is you're thinking of doing, & what potential affect that can have, to see if Autotap will be good enough for what you want to do or whether you need to get to a dyno, etc.

 

Thanks Mike.

My concern with a dyno is that I constantly hear that they aren't necessarily that accurate and the the operator needs to know his stuff. We don't have many dyno's to choose from around here so I'm not sure that it would be possible to find someone who can do the job right. I'm a bit skepticle.

I'll give you a call soon.

 

Hi Tom,

You're very welcome, as always.

You're absolutely right in that dyno's vary widely, as does the skill level of the various owners & operators.

However, with that being said, you don't have anything going on there that's going to present difficulty to any decent dyno facility, or that is going to tax any chassis dyno, for example.

Just about any dyno will do, any Dynojet will be fine for this, they just need to have a wideband O2 they can drop in the exhaust.

In other words, you don't need anything really special or that would be considered out of the ordinary for any competent dyno facility, and I can go over the technique they need to use in running your truck on the dyno with you if you like, etc.

In this case, what you're looking for primarily are the A/F's across the rpm range @ WOT, and that isn't terribly hard to get. The dyno facility just needs to be using a good wideband O2 sensor, and then from there as long as it's a decent dyno you'll be fine. It's not going to matter that one dyno may read 20 hp higher or lower than another different dyno, that won't hurt that data from a tuning standpoint. It just needs to be a good pull done with a wideband O2 in place, and that will be fine.

Give us a call when you get a chance & we can go over that in more detail if you like, I'll also be happy to speak directly with any dyno facility up in your area just in case you'd like to get a hand checking them out a bit, if that might help you.