Faxed in my XCAL2 sheets on 9/7 and received my beautiful XCAL2 yesterday (10/12)! Let me say again how great TP, especially Anita, are to work with... a first rate organization.

After reading the instruction book, it tool me about 10 minutes to load my 93 performance tune. Most of the time was spent trying to pry the d*mn fuel pump fuse out with my bare hands.

I will post my feedback after driving my Expy for a few days. I expect even better results by the end of this month. I am approaching 100K miles on my truck and am in desparate need to a major tuneup.

Now, if I can impress on the "vice president of finance" that I need TP's electric fans.

Thanks, Mike and Anita!
Jeff

 

Sweet dude. I faxed in my paper work earlier this week.....can't wait. I already have the EFans and Pullies....just need to put em in

Just tell the "Vice Pres" that they will boost MPG dramatically

 

nice! i placed my order on 9/12....hopefully my name is moving up to the top of the ol' waiting list looking forward to hearing your feedback on the new tunes.

btw why did you have to remove the fuel pump fuse?

enjoy the Xcal

 

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...able+fuel+pump

 

While it was a safety-issue only, I figured it best to follow the XCAL2 manual instructions. It doesn't take much to pop the 20amp fuse (position #10 in the fuse box on my 2000 Expy).

Observations for the first 36 hours of use:
1. Throttle response is much better across the board.
2. You can sense the adapative programs as it "learns" about your engine performance.

As I mentioned, I won't know the full range of benefits from the XCAL2 93 Performance tune until I complete the major tune-up at the end of the month. I'm expecting more improvements.

Jeff

 

HI Jeff,

Thanks for your post, & glad to hear you are enjoying your new Troyer Performance tuning!

Yes, on the 2003 & earlier (including 2004 Heritage model "old" body style trucks) vehicles you do need to remove the fuel pump fuse while flashing the PCM. This is NOT needed on the 2004 & up F-150's, they don't even have a separate fuse for the fuel pump.

This is done on ALL vehicles that have a separate fuse for the fuel pump (return style fuel systems, basically) simply just in case you have a leaky fuel injector, you don't hydro-lock the motor from fuel being poured into the cylinder(s) the entire time you are flashing. See, flashing the PCM powers up the fuel pump, so if any of the injectors leak, then you get a puddle of fuel inside one (or more) cylinders. In a worst case scenario, that can bend a connecting rod - the worst we have ever seen was a 1997 Taurus SHO that was very badly maintained, it had several leaking injectors and the engine simply had to be pumped out, and then everything was fine.

SO on all vehicles that have a separate fuse for the fuel pump you need to remove it - otherwise, the only fuse you need to remove would be if yo have electric fans, ads they take a lot of current and the battery needs to supply all it's current to the PCM & flash device while flashing, so as not to cause a low-voltage problem with the PCM while flashing.

Bottom line - pulling the fuel pump fuse only applies to pre-2004 old body style trucks, not to any of the 2004 & up new body style trucks.

 

After a week or so of using my XCAL2 93 Performance tune, I've developed a perplexing issue. At times, my Expy is missing horribly, no acceleration, anything over 2K rpms and it goes sputtering. It also idles rough...like it is missing on a cylinder.

Then, the next time in the truck, no issues...runs like a champ. Idles fine, accelerates fine, no probs.

I've been running Shell 93 in it from a couple of gas stations. I am wondering if I got a bad batch of 93...like maybe the station owner put 89 in the 93 tank?

At this point, I think I've finally run most of the last batch of gas out of it. Why? It seems to be running well more often than not.

Next Steps
1. Reload the original code
2. Drop of truck for major tuneup this Wednesday, 10/26 (including foam treatment)
3. Reload 93 Performance tune
4. Run truck to see if problem recurs
5. If problem comes back, load 87 Performance Tune and re-test
6. If problem still there, find another source of gas
7. If problem on 87-tune as well, reload original code and call Mike!

Thoughts?

 

Your new tuning has nothing to do with any of those problems - if there were any problem with our engine tuning (and that's pretty rare), it would surface right away, as soon as you loaded it. It would not run fine for days and then start acting up.

There's no way to diagnose your truck here, obviously - just let a competent & honest Ford dealership service department diagnose & repair the vehicle properly, and have them get all the maintenance items caught up - at those miles, it's also time for a new set of coil packs & O2 sensors as well, most likely.

Whatever you do, DO NOT ever wash under the hood anywhere near the top of the engine, as the coil packs do NOT have a waterproof seal and getting water in those bores can cause this exact type of problem - as can many other causes.

