So I called Troyer Performance today and talked with a nice lady about the XCal2, but couldent pull the trigger on buying one just yet. Here are my main concerns.

1.) I used to have a 5.0 mustang that I chipped and it would ping in the summer months under full throttle. I talked with her about how I could avoid this problem and how much "buffer" was built into the chips. For instance I was worried that carrying a motorcycle in the bed would invalidate using a performance tune. She agreed, but when I told her that a 500lb bike is less than 3 200lb passengers - I asked if I should turn on a tow tune when I had passengers she said it wasnt necessary. So I guess Im lost on that one. When I asked if it was a good idea to get a 91 tune and run 93 gas in order to give me more of a buffer against pinging, she said it wasnt really necessary because the chips had ping sensors.

So anyway I guess I didnt feel comfortable about exactly what I am allowed to carry or how close to the edge the tunes were. I definately dont want pinging as I think that caused a premature death to my old 5.0 stang.

2.) The other main concern was with the dealer flashing a new program. The thing is, I just got this truck, there are 300 miles on it. She suggested that I break it in and make sure I have no problems with the truck before getting the chip in case I have to bring it back to the dealer. I was planning on just resetting the stock tune and taking the mod hardware off the truck if that happened. If I was going to get the 1st service done at the dealer anyway she said they may invalidate all my tunes with a chip flash and I would have to repurchase new ones.

So I think Im just going to wait for a while, get the truck broken in and get the mod later.

Also if the dealer flashes the computer, how do you get the part number of the new program they load? Is it on the reciept of the service agreement?

 

Just follow Troyer Performance's advice and you'll be okay.

As for the reflash code, they place a sticker on the underside of the hood with the pertinent information. When you do decide to get the Xcal II, check under hood and give them the information exactly as it says.

I had to do this too, so good luck.

 

Awhile back I asked Mike about hauling my 600 pound four-wheeler in the back with a performance tune and he said I can do that no problem. He also said you can haul the trucks full rated payload with a performance tune. So unless you are towing, you can probably stay on your performance tune all the time.

 

HI KD1,

It sounds like you have some obvious and significant misunderstandings, along with a lack of understanding of how todays vehicles actually work -

And by the way, before I forget it - nobody here told you that at 300 miles you cannot modify your vehicle. Our people tell those who have just bought a brand new vehicle with NO miles on it that they need to get a few hundred miles on it just to make sure there is nothing that needs immediate repair before modifying it - solid and very common sense - and at 300 miles, you are ready for any modification you like, including a supercharger if you wanted do - heck, we rarely get off the dealer's lot before we start modifying our new vehicles, but than that is because of who we are! In any case, if you have 300 miles on that vehicle you can do any mods you want to it.

Next - your old Mustang, which by the way was engineered ALMOST THREE DECADES AGO, has absolutely nothing to do with how these trucks operate or their control systems. You seem to have assumed that we somehow deliberately tune these vehicles so that they will detonate in summer - you are dead wrong, end of story. We do NOT defeat any of those protection mechanisms,

Anyone who knows how these vehicles work knows that the ONLY way that pinging (pre-ignition) is ever going to happen in a modern 2004 & up F-150 is by using the wrong program and far too little octane at the same time, at a bare minimum - or something else very dumb, like using the cheapest possible gasoline, too. The knock sensor system has a HUGE amount of retard built into it - orders of magnitude more than your old 5.0 Mustang ever had.

Today's vehicles are *far* more sophisticated than any 5.0 Mustang could ever hope to be - nor could any 5.0 Mustang *ever* even remotely be tuned with the kind of precision that these trucks are - nor would your Mustang have had any problem with detonation if *I* had tuned it, assuming it was maintained and fed properly and nobody played games jerking the distributor to force even more timing on top of it.

