I recently upgraded from the 1715 to the Xcal2 and figured I would put my two cents in that might persuade anyone with an older tuner to pony up the money for the Xcal2. I read the enclosed tuning sheets and then proceeded to install my 91 octane performance tune. I am not the kind of person to exaggerate and tell you it now pulls just like a Lightning, it doesn't. I can tell you it does pull noticeably harder than before. This is no small accomplishment as most full size trucks typically weigh north of 3 tons. Being able to extract enough extra power so that the average driver can easily tell a difference between the two tuners in these trucks is no small feat and speaks volumes about Mike's tuning prowess. Throttle tip-in just off of idle is slightly improved. Midrange torque is where there is a VERY noticeable difference, much improved. I am sure this will improve fuel economy considerable once I put my right foot on a diet. Driveability is far better than the 1715. This is not to say the 1715 is bad (it was a nice improvement over stock), but that the Troyer tuned Xcal2 is that good. Top end power is also better. I'm not sure how much because to be honest, I don't spend too much time above 4000 RPM in this vehicle. I will know more about top end gains when I have the opportunity to tow my travel trailer. The shift characteristics of the Xcal2 are even more positive than the 1715. Firm, but never harsh. About perfect I'd say. One thing my wife commented on was the power delivery is now much smoother. All things considered, this was money very well spent. My neighbor took it for a drive and commented it made his 1999 Yukon feel like a slug! He would like to know if you can tune a Yukon, Mike?

As I get older and hopefully wiser, I find myself seeking out businesses like Troyer Performance. Businesses that understand the reason for their existence is the customer. These people understand that and obviously take great pride in what they do. Customer service was above reproach. Thank you to Mike, Anita, and Crystal!

 

Good story Eric. I also have Mikes custom tunes and they’re great; makes my truck fun to drive. I don’t have a comparison story as you do because I went straight to TP & the XCal for my 04 and now have the XCal2 thanks to Mike. I get criticized by some members for being a little too exuberant in my support of TP but it doesn’t bother me because I know a good thing when I got it. I felt no need to start at the bottom and work my way up if you know what I mean.
Mike is the tune maestro!

 

I have to agree, I put my X2 on after installing my headers, and the combination of the both is just incredible over stock form of the truck (I really need an intake now though to wake it up more). The X2 is a great unit, and the tunes from Troyer are right on the money. I really think the trucks drives the way it should now, too bad it took an X2 with good tunes to make it that way, but so be it -- pay to play. TP gets my thumbs up for sure, and I'll be going back to them in the future when I look at the some wideband O2 stuff...

 

I recently upgraded from the 1714 to a Troyer tuned Xcal2. I would have to concur with Eric H's statements above. I started out with the 87 octane performance tune and it "felt" faster than the 1714 91 octane tune. As much as the 1714 is an improvement over stock, the Xcal2 seems twice the improvement of the 1714. Definately worth it.

 

Hi Everyone,

Wow, what a great bunch of replies - thank you! (blush)

It really just goes to show you what *can* be done with appropriate and thorough, in-depth tuning that goes far beyond what any "off-the-shelf" device can ever do - and in all fairness, it's due in large part to the fact that we specialize in F-150 tuning & performance enhancement, where chipmakers simply can't do that - which is why they call us in rather often for help.

One comment I would like to make if I could (and please bear with me on this without shooting me?).............

For those of you with 2004 & up new body style F-150's & Expeditions, and especially any FoMoCo vehicle with a 3-valve engine (2005 & up Mustang, 2004 & Up F-150, 2005 & Up SuperDuty V-10) we really would like to see you doing the datalogging as we describe in our docs that come in the same email with your CPW's (Custom Program Worksheets), including wideband A/F ratio testing - this is *so* important, and I'll explain why............