Sorry to hear you are having problems, & good luck at the dealership!

 

Mike-
In no way would I intimate that your tune was the source of the problem. I was simply trying to determine, if due to my Expy being WAY OVERDUE for a tune-up, the tune was simply exacerbating an existing condition. Or, if running lower octane than the tune requires (even though it said 93 on the pump! ) would cause this type of behavior.

Sorry for any confusion. My major tune-up is scheduled for Wednesday.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Hi Jeff,

Actually, I should have given you a better response.

I didn't get that impression from your post, so please don't sweat that - I always try to be clear and thus sometimes come off sounding a bit adamant instead, as I'm not the best writer! I tend to type what I think as I think it - a dangerous practice, as my words on the screen don't always sound the way they do in my head! Anyway - One thing that is possible, though rare, is if we tune a vehicle and it immediately runs really poor, meaning something is obviously amiss - we have had a few instances over the years where we simply got some file corruption on OUR end while transferring the finished program form our computer into the tuning device. Usually this is the result of a database problem, or sometimes even what else may be plugged into the machine - especially USB devices, Windoze doesn't play nice with memory sometimes where USB devices are concerned.

So it's a viable question to wonder if something could have happened that is in some way related to the tuning - not in terms of something we "did" in the tune, but something gone wrong in the raw file itself - but if so, 99.99% of the time, that type of thing rears it's head virtually immediately with some oddball symptom. Then there's that 0.01% that drives us bonkers sometimes.............

Could it be that your vehicle is just in that bad a need of maintenance, and it show up like that? Yes, it actually is possible - I had that happen to me in a 1996 Lincoln Mark 8 I had some years back - one day it was running fine, and then literally the very next day I started it and it immediately had a dead miss on 3 cylinders!!! The plug wires were so bad internally that the PCM could no longer cause a hot enough signal to be sent so that the plugs would fire - very strange, but that was the deal - installed new plug wires, & everything was once again fine, but it was very odd because the vehicle was running like a champ one day, and then the very next time I started it, 3 dead cylinders seemingly out of "nowhere," when it was just my sorry butt leaving factory plug wires on for about 70K miles - and I know better.

So just about anything is possible.

If you have the patience, one thing you could do to help diagnose this is to simply put it back on the stock factory tune, and leave it there long enough to see if this happens at all on the stock program - at least a couple of weeks. Then once you are comfortable that this does not ever happen at all on the stock tune, reload our tuning and see if it comes back in a short period of time. If so, then just maybe it's possible that we have some tiny bit of file corruption that happened during our file transfer process here that is affecting one very small areas giving those symptoms. Now I think this is obviously a bit of a stretch, so it's not probable - but possible. So if you want to hold of going into the dealer until you can determine that, you might want to give that a try.

And of course, you should go ahead right now and plug in the XCal 2 and see what, if any, codes are being reported by the PCM - other than the P1000 you should normally get for a little while after flashing a PCM.

Anyway, I hope some of that helps in some way, & do let us know what happens!

 

Mike-
Many thanks for the great feedback. Being an I.T. guy for 20 years, I understand about the remote chance about Windows\USB\memory\file corruption, etc and DO NOT think this is the problem in my case.

Just dropped $1000 yesterday on a major tune up for my Expy...new plugs; replaced two coil packs that were bad, new oil, tranny and fuel filters, foam treatment, complete tranny service, Amsoil synthetic for oil and tranny fluids, etc.

First thing I did was reload the 93 PERF tune. So far, she's running like a top! In my case, Mike, I think it was simply a dire need for maintenace. I'll keep an eye on it over the coming weeks but am not expecting any issues to arise...just pleasant driving!

FYI..no codes were present, aside from the P1000, prior to the tune-up. I'll be sure to monitor it...as I may have some future issues with the coil packs that were NOT replacement during the tune-up.

Appreciate the great support.
Jeff

 

Hi Jeff,

Glad to hear it was just the typical need for some more detailed maintenance at that age/mileage level - pretty typical.

Sounds like your experience was kinda like mine with that Mark 8 & it's plug wires - once you were able to turn some more rpms with our tuning, the coil packs just couldn't deliver what was needed and started showing it. And the foam cleaning treatment will certainly help, that does wonders for cleaning up the combustion chambers, intake valves, etc., so it should rev up quicker, etc.

Overall, it sounds like with some thorough maintenance the vehicle responded well, and I'm very glad to hear that.

Enjoy your tuning & how much better that vehicle is running now with some good maintenance and more power!