I have a question for everyone that has had a tuner in any of the newer fords, preferably 97-up with the 5.4L engine. I am thinking about getting one for my 2004 F-150, and my brother for his 2001 F-250 Superduty. The only things that we are worried about are the longetivity of the engine with the computer chip tuned with a tuner. We are worried about it reducing the life of the engine greatly, as we both plan on keeping our trucks for 7+ years. Anyone with any input on this subject please help us in our decision.

 

My guess is it will help the truck last longer. A proper tune won't allow you to exceede the operating range. As long as your with in it you'll be ok.

I have done several mods to my truck, worring every second that it would break. I have had to upgrade some parts (clutch assembly and clutch packs in the differential) but haven't had a "failure". I was able to get the parts fixed before they went completely. With just a tuner you won't have to worry about that stuff.

Mike Troyer is the one to get the whole story from, so stay tuned (no pun intended).

 

" We are worried about it reducing the life of the engine greatly, as we both plan on keeping our trucks for 7+ years."

I keep my trucks for a minimum of 8 years. I had worries,also, before I went with Superchips tuning. After some "research" I decided that advancing the spark timing was "all good" but for pinging. The higher octane fuel (premium) takes care of that, if you buy high quality fuel. In fact, by only buying Sunoco, Shell, Texaco and Citgo "premium", I get zero pinging. With "regular" and the stock tune I did get occasional ping when climbing hills. How can it hurt your motor to put higher quality, better detergent, fuel in it? With the proper Superchips tune, I think it will add to engine life.

 

thanks for the replys, keep them coming though, I wanna hear more peoples experiences with the tuners.

 

roboots, I haven't had mine in for very long, but I had the same concern as you and searched and asked the same question. I find that the concenses is that more efecient is better, and is good for the engine. AS far as I can tell, if you here ffrom someone that their engine wore out faster it probably has way more to do with how they drive and maintain it than how it is tuned. In other words; if they beat their truck to death, is it the tuner's fault? Just my .02.

P.S. I love my tuner performance, and so will you

 

Like 1903-2003 said, it how you use it that will determine vehicle life, nothing beats regular maintenance and careful driving. The reprograming helps transmission life also, in that the guicker shifts reduce clutch pack slippage time (hence less wear) Sure love my tuner and I'm upgrading to a 6600 next week for even more power and options.

Gene

 

Like 1903-2003 said, it how you use it that will determine vehicle life, nothing beats regular maintenance and careful driving. The reprograming helps transmission life also, in that the guicker shifts reduce clutch pack slippage time (hence less wear) Sure love my tuner and I'm upgrading to a 6600 next week for even more power and options.

Gene

 

Hi roboots21,

It's very simple - there is NO reduction in engine service life from our tuning - period. So you can stop worrying about that, it's a complete non-issue. You can spend some time reading the posts here and very quickly see that nobody gets any reduction in service life from this tuning - no matter if it's a 1994 F-150 or a 2004 F-150.

But it's certainly a fair question to ask, as these trucks definitely aren't cheap - our last new 2004 F-150 had a $40K sticker price!

To give you a rough idea of what to expect from the "late-model" F-150, the V8 engines made over the past decade or so for these trucks generally have a normal service life of about 175K-200K miles as long as you do 3K mile oil & filter changes, and anything remotely resembling "decent" treatment of the vehicle overall - so you can look forward to many years & miles of service.

If you and/or your brother would like to go over this in more detail, we'll be happy to, just give us a cal at our number listed below.

Good luck with your new truck!