Hi,
I am very seriously considering buying one of these tuners, I have read countless raving reviews, I just have a couple questions. My truck has 150,000 on it with the original motor in it. When I tow with anything less than 93 it will spark knock. This condition has progressed from 87 to 89 to 93 as the motor has racked up more miles. Is there anyway you can write me a program to lessen the spark knock while running lower octane gas? Also, When I order my tuner I would like to get 93? MAX PERF. and TOW. And 89 MAX Perf. But when I get a new motor could you send me new programs if I would like to change them, or if I uprade my truck more? Currently I have Gibson headers, Borla exhaust, and Airforce one intake. Is the tuner custom programmed for my truck mods? Lastly, what are the different programs that are available IE.
87 tow?
89 tow?
93 tow?
Thank you for your time,
Kyle

 

HI Kyle,

Excellent questions!

First, what is happening with your engine is the normal result of age - and probably of using lower quality fuels, too - what is happening is that your engine has accumulated combustion chamber deposits, and that increases any engine's "appetite" for octane as they accumulate miles, because the actual compression ratio has increased due to displacement from those accumulated deposits.

Now one thing you could do is take it to your local Ford dealership and have them remove those deposits - they have a couple of procedures, the sea foam treatment, but I like the cracked walnuts treatment better - and it will take a good bit of work to remove 150K milers of accumulated deposits - but that would at least get that basic static compression ratio back down a fair amount and would be a great help.

Now as to the types of tunes we can do, sure, I can always tune it so you can run it on 87 octane and not have it ping while towing WITHOUT removing those deposits with that treatment - but with all those deposits, I am probably going to have to reduce cylinder pressure quite q bit (reduce timing, and it sure won't make good power like that. So I'd do the treatment first, and *then* have us tune it.

Last - sure, I can set it up with any kind of tuning you like, towing tunes, performance tunes, 87 octane, 89, 91, 93, 94 - whatever type of octane level you want - and yes, if we ever need to change those tunes, we can simply email those changes to you, tuning advantage of technology, you bet!

For more details, please feel free to give us a call at our number listed below & we'll be happy to, OK?

Best of luck with your truck,

 

"Cracked walnuts treatment".

Is this a little tongue in cheek or a real deal?

 

??? I think it's a "OTC carbon blaster"

 

Gottaa pull heads and blast em. I will def. be doing the sea foam treatment.

 

No, I wasn't kidding about the cracked walnut treatment - it's a real procedure that can help greatly to remove combustion chamber deposits.

 

Its just one of the types of media you can run through a blast cabinet, rather than sandblasting. Tell your friends "I got my heads walnut-blasted" and see what kind of looks you get....


I'd run seafoam through it, but with a 150k mile motor I'd drive out in the country somewhere remote.....

 

I've also heard water will do a good job. What do you guys think?

 

If you've ever reloaded shells, you'll know that the brass is cleaned using a special polishing media in a "tumbler". Often it's cracked walnut shells. Removes all the powder residue and polishes to high gloss sheen.

Same technique is used to make those "polished rocks" we all used to have as kids.

 

Well, next week I will be having the cats removed, and I beleive they are called "MIL Eliminators" installed that trick the O2 sensors into thinking the cats are still there. I will be running seafoam through, then water, then more sea foam. After I will be pulling the throttle body and cleaning the EGR ports. Then I will be intalling my new airforce one intake. My questions are - Mike will still be able to write a program for me with my cats removed right? And Does anyone here have them removed? If so do you have a sound clip?
Thanks!!

 

Don't waste your money on MIL eliminators if you are getting it tuned, you can simply turn off the rear O2s in the computer. You will have a check engine light in the meantime but it won't hurt anything, the rear O2s are used to monitor cat life, not for anything performance related.