I say this simply because as more and more time goes on, and we get a chance to dyno more and more bone-stock (unmodified) 2004-2006 5.4 3V F-150's and 2005 & up 4.6 3V Mustangs, we are finding that these newer vehicles tend to vary MUCH more in bone-stock trim than they ever did before - and I mean vary in IMPORTANT areas, like the STOCK Air/Fuel ratios!
Now this is primarily an issue in the 3-valve engines that have the new MAF system, where there is no longer a traditional barrel-style MAF meter housing -

For example, as some of you may have read about here in or posts about our last dyno day, we had one 2005 F-150 with a code of TEM7 that was 15.0:1 LEAN in BONE-STOCK TRIM!!! And get this - we have tuned literally *hundreds* of other TEM7-code 2005 5.4 3V F-150's that were dead on their commanded 12.0:1 A/F from the factory, the TEM7's in general do NOT have any problem, it's a great code that response well - just like all the other codes, so it's NOT a TEM7 "issue." Yet that one TEM& truck that was brand new and had very few miles on it and was BONE STOCK, with nothing else seemingly wrong with the vehicle and it's MAF sensor putting out the normal voltage levels, could only hit a 15.0:1 A/F on it's stock factory program in pull after pull on the dyno!!! We fixed it in tuning of course, but that can only be done by having the data.

We also had a 2004 F-150 that put out a 14.2:1 bone stock on that same day, oddly enough - while all other vehicles hit their commanded A/F's perfectly, so we were in fact getting good data,we verified that with another A/F meter, etc.

The overall point being, we are seeing more variance in bone-stock vehicles, especially in the newer 3-valve engines - and so this is why we are seeing more variance in *modified* vehicles, too - of course. Now I also personally think that this MIGHT be yet another reason why we will occasionally see some people say they can really feel the difference in our tuning, where lately we have had 3 people (none of whom have done any datalogging or any kind of formal acceleration time testing, of course) complain that our tuning did virtually nothing for them. Now we all know that this can't be the case, there is just no way (short of them providing us with a completely incorrect computer code or file corruption during the upload, etc.) that our tuning can't make a significant impact - but it is something that I feel is worth discussing a bit more than we have been lately, is getting more people to datalog - and remember, the XCalibrator 2 can datalog EVERYTHING we need with only 1 exception - the A/F ratios - and everyone can easily get to a chassis dyno and get 3 runs for not more than $100 to get this info, or we also carry low cost wideband portable A/F ratio recorders that a lot of our customers buy - some of them will even split that small cost between 2 or 3 of their friends & share the unit!

We don't care how it gets done, we would just like to see more datalogs so we can get your tuning dialed in to the nth degree, and *insure* that your A/F's & EGT's are spent-on, and that you are getting every last pounce of power and performance that we are capable of SAFELY delivering.

Remember, this is CUSTOM tuning, so it's never really finished in ANY vehicle until we get the data, analyze it, and make any changes if needed - and don't forget that the cost for us to make any such changes is INCLUDED in what you paid for your custom tuning, as long as it's done within 60 days or so of getting your custom tuning.

So I just wanted to throw that out there for what it's worth gang - sorry to put it in the middle of my very large THANK YOU in appreciation for all of your kind posts with your results.

Thanks again for your posts, and thanks very much for reading thru that quick info regarding the increased variances we are seeing in bone stock vehicles (especially 3-valve engines) & have fun!

 

Just to verify the order for myself.

1. It would be to install the custom tune.
2. Run custom tune #1 for (insert how long) and data log
3. Run custom tune #2 for (insert how long) and data log
4. Run custom tune #3 for (insert how long) and data log
5. Go to dyno. Spend $100 to do dyno test for A/F ratio. Run three times, one with each tune and record A/F ratio.
6. email data log for each custom tune and A/F ratio from dyno to Troyer for refinement.
7. Done

Is this correct?

Thanks,

Duke

 

*Its all worked out*

 

I'm not sure if I'm one of the 3 also that you mentioned, but I'm pretty sure I am. I'm not a young kid who throws out all logic and expects rocket like conditions or tire shredding take offs. I had no intention of doing any datalogging because I would have been more than happy to have just gotten anything better than stock performance and I saw no indication in the description on your website or received any info during the order process that indicated there was a chance the base tune would still need datalogging because of A/F ratio's that were not right on the stock tune. My problem also is not that I don't feel any power improvements, it's that I feel a LOSS of improvement over stock. When I put it back to stock last week and my wife was with me when we took off, we both looked at each other and our jaws dropped. That was when I realized something was not right with my tune. My issue is that if I had known that there would have to be datalogging required to even do a good tune on my truck, I would have said screw it and just ordered the 1745. I am waiting to find out the next move from you guys. I sent you my info that was requested in the email, just waiting to hear back.