Mike and everyone at TP,

Thanks for all the tech support, parts, professionalism, etc., etc.

As everyone here knows we have the best support of any aftermarket part manufacturer in the industry through our friends at TP.

I started my mods about a year ago and it has never mattered if i just called for advice or to spend $$, the service is always the same. AWESOME

I finished the last mods up this past weekend and then took a road trip with my family for the holiday weekend. I was happy to find out when i got back home yesterday and filled up my tank ($50 in TN) i calculated my mpg and got ~18.5mpg out of max tune Excalibrator with all my mods. Fantastic IMO, and the power keeps getting better as the PCM relearns my driving.

My last step is to go get my dyno runs done and get that fine tuning Mike has mentioned to me. I can't wait to see the numbers, I wish i had done a pre mod set to give you better numbers but i will post the finished results when i get them done.

I did forget to ask Mike a question today. Is there a relearn time when switching to the tow tune now that i am using an excalibrator versus the tuner?? We are heading to Center Hill lake for 4 days this weekend( ) and i'm looking forward to see how the new mods handle the boat.

Thanks again TP,
Kelly

 

Good question about getting the dyno run before / after the mods. Where is the thread or best place to find a deent dyno in your local area. I'm in the inland empire in SoCal and would like to find a recommendation?

My XCAL2 will be here soon and I won't de-tune just to dyno after its in use!

 

Hi rcwarrior,

Thanks for your post, glad to hear you're enjoying everything!

Yes, you will always have to go back thru the relearn cycle and adaptive strategy again from scratch any time you flash the PCM, no matter if it's with a 1715 or with our custom tuning in the XCalibrator, for example.

In dyno testing, if you do immediate back to back testing, you will not see the total power gain that quickly - that generally takes a few hundred miles & a number of drive cycles, and that is even more so in these newer trucks. For example, in the 54 3V's we saw another 10-12 HP at the wheels just from having a few hundred more miles on it - but to actually quantify that properly, you have to have climate-controlled conditions in the dyno test cell, and there are very few of those - chances are you won't find one in your area, we have to travel a good ways to get that kind of accuracy.

The very first 2004 5.4 3V we tuned back in December of 2003, we found another 8-10 HP the next day compared to what it made with 150 miles less on it the day before - we just happened to be able to recreate the same temperature & humidity levels in the dyno cell to quantify that - just a few degrees of temperature (ambient, or in the engine coolant temps, or in the transmission - anywhere), or a 5% change in humidity levels will in fact impact power in these computer-controlled vehicles - so it's very hard to get anything approaching 100% accuracy, and you never get the full power gain in immediate testing like that - you have to accumulate a few hundred miles & a dozen or so drive cycles, and then get back into the same climate-controlled dyno test cell with all conditions in the cell in in/on the vehicle the same to really get the best results & good accuracy - very hard to do generally speaking. Usually the best you can do is to record *everything* - the ambient air temp, the relative humidity and the barometric pressure, and datalog ALL of the powertrain's operational parameters, so you can determine what affected what & by about how much, etc.

Even flashing the PCM before each dyno pull still doesn't get you the best accuracy when comparing 87 octane tuning to premium gas tuning, or any tuning to the stock factory tune, etc.

If you're running at the drag strip & changing tunes - when you load a new tune in, it generally takes about a half-dozen passes and shutting the engine off between each run to get up to the full performance level of the vehicle - and you may still not quite be at 100% -

There just isn't any getting around the fact that there will always be the relearn & adaptive issues to deal with, that's just reality. We have to go thru some very exhaustive procedures when we do that kind of testing - it's grueling work, very detailed and time-consuming - but that's us, and there are times when we do that, and then times when we don't, too - it's just a matter of what we're doing and what's really needed. the best thing to do is to record *everything* and datalog all those parameters, and then let the tuner look at all that data to interpret it.

Just some quick FYI.............

 

Hey Target,

go to dynojet.com and they have a listing of there dynos and the location.
www.dynojet.com

i just checked and there are to many shops to paste into this post. Just go to the above site and find one near you.

edited to correct link - rp

 

That's exactly what we recommend, touch base with the dyno manufacturers and have them provide you with the closest dyno facility location to you. You can drop by the Dynojet site and locate the nearest Dynojet to you, and you can also touch base with the people who make the "Mustang" brand chassis dynos - that is a decent eddy-current dyno (load-variable) type of dyno that we like better than the inertia units like Dynojets, as you can get the higher loads from them to more accurately reflect the actual weight of these heavier vehicles. The only real downside to the Mustang dyno info plots is that you HAVE to get the dyno plots printed in color, otherwise you can't read them, you don't know what line is what on their graphs.

Bottom line is, touch base directly with dyno manufacturers for that kind of info.

 

HI Mike,
i'm taking mine in on Tuesday just for the fun of having it dyno'd and to see whats what

Currently I'm running the 93 perfomance tune with 94 ultra gas. Since it is in and adapted should I keep that, and run with that tune first before reverting to stock? I just want to get an idea of the difference between a stock(well stock tune since I can't remove the exhaust or AF1) run and a tuned run really. I'm probably only doing 3 runs for now(at $90 for 3 the wife may kill me if I do more )
Should I do 2 runs with the 93 performance and 1 with the stock?

What do you reccomend?

Thanks!
Steve

 

Hi Steve,

Yeah, I'd say just leave the current tune in and dyno it that way first - I would also give it a few full-throttle bursts over a few drive cycles first, since it's being driven daily - a lot of the "daily driving" stuff is usually pretty conservative, and adaptive reacts to that with a bit less power - just a tip.

Then reflash it to the stock tune and see what it does - now this is going to be skewed by the fact that you will have higher octane fuel in the tank instead of 87, so even your stock tune in that 2004 truck is going to make more power than normal because of the higher octane - of course not as much as with our tuning, but it will make more power than stock running it on 87 octane, so you won't get a true reading on the difference that way.

When we do that type of testing, we literally drain the fuel out of the system and change over to the other octane level of fuel & tuning to be tested, so that we get the most accuracy possible - we try to start off with just enough fuel in the tank to prevent the pump running dry on the dyno, so we don't have as much fuel to drain - and it's a PITA to do - but that's how we have to do it when we're interested on the best accuracy, as in some of these trucks strategies, especially in the newer trucks, they can add a bit more power with more octane - not a LOT of course, sometimes just 5 HP, sometimes 10 HP or so - but it will add some power and that skews the results - just the way it is.

Its' amazing what yo have to do when trying to do accurate testing, the things you have to take into consideration - in your case, you just do the best you reasonably can, as it's really just for fun. So just run it in the existing tune, then reflash it to stock and run it again - that won't get you real accuracy, but you'll certainly be able to see some difference like that.

Good luck!