You CANNOT use a performance tune to tow for what should be an obvious reason to any truck owner - the EGT's (Exhaust Gas Temperatures). It is not even remotely the same putting a couple of passengers on board as it is towing the same amount of weight out back, anyone should know that when you tow you have added significant additional rolling and aero resistance when towing *anything*, and that this additional load also causes the EGT's to to up higher than just loading that same weight into the cabin.

I'll bet you never thought to install a pyrometer (that's an EGT gauge) on that old Mustang - or on this new truck - did you? Guess what? We do.

We tune using EGT's and *many* other forms of data so that we KNOW what can and cannot be done, far better than any vehicle owner will ever know 99.9% of the time, and we do NOT burn up engines - nor do you see a single customer of ours here posting about how we damaged their engine with our tuning.

A "performance" tune is NOT the same thing as a "towing" tune in these trucks - well, not when the tuning is actually done by an expert, that is. Performance and Towing tunes are NOT the same things, and cannot be used interchangeably.

What you choose to do is up to you of course - you have to do whatever makes *you* happy, absolutely! But the reality is, as I see it not one of your stated "concerns" is valid with our tuning.

Now obviously I'm also trying to get you to see the lighter side of things here a bit, so please do not be offended - this is all in good fun, and we want your "concerns" to be addressed. For example, you would be surprised at just how many men call here with egos that just can't take it when the ladies on our staff who know far more than the men who call here - and those very same ladies can install a chip, our custom tuning, an intake kit, or a lot of our other performance parts better than most men can - that is a requirement to work here.

From what I see here, I'd say you were probably given VERY sound advice with regard to modifying a brand new vehicle by our staff - but I also want to make sure of that, so if you would maybe like to have a personal conversation with me to go over all of this, I'd be happy to do that with you - just give us a call and leave a message with your name & phone number and I'll call you back and go over everything. Right now I'm mostly out of our current offices and involved with the building of our new shop, so I usually have to return calls.

Congratulations on your new truck, thanks for your post & I wish you the very best whatever you decide!

 

Well I wasnt commenting on the professional ability of person I talked to. I have no doubt that you or anyone working there knows more about tuning engines than I do, just as I feel like I know more about my profession than I would expect you or people working for you would.

And no it wasnt an ego thing, I dont carry around an ego in areas where I dont carry around a lot of knowledge.

Mainly, as my post was saying, I wasnt able to purchase because they wernt able to address my concerns enough to part with my money, but you post has given me more confidence in the safety of the product you are selling. Thats mainly what I was looking for, confidence that this chip purchase would not be similar to my last. And it sounds like the science has much evolved since then.

I dont feel I need to discuss this on the phone, but thanks for the informative post.

 

I felt confident enough in Mike Troyer's tuning by reading the posts of all the satisfied customers and also in talking to them personally that I bought the XCal2. I have had it 1 week and I am satisfied fully in my purchase. I had the SuperChips 1745 tuner previously and decided to go with Troyer's tuned XCal2 to further dial in my truck. I believe he has done a professional job and also by reading posts on this website he takes care of his customers by addressing their issues after the sale.

Thanks Mike.

 

tbizzle, not to hijack the thread, but did you see substantional gains with the XCAL2 with MT tunes over the 1745. I've got the 1745, too, and all you guys with custom Troyer tunes are making think about making a change...

 

I'm not sure what the overall powergains are but I have noticed the shift points are much better in my "opinion". I will have my truck dyno tested and get my A/F ratios to send to Mike and I will let you guys know when I do that. In my opinion, if you can find someone to buy your 1745 like I did at a decent price, then you should upgrade to the XCal2 but if you can't then you should hold on to your 1745 tuner.

I personally put my 1745 in the Classifieds on this site and got a response like 24 hours later. I sold it for about 80% what I paid for it and upgraded. It ususally takes Troyer about a month or so to get the custom tuner out to you. But I personally am satisfied that i did it and also the fact that I can datalog and send that information to Troyer and they will make adjustments if needed.

 

Thanks!

 

so..am I right in saying..you can haul whatever on a perf tune...just not tow?