Tow tune vs perf tune
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 10,390
Likes: 10
Originally Posted by fordworker
How does the tow tune run compared to the high octane tune?? I mean does it seem to have more low end or what?
This has been discussed to death, and in detail here already.
Most recently here:
https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...=tow+perf+tune
I don't mean to be rude, but you could have Searched for this yerself, y'know.
Bottom line: for performance, the Perf tunes are the top dog, NOT the Tow tunes - and that includes torque production... as described in the link above.
Enjoy.
Cheers
Grog
Former Sponsor
Joined: Mar 1998
Posts: 13,385
Likes: 4
From: Virginia
Hi Fordworker,
As MGD mentioned, this is very basic and thus can easily be looked up as it has been discussed many, many times - just FYI so you'll know, any time you have a question about anything, you can simply use the SEARCH feature here and find the answer. Learn to use the SEARCH feature and its excellent search filters, as virtually anything you can think of has already been asked & answered before here, and usually many hundreds of times. So it pays to get into the habit of using the SEARCH feature, so that others don't have to type out the same answers to the same questions many hundreds of times. I'm sure you get my drift, and please don't be offended, as I'm really just trying to help you get up to speed on how to best get the info you want here the quickest & with the least effort on everyone's part.
Now to give you some more direct info..............
No, there is no more low end torque on a Towing tune compared to our Performance tunes, at least, not be design. If we did that, well, then that would mean that we were deliberately REDUCING available torque in our Performance tunes! Not exactly a smart thing for us to do. Now there are some of the 2004 & up F-150's that are running too lean from the factory, and in THOSE trucks, if the owner has not datalogged and given us that info to correct that in a custom tune, then they MIGHT make a little bit more power at heavy throttle simply because they are running a bit richer on the towing tune - but it's not by design omn our part in our tuning. That happens only when the vehicle is not running right from the factory under heavy load, as we have seen in some of the 2004 & up F-150's in stock trim with either the 4.6 or the 5.4 3V engines.
As other posters mentioned, it has more to do with controlling the EGT's (exhaust gas temperatures) while pulling heavy loads, along with a more appropriate transmission calibration. There are other details, but it's far too detailed to get into here, and really only helps our competition learn how to tune at our expense, so we don't get into those kinds of details publicly.
The main thing to know about this is that we tune so the EGT's stay lower for a given load, and the tranny has a calibration that is more suitable for the task at hand, which is towing loads all the way up to each vehicle's factory rated towing capacity.
I hope that answers your basic question, & Merry Christmas!
As MGD mentioned, this is very basic and thus can easily be looked up as it has been discussed many, many times - just FYI so you'll know, any time you have a question about anything, you can simply use the SEARCH feature here and find the answer. Learn to use the SEARCH feature and its excellent search filters, as virtually anything you can think of has already been asked & answered before here, and usually many hundreds of times. So it pays to get into the habit of using the SEARCH feature, so that others don't have to type out the same answers to the same questions many hundreds of times. I'm sure you get my drift, and please don't be offended, as I'm really just trying to help you get up to speed on how to best get the info you want here the quickest & with the least effort on everyone's part.
Now to give you some more direct info..............
No, there is no more low end torque on a Towing tune compared to our Performance tunes, at least, not be design. If we did that, well, then that would mean that we were deliberately REDUCING available torque in our Performance tunes! Not exactly a smart thing for us to do.
Now there are some of the 2004 & up F-150's that are running too lean from the factory, and in THOSE trucks, if the owner has not datalogged and given us that info to correct that in a custom tune, then they MIGHT make a little bit more power at heavy throttle simply because they are running a bit richer on the towing tune - but it's not by design omn our part in our tuning. That happens only when the vehicle is not running right from the factory under heavy load, as we have seen in some of the 2004 & up F-150's in stock trim with either the 4.6 or the 5.4 3V engines.As other posters mentioned, it has more to do with controlling the EGT's (exhaust gas temperatures) while pulling heavy loads, along with a more appropriate transmission calibration. There are other details, but it's far too detailed to get into here, and really only helps our competition learn how to tune at our expense, so we don't get into those kinds of details publicly.
The main thing to know about this is that we tune so the EGT's stay lower for a given load, and the tranny has a calibration that is more suitable for the task at hand, which is towing loads all the way up to each vehicle's factory rated towing capacity.
I hope that answers your basic question, & Merry Christmas!
Former Sponsor
Joined: Mar 1998
Posts: 13,385
Likes: 4
From: Virginia
You're very welcome & don't give it a thought - we just try to remind everyone about the SEARCH feature as it is a kinda small icon to see, and many people miss it - but it's so cool and helps people get relevant info so much quicker, so I hope that works out for you.
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!