Howdy, had a few q's. I am currently on my 2nd Hypertech programmer. Everything has worked fine, but they seem to have a glitch in thier tranny programming. The power tuning for 87 octane works great, nice gains across the board. The top speed limiting works fine, the problem is when I set the shifts to "firm". Holding it to the floor works great, nice fast shifts. Accelerating casually produces a pause with every upshift, like I'm shifting a manual. Downshifting sucks too, since it will pause in each gear for a second before getting to the desired gear. I sent the tuner back, they sent another Hypertech, no difference. I phoned Hypertech directly, they said they have been getting a few complaints of this with the 2002-03 5.4L Superduty Fords. Wanted me to send the programmer directly to them, with the truck code. No tuner for 4-6 week, I don't think so.
I will have the Micro-tuner, the ACTUAL DUAL-FUEL tuner tomorrow. My q is, will the programmer work with changing tire height or gear changes on my truck? My Hypertech was advertised with this function, but found out in the instructions this option was not available with my 5.4L.
I plan on running some Foose Spank wheels, in a 22"x9.5", mounted on 305/45-22 Falken rubber. I want everything to work correctly.

I do have one concern. Although the tranny programming was off, the engine tuning was great with the Hypertech. I noticed increased power across the board, lugging on cruise, or mashed to the floor. I did notice a drop in fuel milage after awhile, not enough to be a concern, just enough to notice the SD was gobbling more fuel.
A 5-8hp gain, I doubt I would notice in my crew cab, considering I noticed the gain the Hypertech tuning on 87 tells me there was a bigger hp gain than 5-8hp.

I'm confident the M-T will clean up the shifting, and I hope I'll have the ability to tune for gears and tire height. I am worried the hp tuning will come up short though.

Thanks for the info Mike!

 

Hi hoseclamp,

Hypertech is what we refer to as "generic" in their tuning (like most other chipmakers, actually, not just Hypertech by any means), so they do not tune each vehicle individually according to it's own computer code (software revision inside it's PCM) like Superchips does - thus, the actual results you get from one vehicle to the next will vary. Compounding that is the fact that these F-series trucks tend to have more different PCM codes & "templates" than just about any other vehicle made, making code-specific tuning just that much more important in terms of getting the most consistent result possible. So the results from the Hypertech unit depend on just how close their program happens to be to the PCM code in each vehicle.

Now here's another important point - Hypertech is *right* in that the SuperDuty's, especially the V10's & PSD's, can be extremely difficult to get corrections to the speedo in this manner - for those trucks, depending on just what gear ratio or tire size they've changed to, many times their best bet is to drop by a dealership and have them alter the VID block info, but they can only enter in gear ratios and tire sizes that were originally offered by the factory on that year & model of vehicle - which doesn't help you, most likely, but that will depend on the actual revs per mile spec on your new tires as compared to the stock revs per mile spec in the PCM's program.

So, where does that leave you? ............................

Worst case scenario, if the Micro Tuner doesn't do it (and we can't guarantee the speedo corrections on SuperDuty's, in all candor, if you see Superchips ads or even Hypertech ads in magazines, they say not all features work on *all* vehicles, and this is exactly why), we do have other devices available that can correct your speedometer for you - just give us a call for those details.

By the way, just to let you know why you got such a good result power-wise in your vehicle even on 87 octane - in a nutshell, it's because it is a SuperDuty 5.4. We generally see larger power gains in those 5.4 SuperDuty's than in 5.4 F-150's simply because their factory tuning is so compromised - worse than in the F-150's. SuperDuty 5.4's can rarely even get into open loop, so many of them don't even make within 25-30 HP of their STOCK rated power - thus installing a PPIII or a Micro Tuner will usually result in a power gain you can actually feel in the seat of the pants in these heavy vehicles even on 87 octane (and you know how often I tell people to *never* try judging any performance mod in a truck by the seat of the pants!). There are *some* F-150's where we'll see a 30+ HP gain to the wheels on 93 octane in a 5.4 F-150 because of this same thing, but more F-150's can get into open loop stock than in the SuperDuty 5.4's.

So that's the scoop - feel free to give us a call if you need to go over any of this, or to get your speedo calibration taken care of, etc. - Good luck!

 

mike, would you mind explaining what "open loop" is?

 

Thanks for the info Mike!

I just picked up the micro tuner and programmed the truck. Raised shift points, firmer shifting, raised speed limiter, and 87 octane tuning. I set the gearing for 4.10 since it did come with 3.73's originally (the dealer may of not reset it for the 4.10 ratio).
I can tell right away the tranny shifts like it should now, will let you know how it works later.
Also, it does have the tire size adjustment too, covers everything.

One last question, it didn't say what the raised speed limiter is set for now, and idea what it would be? 106mph, 110?

Thanks for everything Mike, I'll keep you informed.

Also, I understand fully poor tuning from the factory would magnify a program for 87 octane, I hope the increase will be just as noticable with this tuner!!!